Things are supposed to go on as usual after a fledgling dies, but apparently it was unusual for two kids to die so close together, and everyone was unnaturally quiet for the rest of the day. Patience picked at her food deciding that she had lost her appetite the minute she saw that boy die.
"Why is Patience so upset about Elliott's death?" Zoey asked Angel with curiosity, "Not to be mean or anything I'm just curious," Zoey added quickly when Angel didn't say anything.
"Elliott was Patience's friend and if you're her friend you're stuck with her because she is loyal like that, that's why she also left with Elliott when he asked her to stay, she'll never turn her back on her friends, she'd prefer dying than being disloyal to her friends. Zoey nodded in understanding but still didn't know why. She didn't ask though and instead began picking at her increasingly cold food.
The Twins didn't even bicker with Damien, which might have been a nice change if they hadn't known the awful reason behind it. When Stevie Rae made some lame excuse to leave lunch early and go back to the room before fifth hour started in which Zoey was happy to follow so she could leave the depressing atmosphere that had been placed upon the students. Patience quickly jumped from her seat and followed the two with her usually bright and shining blue-green eyes downcast.
"No one liked Elliott, and somehow I think that makes it worse," Stevie Rae said as they walked along the dimly lit corridor,
"It was weirdly easier with Elizabeth. At least we could feel honestly sorry she was gone."
"I know what you mean. I feel upset, but I know I'm really upset that I saw what can happen to us and now I can't get it out of my mind, and not upset that the kid's dead." Zoey said while slightly trying to keep pace with the short-haired blonde.
"At least it happens fast," she said softly. Zoey shivered slightly catching Patience's attention. "I wonder if it hurts."
"It does," Patience finally spoke up, her voice dull with a hint of emotion. The two girls stopped and stared at her.
"How would you know, you're alive?" They both asked. Patience sighed and crossed her arms.
"You obviously weren't listening when I tried to get him to drink the liquid, anyway I know because my body almost did reject the change," The two girls eyes widened a fraction and motioned for her to continue. (I bet around here you're gonna go to the first chapter but it's not there) "When I first got marked I was in a crash, between then and when I was found by my aunt my body began to reject the change because of my weak state, it felt just as how I described it to Elliott, millions upon millions of knives piercing your body and just twisting around to get deeper into your flesh, I don't know how or why but Nyx saved me and for that I am thankful," Zoey and Stevie-Rae stared at Patience with eyes so wide saucers would be jealous.
"Whoa," was all Stevie-Rae said her mouth parted slightly in an O form. Zoey on the other hand was staring at Patience with scrutiny.
"That's impossible, you either change or you don't there is no in-between," she said though she sounded quite unsure, after all she could've sworn she saw Elizabeth no last name that fateful night.
"Like I said, I don't know why or how but Nyx saved me from my body rejecting the change, she obviously has something planned for me, you too Zoey otherwise your mark wouldn't be filled in like mine," with that Patience walked off with the two girls staring after her with bewildered looks on their faces. Patience decided to skip the rest of her classes already knowing the teachers would let her since she was top of all her classes.
She had decided to just brush Belle while she waited for the Dark Daughters ritual to come around. She entered the stables and automatically opened the first stall revealing the black mare in all its glory. She grabbed a curry brush from the side and began brushing the horse who would gently nudge her comfortingly. She pat the horse on the snout and got an idea. Without thinking Patience saddled Belle up and was on the horse's back within minutes. She needed a ride and Belle looked a little cramped in her stall. For the rest of the time all Patience did was ride with the hose underneath her, it's strong muscles moving underneath the layers of skin, its breaths short but determined for its rider to be pleased with its speed and strength.
They jumped over the obstacles with such grace riders would only dream about, it was as if the two were connected. Once Patience was sure the horse was ready she turned towards the most difficult obstacle, even Lenobia had trouble at times with it as her horse would get scared to jump and no matter how much soothing if the hose didn't want to jump it wouldn't.
"That one," Patience whispered in the horse's ear. It began to step backwards readying itself for a run up, "Easy," Patience said while her hand stroked the horse's mane, "Easy," she repeated while holding onto the reigns, the horse snorted and leaned down slightly to gain momentum for the jump "NOW!" Patience cried and immediately the horse responded with a extremely fast sprint.
