Part 20 (1/2)

I pointed to the sky, which had definitely brightened. ”If we dig them out, are you sure Tereza can handle that?”

He stared at the sky for a long time. Finally, he should his head. ”She can't even tolerate an overcast day. The torpor takes her the second the sun is up, visible or not.”

”So she's already asleep.”

”Aren't you worried about Papa?”

”Of course I am, but he's a thousand-year-old vampire. Besides, he'd kill me if anything happened to you.”

Somehow, Matyas and I made our way back to the house. I stoked up the fire and got Matyas blankets. ”Get out of those wet clothes,” I told him. ”I'm going to run you a bath.”

I ran into my mom in the shower. She was wrapped in a towel and putting on mascara in the mirror. ”Oh, sorry, honey,” she said with an embarra.s.sed smile. ”Did we wake you?”

”No,” I said, wondering how she failed to notice my soaking-wet clothes. ”Matyas got lost in the storm without a proper coat,”

I said. ”What's the right temperature to make this bath if he has hypothermia?”

”Oh, G.o.d!” Mom shouted, dropping her tube of makeup. ”Are you serious?”

I nodded.

”Glen Lacey!” she shouted. ”Get in here! We need some help.”

My dad came rus.h.i.+ng in wearing only blue and white striped boxers. Large curls of gray frizzled hair stood out on his slightly pudgy chest. It was more of Dad than I really needed to see.

”What's going on?” ”Matyas is downstairs,” I explained. ”He might be suffering hypothermia. I know I'm not supposed to make him a hot bath, but how warm should I make it?”

”Room temperature to start with,” my dad said authoritatively. ”h.e.l.l, I'd think anything just short of cold is going to be a shock.”

”Could you start it for me? I'll go get him.”

Back downstairs, Matyas had stripped off his clothes. They were steaming on the stone tiles in front of the fireplace. He huddled, s.h.i.+vering fiercely, nearly on top of the fire.

”I can't seem to get warm,” he said pitifully.

”We're going to get you into a bath. It'll help. Hopefully, you didn't get any frostbite. I don't think it was cold enough, but you were out there a long time.”

I helped Matyas negotiate the stairs. In the bathroom, I let my father deal with getting him into the tub. Coping with my dad 's chest hair had been weird enough; the last thing I wanted was to see Matyas buck naked. Even so, I managed to glimpse a tramp stamp tattoo before I scurried out the door.

”Good-looking kid,” my mother said appreciatively when we were in the hallway.

”Mom,” I protested. ”He's going to be my stepson.”

”Just saying,” she said. ”You and Sebastian would make lovely children too.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers. My head started to hurt.

”Oh, I forgot to tell you that while you were out cavorting at the bar last night, a package arrived. I think it's that other dress.”

”You mean my dress-the one I ordered-actually came?” I couldn't keep the excitement out my voice, but my mother gave me a look like I'd wounded her to the core.

”Yes.” She sniffed. ”And your grandmother's arrived at the hotel yesterday, so it's ready to be fitted. I brought it along. I thought I could do the work.”

The pounding of my head increased. Great. Now I had to deal with the dress crises while snowed in with my mother. Plus, I had to call William's SCA lady and cancel the dress she was making or I'd have an embarra.s.sment of riches. ”Oh. Wonderful.”

The radio predicted eighteen more inches before the storm system moved on. My mom and I sipped coffee and listened to the listings of school closings, neither of us quite ready to deal with the whole dress thing. I called William at home and told him not to bother trying to get in to open up the store. It sounded like the whole city was shut down.

My dad made bacon and eggs. In the living room, Matyas was asleep on the couch with Barney curled up near his head. When I last checked on them, they both snored softly.

I got up and went to the kitchen window. The snow fell much slower now, but it still came down in constant, thick flakes. The sky was muted, but I chewed on my lip at the reflection of light on the whiteness. I knew Sebastian would be all right, but I found myself worrying about Tereza. I'd promised Matyas that snow would be enough cover to protect her.

”You're worried about him,” my mother said.

”Yeah,” I admitted, although, strangely, it was Tereza I was thinking about right now.

”He's a smart man. He'd have found shelter,” my dad said. ”He's probably trying to get back right now. You still like your eggs sunny-side up?”

”Uh-huh,” I said absently. ”I'll be right back.”

I snuck quietly and quickly past Matyas and Barney and headed upstairs to the bedroom. I got it in my head that I should try to do another protection spell. Maybe I could visualize a s.h.i.+eld between Tereza and the sun. If nothing else, I figured it couldn't hurt.

In the closet, I kept a cardboard banker's box full of magical supplies. I had a number of votive candles in every color of the rainbow. There was a ceramic cup and a magical, ceremonial knife. Incense of every flavor, ribbons, scissors, and a box of matches were included among little things to represent the directional elements: a clamsh.e.l.l for west and water, a polished snowflake obsidian for north and earth, a goose feather for air and east, an ornate incense burner for fire and south, and a small silver statue of the Nile G.o.ddess for spirit and here.

I sat down cross-legged on the area rug. Pulling out five candles, I laid four of them around me at the cardinal points. The last one I put in the center in front of my crossed ankles. I lit them one by one, starting in the east. As I struck each match and lit a candle, I imagined a protective circle around myself.

Though Lilith's power would strengthen my magic, I let her continue to slumber. She wasn 't a protective G.o.ddess. She destroyed. Though she was the mother of demons, and Tereza might qualify as one of Lilith's brood, the truth was, I didn't trust her. So often when Lilith got involved in my spell work, things went awry.

Once all the candles were lit and the circle imagined, I closed my eyes. I envisioned Tereza and Sebastian under the snow. As a kid, I'd spent some time in snow forts, which were little more than holes dug in the piles at the side of the road. I remembered the sensation of the ice under my snow pants and the hot/cold feeling of sweat on a cold day. The smell was wet. On sunny days, brightness would penetrate deeply. It wouldn't be the same for them, however.

At least today, the light was muted. Parrish had told me that, unlike in Hollywood, the quality of light didn't matter to a vampire.

Rainy days were still days to them. Any light could kill.

What they needed was a s.h.i.+eld, something opaque. The first image that popped into my head was of Athena with her s.h.i.+eld with the head of the Gorgon, Medusa, affixed to it. So I'd found a G.o.ddess; now I just had to convince her to help Tereza.

I'd had no problem calling down Lilith the night my coven was attacked. But that had been a desperate cry for help. I just sent out an SOS, no fancy spells, nothing. That was part of why Lilith and I were stuck together forever. If I contacted another G.o.ddess, I had to be careful on so many levels. The last thing I needed was another piggy-backer.

But I didn't really know how to call down a G.o.ddess on purpose.