by P. C. Cast
Marc forced himself to his feet and stumbled to Kevin. He went to his knees and stared into Kevin’s eyes. “We have torn people apart with our teeth and hands. We ate them. People. Innocent people.”
“Yes.” The word hovered in the air around them, condemning them—taunting them—hurting them.
“I’ve got to get outta here!” Marc lurched toward the grate, only pausing to grimace in pain when the slats of sunlight hit his body.
“Stop!” Kevin shouted, lunging for him. But he was already in the sunlight. Kevin recoiled, expecting Marc to burst into flames.
Instead Marc jumped back—staring down at his body. He was wearing a T-shirt and his exposed forearms were striped with a nasty sunburn that was already blistering. “I didn’t die.”
“We have been healed,” Dave said, scooting over closer to them as he gaped at Marc.
“Will it go away? Will we turn back into those—those things we were?” Marc asked.
“I don’t know,” Kevin said.
“How could this be? Who did this to us? I can’t—I can’t bear the memories. I can’t.” Ethan put his face in his hands and sobbed.
“No, no, no, no, no, no …” Justin babbled as he stared up at the grate.
“Do you remember what they shouted at us when they trapped us? They said we’d trespassed on a world not our own,” Kevin reasoned aloud. “I think they were right. We’re not in our world anymore.”
“It could be a trap. A rebel army trap,” said Marc.
“No. This isn’t our world. Since when have humans been allowed to decorate the streets for Christmas?” Kevin said. “And what about the depot? There was a restaurant there where humans were being waited on by fledglings—red fledglings.”
“That’s impossible,” Dave said.
“Exactly. And that vampyre—the blue one in the tunnels who stopped the others from killing us—she’s my sister. In our world, my sister died the day I was Marked, more than a year ago.”
“What does all of this mean?” Marc asked.
“I know who might help us figure this out,” Kevin said.
“Who?” Davis said.
“My sister. She tried to tell me. She said not to run. Zoey will help me. She’ll help us. I know it.”
“She can’t help this.” Ben stood and lifted a trembling finger to press it to his temple. “She can’t help the memories stop here.”
“No, but she can help us figure out how to go forward from here,” Kevin said.
“There’s no going forward after what I’ve done.” Ethan stood shakily beside Ben.
“But we have to,” Kevin said.
“No, no, no, no, no.” Justin repeated the word as he stood with Ben and Ethan.
The three vampyres shared a long look.
“Justin has it right. No,” Ben said. “No, we don’t have to go forward.”
“And we won’t,” Ethan said.
Together, Ben, Ethan, and Justin charged forward, knocking David off his feet and throwing Marc into Kevin. Caught off guard, Kevin scrambled to get out from under Marc and gain his footing. When he did it was too late. Ben had shoved the sewer grate aside and crawled through the opening, with Ethan and Justin following him.
Kevin lunged for Justin’s leg. He managed to snag his ankle, but Justin kicked him, sending Kevin back on his butt. By the time he regained his feet for the second time, the three red vampyres were already running clear of the grate.
Yanking his shirt up so that it covered his head and part of his face, Kevin pulled himself up in time to see Ethan, Ben, and Justin, bodies smoking in the winter sunlight, shouting incoherently at the group of uniformed men who had been getting into black SUVs. The men turned. Kevin heard them order, “TPD! Halt or we’ll shoot!” The three didn’t pause.
“Do it or we will eat you!” Ben’s anguished shout carried down to them.
The man with the flamethrower turned it on them.
Kevin pulled the grate back over the manhole and fell heavily to the ground as their screams died in flames and sunlight and blood.
Marc hurried to him, pulling him back out of the splotch of sunlight.
“I couldn’t stop them,” Kevin said between heaving breaths. “I tried. But I couldn’t stop them.” He stared up at Marc and David. “Are you going to do it, too? Are you going to commit suicide?”
“I can’t promise that I’ll be able to live with my past, but I need answers,” Marc said. “I’m coming with you, Lieutenant.”
