Hidden (House of Night Novels) (35 page)

“Wait, can’t you carry both of them out of there?” I asked Kalona.

“Safely? No. There are some limits to my immortal strength,” Kalona said. “Aurox, if I drop you from the sky will you be killed?”

It was so bizarre, listening to Kalona question Aurox about falling from the sky like he was asking him if he liked ham and swiss, or turkey and swiss better.

Aurox made a restless movement with his shoulders. “I believe that would depend upon whether the beast within me has manifested or not. The beast is much more difficult to destroy than am I.”

“When Grandma is safe, we’ll recall our elements.” Now I was sounding as bizarrely calm as the two of them. “Aurox, let the beast take over enough for it to help you fight your way out of there.”

“Do you believe that is possible?” Thanatos asked him.

“Perhaps. I think it will depend a great deal upon Neferet. I–I have not considered getting out, only getting in,” Aurox said.

“I agree with Zoey. Use the beast. Neferet needed a sacrifice to control it before. She will need to do so again, and we will have taken her sacrifice,” Thanatos said. “It can get you to safety. When you come to yourself again, make your way back to the House of Night.”

Aurox’s face seemed to brighten. “To stay? I’ll be able to go to school there?”

“That is a question too great for me to answer alone. The High Council must decide your fate,” Thanatos said.

I held my breath, waiting for Aurox to bail out—to realize that he was basically on a suicide mission, to tell us all to go to hell in a handbasket, and take off.

He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he met my eyes and said, “I have a question for you.”

“Okay, what?”

“What does it mean to be coat-tailing on someone?”

I couldn’t have been more surprised if Aurox had crouched down and given birth to a litter of kittens. For a second, I couldn’t even think of an answer, and then I blurted, “It means that you haven’t earned what you’ve been given, but that someone else has, so you’re riding his coattails and getting credit that way.”

Aurox’s face was an emotionless mask. He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. We were all staring at him, but he didn’t say a word. He just stood there, breathing and looking like an almost-statue.

“Okay, so, who are you coat-tailing?” Stark’s voice cut the silence.

Aurox turned his moonstone eyes on my Warrior. “No one. No one at all, and tonight I will prove that.” Then his gaze found mine again. “When I feel the presence of the elements I will go to Neferet. When Grandma is safe, do as you said. Withdraw the elements. Then flee. I will not chance harming any of you, and I cannot be certain that I can retain any control over the beast. Tell Grandma that I said her sanctuary is more important than mine.” His eyes swept our group as he said, “Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.” Aurox walked away from us, jogging quickly across the street, and disappeared within the front doors of the Mayo.

“This night is gonna suck for him,” Stark muttered.

“Hello, understatement,” Aphrodite said. “This
life
is gonna suck for him.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Neferet

“So, old woman, what do you think it is about your blood that causes it to be so rancid that my children cannot feed on it?”

Sylvia Redbird’s head turned slowly. Her eyes were glimmering pools within the cage of Darkness.

“Your puppets cannot feed from me because I had time to prepare myself for you.”

The old woman’s voice was hoarse, but there was a strength lingering within it that surprised Neferet almost as much as it annoyed her.

“That’s right. You are oh, so special and beloved by your Goddess. But wait,” Neferet spoke with mock shock. “If you are really so special and beloved, why are you here, being tormented by my children? Why does your Goddess not save you?”

“You name me special. I would not call myself that, Tsi Sgili. Had you asked I would have named myself valued by the Great Earth Mother. No more. No less.”

“If this is how your Great Earth Mother treats a valued child who is crying out for her help, then may I suggest you consider changing goddesses?” Neferet sipped on her blood-laced wine. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to goad the old woman. Her pain and her impending death should have been enough to satisfy the immortal, but they weren’t. Neferet hated that Sylvia did not scream. She did not beg. Since Kalona had fled, Sylvia had even stopped moaning in pain. Now if she wasn’t silent, the old woman was singing.

Neferet loathed her damned singing.

“I have not asked the Great Earth Mother for help. I have only asked for her blessing, and that she has gifted me with tenfold.”

