by C. J. Parker
“You damned coward, come back and fight.” Bobbie ran after him. Kangee grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “They’re gone. Everyone is gone.”
She yanked away and turned on him. “I saw you! How could you keep something like that from me? Why would you?”
Kangee closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “Aetheria.”
“Her again. Secrets. Lies.” The old woman had overstepped her bounds. “I’m tired of it, Kangee. What else haven’t you told me?”
“If I’d tried to tell you, you’d want to see to believe. I can’t pull my griffon up on a whim.” His voice was as angry as hers. “Aetheria said it would awaken when the time was right.”
She nodded curtly. “No more, Kangee. If I find out you’re hiding anything else from me, we’re finished. Last chance.” Her father and brother had done the same thing, always sheltering her from the bad things in life. No more. She couldn’t lead and be sheltered.
He drew her into his arms. “I love you, and I didn’t lie to you. I will tell you everything you want to know, but now is not the time.”
Aetheria came into view and stood beside Kangee. “It’s my fault, if you need someone to blame. I told him he couldn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure. The prophecy reads of the griffon and the dragon, but I couldn’t be sure it pertained to you and Kangee.”
Tabatha came to stand at Aetheria’s side. “Where is Ionna? Is she all right?”
Aetheria smiled. “She’s fine. No harm came to her in my care.”
Bobbie turned to Hylton. “How many did you lose?”
He straightened from kneeling beside an injured man. “Seven dead. Ten wounded. You?”
Aetheria answered, “No dead.”
Tabatha sat cross-legged beside the wounded man and laid her hands on him. She closed her eyes and began to chant. The wounds closed.
Hylton placed his hand on her shoulder. “We shifters heal very quickly on our own.”
“Quicker with my help.” Tabatha crawled over to the next man. “They didn’t give up, you know. They’ll be back. They’re looking for reinforcements.”
“She’s right.” Derek picked up a handful of Spanish moss and wiped the blood from his fingers. “And when they return, they’ll have us outnumbered again. Verdun knows our numbers now. He’ll make sure he can best us.”
Aetheria gazed toward the Council House. “We can outnumber him beyond his imagination.”
Bobbie threw her hands up in despair. “Best I can tell, we have about a hundred men and women left. Verdun can probably rake the bottom of his barrel and double that.”
“You only have to summon them, Queen Moran.” Aetheria’s brows rose and her gaze returned to the Council House. “They lay dormant, rested, and loyal.”
Bobbie turned away from the old lady and looked over the dead. So much carnage. One young Outsider boy screamed for Verdun, begging for help as he crawled into the forest, dragging his mangled legs behind him. Her first instinct was to try and save him. She glanced up to catch Tabatha’s attention, but Tabatha was already halfway across the grounds.
Watching his blood running to mix with the coffee black soil, rage fought with nausea.
What a freaking waste.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Bobbie’s thoughts were blood-soaked and jumbled. Incredulous, she finally came upon a ridiculous idea. “You want Tabatha to raise the dead warriors from the ash pit? Is that what you’re suggesting?”
Aetheria signed, clearly exasperated. “No, child.”
Releasing a sigh of relief, Bobbie’s shoulders relaxed. “Then I don’t understand.”
Aetheria looked her in the eyes. “I want you to raise them, Robertina.”
“Me!” Bobbie looked at each of her friends in turn, then back to the old woman. “Have you lost your mind? I can’t raise the dead. That’s Tabatha’s power.”
Aetheria opened her mouth to speak, but Bobbie held her hand up stopping her. “I know. We all share the same gifts now, but I can’t do something I have no idea how to do. And what help would zombies be?”
Horror and anger etched Aetheria’s expression, and her fury flashed from her intense gaze. “Zombies? Is that what you think of your ancestors?”
“That’s what they’ll be. I’ve seen the results of Tabatha’s risings. No soul.” Bobbie shivered. “Just a big old empty, remote control body unable to do anything more than what she commands of them. If that’s what you’re suggesting, thanks anyway.”
