by P. C. Cast
Without any of her usual theatrics (which were always cool to watch), Neferet walked to Damien, who was nervously holding the yellow wind candle, and raised the ceremonial lighter.
“It fills us and breathes life into us. I call wind to our circle.” Neferet’s voice was strong and clear, obviously augmented by the power of a High Priestess. She touched the lighter to the candle’s wick and instantly wind whipped around Damien and her. Neferet’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see her face, but Damien’s smile was wide and joyous. I tried not to scowl. The sacred circle was not the right place for me to be pissed off, but I couldn’t help feeling annoyed. Why was I the only one who could see Neferet’s fakeness?
She moved to Shaunee. “It warms and succors us. I call fire to our circle.” As I’d experienced several times before, Shaunee’s red candle burst into flame before the lighter touched it. Shaunee’s smile was almost as bright as her element.
Neferet followed the circle around to Erin. “It soothes and washes us. I call water to our circle.” As the candle lit I heard waves crashing on a distant beach and smelled salt and sea in the night breeze.
I watched carefully as Neferet moved to stand before the statue of Nyx and the green candle. The High Priestess bowed her head. “The fledgling who personified this element perished, and it is fitting that the position of earth remain empty tonight, and that it rests upon the spot our beloved Patricia Nolan’s body has so recently rested upon. It sustains us. From it we are born, and to it we all shall return. I call earth to our circle.” Neferet lit the green candle, and though it burned brightly I didn’t smell even a hint of green meadows or wildflowers.
Then Neferet was standing in front of me. I don’t know what kind of expression she’d showed Damien and the Twins, but to me her face was strong and stern, and amazingly beautiful. She reminded me of one of the ancient vampyre Amazon warriors, and I almost forgot that she was actually dangerous.
“It is our essence. I call spirit to our circle.” Neferet lit my purple candle and I felt my soul lift with the tickle-tummy feeling a roller coaster gives me. The High Priestess didn’t pause to share any kind of special look with me, instead she began to work the crowd. Walking around inside the circle, making eye contact with the vampyres who surrounded us, she got right to the point. “It hasn’t happened for more than one hundred years—not so openly—not so brutally. Humans have murdered one of us. In this case they have awakened not a sleeping giant, but have provoked a leopard who they believed was tamed.” Neferet’s voice rose, powerful with anger. “She is not tamed!” The little hairs on my arms lifted. Neferet was amazing. How could someone who was so blessed by Nyx have gone as wrong as I knew she’d gone?
“They believe our fangs have been filed flat and our claws removed, like a fat household tabby. Again, they are wrong.” She raised her arms over her head. “From this sacred circle, cast on the site of a murder, we call on our Goddess, Nyx, the beautiful Personification of Night. We ask that she welcome Patricia Nolan to her bosom, though it is decades too early for her to have departed. We also ask Nyx to rouse her righteous anger, and with the sweetness of her divine fury, to grant us this spell of protection so that we will not be caught in the humans’ murderous web.” As she spoke the spell Neferet walked back to Nyx’s statue.
“Protect us with the night;
above all it is in darkness we delight.”
When she turned to face the crowd I saw that she was now holding a small, ivory-handled knife with a wickedly-sharp-looking curved blade.
“Around this coven we ask
Nyx’s curtain to be cast.”
With one hand she lifted the knife. With the other she wove intricate shapes in the air that around her became glittery and semi-substantial as she continued incanting the spell.
“All who enter or leave I shall detect,
vampyre, fledgling, human, all will be checked.
If harm is meant
to my will it shall be bent.”
Then, in a fast, ferocious gesture, Neferet slashed through her wrist, so deep that her blood instantly began to spurt, red and rich, hot and delicious. The scent washed around me, automatically making my mouth water. With grim determination, the High Priestess walked the circumference of the circle so that her blood fell around us in a scarlet arch, sprinkling grass that had so recently been soaked with Professor Nolan’s blood. Finally she reached Nyx’s statue again. Neferet lifted her face to the night sky and completed the spell.
