Redeemed (House of Night #12)(34)

And then Neferet burst from the front of the building totally spoiling my happy moment. I thought she’d looked like Crazy Town before, but I’d been wrong. What she was now made all the earlier Neferet craziness look no more eccentric than an old cat lady who smelled vaguely of urine and catnip. She was wearing a short green dress. For a second I was almost relieved. I mean, she wasn’t naked. Okay, she didn’t have shoes on, but I thought that wasn’t that big a deal—until I actually looked at her feet. They were resting on a writhing nest of black tendrils that coiled and pulsed around her, wrapping up her ankles and calves, and actually lifting her off the sidewalk.

But that wasn’t even the most insane thing about Neferet. It was her eyes that gave away her crazy. Something had happened to her pupils—they were gone. They were like creepy marbles, completely emerald green.

“What’s wrong with her ey—” Adam began, but Neferet’s shriek cut him off.

“Death’s crone, you have no dominion over my Temple!” Neferet pointed at Thanatos, and two of the tendrils raced toward her.

Kalona moved so fast everything blurred. Suddenly he was there, between Thanatos and the attacking creatures. He’d shrugged off his coat and pulled free the ebony spear he’d strapped across his back. His wings unfurled as he met the tendrils, skewering one, and while it writhed in a death agony, he spun and sliced the other in half.

Neferet screamed, as if she could feel the pain of the severed tendrils. “Ignore Kalona! Kill Thanatos and then the others!”

Everything exploded.

Tendrils of Darkness, like poison spewing from a viper’s mouth, shot from around Neferet’s feet, attempting to swerve around Kalona to get to Thanatos and the rest of us. Stark sprinted back to me, pushing Grandma and me behind him and yelling for Damien, Adam, Shaunee, and Shaylin to get into the Hummer.

I stumbled backward, sure that I was going to watch Thanatos be sliced apart by Neferet’s creatures, probably only seconds before they attacked Stark and then devoured the rest of us.

But none of that happened. Darkness didn’t win this battle—the winged immortal did.

Kalona was everywhere. His spear moved so fast it made a thrumming noise in the air.

“Light saber,” Damien gasped. “For real and not Star Wars make-believe.”

“Get them to safety!” Kalona shouted at Marx.

Marx rushed to the High Priestess, and as Kalona used his body, his wings, and his spear to shield us, we piled into the Hummer.

“Hang on, everyone. I’m jumping the curb and getting him out of there!” Marx told us as the Hummer roared to life.

“Wait,” Thanatos said. “He’s coming to us. Watch the tendrils. Their strength dissipates as they get farther from Neferet.”

The High Priestess was right. Kalona, battered and bleeding, was still fighting the creatures, but he was working his way to us and away from the Mayo. And the threads weren’t following him.

As Kalona reached the rear of the Hummer, Neferet lifted her arms and commanded, “Return to me, children! I will succor you!” The snake-things slithered to her, wrapping themselves around her arms and legs. She stroked them, as if to comfort them, and just before she disappeared inside the Mayo, her blazing emerald gaze focused on us. “Thank you for the lesson. Next time I will win.”

Zoey

“No, truly, I do not need to go to your hospital,” Kalona repeated for like the zillionth time to Marx. “As I already said, bring me water—or, better yet, wine. I will go to the rooftop of this building and heal myself.”

We’d driven around the back of the ONEOK building and entered through the rear to join the Tulsa task force on the third floor. I could see why Marx was stressing over Kalona—he was a bloody mess. Everyone in the room was staring while they tried not to stare at him. Seriously, if he hadn’t been immortal, he’d have been in a body bag.

Marx blew out a breath and ran his fingers through his hair. “All right, I get it, I get it. You’re fine. Carter!” he yelled at a uniformed cop, who instantly stopped pretending to study his computer screen and gave the detective his full attention. “Find the CEO’s boardroom. There’ll be booze there.” Marx looked back at Kalona. “Will whiskey do? These corporate types seem to prefer it.”

“It will do,” Kalona said.

“Get on it,” Marx told Carter. “All right, while Kalona is recouping on the roof, let’s do damage control. Paluka, give me that phone and get out of here.”

“You can’t just take my phone! That’s illegal!”

“It’s evidence in an ongoing multiple homicide investigation. I’m not taking it. I’m impounding it,” Marx said.

“A moment, please, Detective,” Grandma said.

“Ma’am?” Marx and everyone looked at Grandma, perplexed.

Grandma smiled serenely. “Adam, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you are far from the only newsman who witnessed what just happened outside.”

“You aren’t wrong,” Adam said.

“Ah, as I thought. Which means there were probably multiple camera crews filming from behind that police barricade, not to mention random cell phone recordings, much like the one you made.”

I heard Marx sigh as Adam said, “Right again, ma’am.”