At that moment Lenobia exited the stables, her platinum blonde hair in a high ponytail. Her eyes caught the two and almost gasped at the sight. Both horse and rider looked determined to do the obstacle but that wasn't what shocked the horse expert, what shocked her is that they made it. They made it with no hesitation whatsoever as if they both trusted each other to do that obstacle. Lenobia walked towards the two where Patience was giving the horse a huge smile along with a lot of petting.
"You know you can't take the horse's out of the stables without permission right?" She asked loud enough for the two to hear. Patience's head snapped towards Lenobia who had her arms crossed and a slight smirk on her face, "But I think if you didn't you wouldn't have had an amazing performance," she finished while uncrossing her arms and instead leaning on the wooden fence. Patience blushed and apologized profusely before saying thank you.
"I honestly don't know why Belle even let you put a saddle on her back let alone ride her," Lenobia commented with a curious look on her face. Patience shrugged with her hands still grasping the reigns. She then looked at the sky and gasped as she remembered that she had to go to the Dark Daughters
"I'll take her, you just go get ready for the Daughters," Patience thanked Lenobia and quickly sprinted to her dorm to get Changed. Patience raced to the Rec Hall and entered at the exact time that Zoey did, everyone stared at her with judgemental eyes, so she didn't like to wear dresses was that a crime?
"Nice dress, Zoey. It looks just like mine. Oh, wait! It used to be mine." Aphrodite laughed a throaty, I'm-so-grown-up-and-you're-just-a-kid laugh. Patience rolled her eyes and stepped in front of Aphrodite having to look down as she was a couple of inches taller.
"Leave her alone," she said with a deadly calm voice that scared Aphrodite.
"Or what?" She asked trying to act calm but her voice wavered the slightest bit barely noticeable if you weren't right in front of her
"I must say you look better than you did the last time I saw you." Patience said remembering catching a glimpse of Aphrodite having a vision while Zoey tried to understand what she was saying. Aphrodite turned pale and fear flickered in her eyes.
"She didn't mean that," Zoey butted in while grabbing Patience's arm. Aphrodite's face hardened,
"Fuck off, freak," she hissed. Then she laughed as though she'd just made a huge joke, turned her back and with a hateful flip of her hair walked to the middle of the rec hall. She raised one slim arm, and everyone who had been gawking at me now turned their attention (thankfully) to her. Tonight she had on an antique-looking red silk dress that fit her as if it had been painted on.
"A fledgling died yesterday, and then another one died today." Her voice was strong and clear, and sounded almost compassionate, which surprised the two girls and reminded them of Neferet. "We all knew both of them. Elizabeth had been nice and quiet. Elliott had been our refrigerator for the past several rituals." She smiled suddenly; it was feral and mean, and any resemblance she might have had to Neferet ended. "But they were weak, and vampyres do not need weakness in their coven." She shrugged her scarlet- covered shoulders. "If we were humans we'd call it survival of the fittest. Thank the Goddess we're not humans, so let's just call it Fate, and be happy tonight that it didn't kick any of our asses." Patience was disgusted with Aphrodite and was appalled when the other students agreed. "But enough gloom and doom," Aphrodite was saying. "It's Samhain! The night when we celebrate the end of the harvest season and, even better, it is the time when we remember our ancestors-all the great vampyres who have lived and died before us."
The tone of her voice was creepy, like she was getting into the show she was putting on way too much, and I rolled my eyes as she continued.
"It's the night when the veil between life and death is thinnest and when spirits are most likely to walk the earth." She paused and looked around the audience, being careful to ignore the two. Aphrodite raised her voice and shouted,
"So what are we going to do?"
"Go out!" the Dark Daughters and Sons yelled back. Aphrodite's laugh was way too sexual to be appropriate, and I swear she touched herself. Right there in front of everyone. Jeesh, she was nasty.
"That's right. I've chosen an awesome place for us tonight, and we even have a new little refrigerator waiting for us there with the girls." Patience's mouth watered slightly when Aphrodite mentioned blood but kept her cool and lazily looked around the Rec hall. Everyone was walking quietly to the wall behind the rec hall, which was too close to where I'd seen Elizabeth and Elliott for me to feel comfortable. And then, weirdly, the kids seemed to disappear into the wall. Patience slowly followed the student through the passageway. It was about four thirty A.M. Uh, no one was awake. Big surprise. It was weird to be walking through this really cool part of Tulsa-a neighbourhood filled with mansions built by old oil money-and have nobody notice.