“You don’t want to do this to your ancestors. I had never raised anyone past a few weeks until recently. I was told by the spirit it was like being a puppet with no control over your own body.” Tabatha stepped forward and touched Aetheria’s arm. “Secrets they took to their grave can be ripped out of them with no power to refuse. After so much time has passed, there’s no telling what dangers we’d face, no telling what control we’d have or not have over them.”
“We won’t have control over them,” Bobbie shouted and slammed her fist into her other hand. “They would control themselves.”
“But, Aetheria, if they could be raised, much less take our side of the fight, raising more than one body at a time¾well¾I’m not sure even I could do that.” Tabatha shook her head. “Bertha may be right, my gift may be from God, but I worry even He may not be too happy with this idea.”
Aetheria nodded and looked skyward as if in thought. “Then the three of you will share your strengths to make it possible.”
“Ain’t gonna happen.” Rhonda turned away. “I’ll burn what you want to ash, but I don’t want anything to do with raising the dead.”
“Wait.” Bobbie raked her fingers through her hair. “To raise the dead, Tabatha has to form her protective circle and border it with blood. That ash pit covers, what, half an acre? That’s a lot of blood. What do you expect us to do, drain the corpses?”
“It has to be Moran blood.” No emotion tainted the old woman’s tone. “It has to be your blood, Robertina.”
Kangee and Derek rushed forward, Kangee pulling Bobbie behind him.
Derek stood between them and Aetheria, an expression of disbelief wrinkling his brow. “Ma’am, I can’t sit by and let Bobbie commit suicide.” Derek’s voice shook with disbelief.
“Mother, have you lost your mind? You don’t seriously think I’m going to let you drain Bobbie so you can raise the warriors?” Kangee shook his head. “To quote Rhonda, ‘Ain’t gonna happen’.”
Aetheria released a gusty sigh in exasperation and rolled her eyes. “Children,” she began indulgently. “It only takes a drop of royal blood to do the job. She will have to stand in the center of the pit and do nothing more damaging than prick her finger with her dagger. She will say the necessary words, let the blood fall onto the ashes and it will be done.”
Bobbie gazed up at the moon in wonder. She’d seen a red sun at sunset, but never in her years had she seen a red moon. It hung huge and bright in the night sky. A scattering of dark clouds still cluttered the sky.
“Not quite.”
Bobbie glanced back at the sound of Tabatha’s voice.
“There has to be the protective circle to keep them under control and keep away the evil spirits who are drawn to a calling, wanting to find a living body to posses. Blood from the bodies of the slain will do for that part of the ceremony.”
“Damn it, Tabatha.” Bobbie dashed over to Hylton and his pack. “Hylton, have you heard any of what we’ve been talking about?”
“I have one question.” Hylton made his way to Aetheria. “No one is to ever step on the ashes of the dead. To do so is instant death. But you say you want Bobbie to walk out to the center of the pit. How will Queen Moran live long enough to do your bidding?”
“On the night of the Noom Revo Su, the souls of our warriors are released to join us. They need an earthly body to bid war. They only wait for body and soul to be joined.” Aetheria touched Bobbie gently on the shoulder. Only your blood can do that, Robertina.”
Bob
bie dropped to the ground, legs crossed underneath her. “I need to think about all this.” She braced her elbows on her knees, letting her hair form a dark curtain around her face. “In fact, I want everyone but Tabatha to leave. I need to talk to her.” She looked down at her blood-streaked body. “I need a frigging bath.”
Kangee sat beside her and draped his arm around her shoulders. “You don’t have to do this.”
Bobbie shoved her fists onto her hips and stared Kangee down. “Do you know how to raise the dead, Kangee?”
“No.” He snorted. “Of course not.”
“Do you want to learn?” She arched her brows.
He turned away. “Not in this lifetime.”
“Then I need to talk to Tabatha.”
“I’m staying,” Lexie announced.
Bobbie shook her head, then met the eyes of each of her friends and loved ones. “I have a decision to make that all our lives depend on, and to be able to do that, I have to get all the information I can. Tabatha and I have to discuss the mechanics of things you don’t want to hear about. Trust me, I’ve seen it.”
