It was over quickly, which pleased Neferet. She was in a hurry and, though she appreciated the concealing storm, she was beginning to tire of being drenched. She needed to feed and take a hot bath—and bring up another bottle of that lovely red she’d found a case of in the wine cellar.
“So, we shall hurry, my darlings. Take the Warrior’s body into the hedges. As with the two humans, strip the meat from his bones. Feast, sweet children. Then pile his bones with the others. We will have need of them soon. But for now, begone. Feed. Then wait for our call.”
Her children swarmed over the Warrior’s body, carrying it into the shadows as they fed. Neferet was pleased that the thunder and the downpour drowned the noise of it. She detested messy eaters. Then Neferet moved to stand beneath the nearby pergola where she was sheltered from the rain. There, she flung back her matted hair and smoothed her soaked silk dress—and hesitated, scenting the air around her.
“She called them!” Neferet smiled, not entirely put out that the vampyre who carried her name and her old visage in another world also so obviously communed frequently with Old Magick. “We shall remember this when we are in that world. We will not underestimate her.”
Neferet placed the urn at her feet and dipped her hand within, catching the warm, scarlet liquid in her palm. As she spoke her voice echoed with power into the night. Neferet flung the Warrior’s blood in a circle around her.
“Sprites of olde, we summon you.
Come to feast, if our will you agree to do.”
The night was suddenly alight with glowing elementals. Neferet observed them silently. Most of them were water sprites. They caught the drops of blood before they hit the ground and then frolicked in the falling rain and splashed in the semifrozen water feature. A few air sprites hovered around the pergola after they, too, snatched the scarlet drops and stuffed them in their wide mouths.
Neferet said nothing. She dipped her hand in the urn again and flicked more blood into the air.
A large sprite materialized from the gnarled branches of the dormant wisteria that covered the pergola. Her skin was the color of bark. Her hair was maidenhair fern, which spread down her otherwise naked body. Her eyes were enormous and black as the shadows that surrounded them. The other elementals moved aside for her as she caught the new drops of blood in her fanged mouth, licked her lips, and then smiled at Neferet.
“The Warrior’s blood is a treat
and a lovely way for us to meet.
I see you, Neferet, Goddess of all things Dark.
Your entombment changed you—left its mark.”
“Yes, well, it was certainly inconvenient, though it taught us well. To whom do we speak, noble sprite?”
“Dark Goddess, you may call me Oak.
Why is it me you did invoke?”
Neferet dipped her head slightly in a respectful greeting, which Oak mirrored. Then Neferet said,
“We have need of information fair,
So, to the sprites we call—earth, water, fire, and air.”
“Just words—that is all you seek?
My curiosity indeed you do pique.”
“Excellent,” Neferet said. Then she continued in the singsong cadence of Old Magick:
“We wish to rule two worlds, not one.
We need information for that to be done.”
Oak nodded in understanding, a slight smile curved the edges of her mouth before she answered.
“Ah, I know which world you do mean.
From me, information fair you may glean.
What payment do you offer, Goddess Dark,
For information with which you shall make your mark?”
Neferet gestured to the urn.
“How long has it been since you’ve had warm Warrior’s blood on which to dine?
Give us information we seek, and it shall be yours and no longer mine.”
“I accept your payment for information fair.
After I drink my fill, my knowledge with you I shall share and share …”
Neferet nodded and stepped back and the sprite descended on the urn, lifting it and draining the blood in several long gulps. It dribbled from her mouth and down her chin and neck to mix with the rain as the lesser sprites darted in, catching the drops and lapping them up eagerly.
After Oak was done gorging on the Warrior’s blood she wiped her bloody mouth with the back of her hand and bared her teeth in a feral smile at Neferet.
“Ask me what information you seek
now that I am paid, I am willing to speak.”
Neferet began questioning the sprite, who was a font of knowledge. To Neferet’s delight, Oak even knew specifics about the Other World’s House of Night. The dark goddess had her children drag an iron chair into the pergola and fetch her a bottle of wine as well, so that she was comfortable as Oak talked and talked and talked.
From the water feature, one very small sprite did not frolic with the others. She swam in the freezing water, pretending to enjoy worrying the sleeping koi, but instead, wee Denise listened and learned …
25
Other Lynette
Lynette opened the front door of Balmacara Mains and squinted past Mrs. Muir at the single small dot of light that flickered against the backdrop of the dark loch. Their Imprint allowed her to share Neferet’s emotions, and Lynette had been awash in her conflict and anxiety since they’d returned to Scotland the day before. “How long has she been out there?”
Mrs. Muir made a clucking sound deep in her throat then said, “Och, Herself hasnae moved for hours. It’s a foul, dreich day. She must be drookit.”
“If that means soaking wet, then I agree with you.” Lynette sighed. “I’m going to try to get her to come inside.”
“What is it I can do ta help ye?”
“Put out a carafe of her favorite red wine and slice up some of your fresh bread with that delicious strawberry jam of yours. Have Noreen build a nice fire, and then make yourselves scarce. Our lady is highly upset. What I
