“Hey, it’s okay. Close your eyes again and breathe with me—in to a count of four, and then out to four.” She nodded, and we breathed together until Damien handed me a warm mug of blood and then pulled out a chair and sat beside Aphrodite. “Okay.” I touched her arm and she opened her eyes. “Drink this. Slowly.”
I helped guide the mug to her lips, but as soon as she began gulping the blood, her color returned and her hands stopped shaking. She drained the mug and handed it back to me.
“Thanks. That’s better. It’s really good too. I mean—gross that blood tastes so good, but it’s true.”
“Yeah, I remember feeling like that,” I smiled at her. “Can you tell me what water revealed to you?”
“Sure, but it was weird, and it also made my stomach hurt. It was like I almost became water for a second.”
“That means you already have an incredibly strong connection to that element,” Damien said. “It took me almost a year to get that sensation.”
“And that’s good?” She glanced up at Damien, looking about twelve years old.
“Oh, honey, it’s wonderful!” Damien assured her. “You’ll learn to ground yourself better so you don’t become disoriented and too immersed in your element—but it is truly a good thing.”
“Okay, well, I’m glad. It was cool, but also scary.”
“Kacie, what did water show you?” Stevie Rae prompted, touching her shoulder gently.
“Well, water gave me a super strong feeling about the fog. I can tell you for sure that what happened this morning was not natural. Water was told to create fog—actually, it wasn’t just told. It’s more like it was forced to make the city foggy, and especially Woodward Park. It felt like that first spell we all learn as new fledglings—the conceal spell. Only this one was on steroids.”
“Kacie, do you have any idea about who or what cast this spell?” asked Stevie Rae.
“Yep. It was a vampyre. Absolutely zero doubt about it. I don’t know who. I couldn’t see anything. I could only feel, and then I started to get sick and I lost the connection. But I promise you it was a powerful vampyre and this morning she was in Woodward Park and totally did not want to be seen.”
“She?” My stomach clenched. “And she was strong—like a priestess?”
Stark had just returned from taking the screenshot to our computer kids, so Kacie hesitated before responding and when she did, she sounded as frustrated as I felt. “No. I can’t tell for sure. I’m really sorry. There were just too many sensations, and water filled everything, so concentrating was crazy. Also, I literally couldn’t see whoever cast the spell. It was so strong that not even my element let me see.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. “That’s okay. You don’t have anything to apologize for. Because of you we know the fog was part of a spell cast by a powerful vampyre who doesn’t want to be seen. That’s important.”
“Yeah, but now what do we do with that information?” asked Aphrodite.
“First, we stop worrying about humans who, for whatever bizarre reason, like to dress up like its Halloween and light candles for Neferet,” I said. “As annoying as that is, it isn’t dangerous.”
“On the flip side, a powerful vampyre who could be in league with Neferet is dangerous,” said Stark as he took a seat across the table from us.
“Let’s not go there automatically,” I said. “We need to remember that our new way of doing things—mixing fledglings with human students and opening our campuses to humans in general—has not been well received anywhere else in the world. The Vampyre High Council doesn’t have power over us anymore. We know that’s pissed them off.”
Damien nodded in agreement. “So, it could just be one of the European High Council Members spying on us—and they started by checking out Neferet’s prison.”
“It makes sense that they would want to see for themselves that we have it handled,” Stark agreed.
“Those fossils have always underestimated us because we’re young. Except for Thanatos, that is.” Aphrodite glanced up at the ceiling and waved her hand about as if Nyx’s realm was above us somewhere (which, I suppose it might actually be), and said, “May she be having lots of fun frolicking in Nyx’s Grove or whatever.”
“So, really, what we need to be concerned about right now is keeping vampyres away from Neferet’s tomb,” I said.
Kacie started to raise her hand, then she frowned at it like it had somehow betrayed her, put it back in her lap, and cleared her throat.
“You don’t have to raise your hand to speak,” I said gently. “You’re a fully Changed vampyre now and no longer a fledgling.”
Kacie let out a relieved sigh. “Good. I have an idea.”
