“Totally, Z. Where do you want to meet?”
I looked to my Warrior. “What do you think?”
“That I’m going with you,” Stark said. “Darius and Rephaim will want to come as well, even though there are six Sons of Erebus Warriors already on guard at the park.”
“Sounds good to me. We don’t know for sure what we’re dealing with, and the more Warriors the better,” I said. “So, let’s meet in the parking lot in thirty minutes. Be sure you each bring your element’s candle. I’ll grab spirit and some matches.”
“Sounds good,” said Stevie Rae. “Let’s go fill you up with blood, Miss Ice Cream Shoes.”
As Kacie followed Stevie Rae from the room, I heard her say, “Am I really stuck with that nickname?”
Stevie Rae’s answer floated back through the closing door. “Yepper, but it’s better than being called Hag from Hell. Ask Aphrodite if you don’t believe me.”
Aphrodite surprised me by laughing softly and saying, “Aww, Hag from Hell! That brings back so many memories. Good times!”
I rolled my eyes at her and then turned to Damien. “Do you want to call Jack and have him there too?”
Without hesitation Damien shook his head emphatically. “Absolutely not. And now that the kid’s gone we need to acknowledge that this could truly be Other Neferet—and be prepared for it.”
Stark stood and brushed a hand through his hair. “Well, I’m not worried about defeating Other Neferet. At least she’s mortal.”
Damien nodded. “True, but I am worried about what seeing her would do to Jack. I’m going to text him and tell him that I’m taking care of some business for you and ask him to stay at the depot and choose the flower arrangements for opening night.”
“Good idea,” I said.
“Something else we need to consider,” said Aphrodite. “It sounds bad. Really bad, but my last vision was fucking awful. So, before you cast a spell keeping vampyres from Neferet’s tomb, I think you need to check to be sure Neferet’s still in there.”
My stomach clenched, and at the same time Damien and I said, “Ah, hell.”
6
Other Kevin
“Wait, what?” Stark looked pale as he stared at Queen Sgiach.
Kevin didn’t say anything. Not because he wasn’t shocked, but because, since he’d realized he was going to see his Aphrodite again, he couldn’t seem to make words come out of his mouth.
“Are ye deaf?” Seoras scoffed. “Or just glaikit ?”
Stark shook his head. “You know damn well I’m not deaf, and glaikit is one word I never heard my grandpa say, but my guess is it isn’t flattering. So, no. I’m neither. I’m just making sure I understand exactly what this trip is going to cost us.”
“I don’t mind the boys questioning me,” the queen told her Warrior. “They are the ones paying the price. They should fully understand what they’re agreeing to.” She turned from Seoras to face Stark and Kevin. “Hear me clearly, young vampyres. Kevin, as you have an affinity for spirit it will be your responsibility to call to your newly dead love, but spirit cannot enter Nyx’s Realm easily unless it is freed by death, so you will need to mimic death through blood sacrifice. To call spirit and have it guide you to Nyx’s Otherworld will be difficult and take extreme focus, and if you also are giving a blood sacrifice, you will be weak and distracted.”
“That’s where I come in,” Stark said grimly.
“Indeed, it is. While Kevin is focusing on spirit, you will provide the sacrifice, and because you’re mimicking death, it must be more than a simple bloodletting. It must be permanent.”
Kevin finally found his voice. “You mean he’s going to be hurt permanently? Like he has to cut off an arm or a leg?”
“Shit!” Stark said under his breath.
“That would work, but it wouldn’t be a good idea for a Warrior to lose a limb, especially if he is heading into battle with a vampyre High Priestess gone rogue,” said Sgiach. “Something that would permanently scar him should suffice.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought I heard the first time,” muttered Stark.
Kevin turned to him. “I’ll go alone. It’s okay. I’ve been over there before. I’ll do what I need to do and get back.”
“But you will still need a blood sacrifice,” said the queen.
Kevin nodded. “I know. I think I can do both—guide spirit and make the sacrifice. Plus, I believe once Aphrodite hears me she’ll come and help me.”
“No,” Stark said. “I’ll do it.”
“Guilt willnae help you, laddie,” said Seoras. “It’ll only get in yer way.”
“It’s not about my guilt,” Stark protested. “It’s about taking responsibility for my mistake and doing whatever I can to fix it. I said I’ll do it and I will.”
“But there’s more to it, isn’t there?” Kevin asked. “You said moving through the Otherworld to another realm isn’t like using Old Magick, but there’s still a cost. I have a feeling that’s more than just scarring Stark and taking some of his blood.”
“You are correct,” said the queen. “Only the dead move freely through the Goddess’s realm. When the living enter, the cost is linked to death. Every day you spend in that alternative version of our world will take a day from your life.”
A chill rushed through Kevin’s body with the quickened beating of his heart, and he heard Stark suck in a breath.
“Buck up, laddies,” said Seoras. “Yer young. Vampyres are long-lived. What is a day or two from hundreds o’ years?”
“Do you want to give away days from your life?” Stark said.
Seoras’s gaze found Sgiach and he smiled. Kevin was shocked at how it softened his lined face. “That depends on what I’d be givin’ it for. Be it my queen—there isnae anything I wouldnae give for her.”
Sgiach reached up and rested her hand on his cheek. “Nor I you, mo ghaol.”
“You don’t have to go,” Kevin repeated to Stark.