“My blood binds thee,
so mote it be.”
I swear the night air rippled all around us, and for a moment I could actually see something settle on the walls of the school, like a black, gauzy curtain. She’s set a spell that will not just tell her when danger enters the school, but when anyone enters or leaves it. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning. No way was the curtain of a goddess going to be fooled by my little Bram Stoker-ing. How in the hell was I going to sneak Stevie Rae her blood?
Completely preoccupied with my own drama, I hardly noticed when Neferet closed the circle. Woodenly, I let the tide of people carry me back through the trapdoor. I only snapped out of it when Loren’s deep voice sounded surprisingly close to my ear.
“I’ll meet you in the rec hall in a little while.” I looked up at him. My face must have been a complete question mark because he added, “Your Full Moon Ritual. I’m your bard tonight for the opening of the circle, remember?”
Before I could say anything Shaunee’s voice purred, “We always look forward to hearing you recite poetry, Professor Blake.”
“Yeah, wouldn’t miss it. Not even for a shoe sale at Saks,” Erin added, eyes twinkling.
“Then I’ll see you there,” Loren said, his eyes never leaving my face. He smiled, gave me a little bow, and hurried away.
“Dee-lish-us,”Erin said.
“Ditto, Twin,” Shaunee said.
“I think he’s slimy.”
We all looked up to see Erik glaring at Loren’s back.
“Oh, no way!” Shaunee said.
“Luscious Loren Blake is just being friendly,” Erin said, rolling her eyes at Erik like he was insane.
“Hello! Don’t go all psycho-jealous boyfriend on Z,” Shaunee said.
“Uh, I gotta go change,” I blurted, not wanting to even comment on Erik’s way-too-obvious jealousy. “Could you guys go on to the rec hall and make sure everything’s ready? I’ll run to the dorm and be back in just a sec.”
“No problem,” the Twins said together.
“We’ll take care of the last-minute stuff,” Damien said.
Erik didn’t say anything. I smiled a quick and, I hoped, nonguilty smile at him, and took off down the sidewalk to the dorm. I could feel eyes on me and knew with a terrible sinking feeling that I was going to have to do something about Erik and Loren (and Heath). But what the hell was I going to do?
I was crazy about Heath. And his blood.
Erik was an amazing guy who I really, really liked.
Loren was completely delicious.
Jeesh, I sucked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I was trying to convince myself that this ritual was going to be a snap. I’d just cast a quick circle, offer up prayers for Professor Nolan, announce that Aphrodite was rejoining the Dark Daughters (which would be obvious after she showed her affinity for earth), and then say that because of the stress that the school has been dealing with I’ve decided not to Tap any new Prefect Council members till the end of the school year. It really should be an easy ritual, I told my knotted stomach over and over again. Nothing like last month when Stevie Rae died. Nothing that bad could happen tonight. Dressed and as ready as I was going to be, I opened the door to find Aphrodite standing there.
“Take a breath, will ya?” she said, backing out of my way. “Hello! They have to wait for you.”
“Aphrodite, has no one ever told you that it’s rude to keep people waiting?” I said as I hurried down the hall,
practically skipped down the stairs two at a time, and rushed out of the dorm with Aphrodite scrambling to keep up with me. I nodded at Darius, who had taken up his position outside, and he saluted me.
“You know, those warriors really are some totally hot-looking vamps,” Aphrodite said, craning her neck around to get a last view of Darius. Then she shot me a curled lip look and said in her stuck-up, rich-girl’s voice, “And no, no one has ever told me it’s rude to keep people waiting. I was raised to keep people waiting. As far as my mother’s concerned, the sun waits for her before it rises and sets.”
I rolled my eyes.
“So how did Neferet’s ritual go?”
“Fabulous. She set a protective curtain around the school. No one gets in or out without her knowing about it. Couldn’t be better. Oh, that is, unless you’re us.”