“Her blessing! You’re inside a cage of Darkness that is killing you slowly and painfully. What are you, a Catholic saint? Shall I crucify you upside down and cut off your head?” Neferet laughed at her own joke, but even to her the sound was hollow.
I need adulation and veneration! How can I reign as Goddess without worshippers!

“You killed the professors.”

Sylvia hadn’t asked a question, but Neferet felt the need to answer her. “Of course I did.”

“Why?”

“To create chaos between humans and vampyres, of course.”

“But how does that benefit you?”

“Chaos burns—people, vampyres, society. The victor who emerges from those ashes controls the world. I will be that victor.” Feeling smug and empowered, Neferet smiled.

“But you already had power. You were High Priestess of the House of Night. You were beloved by your Goddess. Why cast that aside?”

Neferet narrowed her eyes at Sylvia. “Power does not equate to control. How much
power
does your Great Earth Goddess wield if she cannot do something as simple as control whether or not I take your life? I learned long ago that control is true power.”

Sylvia shook her head, finally looking and sounding as weary as she should be. “You cannot truly control anyone except yourself, Tsi Sgili. It might appear otherwise, but we all make our own choices.”

“Really? Let us test that theory. I assume you would prefer to live.” Neferet paused, waiting expectantly for Sylvia’s response.

“I would.” Sylvia’s words were a whisper.

“Well, I believe I can control whether you live or die. Now, let’s see who has the most power.” Neferet raised her wrist. With a quick, practiced movement she slashed one pointed fingernail through the vein that pulsed near the surface there. “I grow weary of this conversation.” Neferet’s tone changed to singsong as her blood flowed.

“Come, children, taste my rage

Use my power to close her cage!”

Her loyal tendrils of Darkness slithered to her, eagerly feeding from her wrist. Refortified, they circled back to Sylvia. The old woman lifted her arms defensively, but as she did so several of her bracelets broke, raining turquoise and silver through the closing bars of her cage, and falling harmlessly in the growing pool of her blood.

When the old woman tried to begin her song again, her words were cut short as pulsing tendrils filled the skin left naked and unprotected on her arms.

Sylvia Redbird gasped in pain renewed. Neferet laughed.

Kalona

Humans don’t look up. That was one thing that had not changed as the world aged. Man had conquered the sky, and yet unless there was a brilliant sunset or a full, gleaming moon to gaze upon, humans rarely glanced above their heads. Kalona did not understand it, but he was grateful for it. He circled the Mayo, sighting Damien, Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and Shaunee. Then he returned to the ONEOK Plaza building, landing beside Thanatos.

“The four are in place.”

Thanatos nodded. “Good. Zoey has gone within. It is time to begin.” She reached within her voluminous velvet robe and brought out a large, dark bag and a long box of wooden matches.

Kalona gestured to the bag. “Salt to bind?”

“Indeed, it is a large building. I need a lot of salt.”

The immortal nodded, thinking that he’d actually come to appreciate Thanatos’s dry sense of humor. “Let’s hope there is some luck in that bag as well.”

“Luck? I didn’t think immortals believed in it.”

“We’re rescuing a human, not an immortal. Humans cross their fingers and toes and wish each other good luck. I am simply following suit,” he said. “Plus, I believe we can use all the help we can get. If that means a little luck, then I will take it.”

“As will I.” Thanatos held out her hand to him. “No matter what the outcome of tonight, I know that you will keep your oath to me, and through me, to Nyx. I wish you to blessed be, Kalona.”

He grasped her forearm and bowed his head to her respectfully. “Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again, High Priestess.”

Kalona took to the sky as Thanatos crossed Fifth Street and entered the dark alley where Damien, guarded by Stark, waited. Perching on one of the east wall’s stone buttress, Kalona watched from above. He was surprised that Thanatos’s voice carried so clearly to him—and then his surprise turned to vigilance. The power in the High Priestess’s spell was tangible, and if he could hear it, so too might a human.

“Come, air, to this night’s circle I call

protect, defend, be present—hear all.”

