“Ane li sgi,”
I said. “It means they’re majorly psychic.” I took a deep breath and barreled on. “I think we all know one particular vamp who might fit into this description.”
“Neferet,” Damien whispered.
“Okay, we know that she’s not what she appears to be,” Erin said.
“But does that mean that she’s as evil as it sounds like a Tsi Sgili has to be?” Shaunee said.
Aphrodite and I exchanged a look. I made the decision and nodded.
“She’s chosen a different path from Nyx,” Aphrodite said.
The Twins gasped. Jack hugged Duchess, and I swear he made a little doggy whining sound.
“You know that for sure?” Damien said, his voice sounding shaky.
“Yes. We know it for sure,” I said.
“Then chances are Neferet is the queen the prophecy refers to.”
I felt my stomach turn as more pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. “Neferet has been different ever since the deaths of Professor Nolan and Loren.”
“Oh, Goddess! Are you saying she had something to do with those horrible murders?” Jack gasped.
“I don’t know whether she had something to do with them, or whether she just fed off their effects,” I said. And I remembered the scene I’d witnessed between Loren and Neferet shortly before he was killed. They’d been lovers—that had been obvious. And he’d been in love with her, but she’d used him to get to me—used her lover to seduce and then Imprint me. How could she really have loved him and sent him to do that?
What if her version of love was as twisted as she had become? Did that mean she could murder what she professed to love?
“But we all thought the People of Faith had something to do with those killings,” Shaunee was saying.
“Maybe that’s what the Tsi Sgili queen wanted us to think,” Damien said, avoiding the use of Neferet’s name, which I thought was smart.
“You’re right. First those murders, then Aphrodite has a couple whammy visions one right after another about me being killed—and Neferet was definitely involved in at least one of those, and then another vision and this prophecy surfaces? It’s too much of a coincidence. Maybe it was supposed to look like a religious hate crime,” I said, thinking about the really nice nuns I’d just met who had definitely made me think twice about believing all Christians were narrow-minded jerks out to get anyone who believed differently.
“When really it was a power crime,” Aphrodite said. “Because Neferet wants Kalona to rise.”
“Uh, let’s just call her the queen for right now, okay?” I said quickly.
Everyone nodded—Aphrodite shrugged. “Okay with me.”
“Wait, the prophecy could mean that the queen’s death makes it possible for Kalona to rise. Let’s just say we might know this queen, and if she’s who we think she might be, no way do I see her sacrificing herself for someone else to come into power,” Damien said.
“Maybe she knows only part of the prophecy. I mean, Grandma said that no one had written the Raven Mockers’ song down—that it’s remembered only in little tiny bits and pieces, so it’s basically been lost for a zillion years.”
“Uh-oh,” Aphrodite said.
We all looked at her. “What?” I said.
“Okay, I might be wrong, but what if Kalona is somehow reaching out from his grave or whatever you want to call it? He’s been there a long time. What if the earth that has been holding him is losing its grip? He’s an immortal. Maybe he can reach from where he is and get inside people’s brains. Nyx can do it. She can whisper things to us. What if he can, too?”
“Whisper! That’s what Nyx said—that Neferet was listening to the whispers of someone else.” I shivered at the thought and at the gut feeling that told me we were on to something.
“It would be logical that the people whose minds he could reach easiest would be those who were open to death and evil,” Damien said.
“Like the Tsi Sgili,” Erin said.
“Especially their queen,” Shaunee said.
“Ah, crap,” I said.
“Okay, let’s go on to the next stanza,” Damien said. Then he read:
Through the hand of the dead he is free
Terrible beauty, monstrous sight
Ruled again they shall be
Women shall kneel to his dark might
“Then, of course, the couplet at the end concludes it.” Damien finished it by reading:
Kalona’s song sounds sweet
As we slaughter with cold heat
“Sadly, most of the rest of it isn’t too tough to figure out,” Erin said. We all gawked at her. “Okay, I’ll admit—under duress—that I actually learned something last semester in Poetry class. So sue me. Anyway, except for the first line, it’s just saying that he’s gonna start raping and pillaging women again when he’s free.”
“But it’s how he’s set free that’s described in the first line,” Damien said. “Through the hand of the dead, and if we’re keeping the first stanza in mind, that hand is going to cause something so bloody and nasty, it’ll make the ground bleed.”
