Redeemed (House of Night #12)(84)

Stark paused, and then, pulling me into his arms, he gave in.

Lynette

“You should be resting,” said the Asian healer with the geometrical tattoos whose name Lynette had learned was Margareta. “Are you in pain?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m just not used to sleeping during the day,” Lynette assured the vampyre. She was standing at the window and had pushed aside the heavy black curtain so she could watch a group of people piling logs and wooden planks in the center of the campus green. “Margareta, do you know what they are building out there?”

The healer moved forward a little, glancing out the window, but she didn’t get close enough to have the bright morning light actually touch her. “I do know,” she said. “They are building a pyre.”

“A pyre?” Lynette stomach heaved. “Did someone die?”

“Someone was killed,” she said.

“Who?”

Margareta studied her and then shrugged. “I see no harm in telling you. Kalona was killed.”

“By her?” Lynette could hardly force her voice above a whisper. “Did Neferet kill him?”

Margareta nodded.

“Oh, God! He was supposed to be immortal.”

“Apparently not,” the healer said.

Lynette stumbled to her bed, collapsing there as her knees gave way. “Did she break the spell? Is she out of the Mayo?”

“No, the spell holds. For now. Are you quite sure you don’t want me to give you something to help you sleep?”

Numbly, Lynette shook her head. “No. I’m fine. Really. Fine. I—I just need some time alone to think.” She met the healer’s watchful gaze and added, “Kalona saved me. It’s a shock to think that he’s dead.”

“It is for us all as well,” Margareta said. “I will leave you to your thoughts, then. As you know, I will just be down the hall. If you have need of me, just press the red button on your bed.”

“I will. Thank you, Margareta.”

When the vampyre was gone, Lynette’s mind began to race. Neferet had managed to kill an immortal while she was trapped inside the Mayo! It would be worse, so much worse, if she escaped. Lynette shook herself mentally and made the correction in her thoughts. Not if she escaped. When she escaped. LaFont’s daughter and the other two girls had said it themselves: it was only a matter of time before the spell their High Priestess cast was broken. And then they would be the lucky ones because Neferet would come after Kalona and her first. With Kalona gone, that leaves only me. Fear made Lynette feel dizzy. An immortal Warrior couldn’t stop her. A protective spell couldn’t stop her. The stone walls of this school and a small group of teenagers and vampyre professors sure as hell couldn’t stop her.

If Lynette remained where she was, she would be on the losing side, and she would be found and possessed by Neferet’s hideous serpents.

No! Lynette forced her breathing to slow, drawing in and out long, strong breaths. She fought back the panic, just as she had every moment she’d spent as Neferet’s captive. No! She corrected herself. I wasn’t Neferet’s captive; I was her employee. Her favorite employee. Her event planner. I was of value to her then. I will be of value to her again.

Quietly and quickly, Lynette went to the small closet where the vampyres had hung her clothes. She changed from the hospital smock into her slacks and sweater. She exchanged her slippers for the attractive black ballet flats she’d worn the night before.

And then she tiptoed down the hallway. She paused at the door to the healer’s office. Lynette could see the back of Margareta’s head. She was studying a large computer screen that was showing the local news. Lynette watched, silent and horrified, as someone’s iPhone caught Kalona’s death. First it had focused on the rooftop balcony, as if waiting for something to happen. The immortal came suddenly into view, hovering with his enormous wings spread, his arms opened wide as he faced the balcony, looking like he was positioning himself to catch something. Or someone, Lynette thought the first time the video played through. And then she heard several cracks, one right after another, and Kalona’s body was hurled backward. Shots, Lynette realized. Neferet shot him! The camera followed Kalona’s fall. He tumbled end over end, landing on his back—broken and bloody—in the middle of the street where not long before he had led her from the Mayo.

Lynette couldn’t make herself move until she’d watched the video play again. Then, as Margareta tapped replay once more, Lynette made her legs move. She held her breath until she was through the exit door and had closed it quietly behind her.

Even then she didn’t pause. She knew she was on the third floor of the building at the edge of campus. She knew the way off campus as she had been very much awake and aware when the detective and Kalona had driven her there. She’d also seen the long line of cars that filled the school’s parking lot to overflowing, so that people had had to park over the curb up and down Utica Street.

Lynette reached the ground-level door and paused, solidifying her plan. If she was questioned on her way out, she would say that she had decided to go home, that her adult daughter needed her. People weren’t being kept as prisoners at the House of Night. As long as Lynette was not recognized, she would be free to come and go.

If she was recognized and stopped—what then?

Then they will have to keep me prisoner, and they have no reason to do so. It’s a House of Night, but it’s still America. I’m still free!