Page 53 of Lost

“Dammit!” Kevin breathed the word. “Now what the hell am I supposed to do?”

If someone saw him during daylight hours he’d get caught. Red vampyres wereneverat the House of Night after dawn. He couldn’t even feign ignorance and say he was lost. No one would believe him. From the moment a fledgling was Marked red and brought to the House of Night, it was drilled into him that hemustbe in the tunnels before sunrise. The only exception was if the red vampyre was on a Red Army mission.

Kevin’s mind thought of and rejected one idea after another. He was simply out of time. He had to hide in the basement.

He needed help.

“Damn, if only I could slip through that keyhole like air…” Kevin muttered to himself as he cracked his knuckles and wished that he knew this House of Night like he knew the tunnels. Then he’d know where he could hide and be safe until—

An idea hit him! He didn’t have time to wonder if he was making a mistake. He didn’t have time to second-guess himself. He only had time to close his eyes and take several deep, grounding breaths, and then he opened his eyes, faced east, and made the call.

“Old Magick sprites of air, I am Kevin Redbird, and with the power in my blood, and the power Nyx has gifted me with, I call you to me!”

His answer came disconcertingly fast, as before him several glowing firefly-like fey suddenly popped into view, hovering at his eye level, bringing with them the skin-crawling sensation Kevin had every time he invoked Old Magick.

“Redbird Boy! You call us again! And we come! We come!”They flitted about, changing places as their little bodies shifted from insect to glowing, winged women, and back to insect.

“Thanks a bunch! Okay, I only need one thing, but I need it real fast.” He pointed at the keyhole in the door. “Could you go through there and unlock this door? I need to get inside there—now.”

“We can do that,”said one flitting fey.

“But what payment? What payment?”trilled another.

Kevin opened his mouth to tell the fey that he’d pay with more of his blood, but one giggling sprite, who showed too many sharp teeth as she laughed, interrupted before he could speak.

“No blood this time! We want something special!”

“Yes,”the first fey agreed.“Special!”

Kevin wanted to rip the hair from his head in frustration and wondered briefly if the sprites would consider his hair aspecialpayment. Thankfully, he had another idea. He reached inside his g-ma’s satchel and pulled out a fragrant, homemade lavender chocolate-chip cookie. Holding it up he grinned at the sprites.

“Well, this cookie is about as special as it gets. It was made by my grandmother—the Wise Woman who was on the ridge with me. You know, you guys ate one of her medicine bags.”

“Ooooooh!”The sprites glowed even brighter as they hovered in the air around the cookie. Then, together, so that their voices echoed eerily from the stone walls around him, the fey spoke rhythmically.

“A special payment we do see

One offered by thee and accepted by me.

Our deal is sealed—so mote it be!”

The flock of Old Magick air sprites descended like locusts on the cookie. Kevin yelped and he let it loose as they devoured every crumb. Then, with no hesitation, the glowing sprites dived down, flowing through the door’s keyhole, under the door, and through the crack at the doorjamb.

Kevin stood there, wondering what would happen next, when he heard the deadbolt turn. He grabbed the door handle and pushed. It swung open easily. He closed it behind him, and when he turned to navigate his way down the steep basement stairs, a single sprite appeared, floating by his head.

“Thank you,” Kevin said. “You helped me out a lot.”

“We like your call, Redbird Boy. We like your payment. Call when you have need of us, but do not forget that we like special payment… special, special payment…”As the sprite spoke, her appearance continued to shift—from a big firefly, to a beautiful, winged woman, to something with more arms and legs than she should have had and a mouth that seemed to grow and grow and grow until her face appeared to split in half.

And then, in a flash of light, the sprite was gone, leaving Kevin with a terrible feeling of unease.

* * *

Zoey

“Z? You in here?” Stark called as he entered our bedchamber. “I got your text to meet you.”

“You’re early!” I yelled from the bathroom. “Don’t move!”