Redeemed (House of Night #12)(27)

“I felt the deaths,” Thanatos said, shaking her head sadly. “I knew it was some type of mass human tragedy that had to have occurred very close to Tulsa. I’ve been watching the news, expecting to hear that a commuter plane had gone down, or maybe there had been one of those tragic school shootings again. I hadn’t expected this. I truly hadn’t expected that Neferet was responsible for all of this.”

“We have been unable to predict her behavior, but we may be able to learn something of what to expect from her in the future by retracing Neferet’s crimes,” Grandma said. “She killed the mayor, and that death fueled her as far as Woodward Park.” Grandma paused and smiled sadly at Aphrodite. “I am sorry to speak about your father’s death in such a clinical manner, child.”

“I understand. I want you to,” Aphrodite said earnestly. “If Dad’s death helps us figure out how to take down Neferet, then at least it’ll mean he died for something.”

Grandma nodded and continued. “She must have hidden at the park until Zoey had her altercation with the two men.”

“I was sitting on that bench by the grotto when they started messing with me,” I said, trying to help put the pieces together. “Neferet could have been hiding in the grotto.”

“I’ll have some uniforms check it out,” Detective Marx said, taking notes on his little black spiral pad.

“The deaths of the two men in the park must have given Neferet the power to get to the Boston Avenue Church,” Grandma said.

“And there she found another, greater source of power,” Lenobia added. “We must remember that power is always what is most important to Neferet.”

“She uses power to control those snake-like creatures—the things that killed the people on the roof of the Mayo and created that … I don’t even know what you’d call it.” Marx hesitated, thinking. “It’s a protective skin, or a barrier. But whatever it is, it’s filled with power.”

“Those snake-creatures are made of Darkness. Think of them like hateful, horrible, evil thoughts that have taken physical form,” I explained to Detective Marx. “They do what she wants them to do because she makes sacrifices to them. I promise you Neferet didn’t eat all of those people at the church. She sacrificed them to those creatures so that they’d keep doing what she wants them to do.”

“A Tsi Sgili requires much more than blood for power,” Grandma said.

“Tsi Sgili—Queen Tsi Sgili,” Marx said, “that’s what Neferet called herself when she named herself a Goddess.”

“Tsi Sgili is an ancient name my people have for witches who have chosen Darkness over Light. They live apart, shunned by everyone.” Grandma shuddered. “Our legends say they feed from souls.”

“Death,” Thanatos said. “I should have understood it before now. Neferet feeds from the energy that is released from a person’s spirit at the instant of death.”

“Oh Goddess!” Lenobia looked horrified and pressed a hand against her chest. “I have known Neferet for more than a century. She was always nearby when a fledgling rejected the Change. We thought—the Priestesses thought—that Neferet’s healing gift comforted the young ones’ passings.”

“She didn’t comfort them. She used them,” I said.

“Neferet had something to do with us dying and undying,” Stevie Rae said. “I can’t remember—maybe ’cause I can’t make myself. I dunno.” She shivered. “But I know it felt like something inside me was being torn apart.” Her gaze found Stark, the only other red vampyre in the room. “What do you remember?”

“Pain. Darkness. Terror. Anger.” His words were clipped, though his voice remained low and we strained to hear him. “And when I came out of it, I wasn’t me anymore. Not until Zoey said she believed in me and trusted me.”

“And I didn’t really come out of it, either, until Aphrodite believed in me and trusted me,” Stevie Rae said.

Aphrodite snorted. “That’s not exactly how I remember it. What I remember is that you tried to eat me and then you took my fledgling-ness from me.”

“Because you let me. Because you sacrificed your humanity for me,” Stevie Rae said.

“The eating part was not cool,” Aphrodite muttered.

“Love is stronger than hate. That is the only absolute in the universe. Love can conquer Darkness,” Grandma said. “We simply need to discover how love can conquer Neferet.”

I heard a bunch of sighs echoing mine.

“Okay, I’m all for love winning,” Detective Marx said, “but we have to contend with whatever is going on with those snake-things, too.”

“Neferet’s feeding them,” I said, feeling the truth of my words as I spoke them. “She gives them what they want—fresh blood sacrifices—and they obey her. If we can get to Neferet, make her weaker—or at least contain her and keep her from killing more people—she won’t be able to feed them, and they will leave her.”

“I agree, but I think there is more to it than that, Zoey. The tendrils of Darkness are changing—evolving—along with Neferet,” Thanatos said. “I have never, in the more than five centuries I have been a vampyre, heard of anyone creating the kind of barrier Detective Marx described.” She turned to Marx. “And you said it seems sentient, that it actually directed those bullets back to specific officers?”