“I’m with you, too. I won’t pretend that I can handle this, but I also need answers,” David said.
“So, our plan?” Marc asked as he sat beside Kevin.
“Wait here until dusk and then go to the House of Night and ask to see my sister.”
“What if they kill us?” David asked.
“Then we’re dead and we don’t have to figure out how to live with our memories,” Kevin said.
“Good point,” Marc said. “I’m in.”
“That’d solve one problem for us. I’m in, too,” David said.
Zoey
There was just enough room for the Escalade to fit beside the TPD transport bus and still be under the covered entrance to the Field House. Shaunee hadn’t even put it into park yet and I was out of the SUV and halfway through the door to the school, with Stark and Shaunee scrambling to catch up with me, when I ran into Aphrodite. Literally. Knocking her smack on her butt.
Well, technically I didn’t knock her on her butt. The door I’d pushed open did. But still, she fell with an ungraceful smack on the tile floor.
“Ouch! Damn, Z. I thought you said my apology was accepted.” She was rubbing her butt as she stood. She tilted her head up to give me a scrunch-faced look and there it was—the most incredible Mark I had ever seen.
“How? Wh—? I don’t—I’ve never seen anything like that!” I blurted when I finally managed to regain control over my mouth.
“Fuck me running, Aphrodite’s a vampyre!” Shaunee said as she slid to a stop behind me.
“Red and blue. Red and blue?” Stark babbled. “How could it be red and blue? And you weren’t even a fledgling anymore.”
“Right?! It’s crazy cool, isn’t it?” Aphrodite said. She shook back her hair so that we could get a better look.
I’ll admit it. I gawked.
Her Mark was spectacular! It looked like one of the handmade, vintage Mardi Gras masks sold in the gorgeous boutiques in Venice—the kind exquisite women held to frame their eyes after their hair was piled on top of their heads and their boobs billowed out of the bodice of their seventeenth-century reproduction gowns. Stark was right—the Mark was in red and blue, and it looked like delicate, glistening fireworks exploding in beauty across her flawless skin.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“Neither do I,” Stark said.
“Yeah, it’s cool and all, but what the hell are you?” Shaunee asked.
Aphrodite lifted one perfect brow. “I am a bridge.”
“Huh?” I said.
“That’s what Nyx told me. That was pretty much my reaction, too. At first.”
“But why did this happen?” I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it. “Are you still a Prophetess?”
“Uh, yes. Squared. At least. And it happened because I finally let it go,” Aphrodite said.
“Damn, girl. You know we have no clue what it is,” Shaunee said.
“It is a lot of things—but mostly my mother and all the crap she’s done to me. And by letting her go I mean I finally got it. I finally understood that no matter how much I want her to love me and to be a good mom—hell, even an average mom—however much I want that, it’s out of my control. It doesn’t matter what I say or do. I can’t fix her. I can only fix how I react to her—or I’m doomed, through my own decisions and my own actions
to repeat her bullshit awful life. That’s it. Then Nyx showed up and this happened and a bunch more.”
“Well put, Aphrodite. Zoeybird, that nice Detective Marx said that you needed to speak with me.” Grandma appeared from the hallway that led to the Field House.
“I do.” I drew a deep breath and blurted, “You know how Other Jack came through from the other House of Night world?”
“Yes.”
“Someone else we recognize came through from that world. It’s Kevin, Grandma. He’s a red vampyre.”
“Oh, dear. Oh, oh, dear.” She swayed a little and Stark rushed to take her arm.
“Steady, there, Grandma. It’ll be okay. We’re going to find him and bring him here. Just like Other Jack is here.”
“Is he like those poor young fledglings? They are all so upset. It’s just terrible what they’re going through.”
“I don’t know what he’s like, Grandma,” I said. “I only saw him for a second, but he called my name. He definitely recognized me.”
