Hidden (House of Night Novels) (29 page)

“Rephaim has long been by my side. He has done my bidding for centuries. I missed his presence as I would any dedicated servant.”

“I believe you lie.”

He made himself chuckle. “And by believing so, you prove that immortality does not equate to infallibility.”

“Tell me you have not allowed feelings and sentiment to make you weak. Tell me that you have not chosen, like a pathetic lapdog, to chase after a Goddess who already rejected you.”

“My feelings do not make me weak. You are the one torturing an old woman to torment a child.”

“You dare to speak to me of Zoey Redbird! You, who knows how much pain she has caused me?” Neferet was breathing hard. The tendrils of Darkness that slithered around her writhed in agitated response.

“Pain Zoey caused you?” Kalona shook his head in disbelief. “You leave chaos and pain in your wake. Zoey does not antagonize you—you attack her. I know. You have used me to hurt her.”

“I knew you lied. I have always known you’ve loved her—your sweet, special little A-ya reborn.”

“I do not love her!” Kalona almost blurted the truth:
I have always and will always love Nyx!
A moan from behind him changed his words. “But I do not hate her, either. Can you not consider that you might find contentment in fragmenting the High Council and ruling those vampyres who choose a more ancient path from your island castle on Capri? Your red vampyres in particular would worship you and be eager to breathe life into the ancient vampyre ways. I will aid you with that path, be your Consort, do your bidding,” Kalona spoke in a calm, reasonable voice. He also moved another step backward. Farther from Neferet. Closer to Sylvia Redbird.

“You want me to leave Tulsa?”

“Why not? What is here? Ice in winter, heat in summer, and narrow-minded, religious humans. I believe we both have outgrown Tulsa.”

“You make an excellent point.” The tendrils of Darkness, still swollen from Kalona’s blood, quieted as Neferet seemed to consider his proposition. “You would, of course, have to swear a blood oath to serve me.”

“Of course,” Kalona lied.

“Excellent. Perhaps I did misjudge you. I do have the perfect creatures to aid me in casting such a spell.” She stroked the snake-like tendrils fondly. “Shall they mix my blood with yours and bind us together forever?”

Kalona tensed his muscles, readying himself to spring the few feet that now separated him from Sylvia Redbird. He would command the strands of Darkness from her, and then fly her to freedom as Neferet was slicing open her skin and conjuring a dark spell that would never be cast. Kalona smiled. “Whatever you wish, Goddess.”

Neferet’s full, red lips were beginning to turn up when the raven croaked its dismay. Neferet’s eyes narrowed and her attention shifted to the bird, still perched on the balustrade, a clear target in the morning sunlight. She pointed one slender finger at the bird and commanded,

“With immortal blood you’ve been fed.

Now make the Rephaim bird dead!”

The tendrils that had been wrapped around her body released and shot like black arrows at the raven.

Kalona did not hesitate. He hurled himself between the raven and death, absorbing the blow meant for his son.

The force of the impact lifted him from the penthouse and flung him out onto the balcony, throwing him against the stone balustrade. As pain exploded in his chest, Kalona shouted at the unmoving bird, “Rephaim, fly!”

He had little time to feel relief as the raven obeyed his command. Neferet advanced, tendrils of Darkness slithering in her wake. Kalona stood. He ignored the terrible pain in his chest. He spread his arms and wings.

“Betrayer! Liar! Thief!” Neferet shrieked at him. She, too, spread her arms wide fingers splayed. She combed the air and gathered the sticky tendrils that multiplied around her.

“You think to battle me using Darkness? Do you not remember you attempted to do so not long ago, and I commanded them away? You are as foolish as you are mad, Neferet,” Kalona said.

Neferet’s answer was in the singsong words of a spell:

“Children, you know my need!

Make this immortal bleed!

Then you may feed and feed and feed!”

She hurled the tendrils of Darkness at him. Kalona brought his hands forward and spoke directly to the snake-like minions the same words he’d used mere weeks before when Neferet had first dared to challenge him when he was whole, undamaged, and free from the suffocating confines of the earth. “Halt! I’ve long allied with Darkness. Obey my command. This is not your battle.
Begone!

