“After you,” James said quickly.
Kevin cracked his knuckles and strode forward—and walked right through the door and directly into Nyx’s Grove.
“It worked!” he said.
“Of course it worked.” Aphrodite laughed. “I told you I’d come when you called.”
“Oh, I believed that. I just didn’t think it’d be that easy. It was a lot harder to get here the first time.”
Stark appeared at Kevin’s side and the glowing door disappeared immediately. “Yeah, you’re telling me,” he said.
“You’re bleeding again,” Aphrodite told him.
James wiped the cut on his jeans and shrugged. “Well, yeah, but not as bad as last time.”
She started walking and Kevin and James fell into step beside her. “I’m kinda surprised that you’re going back to your world.”
“To be honest, so am I,” James said.
“Why didn’t you stay?” she asked.
“Because I realized I could never be happy chasing a ghost or loving someone else’s girl.” Then he hastily added. “And I don’t mean that in a douchebag sort of a way.”
“I get you,” Aphrodite said. “What about you?” she asked Kevin. “How was it to see the other me?”
“Interesting,” he said. “She’s coming to our world. Should be there right now. Darius couldn’t go with her, so I swore to be her Warrior and protector over there.”
“That was nice of you.” She cocked her head to the side and looked at him. “I’m not picking up any big surge of heartache or romantic longings from you. The two of you didn’t hook up?”
“No! And I’m not comfortable talking about it with you. Sheesh, Aphrodite.”
She grinned. “Oh, come on! I’m dead. And no longer capable of being jealous. Apparently, I can still be curious though.”
“Or nosy,” James muttered.
“I heard that, Bow Boy.” She returned her attention to Kevin. “I just want to be sure you’re okay.”
“I’m okay. I’m not going to hook up with Aphrodite. I realize that’s not what I want.”
“What do you want?”
“You,” he said.
Her smile faded. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. But it’s getting better. It’s helped to see you again.”
“I’m really glad about that.”
They didn’t speak for a little while as they made their way through the verdant grove that was only a tiny portion of Nyx’s Realm. This time Kevin noticed birds perching in the boughs of the emerald-leafed trees that were so brilliantly colorful that they looked like crystals glittering under spotlights. Butterflies drifted with the breeze, which was scented with oranges, and fat yellow-and-black bees buzzed lazily.
“Wow, I didn’t see all this before.” He stared around him. “This place is amazing.”
“Oh, Kev, someday you’ll see more of it, and it’ll take your breath away,” said Aphrodite.
“Do ghosts breathe?” asked James.
“We aren’t ghosts, Bow Boy. We’re spirits. Now hush and let the grown-ups talk.” She turned to Kevin as she led them around a cluster of silver-and-white marble boulders that glistened like moonstone and diamonds. “So, what’s up with Neferet?”
“Our Neferet broke her out of the grotto and then she retreated back to our world, but not before letting the super-crazy Neferet know that there is another world. So, now the super-crazy one—that everyone is calling Batshit—is headed to our world too.”
“Batshit. I like it. It suits her. Oh, that’s why Zoey’s Aphrodite is coming to your world. I assume she’s with Zoey?”
“Yeah, and her circle and some other help.”
“Good. You’ll do fine.”
They’d come to the edge of the grove, and when they stepped out of it, they were on a small patch of ground that led to a cliff—that led to nothing.
Aphrodite walked to the edge of the cliff with Kevin and James following more slowly behind.
“How do you know I’ll do fine?” Kevin asked.
“Oh, that’s easy. Because you have the most powerful force in the universe on your side—love. And you’ll be surrounded by your friends who also are on the side of love and Light. Kev, Darkness may seem unbeatable, but think about it. People who have given themselves over to Darkness to gain power have actually lost anything that is actually powerful, like honor and courage and truth. The bad guys may win some battles—may defeat some of us—but they won’t win the war. They have no substance. They fight for no one but their own selfish desires. How could that ever be stronger than the power of love?”
“When she puts it that way, it does make sense,” said James.
“You’re right,” said Kevin. He turned to Aphrodite. Today she was wearing a pair of jeans that were baggy and decorated with embroidered flowers that kept blooming over and over again. Her top was a tank that showed her tanned shoulders. Her hair was wild and wavy and free—and her feet were bare. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her lips turned up and her blue eyes shone. “Thank you. I love your face too.”
“Hey, uh, how do we get home from here?” James was peering over the edge into unending blackness.
“You just have to ‘Dorothy’ and step off the edge,” she said.
“Dorothy?” James asked.
Kevin laughed. “Dorothy! Like in The Wizard of Oz.”
“Exactly.”
James frowned. “We click our heels together?”
Aphrodite sighed. “Oh, Bow Boy, your attitude is better, but you still have a lot to learn. And FYI—Ice Cream Shoes can help you if you let her.”
James’s body jerked in shock. “How do you know about Kacie?”
“Us ghosts—we know things,” she teased. “So, Kev, do you know how to Dorothy?”
“It’s not about the shoes. It’s about wanting to go home for real,” he said.
“Your brain was half the reason I fell in love with you,” she grinned.