Even though there was no one around us, Aphrodite lowered her voice. “She’s still gulping down the bags of blood?”
“She’s barely hanging on. We gotta do something soon.”
“I don’t know what the hell you think we’re gonna do,” Aphrodite said. “You’re the one with the mega-powers. I’m just along for the ride.” She paused and lowered her voice even more. “Plus, I don’t know what you expect to do. She’s gross and more than a little bit scary.”
“She’s my best friend,” I whispered fiercely.
“No. She used to be your best friend. Now she’s a scary undead dead girl who drinks blood like pop.”
“She’s still my best friend,” I repeated stubbornly.
“Fine. Whatever. Then heal her.”
“Okay, it’s so not that simple.”
“How do you know? Have you tried?”
And I stopped totally dead in my tracks. “What did you just say?”
Aphrodite raised an eyebrow at me, shrugged, and looked utterly bored. “Something like, have you tried?”
“Holy crap! Could it be that easy? I mean, I’ve been spending all this time looking for a spell or a ritual or a . . . a . . . something specific and amazing and totally magical, and maybe all I needed to do is just ask Nyx to heal her.” And as I stood there basking in my ohmygod moment, I heard Nyx’s voice echo through my mind, repeating what the goddess had told me a month ago right before I used my elemental powers to break the blocks Neferet had put in my memory: I wish to remind you that the elements can restore as well as destroy.
“Holy crap? You said holy crap? You know, that’s another almost cuss. I’m starting to worry about your terrible potty mouth.”
Feeling suddenly so utterly happy and hopeful that not even Aphrodite could piss me off, I laughed. “Come on! Worry about my mouth later.” I took off again, almost jogging down the sidewalk.
There was another of the warriors standing outside the rec hall, a huge black vamp who looked like he should have been a professional wrestler. Aphrodite made a little purring sound at him, and he gave her a sexy, yet somehow still warriorlike smile. She hung back to do more flirting.
“Don’t be late!” I hissed back at her.
“Relax your panties. I’ll be in there in a sec.” She waved me off and shot me a look that reminded me it was better if she and I weren’t seen hanging out together. I gave her a tight little nod and went on in.
“Z! There you are.” Jack came scampering over to me with Damien close behind him.
“Sorry. I hurried as fast as I could,” I said.
Damien smiled. “Not a problem. Everything’s ready for you.” His smile faded a little. “Well, except Aphrodite. She’s nowhere to be seen.”
“I’ve seen her. She’s coming. Go ahead and take your place.”
Damien nodded. He went back to the circle and Jack moved over to the audio equipment area (the kid is a genius with any kind of electronic equipment).
“Whenever you’re ready, just let me know,” he called.
I smiled at him, then looked back at the circle. The Twins waved at me from their places in the south and west. Erik was standing near the empty spot behind the earth candle. He caught my eyes and winked at me. I smiled back, but wondered why he was standing so close to where he knew Aphrodite was going to be.
Speaking of . . . Annoyed that she had managed to make me wait for her, I glanced at the door in time to see Aphrodite twitch into the room. I watched her hesitate, and thought her face went kinda pale as she looked over at the circle of waiting Dark Daughters and Sons. Then she lifted her chin and tossed back her blond mane, and ignoring everyone, she strutted straight over to the northernmost part of the circle to stand behind the green candle. As kids caught sight of her, the easy talking was cut off like someone had pressed a mute button. No one said anything for a couple seconds, and then low whispering started. Aphrodite just stood there behind the candle, looking calm and beautiful and very stuck-up.
“Better get this thing started before you have a mutiny.”
This time I didn’t jump at the sound of Loren’s deep, sexy voice coming from close behind me. I did turn around, though, mostly so that people (Erik) couldn’t see what I’m sure was an inappropriate-for-public-consumption look on my face as I smiled up at him.
“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” I said.
“And she’s supposed to be here?” Loren jerked his chin in the direction of Aphrodite.
“Sadly, yes,” I said.