Shock hit him at the same time the tendrils sliced into his body.
The tendrils did not obey him!
Instead they cut his flesh, ripping and tearing and drinking—like toxic leeches. The immortal pulled one of the pulsing creatures from his chest and hurled it to the balcony floor. There it shattered, only to re-form into dozens more of the razor-teethed horrors.

Neferet’s laughter was manic. “It seems only one of us is allied with Darkness, and that would not be you, my lost love!”

Kalona whirled, ripping the creatures of Darkness from his body and as he fought his mind became very clear. He realized Neferet was correct. The tendrils did not obey his commands anymore because he had truly chosen another path. Kalona no longer trafficked with Darkness.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Kalona

It came back to him swiftly, like a lost friend returning to break bread once again. Kalona had been Nyx’s chosen Warrior. He had spent lifetimes battling Darkness more fierce than this.

Yes, they multiplied when shattered, but break their necks and they could not instantly regenerate. They were lesser minions.

Kalona laughed as he whirled and struck and fought. It felt so good to be doing what he’d been created for again! In the midst of battle, he saw Neferet silently watching.

“You think to defeat me with puppets? For centuries I battled such as these in the Otherworld. You shall see that I can battle them for centuries once more.”

“Oh, I am quite certain you can, betrayer. But
she
cannot.” Neferet pointed her long finger at Sylvia Redbird who was still trapped and suffering within the cage of Darkness.

“With Kalona’s blood filling you

Obey me, be faithful and true

The turquoise will no longer save her life

His power will be my avenging knife!”

The tendrils instantly obeyed Neferet. They released their suction-like hold on him and, bloated with his immortal blood, swarmed Sylvia Redbird. She screamed and lifted her arms, attempting to block their onslaught. The stones she wore still slowed them, that was obvious, but not enough. Through power stolen from Kalona’s immortal blood, several tendrils were able to withstand the protection of the turquoise. They sliced into the old woman’s flesh. Then, as the tendrils weakened and smoked, they slithered back to him to feed. Kalona fought them anew, but for every two he stopped two more broke through his defenses long enough to cut his flesh and drink his blood. Refortified, they returned to attack Sylvia.

Sylvia Redbird began to sing. Kalona did not know the words, but he heard the intent clearly. She was singing her death song.

“Yes, Kalona. Please do remain and battle Darkness. You serve only to feed Zoey’s grandmother’s tormentors. They will eventually break through her protection, but with your
help
her end will happen sooner rather than later. Or, perhaps, once the protection of the turquoise is broken, I won’t kill her. Perhaps I will keep her and make her truly my pet. How long do you believe one old woman’s sanity will withstand the torments of Darkness?”

Kalona knew Neferet was right. He could not save her—he could not command Darkness away from her. Instead Darkness would use the power in his blood to torture her.

“Go! Leave me!” Sylvia paused her song long enough to shout the words to Kalona.

He knew she was right, but by leaving the old woman there he would have to return to the House of Night having been defeated by Neferet.
But he had no choice!
If he remained and battled Darkness all that would be left of Sylvia Redbird would be her mortal shell. Neferet would not be able to control her anger. When the turquoise no longer protected the old woman, Neferet would destroy her. Though it wounded his pride, to be victorious, Kalona had to retreat and then return to fight another day. The immortal spread his mighty wings and launched himself from the balcony, leaving the tendrils of Darkness, Neferet, and Sylvia Redbird behind.

Kalona knew where he must go. He flew high and fast, and then dropped with inhuman speed, landing in the center of the House of Night campus, directly in front of the life-sized statue of Nyx. Kalona knelt, and then he did what he had not allowed himself to do until that moment. Kalona gazed up at the marble likeness of his lost Goddess.

No,
he corrected himself silently.
It was not Nyx who was lost, but me.

The incarnation of Nyx that the sculptress had chosen to capture was, indeed, lovely. The Goddess was naked. Her arms were upraised, cupping a crescent moon. Her marble eyes stared straight ahead. She looked beautiful and fierce—magnificent and powerful. Kalona would have given anything if she would simply touch him again.

