"Heath! What in the hell are you doing here!"
"Well, you didn't call me back." Oblivious to everyone else, he hugged Zoey. You didn't need the bright light of the moon to see his bloodshot eyes.
"I missed you, Zo!" he blurted, wafting beer breath all over her. He finally caught sight of Patience who was standing next to Zoey.
"And you are?" He asked flirtingly.
"Not interested," Patience answered and stood beside Erik.
"Heath. You need to go-" Zoey began
"No. Let him stay," Aphrodite interrupted. Heath stared at her as if she were the goddess her name proved to be. But there was also the chance he noticed her big boobs.
"Get him out of here." Erik's voice was tight with worry. Heath tore his eyes from Aphrodite's boobs to glare at Erik.
"Who're you?" He asked with obvious jealousy. Patience zoned out but smirked at Zoey's obvious irritation with her ex.
"Come to me, human. Let me taste you." Aphrodite called to Heath. Totally entranced by her, Heath lurched forward without any hesitation. Zoey started yelling at him and he yelled back.
"If he refuses our summons, then we shall go to him." Everyone's head jerked up to see Aphrodite's body convulse as gray wisps seeped out of her. She let out a gasp that was a cross between a sob and a scream. The spirits, including the ones that had obviously been possessing her, rushed to the edge of the circle, pressing against it in an effort to break free and get to Heath.
"Stop them, Aphrodite. If you don't they'll kill him!" Damien shouted as he stepped out from behind an ornamental hedge that framed the pond.
"Damien, what-" Zoey began, but he shook his head.
"No time to explain," he told her quickly before turning his attention back to Aphrodite.
"You know what they are," he called up to her.
"You have to contain them in the circle or he'll die." Aphrodite was so pale she looked like a ghost herself. She moved away from the smoky shapes that were still trying to push against the invisible boundary of the circle, until she was pressed against one edge of the table.
"I won't stop them. If they want him, they can have him. Better him than me- or any of the rest of us," Aphrodite said.
"Yeah, we don't want any part of this kind of shit!" said Terrible before dropping her candle, which sputtered and went out. Without another word, she ran out of the circle and down the gazebo stairs. The other three girls who were supposed to be personifying the elements followed her lead, disappearing quickly into the night and leaving their candles overturned and unlit. Horrified, everyone watched as the grey shapes begin to melt through the circle. The smoke that was his spectral body began seeping down the stairs, reminding Patience of a snake as it slithered in their direction. Patience felt the Dark Daughters and Sons stir and glanced around her. They were nervously backing away, looks of fear twisting their faces.
"Wimps," Patience muttered obviously unaffected by the weird thing.
"It's up to you, Zoey and Patience."
"Stevie Rae!" the two girls exclaimed recognising the voice of their friend She was standing unsteadily in the middle of the circle. She'd thrown off the cape that had covered her, and I could see the white linen bandages on her wrists.
"I told you we needed to stick together." She smiled weakly at Zoey.
"Better hurry," Shaunee said.
"Those ghosts are scaring the shit right outta your ex," Erin said. Patience turned around and almost burst out laughing and she would've if this hadn't been a serious situation.
"Let's get this done," Patience said.
"Keep him here," Zoey told Erik, who was staring at the two with obvious shock. Without needing to look back to be sure their friends were following them, Patience and Zoey hurried up the steep stairs to the ghost-filled gazebo. When they reached the boundary of the circle they hesitated for a second. The spirits were slowly dissolving through it, their attention completely focused on Heath.
"You have no right to be here. This is my circle," Aphrodite said, pulling herself together enough to wrinkle her lip at them and block their way to the table and the spirit candle, which was the only one still lit.
"Was your circle. Now you need to shut up and move," Patience told her. Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at Patience.
"Bobble-head, you need to do what Patience says. I have been dying to kick the shit outta you for two years," Shaunee said, moving up to stand beside Patience.
"Me, too, you nasty ho bag," Erin said, stepping up to her other side. Before the Twins could pounce on her, Heath's scream shattered the night. everyone whirled around. Mist was crawling up Heath's legs, leaving long, thin tears in his jeans that instantly began to weep blood. Panicked, he was kicking and shrieking. Erik hadn't run away, but was hitting at the mist, too, even though whenever some of it stuck on him it ripped his clothes and tore open his skin.
"Fast! Take your places," Patience and Zoey yelled before the seductive smell of blood could mess with their concentration. Their friends ran to the deserted candles. Hastily they picked them up and waited in the proper positions. Zoey moved around Aphrodite, who was staring at Heath and Erik, with her hand pressed against her mouth as if to hold back her screams. Patience grabbed the purple candle and rushed over to Damien.
"Wind! I summon you to this circle," Zoey yelled as Patience touched the purple candle to the yellow one. She wanted to cry with relief when the familiar whirlwind suddenly sprang up, swirling around her body and lifting her hair crazily. Shielding the purple candle with her hand Patience ran to Shaunee.