“What was the other half?” he asked.
“That gorgeous chest and those muscly arms—of course. Now, you have to go. And you can’t come back this way again.”
Kevin felt his stomach clench. “Wait, why not?”
Her hand started to lift as if she would touch his cheek, but it dropped to her side instead. Her voice was kind but firm. “Because it’s not good for you. You’re alive, Kevin. Live. Someday, after a life filled with love and adventures, I’ll see you again. But not for a long time. Remember that part.”
He bowed his head, struggling with his emotions.
“Hey,” she said softly. “Also, remember that love will be here, waiting for you, just like I waited for your call today. Do something for me?”
He lifted his head, wiped away his tears, and nodded. “Anything.”
“Open yourself to the flame of love. Let it burn away your sadness so that only the memory of happiness is left. And, someday, we’ll meet again.”
“Will we?”
“Of course. Love always finds a way,” she said. “Now go, and take my love and my blessing with you. Merry meet, merry part, and we will merry meet again.”
Aphrodite backed quickly into the grove and disappeared.
Feeling old, Kevin turned to face the cliff. James was beside him and he bumped him with his arm.
“You okay?”
Kevin nodded. “I think I will be. You know how to do this?”
“Well, if I get the analogy right, we just have to think of home and really want to be there.”
“You got it right,” Kevin said.
James met his gaze. “Can you do that?”
“Yes. There are people at home waiting for me—counting on me to return.” As Kevin spoke he realized that he did want to go home—he di
d want to live. “Aphrodite was right. I do have a life I need to live.” He moved to the very edge. “Let’s go home.”
Kevin Redbird and James Stark jumped.
Time had no meaning. Kevin couldn’t tell if a minute or a month had passed before his feet landed against solid ground. He didn’t even fall. It was like he’d just stepped off the side of a curb. Feeling disoriented, Kevin opened his eyes to see his g-ma standing before him at the big tree near the east wall. He felt James land beside him and heard him mutter, “Wow, that was easy.”
But his focus was on his g-ma. She opened her arms. Kevin stepped into her embrace and let her love round off the last sharp edges of his grief, leaving just the bittersweet ache of missing Aphrodite, which would remain with him for the rest of his life.
29
Neferet
At dusk, as she awoke from a deep sleep, Neferet called her children to her and began the final preparations for their journey to the Other World.
“Go, quickly. Feed. We do not care who you kill, just be certain they are not our neighbors. We will not have what we plan inconveniently interrupted by the banal TPD. Hurry, now, my darlings. There is no time to waste. We have things to do and worlds to cross.”
While the tendrils of Darkness hunted, Neferet bathed and dressed carefully. She chose a lovely gown from one of the closets in the expansive villa. It was simple a Grecian-style dress that left one shoulder bare and was made of a cream-colored fabric that draped alluringly—almost hiding the fact that she was emaciated. She left her auburn hair loose so that it fell almost to her narrow waist. In the bathroom suite attached to her bedroom, Neferet found large diamond stud earrings that she placed in her lobes, but she could not abide the other gaudy jewelry. She did spend quite a bit of time tending to her makeup, lining her eyes heavily and choosing a deep red with which to stain her lips.
In the kitchen, she grimaced as she drained the last three liters of blood she found in the refrigerator.
“We do loathe cold blood.” She shuddered. Neferet dabbed her mouth and then headed out to the rear grounds of the villa.
The evening was frigid, but it had stopped raining. Neferet considered prodding the low-hanging clouds so that she left Tulsa in a misery of another ice storm, but then decided not to waste her energy.
“Also, we do not know how long we shall be in that Other World. It may only take a few days to dispatch our impostor, reclaim our Lynette, and establish dominion over that Tulsa House of Night—then we shall return here to mete justice out upon Zoey Redbird and her friends before we take up the rule of two worlds.” Neferet spoke to herself as she gathered what was left of the three humans she’d murdered. She’d directed her children to pick the bones clean, and they had done an excellent job of stripping them of tendon and meat—so much so that they reminded Neferet of driftwood. She placed three piles of bones in a triangle in the area under the pergola beside the partially frozen koi pond and fountain.
Then she searched the villa until she found a bottle of expensive brandy, a fat red candle that smelled of cinnamon, and three white pillar candles, which she placed before each mound of elegant bones. She sat on a wrought iron chair, sipping brandy from a crystal snifter as she stared at her reflection in the frozen water and thought how attractive she looked with her cheekbones and collarbones so very prominent, when her tendrils of Darkness returned.
“Ah, darlings! We are so pleased that you are recovering from our unfortunate fast.” She drank the last of the brandy and then threw the snifter against the ice so that it shattered and rained diamond shards across the mirrored surface. Then she stroked the leathery serpents while they wound around her legs and slithered up her body. “You are gaining your size back! We are so pleased by that. Now, children, rest yourselves, but remain vigilant. This is the last step before we leave this Tulsa for the other and embark upon our quest to reign over two worlds.”