“Zoey, there you are!” Marx rushed up from the Field House side of the entrance. “I’m getting crazy reports from downtown. Seems a few red vampyres, the same ones that were in our tunnels, committed suicide.”
“Oh, Goddess, no!” Grandma’s legs buckled and only Stark’s strong arm around her kept her from falling to the floor.
Marx moved to Grandma’s side. “No, no, not your grandson! I’m sorry, Mrs. Redbird. I should have led with that. One of the officers who saw Kevin in the tunnel earlier was there. He said none of these vampyres were your brother.” “Committed suicide? What the hell?” Stark said.
“I know what the hell,” Aphrodite said. “It goes along with this.” She pointed to her incredible Mark. “And to why the red fledglings from the other world are awake and aware. Come on inside. I’ll tell you everything. Oh, and don’t expect Damien to join us anytime soon. He and Other Jack are having a thing.” She held up her hand and “shh, shh, shh’d” me when I tried to get more info about the thing.
“Boy-on-boy action. That’s all I’m gonna say because I’m pretty sure they won’t let me watch. Even though I’m pretty sure I’d like to watch. So, to tell you more, I’d have to make up the details, and my brain is busy.” She shrugged. “Anyway, come on. I have some unbelievable shit to tell you.”
“This should certainly be interesting,” Grandma said, already sounding more like herself.
“Would you do me the honor of taking my arm, Sylvia?” Stark held his arm out for her, looking every bit the gentleman. Grandma smiled at him and took it, the color coming back into her smooth cheeks.
I loved him so much at that moment that it was difficult for me to breathe.
25
Zoey
“Wow. Just wow.” I couldn’t stop staring at Aphrodite’s Mark. We were all in the conference room attached to the administrative offices, and everyone—Stark, Shaunee, Marx, and Lenobia—was gawking at Aphrodite, too.
“Let me make sure I have this straight—the vamps and fledglings from the other world are cured, for lack of a better word,” Marx said.
“They are,” Aphrodite said. “Well, a better way of putting it is that they have been restored. Their humanity, that is.”
“And that is why they began committing suicide—because their humanity has been returned and they cannot live with the things they’ve done,” Grandma said. “That does make a terrible sort of sense.”
Stark touched her shoulder gently. “Hey, that doesn’t mean Kevin will commit suicide.”
“I understand that, child, but it does mean he is suffering.”
I looked at Marx. “We need to find him.”
“I have all of TPD combing downtown looking for places he could be hiding. Give me a sec and I’ll radio that they are to hold their fire and not let them commit suicide by cop like those other three just did.”
“U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, I must leave.”
“Grandma? You can’t go back to the lavender farm. There’s just too much snow,” I said.
“Oh, no, Zoeybird. I must leave this room and go to Nyx’s Temple. There I will cleanse and then begin the prayer vigil for Kevin. That is—if I have your permission to do so.”
“Of course, Grandma! If you need anything just ask one of the priestesses in the meditation chamber.” I went to her and took her hand. “Are you okay?”
“I will be when we bring Kevin home.” She patted my hand and then kissed my cheek. “You do your part, and I will do mine.” Then, slowly, as if her age had suddenly caught up with her, Grandma shuffled from the room.
I went to the phone on the admin desk and punched the number for Nyx’s Temple. The priestess answered on the second ring. “This is Zoey. My grandma’s on her way to the temple. Give her anything she needs and keep an eye on her. Not stalker-ish, though. Just be sure she’s okay. Call me if she needs anything at all. Thank you.” I put the phone down and took my seat again. “Okay, where were we?”
“I’m assuming you want your brother and any other red vampyre we find brought here right away?” Marx continued.
“Yes. Please,” I said.
“Okay, no problem.” He started to step out into the hall to do so, but paused and looked back at Aphrodite. “Is their bite still infectious?”
“No. They’re like regular red fledglings and vampyres now,” she said. “Hey, uh, Marx, could you do something for me, please?”
“If I can.”