“Let’s hear it, Ice Cream Shoes,” Aphrodite said.
“If the issue is a nosy vampyre, why don’t you just put a spell around the grotto that keeps vamps out? That way if it is some busybody from the old High Council, she’ll have to come here and check in with our High Priestess—like she’s supposed to—if she wants answers. And if it’s just a creeper vamp, someone stupid enough to think breaking Neferet out of there is a good idea, it’ll keep that moron from doing anything annoying.”
We all stared at Kacie. “How old are you?” I asked.
“Sixteen—and a half.”
“I knew she was smart as well as a smart-ass,” said Aphrodite.
“She was my fledgling,” Stevie Rae reminded us smugly.
“That’s a really good idea,” I said. “A spell to ward off vampyres is way easier than a protective spell.”
Stark met my gaze, looking worried. “And you don’t have to tie yourself to it like Thanatos did to her protective spell?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Well, not if I have my circle to help me, with a special boost from earth.” I elbowed my bestie.
Stevie Rae grinned. “Earth always has your back, Z.”
“This sounds good,” said Aphrodite. “But I’m getting a very strong feeling that we can’t wait for Shaylin and Shaunee to meander here to set the spell in place. On the outside chance it’s something more dangerous—like you know who from you know where, we need that vamp repellent up and working. Now.”
Stevie Rae spoke right up. “Kacie can help. Can’t ya?”
“Well, sure. If you tell me what I need to do,” said the newly Changed red vampyre.
Aphrodite fluttered her fingers at Kacie. “Ice Cream Shoes, do you think you can call water into a circle and boost me if I stand in for Shaunee as fire?”
The girl tucked her long, thick hair behind her ears and shrugged. “I think so, but I’ve never actually done it.”
Stevie Rae squeezed Kacie’s shoulder. “We’ll all be there with you. We’ll help you.”
“The spell isn’t difficult,” I said. “It’s really more about spirit and earth than anything, but I do need a circle to cast it.”
“I’ll try.”
I sat beside her and spoke earnestly. “How are you feeling? Do you think you’re up to calling in water and fire to a circle tonight?”
“Well, yeah. But it’d help if I could have another big glass of blood.” She grimaced, and I had to squelch the urge to laugh. I totally remembered what it was like to be squeed out by blood, even as I was craving it.
“Okay, then. Stevie Rae, would you take Kacie to the teachers’ dining hall and fill her up with fresh blood. I don’t think we should waste any more time. Let’s do this. Tonight.”
“Totally, Z. Where do you want to meet?”
I looked to my Warrior. “What do you think?”
“That I’m going with you,” Stark said. “Darius and Rephaim will want to come as well, even though there are six Sons of Erebus Warriors already on guard at the park.”
“Sounds good to me. We don’t know for sure what we’re dealing with, and the more Warriors the better,” I s
aid. “So, let’s meet in the parking lot in thirty minutes. Be sure you each bring your element’s candle. I’ll grab spirit and some matches.”
“Sounds good,” said Steve Rae. “Let’s go fill you up with blood, Miss Ice Cream Shoes.”
As Kacie followed Stevie Rae from the room, I heard her say, “Am I really stuck with that nickname?”
Stevie Rae’s answer floated back through the closing door. “Yepper, but it’s better than being called Hag from Hell. Ask Aphrodite if you don’t believe me.”
Aphrodite surprised me by laughing softly and saying, “Aww, Hag from Hell! That brings back so many memories. Good times!”
I rolled my eyes at her and then turned to Damien. “Do you want to call Jack and have him there too?”
Without hesitation Damien shook his head emphatically. “Absolutely not. And now that the kid’s gone we need to acknowledge that this could truly be Other Neferet—and be prepared for it.”
Stark stood and brushed a hand through his hair. “Well, I’m not worried about defeating Other Neferet. At least she’s mortal.”
Damien nodded. “True, but I am worried about what seeing her would do to Jack. I’m going to text him and tell him that I’m taking care of some business for you and ask him to stay at the depot and choose the flower arrangements for opening night.”
