P.C. Casr - Chosen

Looking pleased with herself, Neferet turned and ducked through the open trapdoor followed closely by the rest of us. I'd readied myself for something terrible, or at the very least for something bloody, but Loren had been right. The area that had been so gruesome just yesterday had been completely cleansed of any nastiness, and I wondered briefly how the Tulsa cops had gathered their evidence, and then shook myself. Surely Neferet had waited for them to do their job before she'd cleaned everything. Hadn't she?

In the spot where Professor Nolan's body had been there was now a beautiful statue of Nyx that looked like it had been carved from a single slab of onyx. Her hands were upraised, and within them she held a thick green candle symbolizing earth. Without speaking, the vamps formed a semicircle around the statue. Damien and the Twins moved to stand behind the oversized candles that represented each of their elements. I didn't really want to, but I took my place by the purple candle that symbolized spirit. I could see the warriors had spread out and were surrounding us. With their backs to our group they stared out into the night, bristling with alertness.

Without any of her usual theatrics (which were always cool to watch), Neferet walked to Damien, who was nervously holding the yellow wind candle, and raised the ceremonial lighter.

"It fills us and breathes life into us. I call wind to our circle." Neferet's voice was strong and clear, obviously augmented by the power of a High Priestess. She touched the lighter to the candle's wick and instantly wind whipped around Damien and her. Neferet's back was to me, so I couldn't see her face, but Damien's smile was wide and joyous. I tried not to scowl. The sacred circle was not the right place for me to be pissed off, but I couldn't help feeling annoyed. Why was I the only one who could see Neferet's fakeness?

She moved to Shaunee. "It warms and succors us. I call fire to our circle." As I'd experienced several times before, Shaunee's red candle burst into flame before the lighter touched it. Shaunee's smile was almost as bright as her element.

Neferet followed the circle around to Erin. "It soothes and washes us. I call water to our circle." As the candle lit I heard waves crashing on a distant beach and smelled salt and sea in the night breeze.

I watched carefully as Neferet moved to stand before the statue of Nyx and the green candle. The High Priestess bowed her head. "The fledgling who personified this element perished, and it is fitting that the position of earth remain empty tonight, and that it rests upon the spot our beloved Patricia Nolan's body has so recently rested upon. It sustains us. From it we are born, and to it we all shall return. I call earth to our circle." Neferet lit the green candle, and though it burned brightly I didn't smell even a hint of green meadows or wildflowers.

Then Neferet was standing in front of me. I don't know what kind of expression she'd showed Damien and the Twins, but to me her face was strong and stern, and amazingly beautiful. She reminded me of one of the ancient vampyre Amazon warriors, and I almost forgot that she was actually dangerous.

"It is our essence. I call spirit to our circle." Neferet lit my purple candle and I felt my soul lift with the tickle-tummy feeling a roller coaster gives me. The High Priestess didn't pause to share any kind of special look with me, instead she began to work the crowd. Walking around inside the circle, making eye contact with the vampyres who surrounded us, she got right to the point. "It hasn't happened for more than one hundred years—not so openly—not so brutally. Humans have murdered one of us. In this case they have awakened not a sleeping giant, but have provoked a leopard who they believed was tamed." Neferet's voice rose, powerful with anger. "She is not tamed!" The little hairs on my arms lifted. Neferet was amazing. How could someone who was so blessed by Nyx have gone as wrong as I knew she'd gone? "They believe our fangs have been filed flat and our claws removed, like a fat household tabby. Again, they are wrong." She raised her arms over her head. "From this sacred circle, cast on the site of a murder, we call on our Goddess, Nyx, the beautiful Personification of Night. We ask that she welcome Patricia Nolan to her bosom, though it is decades too early for her to have departed. We also ask Nyx to rouse her righteous anger, and with the sweetness of her divine fury, to grant us this spell of protection so that we will not be caught in the humans' murderous web." As she spoke the spell Neferet walked back to Nyx's statue.

"Protect us with the night;

above all it is in darkness we delight. "

When she turned to face the crowd I saw that she was now holding a small, ivory-handled knife with a wickedly-sharp-looking curved blade.

"Around this coven we ask

Nyx's curtain to be cast."

With one hand she lifted the knife. With the other she wove intricate shapes in the air that around her became glittery and semi-substantial as she continued incanting the spell.

"All who enter or leave I shall detect,

vampyre, fledgling, human, all will be checked.

If harm is meant

to my will it shall be bent."

Then, in a fast, ferocious gesture, Neferet slashed through her wrist, so deep that her blood instantly began to spurt, red and rich, hot and delicious. The scent washed around me, automatically making my mouth water. With grim determination, the High Priestess walked the circumference of the circle so that her blood fell around us in a scarlet arch, sprinkling grass that had so recently been soaked with Professor Nolan's blood. Finally she reached Nyx's statue again. Neferet lifted her face to the night sky and completed the spell.

"My blood binds thee,

so mote it be."

I swear the night air rippled all around us, and for a moment I could actually see something settle on the walls of the school, like a black, gauzy curtain. She's set a spell that will not just tell her when danger enters the school, but when anyone enters or leaves it. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning. No way was the curtain of a goddess going to be fooled by my little Bram Stoker-ing. How in the hell was I going to sneak Stevie Rae her blood?

Completely preoccupied with my own drama, I hardly noticed when Neferet closed the circle. Woodenly, I let the tide of people carry me back through the trapdoor. I only snapped out of it when Loren's deep voice sounded surprisingly close to my ear.

"I'll meet you in the rec hall in a little while." I looked up at him. My face must have been a complete question mark because he added, "Your Full Moon Ritual. I'm your bard tonight for the opening of the circle, remember?"

Before I could say anything Shaunee's voice purred, "We always look forward to hearing you recite poetry, Professor Blake."

"Yeah, wouldn't miss it. Not even for a shoe sale at Saks," Erin added, eyes twinkling.

"Then I'll see you there," Loren said, his eyes never leaving my face. He smiled, gave me a little bow, and hurried away.

"Dee-lish-us" Erin said.

"Ditto, Twin," Shaunee said.

"I think he's slimy."

We all looked up to see Erik glaring at Loren's back.

"Oh, no way!" Shaunee said.

"Luscious Loren Blake is just being friendly," Erin said, rolling her eyes at Erik like he was insane.

"Hello! Don't go all psycho-jealous boyfriend on Z," Shaunee said.

"Uh, I gotta go change," I blurted, not wanting to even comment on Erik's way-too-obvious jealousy. "Could you guys go on to the rec hall and make sure everything's ready? I'll run to the dorm and be back in just a sec."

"No problem," the Twins said together.