The trickle of rain changed to a downpour and fell in thick cords of water from the black sky. Thunder rumbled and lightning sliced the clouds.
“Now, my darlings, come to us. Cover us with the deep of your black, endless shadows. Do not let prying eyes—neither human nor vampyre—see us.”
Her tendrils, still recovering from their year of famine, rushed to her. They swarmed her body, blanketing her in shadow and familiar darkness.
Neferet smiled.
“Let us hunt, my darlings.”
24
Neferet
It wasn’t difficult to find a Sons of Erebus Warrior—not even in the downpour Neferet had instigated. They prowled the waterlogged streets of Midtown Tulsa like lackeys of the Tulsa Police Department. While humans patrolled in the protection of their police cruisers, Warriors remained in the elements—heads bowed against the onslaught of rain and cold.
Neferet watched a small group of Warriors from behind a cluster of tree-sized crepe myrtles that slumbered the winter away. She murmured to her children, “Were we in charge, we would not subject our Warriors to such humiliation. Why do they do the bidding of those lesser than them? Oh, we know. It is because a lesser High Priestess rules. Let us follow them, children, and await our opportunity.”
Silently, Neferet glided after the Warriors. Because they were on foot, they were able to trudge up and down alleyways and peer into windows. Neferet thought it was rather amusing. What did they expect to find? That she would be watching television and awaiting them in a living room? Did they really expect she would be easily captured?
The thought almost made her laugh aloud.
Finally, one of the larger groups of Warriors—Neferet counted ten of them—made their way to the intersection of Peoria and Cherry Street, where they cut across the street to head west, toward Maple Park, which gave her a brilliant idea.
“Go ahead, my darlings,” she told several of her children. “Enter Grumpy’s Garden, the little store there, across the street from that wretched McDonald’s. Hide among the outdoor chimeneas. As the Warriors pass, create a distraction. We shall do the rest.”
A clump of tendrils fell from her body and became one with the rain and night. Neferet followed more slowly, keeping to the shadows and avoiding the garish light of the fast-food establishment. She and her horde crept around the rear of Grumpy’s Garden—the little outdoor novelty store and nursery that perfumed that section of Cherry Street with piñon and incense, cutting through the yards that framed it to find the perfect spot near the privacy fence that was the store’s property line. There, Neferet waited.
The Warriors trooped past and as they did one of the chimeneas fell over, breaking against the cement lot with a sound that was more jarring than the thunder rolling intermediately overhead.
The line of Warriors turned—instantly on guard.
“Check it out!” their leader commanded.
Seven of the ten Warriors rushed to the chained gate across the lot from where Neferet was concealed. The other three Sons of Erebus Warriors stood stoically peering through the rain and waiting to be sure no one escaped.
It was laughably easy. Neferet emerged from the shadows and wrapped her arms around their leader from behind. With strength magnified by her dark powers, she pulled him from the sidewalk and back into the darkness with her while her tendrils covered his mouth.
Neferet didn’t pause. She carried the Warrior swiftly through the storm to the villa. In the distance, between crashes of thunder, she could hear the Sons of Erebus calling for him.
“Odin!” they shouted impotently. “Odin! Where are you?”
“Odin. One of the old gods. How utterly appropriate.” She purred the words into his ear.
The Warrior struggled to break loose. He was strong—a big, muscular vampyre in his prime. But he was no match for what Neferet and her children had become.
When they reached the villa, Neferet detoured to the backyard and the expansive grounds that were so tastefully maintained. There, she placed him on a wrought iron chair that belonged to a small bistro table near the frozen koi pond. Her children tethered his wrists and ankles to the chair, as well as covered his mouth. Quickly, she went inside the villa. Neferet knew exactly what she sought and went directly to the sickeningly sweet Sevres urn that she had glimpsed in a niche just outside the garish downstairs sitting room. She tossed the blue and gold lid aside so that it shattered against the wood floor and carried the urn outside with her. Then she stood before the Warrior, smiling.
“Dear Odin, we recognize you. Were we not lovers several years ago?”
His eyes were wide and stared at her—and Neferet was not distressed to see terror reflected in them.
“Oh, we almost forgot. You cannot speak. That’s a shame, really. It would be lovely to reminisce. Tell us, do you find that we are much changed? You may nod or shake your head.”
Slowly, Odin nodded. Twice.
“So nice of you to notice, because indeed we have changed. We shall tell you a secret.” She glided closer to him and ignored the fact that he flinched away from her, pressing his back into the cold iron of the chair. “Your death is very important. It is going to provide information for us. Soon we will rule not just one world, but two, and you will have had a hand in that.” She was going to kiss him, but as she drew closer the revulsion in his eyes made Neferet angry. Instead, she reached out and cupped his face in her hands while her spidery fingers caressed his skin. As he shivered with disgust, Neferet lifted one sharp fingernail and slashed it down across his throat, severing his jugular vein.
Odin’s body jerked spasmodically as Neferet held the urn to his neck to catch the spurting blood.
“Keep him still, children!” she commanded.
The