“Why?” he asked the statue. “Why did you accept my oath and allow me to walk your path again at the moment it cost me dominion over Darkness? Now I have had to allow Neferet to defeat me. I had to leave a kind old woman entrapped and tortured. I failed! Why accept me just to allow me to fail?”

“Free choice.” Thanatos’s voice carried the power of authority and command. “You know even better than I what that means.”

“Yes,” Kalona continued to gaze up at the statue as he spoke. “It means Nyx does not stop us when we make mistakes, even if it costs us, and those around us, dearly.”

“Being immortal you might not have realized this, but life is a lesson,” she said.

“Then I will forever be in a classroom,” Kalona said bitterly.

“Or you could look at it as an unending chance to evolve,” Thanatos countered with.

“Into what?” He stood and faced his High Priestess. “Did you not hear me? I failed. Sylvia Redbird remains entrapped by Darkness over which Neferet holds dominion.”

“First you asked into what you could be evolving. My answer is: choose. You are definitely a Warrior. But what type is your choice. Dragon Lankford was a Warrior. He almost chose to become bitter and hard, an oath breaker and a betrayer. All because his love was beyond his reach. You may do the same.”

“You know.” Kalona said.

“That you love Nyx? Yes, I do,” Thanatos said. “I also know she is beyond your reach, whether you want to admit it or not.”

Kalona pressed his lips together. He wanted to cry out his rage—tell Thanatos that he believed the Goddess had touched him—that perhaps she was
not
beyond his reach. But he remembered how the door to the Goddess’s Temple had solidified under his hand, barring his entrance. His certainty faded.

“I admit it,” he said shortly.

“Good. As to your second question: yes, I heard you. You could not rescue Sylvia Redbird because you no longer command Darkness.”

“Yes.”

Thanatos’s gaze went to the slash marks that covered his body. They were healing, but they still wept with blood. “You battled Darkness.”

“Yes.”

“Then you did not fail. You fulfilled your oath.”

“And by fulfilling it, I could not do what you asked of me,” he said. “It is a disturbing paradox.”

“It is, indeed,” Thanatos said.

“What now? We cannot allow Neferet to torture the old woman. She plans to control Zoey through her grandmother. Zoey would be a powerful ally for Darkness to gain, even if she was being used against her will.”

Thanatos shook her head sadly. “Warrior, all that you have said is true, but you have missed the point.”

“The point?”

“Neferet cannot be allowed to torture an old women because it is inhumane. If you understood that, Nyx would not be so unreachable.”

“I understand it!”

Kalona and Thanatos turned as one to see Aurox. He had been sitting on the stone steps of Nyx’s Temple, silent and watching, unnoticed by either of them.

“Why is he not under guard? Or at least locked in a room?” Kalona said.

“I do not need a guard or a prison any more than you do! I chose to come here—to turn from Darkness—just as you did!” Aurox shouted at Kalona. “And if I’d gotten to Grandma Redbird’s home sooner, or not left at all, I wouldn’t have let Neferet steal her away. I would have fought harder for her!”

Kalona strode to him, grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, and tossed him to the ground at the statue’s feet. “You could not even stop yourself from killing Dragon. You attacked Rephaim. You cannot fight Darkness, you foolish creature. No matter what your brave words and your oh-so-noble intent, you were created from Darkness!”

“And yet I do not have to be told that an old woman’s life is not only important because of how her granddaughter could be used!” Aurox hurled back at him.

Kalona reached for him, wanting to shake Aurox by the scruff of his shirt again, but Thanatos interceded. “No, the boy is being truthful. He does care for Sylvia.”

“He is also a creation of Darkness!”

Thanatos’s eyes widened. “Yes, he absolutely is. And that, Warrior, may very well prove to be Sylvia Redbird’s salvation.” The High Priestess began walking quickly away, leaving Kalona and Aurox staring after her. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come with me!” she called without pausing.

Kalona and Aurox shared a confused look, and then did as their High Priestess commanded.

Zoey

I couldn’t sleep. All I could do was worry about Grandma. I tried not to think about everything that Neferet could be doing to her, but my mind was filled with images of Grandma being hurt—or worse.