It was as if they were shadows or ghosts. Everyone crossed the street and slid soundlessly between two yards, the sound running water in the background. Aphrodite climbed the stairs to take her place in the middle of the gazebo, which immediately sucked some of the magic and beauty from it. Naturally, Warlike, Terrible, and Wasp were there, too. Another girl was with them, who Patience didn't recognize. They'd set up a little table in the middle of the gazebo and draped it with black cloth. She could see that there were a bunch of candles on it, and some other stuff, including a goblet and a knife. Some poor kid was slumped with his head down on the table. A cloak had been pulled around him, so that it covered his body, and he looked a lot like Elliott on the night he'd been the refrigerator.
It must really take a lot out of a kid to have his blood drained for Aphrodite's rituals, and Patience wondered whether that had anything to do with bringing on Elliott's death. She blocked from her mind and focussed the fact that her mouth started watering when she thought about the kid's blood being mixed with the wine in the goblet. Weird how something could totally gross her out and make her want it really bad at the same time.
"I will cast the circle and call the spirits of our ancestors to dance within it with us," Aphrodite said. She spoke softly, but her voice travelled around the group like a poisonous mist. It was spooky to think about ghosts being drawn to Aphrodite's circle. This ritual was obviously something the Dark Daughters had been doing for a while. It couldn't be that scary or dangerous. Aphrodite played all big and cool, but it was an act. Underneath she was what all bullies are-insecure and immature. Also, bullies tended to avoid anyone tougher than them, so it was only logical that if Aphrodite was going to call spirits into a circle it meant that they were harmless, probably even nice.
Aphrodite was definitely not going to face down a big, bad, boogie monster. Patience started to relax into welcoming what was already becoming a familiar hum of power as the four Dark Daughters took candles that corresponded to the element they were representing, and then moved to the correct area of the mini-circle in the gazebo. Aphrodite summoned wind, and her hair lifted gently in a breeze that only she and Zoey could feel. She closed her eyes, loving the electricity that tingled across her skin. Actually, in spite of Aphrodite and the stuck-up Dark Daughters, she was already enjoying the beginning of the ritual. She opened her eyes and watched Aphrodite move around the circle. Each element sizzled through her. Then Aphrodite began the ritual of summoning of the ancestral spirits, neither Patience nor Zoey couldn't keep their attention from her.
She stood at the table, holding a long braid of dried grass over the purple spirit flame, so that it lit quickly. She allowed it to burn for a little while, and then blew it out. She waved it gently around her as she began to speak, filling the area with tendrils of smoke. Zoey and Patience sniffed, recognizing the scent of sweet grass, one of the most sacred of ceremonial herbs because it attracted spiritual energy. The two frowned and felt a tendril of worry. Sweet grass should be used only after sage has been burned to cleanse and purify the area; if not, it might attract any energy-and "any" didn't always mean good. But it was too late to say anything, even if they could have stopped the ceremony.
She had already begun calling to the spirits, and her voice had taken on an eerie, singsong quality that was somehow intensified by the smoke that curled thickly around her.
"On this Samhain night, hear my ancient call all you spirits of our ancestors. On this Samhain night, let my voice carry with this smoke to the Otherworld where bright spirits play in the sweet grass mists of memory. On this Samhain night I do not call the spirits of our human ancestors. No, I let them sleep; I have no need for them in life or in death. On this Samhain night I call magical ancestors- mystical ancestors-those who were once more than human, and who, in death, are more than human." Completely entranced everyone watched as the smoke swirled and changed and began to take on forms. Patience blinked her eyes to check if she was seeing things but she wasn't lucky and the smoke was in fact taking forms of some kind. There were people forming within the smoke. They were indistinct, more like the outlines of bodies than actual bodies themselves, but as Aphrodite continued to wave the sweet grass they grew more substantial, and then suddenly the circle was filled with spectral figures that had dark, cavernous eyes and open mouths.
Aphrodite put down the still-smoking grass and picked up the goblet. Even from where Zoey was watching, it seemed that she looked unusually pale, as though she had taken on some of the physical characteristics of the ghosts. Her red dress was almost painfully bright within the circle of smoke and gray and mist.
"I greet you, ancestral spirits, and ask that you accept our offering of wine and blood so that you may remember what it is to taste life." She lifted the goblet, and the smoky shapes churned and roiled with obvious excitement. "I greet you, ancestral spirits, and within the protection of my circle I-"
"Zo! I knew I'd find you if I tried hard enough!" Heath's voice sliced through the night, cutting off Aphrodite's words