Her eyes met Derek’s and Rhonda’s and they shuddered. They knew. They’d seen it, too. “Go. Take care of the wounded. Rest.” She turned to Aetheria and met her challenging stare. “This has to be my decision, and only I can make it. This time I have to make that decision alone. Go. Take care of them.”
Aetheria stood her ground, her expression hard, but after a long moment, she nodded and turned away. “Fine. Talk to Tabatha. Discuss all she knows. Then when you still don’t get it, call me. I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
Kangee brushed Bobbie’s hair away from her face and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Call if you need me. I won’t be far away.”
Bobbie closed her eyes and waited for the silence, then lifted her head. “Sit.”
Tabatha shrugged her shoulders. “We have to have bodies to fight on our side. They can’t be killed. They’re dead. They could save our lives and those of Hylton’s clan.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “He’s lost enough, Bobbie. There are who knows how many widows and fatherless kids in his village now.”
“All right. All right, I get the drift. But…shit.” She ran her gaze over the village, watching the men build a three-sided barricade with bales of Spanish moss and pine needles.
Lexie and Ionna ran between the makeshift fort and Aetheria’s house, stacking swords, knives and boxes of ammunition against the wall. Bobbie wondered where Aetheria had acquired these items, where she’d had them hidden and why she hadn’t pulled them out before now.
“You’re afraid.” Tabatha’s comment pulled her back to the topic at hand.
“Hell, yes, I’m afraid.” Her father’s stories of dead shifters coming to life and attacking whole villages reverberated in her mind. “I’ve been told all my life that if a shifter isn’t cremated he could rise and become monstrous, killing anyone or anything they come across. And now Aetheria wants me to raise a whole army of long dead shifters.”
“I don’t think Aetheria would position you or anyone else in harm’s way.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t know how to do this. More importantly, I don’t want to do it. I love you, Tabatha, but what you do is creepy.” Her skin crawled at the thought.
Tabatha laughed quietly. “Remember what you told me about your shifting being as natural as my necromancy? Honey, I think it’s kind of creepy that you change into a snake or a cat or whatever.” Her face was a mask of indecision. “Aetheria said it has to be your blood, but does it have to be you who conducts the ceremony?”
“We have to do this together, but that’s risky as hell.” What the hell was she thinking dragging Tabatha into this? Tabatha could get killed. “They could attack you and Rhonda. You’re not of royal blood.”
“She didn’t say you had to be royal blood to do the ceremony, only your blood to raise the warriors.” Tabatha to grab a pair of jeans and a blouse Derek tossed to her. “Bobbie, if that man wins, he’ll take Ionna. I can’t let that happen.” She stepped the clothing on over her bloody body.
Bobbie dropped her gaze then faced her friend squarely, uttering the words she had been avoiding. “You can’t have her either, Tab. She can’t live in your world. Not at her age and inexperience.”
Bobbie looked out over the common ground at all the activity. Following Derek’s lead, Troy and Kangee, dressed in jeans, handed out clothing to Rhonda, Lexie, and Tab. Bobbie knew she fought to keep her expression benign.
“I know.” Tabatha shrugged. “I don’t think Derek thought I was serious when I told him she’d be our daughter. But she can’t stay with Verdun. What kind of father would he be? And think about it. Do you want Agnes to keep her? How would she turn out? Like Omeda?”
Tabatha was using reverse psychology on her. Bobbie couldn’t believe it. “I know what you’re trying to do. You can’t shame or scare me into this.”
“Okay.” Tabatha leaned back, her hands on the ground behind her. “Then think about this. Lexie is yours. She refuses to stay out of this fight. How are you going to feel if she gets killed? You’ll second-guess yourself for the rest of your life. You’ll always wonder what if.”
Bobbie’s eyes stung with unshed tears. The thought of Lexie…no. She wouldn’t let that happen. “I’ll make Aetheria keep her inside.”
“Yeah. Right.” Tabatha snorted. “That has worked so well thus far.”
It started at the pit of her stomach. An ache so fervent Bobbie doubled over with its intensity. It moved into her chest, until it escaped as an anguish-filled wail. Bobbie rocked as if in the arms of her mother.