“Would you go to St. John’s and tell my mother she’s been cured—or there’s been a mistake and she was always okay—whatever. Just let her know she’s not turning into anything and not dying.”
“You went to the hospital? To see that horrible woman? Really?” Shaunee said.
“Is your mother crazy?” Aphrodite shot the question at Shaunee.
“No. She’s just apathetic.”
“Then don’t talk to me about going to see her. I’m not proud of the things I said to her, and I won’t do it again. But I’m not going to pretend like I’m sorry. I’m not. I’m just sorry I let her hurt me for so long.” Her gaze went back to Marx. “Will you talk to her for me?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to? I’d go with you,” he said.
“I am absolutely sure. Actually, one of my new goals is never to talk to my mother again in this lifetime.”
“All righty then. I’ll stop by St. John’s on the way downtown. If you’ll excuse me. My men need to be briefed on the latest.”
He left the room and we went back to staring at Aphrodite’s Mark.
“So, what now?” she asked.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital with him to tell your mom she’s going to be okay?” I asked.
“Yes. Let’s change the subject. How do you feel about your brother being a rogue red vampyre?”
“I feel like my head might explode,” I said honestly.
“Makes sense,” she said. “Are you going to go out and look for him?”
“Of course,” I said.
“You could stay here,” Stark said. “And get the new red fledglings situated. I’ll go out there for you. If Darius and I can’t find him—no one can.”
“You’re not going out there. It’s way too sunny,” I said.
“You’re not going out there. It’s way too dangerous,” Stark said.
“I hate to break up this cute little prelude to an argument, but someone—someone who is a red vampyre—needs to stay here and calm those new fledglings down. They’re pretty freaked,” Aphrodite said.
“That’s no surprise,” Shaunee said. “They ate people. Literally. That can’t be good for your self-esteem.”
“Aphrodite’s right,” I said. “Those fledglings are going to have a tough time. Where’s Stevie Rae?”
“In the basement with them already. It’s too bad you
missed her reaction to seeing my Mark. It was a classic bumpkin explosion of “Ohmygoodness” and a disturbing metaphor that had something to do with a speckled pup—what the hell ever that means. Anyway, she’s down there. So are Shaylin and Nicole, but the new fledglings are all guys, and I think they’d feel better with a guy to talk to. Or whatever males do when they bond.”
“I’ll go back out there with Z. The red vamps aren’t dangerous anymore, but if anything happens fire will light them up.” Shaunee made a little flourish with her hands.
“Just because they have their humanity back doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous,” Stark said. “Three of them already committed suicide by cop. We don’t know what the rest of them might do.”
“I can handle myself. And I’ll stay with Shaunee.”
“And Darius,” Aphrodite added. “Where is my man?”
Finished with his call, Marx stuck his head back in the room. “Darius is returning to the House of Night. He’s escorting the coroner’s van here with the remains from the tunnels—not that there’s much left. Should I wait for him to get here?”
“No, go ahead. He has a radio, right?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Good. Shaunee and I will go out with him and start searching. We’ll coordinate with you through the radio.”
“We’ve already started searching a grid. Darius has been briefed. And be careful out there. The city is still under a state of emergency and I haven’t let the plows go yet.”
“We’ll take the Escalade. It has chains.”
“She’ll also fill the Escalade with Warriors.” Stark gave me a dark but resigned look.
“Okay, I’m out of here,” Marx said. “Aphrodite, want me to give you a call and update you on how your mom’s doing?”
“No thank you,” she said.
I watched Aphrodite. She was definitely not drunk or high anymore, but that wasn’t a surprise. Vampyres metabolized alcohol and drugs differently than humans, so in order for her to be drunk she’d have to drink, like, a case or so of booze—which I wouldn’t put past her, but she clearly hadn’t had the time. Yet. I had no clue if Xanax was still going to work on her at all, and I wondered how she was going to handle her new powers—and her new attitude about her mom—sober. For as long as I’d known her, Aphrodite hadn’t handled much of anything sober.