The women stopped before Neferet. The vampyre flicked her fingers again, as she imagined the fog closing behind them to conceal them more completely, which it obediently did.
“Now, you may worship me,” Neferet said.
The five women dropped to their knees as they stared in adoration up at her.
This world’s Stark was right, Neferet thought. All five of these humans are easy prey, and lucky that it is me they kneel before and not the ravenous goddess within the tomb.
2
Other Lynette
“How quaint! You’re cloaked and kneeling. What an unexpected, lovely welcome.” Neferet spoke magnanimously to the five young women, though Lynette noted that she paused for several silent minutes before she continued. “You may rise. And remove your cowls. I wish to see those who worship me.”
The five women stood and hastily swept back the hoods of their velvet cloaks. Lynette was behind and to the side of Neferet. None of them so much as glanced her way. Completely unnoticed, she studied the first humans she’d seen from this new world.
They were young—probably very early twenties at most—and pretty in the Oklahoma/Texas variety of beauty pageant attractive. They were all blond, though Lynette’s keen observation told her that at most only two of the five had been born that way.
Before they’d cloaked themselves, Lynette had already noticed their clothes—expensive, and tiptoeing that fine line between overtly sexual and tasteful. Had she dressed them, the only thing she would’ve changed was their stiletto boots. Too inconvenient for walking in grass. Each of them wore their hair long and big, bringing to mind the saying that must be the same in both worlds, the bigger the hair—the closer to God, and Okies definitely liked to be close to God. Or in this case Goddess.
The one wearing the purple spirit cape spoke first. “Neferet, our Goddess of Tulsa, we—your Dark Sisters—are honored that you have appeared to us. Blessed be!” She fisted her hand over her heart, mimicking a vampyre saluting a High Priestess.
“What is your name?” Neferet asked.
“I am Vanessa, leader of the Dark Sisters,” she said.
“Tell me, Vanessa, what is a Dark Sister?”
“Us!” Vanessa said with a smile that exposed perfect teeth that must have cost her father a fortune. “I started our coven a year ago. You know. After what they did to you.” She ended the sentence in an affected whisper.
“Yes, well, that does not actually answer my question, but I shall set it aside for now. Introduce the rest of your sisters.”
Vanessa gestured to each young woman in turn. “Jenna is air. Amber is fire. Kelsey is water. Jordan is earth. And I, of course, am spirit.”
Neferet cocked her head to the side. “Do any of you truly have an affinity for your element?”
They looked confused, and then Amber, wearing the red cloak that signified fire, spoke up. “Well, uh, yeah. I mean, I’ve always felt, like, seriously connected to fire.”
Vanessa nodded. “It’s true. Each of us chose the element we’re closest to. I’ve always been the leader. So, naturally, I am spirit.”
“Oh,” Neferet said. “Naturally.”
Lynette had to press her lips together so that she didn’t laugh. These girls had no clue what Neferet was really asking. Unlike the clueless girls, she’d spent enough time in the employ of vampyres to know the difference between a true affinity and OMG I love fire.
Completely missing the sarcasm in Neferet’s voice, Vanessa continued. “The five of us have pledged ourselves to your service.”
“Why?”
Neferet’s one-word question seemed to suspend in the fog that surrounded them. The girls blinked in confusion, sharing glances. Lynette was sure she saw the earth girl and the water girl roll their eyes, but when Vanessa spoke it was with complete sincerity.
“Because vampyres are the most beautiful, talented, richest beings on earth. And out of all of the vampyres you are the only one who has ever wanted to be our goddess.”
Amber, the fire girl, added, “Yeah, and even though we weren’t Marked we want part of that.”
Vanessa nodded and the other four mirrored her. “Seriously. We deserve part of that.”
“Why?” Neferet repeated her question. This time she sounded truly curious.
“Because we’re the same,” Vanessa said.
In the green earth cloak, Jordan said, “Uh-huh, we’re beautiful and talented and rich. Like you.”
“That’s right,” Vanessa said. “And we’re tired of people who clutter up our world and whine about everything.”
“Right?” said the girl wearing water blue. “It’s the twenty-first century. Stop whining about your issues. Racism is, like, over. If you can’t get a clue, go back to where you came from and get a friggin’ life.”
Lynette did smile then, though she made no sound. She knew exactly what kind of women they were. Had they been from her Tulsa she probably would have recognized several of them. She would’ve definitely known their mothers—and/or their replacement younger-model stepmothers.
“Tell me, Vanessa, are there more of you?” Neferet asked.
“You mean Dark Sisters?” Vanessa said.
“Yes, of course that is what I mean.”
Vanessa shook her head and looked smug. “Oh. No. We wanted our group to be exclusive.”
Jenna in the yellow air cloak added, “But we have friends who would love to join our group. As soon as we tell them that you’ve escaped and—”
Neferet’s lifted hand silenced her. “But you are incorrect. I am Neferet—sacred and powerful.”
Lynette noted she didn’t name herself goddess to them.
She continued. “But I am not the Neferet of your world. I crossed the veil between worlds to be here, before you.”
“Oh, my goddess !” Vanessa gasped. “You’re here to break our Neferet out of jail.”
“I am, indeed. Will you help me?” As they sputtered to answer her, Neferet lifted her hand, silencing them again. “You should first know what I will ask of you before you agree, and if you cannot give it to me, then we shall simply part ways here.”
Lynette readied herself. There was absolutely no way Neferet was going to allow those girls to walk away and spread rumors about her. The moment