“Good idea,” I said.
“Something else we need to consider,” said Aphrodite. “It sounds bad. Really bad, but my last vision was fucking awful. So, before you cast a spell keeping vampyres from Neferet’s tomb, I think you need to check to be sure Neferet’s still in there.”
My stomach clenched, and at the same time Damien and I said, “Ah, hell.”
6
Other Kevin
“Wait, what?” Stark looked pale as he stared at Queen Sgiach.
Kevin didn’t say anything. Not because he wasn’t shocked, but because, since he’d realized he was going to see his Aphrodite again, he couldn’t seem to make words come out of his mouth.
“Are ye deaf?” Seoras scoffed. “Or just glaikit ?”
Stark shook his head. “You know damn well I’m not deaf, and glaikit is one word I never heard my grandpa say, but my guess is it isn’t flattering. So, no. I’m neither. I’m just making sure I understand exactly what this trip is going to cost us.”
“I don’t mind the boys questioning me,” the queen told her Warrior. “They are the ones paying the price. They should fully understand what they’re agreeing to.” She turned from Seoras to face Stark and Kevin. “Hear me clearly, young vampyres. Kevin, as you have an affinity for spirit it will be your responsibility to call to your newly dead love, but spirit cannot enter Nyx’s Realm easily unless it is freed by death, so you will need to mimic death through blood sacrifice. To call spirit and have it guide you to Nyx’s Otherworld will be difficult and take extreme focus, and if you also are giving a blood sacrifice, you will be weak and distracted.”
“That’s where I come in,” Stark said grimly.
“Indeed, it is. While Kevin is focusing on spirit, you will provide the sacrifice, and because you’re mimicking death, it must be more than a simple bloodletting. It must be permanent.”
Kevin finally found his voice. “You mean he’s going to be hurt permanently? Like he has to cut off an arm or a leg?”
“Shit!” Stark said under his breath.
“That would work, but it wouldn’t be a good idea for a Warrior to lose a limb, especially if he is heading into battle with a vampyre High Priestess gone rogue,” said Sgiach. “Something that would permanently scar him should suffice.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought I heard the first time,” muttered Stark.
Kevin turned to him. “I’ll go alone. It’s okay. I’ve been over there before. I’ll do what I need to do and get back.”
“But you will still need a blood sacrifice,” said the queen.
Kevin nodded. “I know. I think I can do both—guide spirit and make the sacrifice. Plus, I believe once Aphrodite hears me she’ll come and help me.”
“No,” Stark said. “I’ll do it.”
“Guilt willnae help you, laddie,” said Seoras. “It’ll only get in yer way.”
“It’s not about my guilt,” Stark protested. “It’s about taking responsibility for my mistake and doing whatever I can to fix it. I said I’ll do it and I will.”
“But there’s more to it, isn’t there?” Kevin asked. “You said moving through the Otherworld to another realm isn’t like using Old Magick, but there’s still a cost. I have a feeling that’s more than just scarring Stark and taking some of his blood.”
“You are correct,” said the queen. “Only the dead move freely through the Goddess’s realm. When the living enter, the cost is linked to death. Every day you spend in that alternative version of our world will take a day from your life.”
A chill rushed through Kevin’s body with the quickened beating of his heart, and he heard Stark suck in a breath.
“Buck up, laddies,” said Seoras. “Yer young. Vampyres are long-lived. What is a day or two from hundreds o’ years?”
“Do you want to give away days from your life?” Stark said.
Seoras’s gaze found Sgiach and he smiled. Kevin was shocked at how it softened his lined face. “That depends on what I’d be givin’ it for. Be it my queen—there isnae anything I wouldnae give for her.”
Sgiach reached up and rested her hand on his cheek. “Nor I you, mo ghaol.”
“You don’t have to go,” Kevin repeated to Stark. “I seriously think I can do it by myself.”
“No, damnit, I’m going too!” Stark growled the words. Kevin had to hide a smile because, for a moment, the Warrior sounded way too much like Seoras.