"Fire! I summon you to this circle!" Zoey called. Heat flared with the whirling air as Patience lit the red candle. She didn't pause, but kept moving clockwise around the circle."Water! I summon you to this circle!" The sea was there, salty and sweet at the same time. "Earth! I summon you to this circle!" She touched the flame to Stevie Rae's candle, trying not to flinch at the bandages that covered her wrists. She was abnormally pale, but she grinned when the air filled with the scent of freshly cut hay. Heath screamed again, and the two rushed back to the center of the circle and lifted the purple candle. "Spirit! I summon you to this circle!" Energy sizzled into the two. They glanced around at the boundary of my circle and, sure enough, there was ribbon of power marking its circumference.
Then Zoey grabbed the goblet of bloody wine. She turned to face Heath and Erik and the ghostly horde.
"Here is your sacrifice!" she yelled, sloshing the liquid in the goblet in a messy arc around her, so that it made a blood-colored circle on the gazebo floor.
"You weren't called here to kill. You were called here because it's Samhain and we wanted to honor you." She spilled more wine, trying hard to ignore the seductive scent of fresh blood mixed with wine. The ghosts paused in their attack. Zoey focused on them, not wanting to distract herself with the terror in Heath's eyes and the pain in Erik's.
"We prefer this warm young blood, Priestess'." The eerie voice echoed up to the two, sending chills over their skin. Patience swallowed hard.
"I understand that, but those lives aren't yours to take. Tonight is a night for celebration, not for death."
"And yet we choose death-it is dearest to us." Ghostly laughter floated through the air with the tainted smoke of sweet grass, and the spirits began to converge again on Heath. Zoey threw down the goblet and raised my hands.
"Then I'm not asking anymore; I'm telling you. Wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit! I command in Nyx's name that you close this circle, pulling back to it the dead who have been allowed to escape. Now!" Patience and Zoey both called.
"With the power of the elements I command you: Go!" Suddenly, as though an invisible giant slapped them down, they dissolved into the wine-soaked floor of the gazebo, somehow absorbing the blood-tinged liquid and making it disappear with them. The two breathed a long, ragged sigh of relief. Automatically, They turned to Damien.
"Thank you, wind. You may depart." He started to blow out his candle, but didn't need to, a little puff of wind, which felt surprisingly playful, did it for him. Damien grinned at the girls. And then his eyes got huge and round.
"Zoey, Patience, your marks,"
"What?" Patience lifted her hand to her forehead. It tingled, as did her shoulders and neck, plus her whole body was still humming with the aftereffects of elemental power, so she hadn't even noticed it. His shocked look changed to happiness.
"Finish closing the circle. Then you can use one of Erin's many mirrors to see what's happened." Patience turned to Shaunee to say good-bye to fire.
"Wow...amazing," Shaunee said, staring at Patience.
"Hey, how did you know I have more than one mirror in my purse?" Erin was complaining from across the circle at Damien when Zoey turned to her and sent water away. Her eyes got big when she caught a good look at her, too. "Holy shit!" she said.
"Erin, you really shouldn't curse in a sacred circle. Y'all know it's not-" Stevie Rae was saying in her sweet Okie twang when Patience turned to say good-bye to earth, and her words were suddenly cut off as she gasped,
"Oh, my goodness!" She sighed. Hell, what now? She went back to the table and lifted the spirit candle.
"Thank you, spirit. You may depart," She said.
"Why?" Aphrodite stood up so abruptly that she knocked over the chair. Like everyone else, she was staring at Patience more than Zoey with a ridiculously shocked expression, "Why you? Why not me?"
"Aphrodite, what are you talking about now?"
"She's talking about this." Erin handed Patience a compact she pulled out of the chic leather purse she always had slung over her shoulder. She opened it and gasped. From Patience's side, Stevie Rae whispered,
"It's beautiful..." And she realized she was right. It was beautiful. Her Mark had been added to. A delicate swirl of lace-like black (yes black not blue) tattooing framed her blue-green eyes. Not as intricate and large as an adult vamp, but unheard of in a fledgling. She let her fingers trace the curling design, thinking that it looked like something that should decorate the face of an exotic foreign princess...or maybe the High Priestess of a goddess.
She gave Zoey the compact mirror only to see the same pattern but in blue like it should be.
"And that's not all. Look at your shoulder," Damien said softly. Patience took off her loose shirt to reveal a singlet top, she felt a jolt of shock surge through her body. Her shoulder was tattooed, too. Stretching from her neck, down her shoulder and back, were onyx tattoos in a swirling pattern much like that on her face, only the black marks on her body looked even more ancient, even more mysterious, because they were interspersed with letter-like symbols. Her mouth opened, but words wouldn't come out.
"Why is mine black? Even my coloured in mark is black," everyone shrugged which got her slightly annoyed. Everyone gasped and stared at her marks.
"What?" She asked becoming a little more calm.
"Your marks just changed colour," Patience looked down at her marks and sure enough they were black with a tint of red. "Well I'll be damned," she muttered. Patience watched with a proud smile as Zoey stood up to Aphrodite who looked like she was going to blow a casket. Suddenly arms draped over her shoulders diverting her attention from the group. She turned her head to face none other than Angel.
"Where've you been all night?" She asked wrapping an arm around her un-biological twin sister's waist.
"I was watching," she answered simply. Patience nodded and turned towards the group just in time to hear Aphrodite's last words.
"You stupid bitch, you can't just take over the Dark Daughters. Only a High Priestess can change their leadership."
"Convenient, then, that I am here, isn't it?" Neferet said