Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(25)

Complete surprise had Mikki crying, "My mother! My grandmother! How? I don't understand any of this."

Almost imperceptibly, the goddess's expression softened. "Have you never wondered at the origin of the gifts you've been given, Mikado?"

"Gifts?"

"Yes! Think!" the goddess snapped. The dogs at her feet growled restlessly. "Do not stand there stupidly as if you are a man and can think with naught but the flesh that hangs between your legs! Acknowledge your gifts, Empousa!"

Mikki responded automatically to the goddess's command with a voice that shook only a little. "My blood makes roses grow. I mix my blood with water and during the new moon . . ." She paused, eyes widening as she realized what the title, Goddess of the Ebony Moon, implied. "During the new moon I feed my roses with my blood."

"And your roses always grow," the goddess finished for her.

"Always," Mikki whispered.

"That is one gift. The other is also something the women in your family have carried with them from generation to generation," Hecate said.

Thinking, Mikki frowned. Then her face cleared. "My last name! All the women in my family always keep their last name, Empousai. We never change it - no matter what. It's tradition, an unwritten rule that we've followed for generation after generation. Even when it was unheard of for a woman to insist that she keep her own name and not automatically take her husband's, the Empousai women stuck to their tradition. Trust funds have been set up and whole wills have been written under the strict provision that the Empousai women always retain their name. My mother told me stories about Empousai brides who broke off engagements when men refused to follow the tradition." Mikki clamped her mouth shut suddenly, certain that she was babbling like a hysterical fool.

Hecate dipped her head in brief acknowledgment. "That is because within the veins of the women of your family runs the rich blood of the Empousa - my most cherished priestesses. It has been a long wait, but it gladdens my heart that finally you have rekindled the goddess flame within you, anointed yourself, mixed blood and water, and called upon my name." For an instant the goddess's formidable face almost looked kind. "You can see that I rewarded your faith. You awakened my Guardian, and you have returned to the Realm of the Rose."

"But it was an accident! I didn't do any of it on purpose." Mikki felt like sobbing.

"Explain yourself. How could you possibly have anointed yourself and invoked me accidentally?" The goddess spat the word like it had a foul taste.

The marble of the balcony railing felt like cold iron as it pressed through the back of Mikki's sheer nightdress. The huge dogs at the goddess's feet pricked their ears at her, as if they, too, were curious about her answer. Mikki wondered semi-hysterically if Hecate would command them to eat her when she found out that this whole thing had been nothing but an insane mix-up.

Mikki drew a deep breath and met the goddess's icy gray eyes. "You say I anointed myself - by that I assume you mean the perfume I'm wearing."

Hecate raised both brows. "Perfume? Indeed. And how did you manage to acquire a perfume that is the exact fragrance of my High Priestess's ceremonial oil?"

"It was given to me by an old woman I met earlier today . . ." She paused. Had it been earlier today, or had several days, or for that matter years, gone by? She couldn't think about that now; it really didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that Hecate understand that she didn't belong here. Or none of this mattered at all because she was wrong about this place being her new reality, and she had really gone stark raving mad and was curled up in a fetal position in the middle of the Tulsa Rose Gardens drooling on herself.

"I told you before that you are not suffering from hallucinations or delusions, Mikado. Nor are you mad," Hecate said firmly.

"Can you read my mind?"

"I always know the deepest fears and the most passionate desires of my Empousa. Now, Priestess, continue to explain this accident to your goddess."

Your goddess . . . an unimaginable thrill shocked through Mikki's body when Hecate spoke those two simple words. It was as if a memory, long forgotten, had begun to stir, restless with the possibility of new life.

Your heart remembers, Empousa, as does your blood. The goddess did not speak, but the echo of Hecate's voice whispered through Mikki's mind.

A voice in her mind? Mikki shook her head, suddenly afraid again. She spoke quickly, hoping the sound of her voice recounting events she knew had happened in "the real world" would anchor her shifting sense of reality.

"An old woman gave me the perfume. She and I hit it off because she had been named after a rose, too."

"And what was this crone's name?"

"Sevillana Kalyca," Mikki said, noting how Hecate's eyes immediately narrowed. But the goddess didn't interrupt her again, and Mikki continued. "I had a date that night, so I thought I'd wear the perfume," she grimaced, remembering the arrogant Professor Asher. "But the guy turned out to be awful. I left and walked home."

Hecate nodded thoughtfully. "Few men are worthy of an Empousa."

Mikki looked into the goddess's eyes and was surprised to see understanding there. She smiled tentatively at Hecate. "I've definitely not been lucky in love."