Rebirth

11. Recounting

The next evening, I awoke to find myself no longer alone in the infirmary. Cornelius and Jephthah stood over my bed. I also noted that there were some people standing outside the entrance doors.

"Good morning, love." Jephthah smiled.

"Good evening." I said. "We sleep through the morning. You should know that by now."

He chuckled as Cornelius spoke. "Eliantè wishes to speak to you after you have breakfast."

I nodded. At least she intended to keep her word. "Can you have somebody bring me a change of clothes, please?" I asked, looking down at my partially shredded and completely dirty clothes from last night. Yeah, not what you want to be wearing when meeting the High Priestess.

Cornelius smiled. "Your friends have already taken care of that. Well, come along, Jephthah. Let the girls catch up and change in peace."

I could have kissed my mentor on the cheek at that moment. He always seemed to be able to read my mind, or at least my emotions. At any rate, he and Jephthah walked out of the infirmary and allowed Miko, Shannon, and Isis into the room. I figured they must have skipped breakfast to come see me. Something Angel couldn't do, what with her siblings and all.

"Oh my goodness, your mark!" Miko gasped. "It's gorgeous!"

"Thanks." I muttered, moving the tray with my food on it closer to the bed. "Be warned, though. When were-vamps change, they get extreme cramping and headaches."

"Great." Shannon sighed. I stared at her.

"Now don't be such a pessimist, Shanda. It doesn't even last a full 24 hours. You'll get through it."

"So, what's up with the new name?" Isis asked, changing the subject. Leave it to her to pick a better conversation topic.

"It's not exactly 'new'." I answered. "It's the name that the wolf wants to be called. I bet both of you probably have animal names too, come to think of it." I thought aloud, looking at Miko and Shannon. They stared at me, then at each other.

"I never thought about that." Shannon said. "But the animal in us probably does have a name."

"I hope it's a pretty one like 'Rosa's." Miko chirped. Great, I haven't even had my new name a whole day, and she's already shortened it. Just like I seem to have shortened my eating time. The breakfast tray was now completely devoid of food.

"We'll leave this talk for another time." I said. "Right now, I have to shower, throw on some clean clothes, and visit Eliantè."

They all nodded. All of them knew that they wanted to know the answers as much as I did, and that we as a group needed to find out why our priestess was suddenly so secretive with us.

About 45 minutes later, the four of us found ourselves in Eliantè's office, along with Jephthah and a few other teachers. The seriousness of this meeting seemed to physically manifest itself in the atmosphere. Or was that just the fact that there were like 10 people crammed into an office that only seats half that? I don't know for sure. I just know that whatever she had to say to us was important.

"It is good to see you looking so refreshed, Esarosa." The priestess smiled at me. "Now, let us begin. Where do you wish to begin?"

Ah. Opening the floor to questions. Smart move. "What do you know about the Vampyre who's been creating these wolves?" I asked. I may as well get that one out of the way first. The sooner we do this, the sooner I get to figure out if I have to leave the House of Night or not.

Eliantè sighed, looking very drained all of a sudden. "I am not sure why she has chosen this path, but I do know that she does not work alone. She was once quite a talented woman, but now… She was once known as Desiree, but has changed it now to Hecate after the rogue priestess in your history books. She has created these creatures to distract us from something else. Something that one of the other school priestesses is doing."

"But what priestess would want to harm other students?" Isis asked. The answer came to me instantly.

"Tulsa." I blurted out. "Neferet must be trying to start a war."

"Then we have to stop her." Miko stated.

"How?" Shannon asked. "We don't have any solid proof. Just a lot of suspicion."

"And that alone is not enough to take Neferet out." Eliantè said. "No, dear ones, we have to wait and see how this plays out. Nyx is obviously moving among our people. All we have to do is trust her."

"Okay. So, what about these wolves?" Miko asked, changing the subject. "Is there any way to change them back into humans, sans killing?"

"I'm afraid we have no information on that front." Professor Lilea, who had been standing quietly by, put in. "This woman is using dark magiks to create these creatures, and without the exact spell, we cannot counter it."

My heart sank into my stomach. We were the lucky ones who could keep our humanity. Those poor beings were doomed to die because of some crazy spell this Hecate lady cast on them. And without her spell book, there was no hope.

The spell book. Now there was an idea.

"What if we could retrieve her book of spells?" I asked. "Couldn't we then reverse the change in those humans? I know that Nyx has personally gifted the three of us, and I don't return gifts of such high favor, but these others live under a curse. Shouldn't we try to rid them of it?"

"Not at the present time." Eliante stated. "I have placed a call through to Shekinah, who is sending some of the Sons of Erebus and a few of curse-removal specialists, but they won't arrive until later this week."

"The Sons of Erebus are coming here?" Shannon squeaked. Our priestess nodded.

"Yes. The High Priestess herself is coming as well. To get a first-hand look at your brand-new forms."

Well that sent my head spinning. Not only were the Sons of Erebus, the greatest male warriors in all our species' existence, going to arrive at our school, but the Priestess of all Vampyres was on her way to personally visit the three of us changelings. What a great honor.

"I guess the usual 'once you've changed, you're free to leave' policy doesn't affect me in this case." I said numbly. Eliante nodded.

"So it seems. Now, if there are no more questions, most of you have activities to attend to. There is much cleaning to be done to this place before Shekinah arrives."

Like we didn't already know that. Mercifully, no-one had any more questions for our priestess, and we were dismissed. But I had my own queries to pose to our favorite Fencing instructor. "So, was that stunt with the glowing sword last night your affinity or its alternation?" I asked, catching him in the hallway. He groaned. "You'd hoped I'd forgotten that, hadn't you?"

"Yes." He admitted. "And I suppose I do owe you an explanation."

"You suppose right." I said. "Now don't worry, none of it will leave our little circle of misfits, so go ahead. Explain away."

"Fine." He sighed. "In response to your question, that was the alternation. My actual affinity is the ability to know how to use a weapon from the moment I pick it up. I can also channel energy through the weapon and fire it. That's the alternation, as you call it."

"That's quite an affinity." I whistled. "Wait. Why haven't the Sons of Erebus contacted you? I thought they wanted every talented male they could find."

"I considered it, but after a talk with the leader of the European branch, I decided it wasn't for me. I don't want to fight for the rest of my life. But I like a challenge, so…"

"So, now you're teaching fledglings how to fight." I finished for him. "Okay. I can see that. Thank you for being so patient."

"You're one strange bird." He shook his head as I turned to leave.

"I get that a lot." I smiled. "See you at practice tonight. Don't be late."

"I won't be." He grinned. "Blessed be, Esarosa."

"Blessed be, Jephthah." I replied, before walking away. This week was certainly shaping up to be an eventful one.