“Well, I’m definitely in. So, let’s do this thing. No telling what kinda shit-pot Neferet has already stirred over there.” Kevin paused as a thought came to him. “Your Majesty, may I ask you a question?”
She nodded benevolently.
“My sister told me that she was able to imprison her Neferet through the sacrifice of an immortal—a strange creature called a Vessel. He willingly gave his life to seal Neferet into a grotto. I really don’t know the details, but I was wondering, do you have any idea how, or even if, a seal like that could be broken?”
As Sgiach considered her answer, her fingers restlessly stroked the hilt of the sword that rested against her throne. Her fingernails were long and rounded but completely bare of polish. Her hands were strong and graceful—a perfect reflection of the queen—and he felt a rush to serve her and realized that feeling, that desire to stand for and defend a vampyre High Priestess, or in this case a queen, must have been what kept Stark from acting against Neferet for so long.
Sgiach’s voice interrupted his inner musings. “It would be difficult to break such a seal, but not impossible. I could be wrong, especially as I do not know the details, but it seems to me that the key to the seal is not the immortality of the creature who made the sacrifice, but his willingness to make it. Thus, to break it there would need to be an equally willing sacrifice made.”
“You mean by another immortal?” Stark asked.
“Not necessarily. You’re not trying to kill an immortal. That life was already willingly given. I doubt if one person’s sacrifice could break a seal like that, but should several people give themselves willingly—be they vampyres or even humans—and there were enough power behind that sacrifice, well, the seal could break.”
“Thank you. I’ll let Zoey know.” He looked at Stark. “Are you ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Okay, tell us what we need to do.”
“Very well, then. Let your journey begin.” Sgiach lifted her hand and commanded, “Raise the Seol ne Gigh.”
There was a sound like wind rushing through trees accompanied by strange, mech
anical clicking. The floor directly in front of the dais, just a couple feet away from where Kevin and Stark stood, slid open, and a rust-colored hunk of stone, big enough that a person could lay on it, rose from beneath the floor. The boulder was covered with knotwork that was beautiful, though somehow disturbing. The more Kevin stared at it, the more restless he felt—like someone was staring back at him, and that someone was within the rock. Or maybe it was the rock itself doing the staring.
On either side of the floor surrounding the huge stone were curved grooves. Their hornlike shape instantly brought to mind the massive black bull that decorated the flag over the castle. As Kevin continued to study the rock he realized that it wasn’t rust colored at all. It was more of the island’s silver-veined white marble, but it had been permanently stained by—
“Blood,” Stark said.
“Yes,” said the queen, rising to stand before the ancient stone. “This is the Seol ne Gigh, or Seat of the Soul. For longer than I have reigned it has been a place of sacrifice and worship—and a conduit to pure Light and Darkness. Through it you can call the bulls, the embodiment of good and evil.”
“Which is which, and how do we call them?” asked Kevin.
“Well, ye dinnae want to be callin’ the White Bull unless yer willin’ to traffic with Darkness,” said Seoras.
“And that would require an entirely different type of sacrifice,” added Sgiach. “You will call the Black Bull—the embodiment of Light. Should your spirit and your love be strong enough,” she nodded to Kevin. “And your sacrifice accepted,” she turned her gaze to Stark. “Well, then he will take you to the Realm of the Goddess where your guide will meet you and show you through the grove to the Other World you seek—if she answers your call.”
“My spirit will be strong enough because I know my love is, and Aphrodite will answer my call,” Kevin said firmly.
“And I’ll bleed,” said Stark. Then he quickly added, “Willingly. My sacrifice will be strong because I have a lot to make up for.”
“Uh, hang on,” Kevin said. “How do we get back?”
“If the Black Bull accepts your sacrifice and your spirit is strong enough to enter the Goddess’s Realm, it will earn you a return trip,” said Sgiach. “When your business in your sister’s world is complete, Stark will need to cut himself and allow his blood to flow freely on the ground. Then Kevin will summon spirit and ask it to call your lost love. She will return both of you to Nyx’s Grove and, once again, guide you through. Then you simply remember your tie to your own world and follow it home.”
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