Tabatha gathered her close. “I wish I could do it alone, but I can’t. If all you have to do is bleed, I’ll do the rest. Call Aetheria over. Let’s find out the rules.”
“Oh, so now you need me?” Without being summoned, Aetheria appeared beside them, clearly madder than Bobbie had ever seen her. “Now you think I might know a thing or two about all this? You stupid girls. Noom Revo Su!”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“What about Noom Revo Su?” Bobbie’s tone a frustrated whine in her ears. “What is it you think or know that Tabatha, a necromancer, doesn’t?”
Aetheria stared at her long and hard, holding her gaze despite Bobbie’s efforts to look away. When the old woman broke the contact and looked up at the star-filled sky, Bobbie nearly toppled over. “Do you see the moon, child?”
Bobbie sighed, the sound coming from deep within her soul. “Can we hear what you have to say Aetheria? I’m tired. I’m getting more frustrated by the minute. I’m in no mood for guessing games.”
“Always so impatient.”
“Hell, yes, I’m impatient. Verdun and his cutthroats could be back any minute. Look around you. The dead wait for their ceremony. But we don’t dare do it now. Verdun would know we couldn’t stop the ceremony until the end. He would attack, and we couldn’t do a thing.”
Bobbie tried to keep the irritation out of her voice, wanted to, but knew she’d failed miserably. Aetheria deserved better than this from her. Aetheria had never led her astray. May have withheld information, but given her faulty information, no. The woman was like a mother to her, and yet Bobbie was allowing her aggravation at the situation to turn her into a harpy, taking it out on the one person she’d always been able to count on.
“Little one, as long as the moon is hidden, the spirits roam, waiting for their bodies to be given back to them. The ashes already stir. They will recognize you as their queen, but Tabatha will only be seen as an intruder. They will attack her. She will die. I would not see you lose her.” Aetheria raised her hand and cupped Bobbie’s cheek. She understood.
That touch helped, but didn’t take away the rage roiling around inside her. There had to be a way out of this, something simple, something…
Bobbie nodded. “And can their spirits hear us now? Are they paying attention?”
“I believe so, yes.” Aetheria’s eyes narrow
ed. “What are you up to, girl?”
Turning away from Aetheria, Bobbie shouted into the emptiness. “Listen up, Spirit Warriors. I’m sick and tired of this hoodoo, be-afraid-of-us crap. I need Tabatha’s help. So this is how it’s going to be. She comes with me into the pit and will lend her power so we don’t muck this up. If you harm one hair on her head, you will roam this earth in spirit form for eternity.”
The ashes formed a tornado-like funnel, thunderous clashes and streaks of light reached out toward Bobbie. Their anger burned her skin, her brain recoiled at the onslaught of voices battering inside her skull.
Not our kind, they answered.
Bobbie shrugged. “I don’t care. She is my sister. She is worthy.”
Not our kind. This time the answer was a scream on the wind.
She refused to back down. “Fine, here’s the thing. I am more fed up with all this than I can find words to tell you. I have had pictures burned into my skin with no warning and watched you do the same to those I love.”
Bobbie paused expecting some reply from the Spirit Warriors, but received silence. “I’ve been beaten, cut and pissed off. And yet, still I’ve followed all your silly little rules. I came back. Now, I was perfectly happy in New Orleans. I have no problem going right back and leaving all this behind. But the thing is, if I do that, Clan Moran is no more.”
“Robertina!” Aetheria stepped forward and seized her arm. “You must show respect.”
“Respect is for the living, who have to clean up the messes left by the dead. Respect is a two-way street. Where is their respect for me?” She stood and turned her back to the ash pit. “I have another option if you still don’t agree to my terms. I can send Tabatha, Derek, Rhonda, Lexie, Stephen, and whoever decides to go with them, away, and I can pin myself out here in the open and let Verdun claim the throne.”
The voices stilled instantly.
“I am tired. I’ve got no problem letting Clan Moran blow away on the wind like all of you. No more decedents. No more births, no more deaths. End of the line. Period. I can finally rest.” Bobbie raised her chin in a defiant jut. “Your choice. I’m past caring. I die, Lexie will never forgive you. She will turn her back on you for refusing me this one small request.”