“Yeah, and in the first stanza it sounds like the person who’s gonna cause the ground to bleed is the Queen Tsi Sgili. If she’s who we think it is, that doesn’t fit here. She’s not dead,” I said.
“Couldn’t it be just symbolism? ‘Cause how does something that’s already dead cause anything to bleed? It just doesn’t make sense, which is yet another reason why I’ve never liked poetry,” Aphrodite said. “Plus, let’s say it’s all jumbled up into one person and this Tsi Sgili is dead and she bleeds—dead people don’t bleed. Or at least not for long after they’re dead they don’t.”
“Oh! Oh, no!” I suddenly knew what the prophecy had to mean, and I sat down on the bed hard as my knees buckled.
“Zoey? What is it?” Damien asked, fanning me with the slip of paper.
“If you puke on my bed, I’m going to kill you,” Aphrodite said.
I ignored Aphrodite and grabbed Damien’s arm. “It’s Stevie Rae—she was dead, and now she’s undead. She bleeds. She bleeds a lot. Plus she has psychic powers, along with other major earth powers. What if she’s the queen?”
“And she has a red tattoo. Just like in the story about the hot chick the Ghigua women made for Kalona,” Erin said.
“That’s definitely a connection,” Shaunee said.
“Stevie Rae! Ohmigod! Stevie Rae!” Jack said, looking even paler than I did.
“I know, honey, I know. It’s a lot to take in,” Damien said.
Aphrodite met my eyes. “I gotta agree with the theory that it might be Stevie Rae.”
“But no. Stevie Rae
was
horrid when she was losing her humanity,” Damien said slowly, thinking it out. “But she Changed, and now she’s back to her old self. I don’t think she could be the queen Tsi Sgili, because Stevie Rae is definitely not evil.”
Aphrodite gave me a hard look, then said, “Look, Stevie Rae isn’t the same as she used to be.”
“Which is only logical because she’s been through a lot,” I said quickly. No matter what, I wasn’t willing to believe that Stevie Rae was bad. Different, yes. But bad, no way. Then I had another thought. “You know, it really makes more sense that one of those other gross kids could be the Tsi Sgili. I mean, you even said they were still—” I stopped, finally realizing that Aphrodite was making a small
Cut!
gesture while Damien and the Twins stared openmouthed at me.
“Uh, yeah. Are you remembering not everyone knows about the other kids?” Aphrodite said. Then she rolled her eyes at the dumfounded looks on my friends’ faces. “Well, oopsie. Hey, I’ll just let Zoey handle this one. Go ahead, explain the freaks to the geeks, Z.”
Ah, crap. I forgot they don’t know about the red fledglings.
I decided to be firm. Just tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and get it over with. And if all else failed, I would burst into tears.
“Okay. Remember all those other dead kids?”
They nodded kinda woodenly at me.
“Nasty Elliot and Elizabeth No Last Name and, well, some other kids, too?”
They nodded again.
“They didn’t die. They did what Stevie Rae did—only, well, different. It’s really kinda awkward to explain.” I hesitated, trying to find the right words. “But basically they’re still alive, and their blue crescents have changed to red crescents and they live in the tunnels with Stevie Rae.”
Weirdly enough, it was sweet Jack who saved me. “You mean this is more stuff you couldn’t tell us ‘cause you didn’t want us accidentally thinking about it and having Neferet, who really isn’t one of the good guys, listening in to our minds and finding out that you knew?”
“Jack, I could kiss you,” I said.
“Oh, hee hees!” Jack giggled, ruffling Duchess’s ears.
Then I looked from him to my other friends. Would the Twins and Damien discount another passel of lies so easily? I saw the three of them share a long look.
Damien spoke first. “Neferet is behind these undead dead kids, isn’t she?”
I hesitated, wanting to save them from the truth as long as possible.
“Yes.” Aphrodite took the choice away from me. “Neferet is definitely behind them. That’s why Zoey didn’t want to tell you guys about the other kids. Neferet is dangerous, and she wanted to keep you from that danger.” She paused and looked at me. “But it’s too late now. They have to know.”
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “You all have to know.”
“Good,” said Damien resolutely. He reached over and took Jack’s hand that wasn’t stroking Duchess. “It’s time we knew everything. We’re ready and we’re not scared.”
