Redeemed (House of Night #12)(20)

“What you need do is very simple. First, each of you must turn so that you are facing outward.” Slowly, reluctantly, the sixty people did as she commanded until they were all facing away from Neferet. “Now, raise your arms, close your eyes, and clear your minds by taking three deep breaths with me—in and then out … in and then out … in and then out.” Lynette heard the people breathing with her. “I want you to concentrate on my voice and think of nothing else.” Neferet paused, looking around the balcony as if to be sure everyone was in place. When her eyes found Lynette, her full lips turned up in a feral smile.

Lynette’s stomach twisted in foreboding and she worried that she would throw up the wine she’d guzzled.

Neferet’s gaze left her and went to the snakes that writhed around her feet. “Children, it is time!” Her next words were spoken in a singsong tone that was surprisingly soothing, almost mesmerizing.

In one swift strike you must kill

so those below may know my rage.

Power glutted, you drink your fill

now create for me a perfect cage.

Lynette felt the power build with every sentence the vampyre spoke and she, along with the sixty people who were frozen with their arms raised, could do nothing but wait for what would happen next.

For me to make the world anew

my Temple must be divine—strong.

To me you shall always be true

show Tulsa a righteous Goddess song!

For as long as she lived, Lynette would not be able to wipe the vision of what happened next from her memory. With the words “Goddess song,” Neferet lifted her arms, and, as if that was the signal they had been waiting for, sixty of the snakes shot away from her and rocketed toward the unknowing backs of the people. Lynette held her breath, expecting the serpents to slither up their legs and possess them, but her expectations were so, so wrong. Instead of possessing the people, the snakes—as one—hit the each of the sixty in the middle of their backs, bursting through them with such force that blood and gore spouted like scarlet rain flowing with the snakes over the stone balustrade. Disbelieving, Lynette watched as the creatures slithered down the sides of the Mayo, washing it with blackness and blood, as if unfurling a dark, dripping curtain.

A sound brought her attention back to Neferet. Numbly, she saw that the vampyre still had her arms raised. Her head had lolled back, and her body was jerking in spasms as she moaned in terrible pleasure. Lynette was certain she saw a dark glow shimmering and expanding around her. Suddenly she understood. It’s the people dying—somehow she’s feeding off their souls, just like her creatures are feeding off their bodies.

And they were feeding off the newly dead—all the snakes that had remained on the rooftop. Lynette felt her head shaking back and forth. There were so many of them, still so many of them.

Lynette was still shaking her head and staring at the creatures who seethed over and around the dead, attaching to them like giant leeches, draining what was left of their limp bodies, when Neferet’s arms went down. She straightened her robe and, without so much as a glance at any of the sixty, she turned and, smiling, approached Lynette.

“Kylee! Throw the bodies over the balustrade when the children are done feeding. Oh, and call Judson and the rest of my staff. There is no need for them to guard the door anymore. You are all safe. Nothing can penetrate my veil of Darkness. No one can enter or leave my Temple without me permitting it. So have the staff inform my remaining supplicants that they do not have to stay in that dismal basement. They may return to their rooms without fear. I have made sure they are protected—as long as they worship me. It is now time for them to begin worshipping me.”

“Yes, Goddess,” Kylee said, disappearing through the penthouse door.

Neferet’s emerald gaze met Lynette’s. “What did you think of my event?”

Lynette swallowed around the sick in her throat that threatened to choke her and answered with absolute honesty. “I have never seen anything like it.”

“I have never seen anything like it, what?” Neferet asked expectantly.

“I have never seen anything like it, Goddess,” Lynette said, dropping into a deep, trembling curtsy.

“And now you actually mean it. How delightful. Rise, Lynette, my dear, and pour us both a glass of wine while we discuss what type of worship events you intend to plan for me.”

Lynette stood and did exactly as her Goddess commanded.

CHAPTER SIX

Detective Marx

Ever since that dark, snowy night Zoey Redbird had called him to the old depot, where she and a teenage boy had narrowly escaped being killed, Detective Marx had had questions about Neferet, who was then High Priestess of the Tulsa House of Night. The vampyre has seemed off to him. Zoey had obviously been leery of her when he’d returned the fledgling to the House of Night and Neferet had welcomed her with what seemed like real warmth. Zoey had remained guarded. She’d even made a show of revealing new tattooing their Goddess had gifted her with that night, which, to the Detective’s trained eye, said the fledgling had successfully told the high-ranking, most powerful vampyre at the school to back off.

Marx supposed he should have taken the vampyre’s side and questioned the fledgling’s veracity. But instead Marx had felt an itch under his skin around Neferet, the same itch that had saved his ass more times than he could count out on the street. He’d liked Zoey just fine. There’d been no itch under his skin around her. Neferet, he hadn’t liked at all.