Redeemed (House of Night #12)(95)

Lynette repressed a shudder, glancing down to where there should have been a nest of the disgusting things slithering around Neferet’s ankles.

They were gone. There wasn’t one serpent anywhere around the Goddess.

That’s really strange. Maybe she told them to be invisible. But no, Lynette had been within hearing distance of Neferet since they left the penthouse. She hadn’t said anything to the creatures.

“Ah, my loyal staff.” Neferet was beaming down at the eighteen serpent-possessed people who were standing side by side just below the landing. “How nice you all look in your newly pressed uniforms. Your Goddess is pleased with you.”

Lynette was paying only partial attention to what Neferet was saying because she’d found the serpents. They had formed a black circle around the ballroom floor that was undulating slowly around and around.

“I want to acknowledge your obedience. Yes, yes, I understand that because of being possessed by my children, you had no choice but to be obedient,” Neferet spoke lovingly to them. “Yet still I acknowledge appreciation of you.”

Lynette’s stomach heaved. The people in the ballroom hadn’t noticed that they were encircled by Neferet’s serpents. Yet. The ballroom was too poorly lit, and all of their attention was on Neferet.

“Now, to show my appreciation, I have decided that I would give the eighteen of you the ultimate honor. You know how much I love my children, don’t you?”

Each of the eighteen nodded robotically.

“Then you will understand how much I love you as well when I sacrifice each of you to my child resting within.” Neferet’s voice changed to a singsong rhythm.

Eighteen children I do now set thee free!

Take, eat, each loving sacrifice from me!

Bile rose in Lynette’s throat as Neferet’s staff began to shriek and writhe. Then their mouths opened, opened, until they could open no more. Until little Kylee, Judson, Tony, and the rest of them exploded in showers of blood and gore, and the enormous emerging serpents consumed each of them, from the inside out.

The ballroom erupted in screams. Neferet seemed to take no notice. She raised her arms and shuddered with pleasure as each of her staff members died. A movement along the walls caught Lynette’s shocked gaze. A curtain of pulsing black was pouring down the ballroom’s walls, moving toward the circle of serpents.

It’s the curtain Neferet created with the sacrifices on the balcony. Lynette’s mind was spinning with panic, but her body had frozen her in place. Somehow she’s called those creatures back to her.

Arms still raised, Neferet’s voice was amplified by a terrible power so that her words echoed, drowning out the chaos and panic below her, and she began another spell:

The time has come.

Create for me bedlam.

Death brings me power,

Glut me for the midnight hour.

I lose you now.

My supplicants to you will bow.

Sate yourselves! Feed!

This night fulfill your every need!

Neferet hurled her arms wide. The horrid creatures she called children became a living noose that closed on the screaming, panicking people, slaughtering them, every single one.

Neferet turned to face Lynette. Waves of energy were flooding the Goddess. Her skin quivered and pulsed with it, as if her body was changing, growing, beneath it. Her eyes glowed a solid emerald green.

Lynette pressed herself against the wall, too terrified to speak.

“Ah, my dear Lynette. I have truly saved the best for last.”

“Please! Don’t let one of them possess me!” The words exploded from her.

Neferet looked shocked. “Of course I won’t let one of my children possess you. That is your greatest fear. I know that. I have known it all along.” The Goddess glided closer and closer to her, until she was able to reach out with spider-like fingers and caress Lynette’s cheek. “You returned to me. For that I reward you. Your sacrifice will be made to me alone. You will never again be frightened. You will never again have to struggle to rise above what the past has done to you. And, my dear, I will remember you for all of eternity.”

Lynette felt a tug along her neck. It wasn’t painful. It was oddly pleasant and soothing to her panicked nerves. Then she felt the wet heat of something wash down her body, soaking the beautiful gown Neferet had given her. Lynette’s legs stopped working, and she collapsed, but the Goddess didn’t let her fall. Neferet took Lynette in her arms and began to feed from her, and as her world went black, Lynette wept silent, bloody tears.

Neferet

Neferet didn’t allow Lynette’s body to fall to the floor after she’d drained her dry. Instead she gently lifted her, carefully placed her on the throne, arranging her lifeless limbs and straightening her dress so that anyone who saw her would know that her Goddess honored her sacrifice.

“I will miss you, my dear,” Neferet told the corpse, smoothing her hair from her face and kissing her forehead reverently. “You were the first to understand that it is impossible to flee from me. There will be so many others who will come to that understanding after you, but you will always be my first and eternally my favorite.” She caressed Lynette’s cheek one last time before descending the marble stairs and entering the ballroom.

Dismembered body parts littered the white and black checkered marble, but there was very little blood left to stain the well cared for floor. Her children had done an excellent job, and no wonder. Those of them who had so valiantly covered her Temple with protection had had nothing to eat for days, poor dears. And yet still they had remained where she’d commanded—vigilant, protective, loving.