“This should be interesting.”
“That’s me and my life—interesting. As in a isn’t-that-car-wreck-interesting kind of a way.”
Loren laughed. “Break a leg.”
“To me that would happen literally.” I sighed, settled my face, and turned back around to face the circle. “I’m ready,” I said.
“I’ll cue the music. You start your dance to the center as I recite the poem,” Loren said.
I nodded and concentrated on my breathing and settling myself. When the music started, the whispering circle went completely still. All eyes were on me. I didn’t recognize the song, but the beat was steady, rhythmic, sonorous, reminding me of a pulse. My body automatically picked it up and I began to move around the outside of the circle.
Loren’s voice complemented the music perfectly.
“I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain . . .”
The words of the old poem set the mood perfectly, somehow conjuring images of the otherworldliness that I’d begun to be comfortable with during my solitary trips away from campus.
“I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.”
I could almost feel the darkness of last night and how it seemed to seep into my skin. And I knew again the sense that I belonged more to it than to the human world that surrounded me. As I moved into the circle, I shivered and heard Damien’s small gasp of surprise, and I knew that mist and magic had taken over my body.
“And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.”
Loren’s voice faded away and I twirled around one last time, willing away the sense of mist and magic, so that I was now fully visible. Still filled with night magic, I picked up the ritual lighter from the riches-laden table in the center of the circle and realized that maybe for the first time I felt like a true High Priestess of Nyx, drenched in the Goddess’s magic and complete with her power. All the stress I’d been dealing with was washed away by a wave of happiness. I walked lightly over to stand in front of Damien.
He smiled and whispered, “That was really cool!”
I smiled back at him and lifted the lighter. The words that came instinctively to my mind had to have come from Nyx. I’d definitely never been so poetic. “Soft and whispering winds from afar, greetings be unto thee. In the name of Nyx I call you to blow clear and fresh and free, and call
you here to me!” I touched the flame to the wick on Damien’s yellow candle and was instantly surrounded by a sweet, caressing wind.
I hurried to Shaunee and her red candle. Deciding to go with the special sense of priestess magic I was feeling, I began the invocation without lifting the lighter. “Warming and quickening fire from afar, with the warmth that brings forth life, and in the name of Nyx, I send greetings unto thee, and call you here to me!” I flicked my fingers at the candlewick, and it burst into a beautiful flame. Shaunee and I grinned at each other before I followed the circle around to Erin.
“Cool waters of lake and of stream from afar, I offer greetings to thee. Flow clear and pure and swift in magical presence here. In the name of Nyx manifest so that we shall see, as I call you here to me!” I touched the lighter to Erin’s blue candle and loved how the kids standing closest to her gasped and laughed as water that was visible, but that didn’t actually touch them, lapped all around Erin’s feet.
“Easy-peasy,” Erin whispered.
I grinned and moved clockwise to stand in front of Aphrodite and her green candle. The gentle laughter and happy whispering that had been traveling through the group with me quieted. Aphrodite’s face was an emotionless mask. It was only in her eyes that I could see her nervous fear, and I wondered for a second how long she’d been hiding her emotions. Knowing her nightmare parents, I figured it had been a long time.
“It’s going to be okay,” I whispered almost without moving my lips at all.
“I may puke,” she whispered back.
“Nah!” I grinned. And then lifted my voice and spoke the beautiful words that were floating through my mind. “Lands afar and wild places of the earth, greetings I say unto thee. Awaken from your mossy sleep to bring forth bounty and beauty and stability. In Nyx’s name I call earth here to me!” I lit Aphrodite’s candle and the fresh, rich scent of a newly mown hay field completely filled the rec hall. The sound of chirping birds surrounded us. Lilacs made the air so sweet that it was like we’d been spritzed with the lightest and most perfect perfume ever. I met Aphrodite’s shining eyes, and then turned to glance around the rest of the circle. Everyone was staring at Aphrodite, shocked into absolute silence.
