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tch up but not doing real well. I’d felt the same way all day.
“The transfer ritual,” I clarified, “the one required to become Pythia. I don’t know what it’s called. Agnes started it but she said that I had to, uh . . .” I trailed off in deference to Mac’s old-fashioned sensibilities.
“But Mircea took care of that,” Pritkin said.
“Not exactly.” I could understand his confusion. Other than for the play interlude, the last time he’d seen Mircea and me together we’d been nude and sweaty. Well, technically I’d been wrapped in a blanket, but you get the idea. “We were interrupted. Rasputin attacked, remember?”
“Vividly.” Pritkin wrinkled his brow as if trying to get his mind around a difficult concept. “You’re saying that you are still a virgin?” he asked bluntly. His voice held the same level of incredulity anyone else would use if told that a spaceship had landed on the White House lawn. Like something barely possible but highly unlikely.
I stopped looking at the wall to glare at him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes!”
He shook his head in disbelief. “I would never have considered that.”
I was getting ready to become seriously annoyed when I found myself admiring the way the damp hair at the base of his neck curled up. Damn, damn, damn! “Do you have a theory or not?”
“The most likely explanation is that the Pythian Rites are trying to complete themselves.”
I stared at him blankly for a moment. He didn’t notice, being too busy counting bricks in the wall. “Let me get this straight,” I finally said, sounding a little strangled despite my best efforts. “Since Mircea isn’t here, the unfinished ritual is starting to draw me to other men to complete itself. But the geis doesn’t like that, and it’s making its feelings known by torturing me and anybody who gets near me. Is that right? And more importantly, is it going to keep happening?”
“What geis? You’re under a geis?” Mac asked.
“Her vampire master put her under a dúthracht. It is conflicting with the Pythian Rites, which have yet to be completed, ” Pritkin said curtly.
“Oh, bloody hell.” Mac sat down on his stool, looking shell-shocked.
“Answer me!” If I’d dared to touch Pritkin, I’d have shaken him within an inch of his life.
“I don’t know enough about the rites to say for certain if there is a way out at this point,” he said unhelpfully. “The ceremonies are held within the Pythia’s court, and there are few records kept on anything connected to the office.”
“What about witnesses?” I hoped I didn’t sound as frantic as I felt. “The ritual was done for Agnes once, right?”
“That was more than eighty years ago. And even if any witnesses still live, they would be of little use. Most of the ritual is carried out privately. The only people who know the complete procedure are the Pythia and her designated heir.”
“Myra.” Great, I was back where I’d started. “What about the geis then?”
“You are already doing what you can by staying away from Mircea. That will at least slow down the process. There is no other remedy, other than having it removed.”
“Then how do I do that?”
“You don’t.”
“Don’t give me that! There has to be a way.”
“If there is, I don’t know it,” he told me, sounding tired. “If I did, I would tell you. Unless the ritual is completed, it will continue to draw you to men, but the geis will oppose any except Mircea. And it will likely grow worse over time. The dúthracht is spiteful when it’s opposed.”
“But . . . but what about Chavez?” I asked desperately. “He touched me and nothing happened. I didn’t go writhing all over the ice rink!”
“You were at the ice rink? Why?” Pritkin was back to looking pissed. I couldn’t have cared less.
“To get that.” I gestured at the duffle. “I didn’t want to take it into Dante’s.”
“So you left it unattended in a public arena, where anyone might pick it up?!”
“It was in a locker,” I said sullenly. “And can we get back to the point? I felt something start to build when Casanova touched me. It was nothing like what just happened, but it felt—I don’t know. Like it could get bad fast. Only he dropped my hand before it flared. But Chavez didn’t affect me at all, and that was later. So if you’re right and the reaction is strengthening, shouldn’t it have been worse?”
Pritkin looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know.”
“The only reason I can think of,” Mac mused, “is that the geis determines the amount of threat by reading the interest level of any prospective partners, and reacts accordingly. Casanova was likely somewhat attracted to you and this Chavez wasn’t. Casanova was therefore identified by the geis as the wrong match and as a potential problem, and warned off. But Chavez, although also the wrong one to complete the bond, was not interested in you, and therefore was not perceived as a danger.”