“At least not very much,” Jack said.
“Yeah, you know how much we love us some good gossip,” Erin said.
“And this is some prime, inside, good gossip,” Shaunee said.
“Dorkamese Twins, you can’t
tell
anybody the gossip,” Aphrodite said, clearly disgusted.
“Oh, please, we know that,” Shaunee said.
“Yeah, not now we can’t, but in the future, this will be some wicked good gossip,” Erin said.
“All right,” Damien interrupted. “Tell us, Zoey.”
I took a deep breath and told them everything. All about the first time I thought I’d seen “ghosts,” which had ended up being that nasty Elliot kid and Elizabeth No Last Name (whom I’d had to zap with fire and make really, really dead to get Heath out of the tunnels) when they were actually undead. I told them about the tunnels and what happened when I rescued Heath. I told them about Stevie Rae,
all
about her. I even told them about Stark maybe coming back undead.
When I was finished, there was a long shocked silence from my friends.
“Wow,” Jack said. He looked at Aphrodite. “So you’re the only one she could tell about all this stuff because for whatever reason vamps can’t read your mind?”
“Yes,” she said. I could see Aphrodite draw herself up and pull that cold, haughty look over her that meant she was readying herself for them to turn on her—to tell her that now that they knew everything she wouldn’t be needed anymore.
“That must have been hard, especially when we were being so mean to you,” Jack said.
Aphrodite blinked in surprise.
“Yeah,” Damien said. “Sorry about some of the stuff I said. You were being a good friend to Zoey, even when we weren’t.”
“Ditto,” said Shaunee.
“Sadly, ditto here, too,” said Erin.
Aphrodite looked utterly stunned. I grinned and sneaked her a quick wink. I didn’t say it out loud, but it definitely looked like she was becoming one of the nerd herd.
“So, now that you guys know everything, we have a lot of work to do,” I said. I had everyone’s attention. “Like Stevie Rae said, we gotta make sure if Stark wakes up, he doesn’t do it with Neferet there all waiting to make him into her minion.”
“Ugh,” Shaunee said.
“It’s so damn gross, ‘cause he was so damn fine,” Erin said.
“He might still be fine,” Jack said. Then he gasped and covered Duchess’s ears. “And if you’re going to talk about
him
I think we should either just call
him
J.S. or spell his name. You know, out of respect for Duchess.”
I looked into Duchess’s brown eyes. For a moment I got trapped there, and I swear I saw pain and loss and a deep, limitless kindness.
“Okay, we’ll just use his initials,” I said, relieved because maybe if I just used Stark’s initials, I wouldn’t think about that it was really
him
we were discussing, and then I wouldn’t remember how much we’d connected right before he died.
“So, instead of trying to snatch, uh, J.S.’s body and hiding it in Z’s closet or wherever, I, of course, had a much better idea.” Aphrodite paused to be sure she had everyone’s attention. “I got a nanny cam.”
“Oh, cool!” Jack said. “I saw that on
Dr. Phil
the other day. God, it was just awful. Some horrid and, may I say,
fat, poorly dressed
nanny was caught by one of them shaking the crap out of some poor little kid.”
“Then you know about them?” Aphrodite said.
“Yep,” he said.
“Good. You need to sneak down to the morgue. Install the camera, and then bring the remote monitor back to Zoey. Think you can handle that?” Aphrodite said.
Jack blanched. “The morgue? As in where they keep dead bodies?”
“Don’t think of it like that,” I said quickly. “J.S. might just be sleeping, only without the breathing part.”
“Oh,” Jack said, looking totally unconvinced.
“Can you do it?” I asked, unbelievably relieved that I knew nothing about electronics and this couldn’t be my job.
“Yes. I can do it. I promise,” Jack said resolutely, hooking an arm around Duchess’s neck.
“Good, then that problem is dealt with.” At least until he woke up, if he woke up, but I was hoping I had a couple of days before I had to deal with all the ramifications of that. Actually, it was hard for me to think about Stark at all, so I hastily changed the subject. “We need to get back to the prophecy. I’m really worried that the line that says ‘through the hand of the dead’ is talking about Stevie Rae.”
“I still don’t think Stevie Rae would be involved in raising this fallen angel,” Damien said.
“But there are more of those other new kind of vampyres, right?” Jack said.