Tempted

the same time another part of me was leaving the room, one by one, with them. I could feel that not all of them believed what Neferet was saying, and it was those vamps I stayed with. Until they burned.”

“Do you mean they just caught on fire?”

“Yeah, but it was real strange. One second I could tell that they were thinking negative things about Neferet, and the next they were on fire, but when they burned they were in the middle of a field. And it wasn’t just them burning.” Aphrodite paused and drained the rest of the glass of water. “Lots of other people burned with them— humans, vamps, and fledglings. All of them were burning in this same field, which seemed to expand to include the whole damn world.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it was seriously bad. I’ve never had a vision about vamps dying. Well, except those two I had about you, and you’re just a fledgling so I don’t count them.”

I wasted energy frowning at her, which she couldn’t see. “Did you recognize anyone except the burning vamps? Were Neferet and Kalona there, too?”

Aphrodite didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she reached up and took the damp towel from her eyes. She blinked. I could tell the red was already starting to fade. She squinted at me. “That’s better. I can mostly see you now. So, here’s the end of the vision: Kalona was there. Neferet wasn’t there. Instead, you were there. With him. And I do mean you were with him. He was all over you and you liked it. Uh, may I just say eew about having to watch that make-out scene, especially since I was watching it from the perspective of the people who were roasting while you did the nasty. Basically it was more than clear that you being with Kalona caused the world as we know it to end.”

I rubbed a shaky hand across my face, like I could wipe away the memory of me as A-ya in Kalona’s arms. “I’m never going to be with Kalona.”

“Okay, what I’m getting ready to say is not because I’m being a bitch—at least not this time.”

“Go ahead, just say it.”

“You’re A-ya reincarnated.”

“We’ve already established that,” I said, my voice sounding sharper than I intended.

Aphrodite put up her hand. “Hang on. I’m not accusing you of anything. It’s just that this ancient Cherokee girl whose soul you’re kinda sharing was created to love Kalona. Right?”

“Yes, but you need to understand that I. Am. Not. Her.” I enunciated each word slowly and distinctly.

“Look, Zoey, I know that. But I also know you’re a lot more attracted to Kalona than you want to admit to anyone, and that probably includes yourself. You’ve already had one memory of being A-ya that was so strong it made you pass out. What if you’re not completely able to control what you feel for him because the attraction’s been hardwired into your soul?”

“You think I haven’t already thought about that? Hell, Aphrodite, I’ll stay away from Kalona!” I yelled my frustration. “Completely away from him. Then there will be no chance I’ll ever be with him again, and your vision will not happen.”

“It’s not that simple. The vision where you’re with him wasn’t the only one I had. Actually, now that I think about it, it was a little like those stupid visions I had of your death where first I saw you get your throat slit and your head basically cut off, then in the same damn vision I got to drown with you. Talk about stress.”

“Yes, I remember. It was my death you were seeing.”

“Yeah, but so far I’m the only one who’s experienced your deaths. Again, I say not pleasant.”

“Would you please finish telling me about your visions?”

She gave me a long-suffering look, but continued. “So, the vision split, like what happened with the two different deaths I saw for you. One minute you’re sucking face and doing nasty stuff with Kalona. Oh, and I felt agony, too.”

“Well, yeah, that makes sense. You were burning,” I said, frustrated that she couldn’t just tell the darn vision.

“No, I mean I felt other agony. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t coming from the burning people. Someone else was there, and they were definitely under duress.”

“Duress? That sounds really bad.” My stomach was hurting again.

“Yep. Seriously uncomfortable. One minute people were burning, I felt lots of agony, blah, blah, and you were doing it with the evil angel. Then everything changed. It was obviously a different day—in a different place. People were still burning and I still felt the weird agony stuff, but instead of doing the dirty with Kalona you stepped out of his arms. Not very far, though. And you said something to him. Whatever you said changed everything.”

“How?”

“You killed him and all the fire and such stopped.”

“I killed Kalona!”

“Yep. At least that’s what it looked like to me.”

“Well, what did I say to him that had the power to do that?”

She shrugged. “Don’t know. I couldn’t hear you. I was experiencing the vision from the burning peoples’ perspective and feeling stupid agony from wherever; I was just a tad bit busy being in unbearable pain to pay attention to every little syllable you uttered.”

“Are you sure he died? He’s not supposed to be able to die; he’s immortal.”

“It looked like it to me. Whatever you said made him disinte-grate.”

“He disappeared?”

“Actually, it was more like he exploded. Kinda. It’s hard to describe because, well, I was burning and also he got really, really bright, and it was hard to see exactly what happened to him. But I can tell you he more or less faded away, and when he did, all the fire stopped and I knew everything was going to be okay.”

“Is that all that happened?”

“No. You cried.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, after you killed Kalona, you cried. Major snot and everything. Then the vision ended and I woke up with a horrendous headache and my eyes hurting like crazy. Oh, and you were screaming like you’d lost your damn mind.” She gave me a long, considering look. “Speaking of, why were you screaming?”

“I had a bad dream.”

“Kalona?”

“I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Too damn bad. You have to talk about it. Zoey, I saw the world burning while you and Kalona partied. That’s not a good thing.”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “Remember, you also saw me killing him.”

“What happened in your dream?” she asked insistently.

“He offered me the world. He said he’s going to change things back to the ancient ways and he wants me to rule by his side, or some such bullpoopie. I said not no, but hell no. He said he’d burn—” Oh my Goddess! “Wait, you said the people were burning in a field? Could it have been a wheat field?”

Aphrodite shrugged. “I suppose. Fields pretty much all look the same to me.”

My chest felt tight and my stomach hurt. “He said he was going to separate the chaff from the wheat, and burn the chaff up.”

“What the hell is chaff?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with wheat. Okay, try to remember. The field they were burning in—did it have tall golden grassy stuff in it, or was it green, like hay or corn or something, well, not wheatlike?”

“It was yellow. And tall. And grassy. I suppose it could have been wheat.”

“So what Kalona threatened in my dream basically came true in your vision.”

“Except in your dream you didn’t give in and start a big make-out session with him. Or did you?”

“No, I did not! I hurled myself off the top of a cliff, which is why I was screaming my brains out.”

Her red-tinged eyes widened. “Seriously? You really jumped off a cliff?”