The tendrils slithered away to rest watchfully, twined in living nests in the thickest of the shadows surrounding their mistress. Then Neferet shook back her hair, smoothed her dress, and began lighting the three white candles she’d placed before the piles of ivory bones.
When the candles were lit, she took the bottle of brandy and poured it over all that remained of two humans and a Son of Erebus Warrior and then, holding the red candle, she stood in the middle of the triangle of bones and faced south—the direction of the element fire.
Neferet lifted the candle and struck a long, wooden match, invoking. “Come, fire! We are the Goddess of Darkness, Neferet. With bone and power, we invoke you!” She touched the match to the flame, which lit immediately, burning high and hot. She walked to the first pile of brandy-soaked bones and began her summoning.
“I revere the old ways—deep magick that listens, watches from shadows of night.
Fire, aid me as I burn these offerings, ancient sacrifice—to honor and delight.”
Neferet touched the lit wick of the red candle to the first pile of bones, and with a whoosh they were engulfed in a deep, blood-colored flame. She moved counterclockwise to the second mound of offerings.
“As in the days of Daeva, Rusalka, and Abyzou—I embrace chaos and encourage spite.
I am Goddess! No longer shackled by Nyx and her command to walk only in the Light.”
She lit the second mound of human offerings, and the oily red flame leaped high, licking the top of the pergola. Neferet stood before the final pile of bones.
“Free from trite confines—the mores of goodness and what modern mortals call right.
I summon thee, mighty beast who breathes death and is clothed in magnificent white!”
Neferet threw the candle against the last of the bones—those that had belonged to the Son of Erebus Warrior. Red wax exploded against ivory as the flame consumed all that was left of Odin. Neferet strode to the center of the fiery pyramid. Surrounded by fire and the scent of boiling marrow, she waited.
She did not have to wait long.
From the deepest of the shadows, her children began to writhe with excitement, they glided to her, weaving through the flames to pool around her feet, and then from the dark that rested beneath the shadows—that was always there, waiting and watching—twin horns of slick white appeared, an impossible width apart, followed by the massive head and shoulders of the incarnation of evil—the White Bull.
He filled the grounds of the villa. His enormous cloven hooves cut into the winter grass and splintered the shrubbery, breaking apart the carefully laid stone paths and knocking over statuary.
Ah, my heartless one. It pleases me that you have escaped your tomb.
“It was but a temporary inconvenience,” she said, breathing deeply of the foulness that was his breath. “Let us not speak of it again.”
As you wish. He moved closer, and the ground shook each time his hooves cleaved the earth. The White Bull came to the first pile of flaming bones and inhaled deeply. This pleases me. It has been years uncounted since the last human bones were burnt in offering to me.
“Scent them again, my lord.” Neferet pitched her voice to a seductive purr.
The hulking bull inhaled again, and his bottomless eyes widened. Vampyre! Specifically, a Son of Erebus Warrior. You honor me, my heartless one.
“That was our intent, my lord.” She made a sweeping gesture, which took in the sizzling bones.
The bull dipped his head and in three bites devoured the burning piles, cracking and chewing the bones as liquid marrow leaked from his mouth and sprayed the ground. When he had consumed the last of the ivory offerings, he returned his attention to Neferet.
And now, what is it you wish of me? I admit, I am amenable as I had forgotten how delectable burnt offerings can be.
“We have only one simple request of you, my lord, and know that these offerings are not payment for our request. They are true offerings,
meant to delight and flatter you, mighty bull.”
His laughter brought to mind midnight mausoleums and the specters that haunt them. You intrigue me. What is it you desire?
“Open the veil between worlds for us, my lord. Our desire is to travel to the other Tulsa, where a lesser, weaker version of us set vampyres against humans—and then did not have the strength to finish the fight.”
And what would you do there?
“Kill the impostor, of course, and finish what she started. Then we would return here to supplant Zoey Redbird and the followers of Nyx forever.”
He moved closer to her and his tongue licked her bare shoulder, leaving a trail of blood and saliva in its wake. Neferet shivered with pleasure.
The bull’s deep voice made the bare trees shake and ice fall from their nude branches. And how will you pay me for such a thing? Will you finally agree to be my Consort and travel the worlds with me, stoking chaos?
Neferet glided closer to him to caress one of his huge, opalescent horns. It was so cold that it burned her hands, but she did not mind. She welcomed the pain as a reminder of what it is like to be subjugated to a male—any male.
“No, my lord. Not yet. We have far too much to accomplish first.”
Then what payment do you propose?
“Why, your favorite, of course. We shall amuse and surprise you.”
He turned his head so that he could look into her eyes. How so?
“Have you ever, in all of your eons of existence, observed what happens when a dark goddess rules two worlds?”
I have not.
“Imagine it for a moment, my lord. Think of the wars we shall start—and finish. Think of the evil we will loose—evil that Light has dominated for ages uncounted. It will be like nothing you’ve witnessed. And it will all be in your name. We will fly pennants with your image. We will burn offerings to you in hecatomb, as in the ancient days, only ours will not be mere cattle. You will feast on human marrow and the bones of Sons of Erebus Warriors until you have had your fill. My lord, it will be glorious.”
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