by Lumi Laura
*
Alex, along with Jaklin and Mikhail, returned from Xanadu back to the Cathedral. The two were shocked and amazed at what they had experienced during their initiations.
"Later. Put a lid on it," Alex said. She couldn't handle more tales of atrocities in psychic space such as she'd experienced. Plus, she was still in a daze from her psychic trip beyond Acheron. The feeling left by witnessing the Garden hadn't dissipated when she'd woke into the real world.
"And by the way, Missy," added Jaklin, "we can now see the glow off in the distance, the Chateau to the right of Millennium Road you'd mentioned."
Alex smiled but said nothing. She'd noticed something new about them that greatly disappointed her. She'd seen it a little when she'd turned each of them, particularly Jaklin, but now it had intensified. A loss of innocence. That fresh human quality that had so attracted her had now turned into the confidence of hardened vampires.
Alex realized that she'd also experienced this maturity in herself, but as a strange new capability she'd not understood. Now, she longed for that psychologically wounded little girl she'd been when she came to Sinaia last summer. She'd been fresh from secondary school, full of childhood friendships, shopping, and the eternal quest for boys, something from which she'd always felt remote, but still, she'd lived in and related, if naively, to that world. Now she was a seasoned vampire, and Jaklin and Mikhail had also made the transformation. They'd gone beyond being adults into eternal beings with a confidence that belied their years. Alex realized that this was the effect of Millennium Road. They now had the psychic maturity of three millennia strengthening their psychic makeup.
Another change had happened that Alex hadn't expected, and perhaps this had to do with the Silent Scythe ceremony. They drew attention everywhere they went. Vampires fogged around them, thank and encouraged them, and when Cosmina called for an assembly in the Cathedral, they received an ovation from the hundreds gathered there. Silent Scythe had established a new line of defense below Xanadu to guard against individual ferals or a full attack coming up from the Ichor Dome. Alex looked out over the cheering crowd and wondered if they could possibly live up to their expectations.
Alex took Cosmina aside. "What happened with Alu at Lake Acheron? Why did you leave with him?"
"I had to, Alex," she answered without missing a beat. "I knew you'd be concerned, but I couldn't let him know you'd come with me. I had to get him across Acheron before he talked to Cheiron and found out what we were up to."
"What did he bring back with him?"
"He wouldn't say. Except that it was just a decoration for his throne room. I talked to Mary about it. Neither of us is concerned. What did you find beyond Cheiron's grotto?"
"Just a pile of black rocks and an insurmountable cliff. You don't think that little decoration had anything to do with those super-vamps he's creating?"
"He was closed mouthed about it, but I don't believe he was hiding anything important, particularly since you say that you didn't find anything beyond the grotto."
Alex trusted Cosmina but not enough now to tell her all of it. She still thought she was hiding something. Besides, she wanted to learn more about what she'd seen before trusting anyone with this.
