Page 126 of Lost

28

Zoey

Aphrodite’s vision sent shock waves through the Resistance. Dragon and Anastasia instantly went into motion, herding all of us—Kevin, Anastasia, Stevie Rae, Rephaim, Grandma Redbird, and me into a place they called the briefing center—an oval-shaped room with a low ceiling and only one entrance and exit. Someone had placed flat-topped rocks, big enough to be makeshift chairs, in a rough circle. We all sat. Even Aphrodite, who was just beginning to get her vision back.

“I’m assuming you came here with a plan.” Dragon turned his attention to me as soon as we were all seated.

“I did,” I said.

“Now would be a good time for you to share that plan,” he prodded.

“Okay, but I’m going to tell you a lot of stuff about my world, and I know you’ll have questions, so please just let me get finished before you start asking them.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Dragon said as Anastasia nodded.

I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and launched into my two-part plan, explaining as quickly and thoroughly as I could about Kalona—who he really is, what he did in our world—and I even told them about my circle and how I’d need the power of those with elemental affinities to help contain him when I free him until we can convince him to work with us to sway vampyres everywhere into believing the truth—that Neferet is not following the will of Nyx. I told them about how Aphrodite’s sacrifice in our world had allowed our red vampyres and fledglings to maintain their humanity. I also told them about our Neferet. They’d already read her journal. Kevin had brought it with him from our world, so they knew her origins, but I gave them the rest of the details—how she’d embraced Darkness and the White Bull, and become a Tsi Sgili witch, immortal and so completely in league with evil that she considered tendrils of Darkness her children.

When I finished, the room was completely silent, and into that silence Aphrodite’s words cut like a boat through placid waters.

“Good plan, but if we’re going to stop the slaughter tomorrow there’s only time for the part where I somehow give the Red Army back their humanity.”

“Yeah, I realize that,” I said miserably.

“Tendrils of Darkness?” Kevin spoke up. “What do they look like?”

Stevie Rae shivered. “They’re super disgustin’. Like giant black snakes with no eyes and big ol’ nasty teeth-filled mouths. In our world Neferet kept them hidden for a while from blue vamps, but they can’t hide from anyone who’s trafficked with Darkness.”

“What does that mean?” Dragon asked.

“It means that Neferet could hide them from me or you or Anastasia, but she couldn’t hide them from Stevie Rae or Rephaim, because Rephaim used to be a creature of Darkness and Stevie Rae was allied with Darkness before Aphrodite’s sacrifice saved her.”

“Oh,” Kevin said, looking sick. “That’s why she couldn’t hide them from me today in her office.”

“You saw something?” I asked.

He cracked his knuckles and then wiped a hand across his face. “Yeah, I did. They slithered from the shadows behind her. I didn’t know what the hell I was seeing. I actually thought I was imagining it, and then I kinda forgot about it when Aphrodite had her vision. But they were what Stevie Rae described. Horrible snake things. They didn’t look very solid, though. It was like they were still part of the shadows—as weird as that sounds.”

“Doesn’t sound weird at all, Kev,” Stevie Rae said. “Sounds like she’s just started manifesting them.”

“Wait, what?” Aphrodite took the cloth from her eyes and squinted at Kevin. “I didn’t see anything.”

“Which is further proof that our Aphrodite has been immature and selfish, but never been allied with Darkness, isn’t it, Zoeybird?” Grandma asked.

“Definitely,” I said. Aphrodite frowned and started to protest, so I hurried on. “And it’s also proof that we have run out of time.”

“You think our Neferet is becoming immortal,” Anastasia said.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” I agreed.

“Then we have to take as much power as possible away from hernow, before it’s too late,” said Aphrodite. “She’s already so fucking awful. She almost took over your world, and there she didn’t even have a Red Army.”

“She’ll be unstoppable as the leader of those creatures once she fully manifests the powers of Darkness and becomes immortal,” Dragon said grimly. “We won’t stand a chance.”

“It is all quite horrible,” Grandma said, shaking her head in disgust. “Neferet has upset the balance of Light and Darkness by using those poor, tormented red vampyres. It is a true abomination of nature.”

With a jolt I sat up super straight. “Grandma! What did you just say?”

“That Neferet is an abomination of nature?”