Thanatos struck the match and the yellow candle leaped to life, illuminating Damien’s somber face. Stark stood in front of him, bow and arrow in hand. Kalona hovered overhead as the High Priestess retraced her steps, moving quickly out of the alley and to the front of the Mayo. Hand buried in her robes, Thanatos was spilling a trail of salt. The lights on the decorative foyer entrance caught the tiny crystals, and from above it looked as if she were leaving a path of diamonds behind her.

Thanatos walked to the small, round table at which Darius and Shaunee were sitting. The young fledgling had placed her large purse before her, so that it blocked the view of her red pillar candle from passersby.

“Come, fire, to this night’s circle I plead

vigilant, strong, to fulfill our need.”

The match burst into flame before Thanatos could strike it, lighting the red candle in an audible
whoosh!

Kalona scowled. It was good that the elements were manifesting, but he wished they would be less noisy about it.

With salt trailing her, Thanatos walked quickly around the building to the sidewalk that ran beside the street called Cheyenne. As on the alley side of the building, there were buttresses halfway up its nine stories, and that was where Kalona perched, gazing down at the small fledgling who sat cross-legged in the middle of a hedgerow. Shaylin had hidden herself so well that Thanatos almost walked past her. Kalona nodded to himself in approval of the child. “Young,” he muttered, “but wily. Nyx was not wrong to gift that one.”

“Come, water, to this night’s circle I ask,

Flow, wash, fill, empower—this is your task.”

The blue candle didn’t explode to life, as had Shaunee’s fire, but it did burn steadily, and Kalona could smell the cool scent of springtime showers wafting up to him.

He took to the sky, once again following the High Priestess.

Stevie Rae waited with Rephaim in the rear of the building. Thanatos had to climb down a steep, dark stairway and pick her way around vans that waited to make deliveries. Kalona hovered, watching closely.
Rephaim protects his Stevie Rae, and I protect my son.
But it seemed such vigilance was not needed. The night was as silent as death herself as Thanatos stepped before Stevie Rae.

“Come, earth, to this night’s circle I beseech,

Support, ground, hold confidence within reach.”

The green candle sputtered to flame. In its flickering light, Kalona caught a glimpse of Rephaim’s upturned face. The boy looked steady and sure, as if he believed there was no possibility of the night’s outcome not being positive.

Kalona wished he had his son’s faith.

He flew up, keeping Thanatos in sight as the High Priestess completed the circle around the Mayo, cutting down the alley from the rear, and moving quickly and silently past Damien and Stark, fully encasing the building in a trail of salt. When she reached the front of the building again, Thanatos hesitated only long enough to glance up. Kalona met her gaze before soaring to the top of the ONEOK Plaza and perching there. From that vantage point the immortal watched the cloaked High Priestess enter the Mayo. She disappeared for a few moments, and then he caught sight of her dark cloak as she joined Zoey and Aphrodite at their booth near the restaurant’s large picture window.

Kalona could not hear her words, but he whispered the completion of the elemental call.

“Come, spirit, to this night’s circle I cry

Endow, infill, on your might we rely.”

Zoey had carried a tiny purple votive in her pocket to the restaurant. She and Aphrodite had talked about hiding it behind the textbook they’d used as a prop. Kalona’s view was not good enough to see the candlelight, but that the circle was cast and the protective spell set, he was absolutely sure. He felt the inrush of elemental power. It tingled across his skin like an electric spark.

No!
The winged immortal wanted to shout to the night.
If I can sense the spell, then so might Neferet!
With horrible dread Kalona stared across the space that separated the roof of his building and the rooftop balcony of Neferet’s penthouse. He could not see over the thick stone balustrades. Should he fly high and take the risk that Neferet would catch sight of him?
What was happening over there?

“Hurry, boy. Get up there and keep Neferet distracted so that she does not know they circle below and the vengeance she wreaks falls only upon you. I will be certain they all get away. Steal the old woman before the Tsi Sgili kills you!” That was the unspoken truth. Kalona knew it, and he believed Aurox knew it as well. There would be no escape for Aurox. Neferet was going to kill her betraying Vessel this night.