I turned my head immediate to the window that was open, the curtains billowing in the wind. I ran to the balcony, Aphrodite stood and froze in her place as Grandma looked anxious as to what was going on. I looked down at the dining hall to see people running out of the building, screaming. Students were hunched over on the gross, throwing up, crying, screaming and writhing in pain.
"Oh no!" I gasped as my hand went to my mouth. "Aphrodite!"
Aphrodite came to stand at my side as she grabbed my hand, "The vision was right. But how? I thought we took all the precautions"
I shook my head, not sure what to say, what to do. I then realized, my head perked up and my anger consumed me. "The vision was right, and we were right. John was here, only not with my mom. She was here to distract us. He poisoned the blood while we were out of the dining hall."
"Are you sure Zoeybird?" Grandma looked concerned.
"Almost positive. We need to get down there to help them!" I turned to leave but Aphrodite grabbed my wrist.
"Wait" she said.
"Why! They are dying down there!" I yelled at her.
"I know that, but we can't stop it. Once they've had the poisoned blood, they start to reject the change. Those who have changed will be very weak, but not dying"
"Those who have changed?" I asked. It sounded like she knew more than she was telling me. I peered into her mind to see she had up a mental block. "What's going on? What are you protecting Aphrodite?"
"It's Stark…." She looked down. "I don't see him dying though! He just needs fresh blood"
"Find him and bring him here!" I instructed as I was released out of her grip. "Grandma, it is safer if you left. I fear being at the House of Night might put you in danger."
"As you wish Zoeybird. I am only a phone call away" she grabbed me and hugged me tightly. "May the Goddess be with you" she kissed me on my forehead and walked past me and down the hall to the room with her things. I hoped she would be ok to drive home. She just had extensive injuries, I really shouldn't have made her leave, but I love my Grandma and if she was going to get hurt here, by damn I was going to send her away for her own safety.
I took Aphrodite by the hand and ran with her out of the apartment, not even bothering to close the door. By the time we got to the stairs Darius was coming up, "Priestess" he bowed.
"We know, we need to get some help." I instructed.
"I have Warrior Stark here. He needs tending. May we lay him in your apartment?"
"Yes, put him on the bed and give him some fresh blood from the fridge. We're going to check on everyone else. Has Neferet been notified?"
"Yes, but unfortunately, she is one of the ill" Darius answered.
"No!" I answered. What were we going to do without Neferet?
"Priestess, you will need fresh blood, call upon the Sons of Erebus, they will offer themselves to the ones that can be helped"
I nodded and headed down the stairs to see Aphrodite quietly speaking to Darius. I sent her a mental SOS and told her to get her butt down here. She kissed him swiftly and passionately. As I was exiting, I saw one Son of Erebus holding Stark in his arms. My heart crumbled. "No" I could feel the tears filling up. I ran to him and flung myself over his now chiseled body. He was so much larger than he was when he first left to be with Erebus. He was massive and largely muscular. Sons of Erebus's were nothing if not strong, and to carry Stark, took strength. I brushed the hair out of his face and lightly placed a kiss on his cheek, then taking his hand and kissing his palm, "It will be ok"
"Z-Zoey?" he murmured and lifted his hand slowly to touch my face.
I grabbed his hand and pressed it against my cheek. How did I never notice how perfect his hand fit against my face, how perfect he was for me. I was so diluted in what I wanted, who I didn't want to lose, that I was letting him slip right past me. I couldn't deny how much I felt for him. I loved him. I closed my eyes and took in his coolness and nearness. I kissed his fingers and put his hand back down. "I'll be right back"
I looked up at the Son of Erebus holding Stark, "I'm making you personally responsible. If anything happens to him, you will reap the consequences!" I looked angry. I wasn't angry at that solider, but I would be if something happened to Stark.
"Yes Priestess, we will take care of him" the solider nodded and headed past me and up the stairs where Darius was waiting.
"We don't have much time" Aphrodite said as she grabbed my hand and we ran towards the dining hall.
It was like the apocalypse. Everyone was coiled on the ground, blood was everywhere. It was like a slaughter. A Rob Zombie horror flick. I could head a slight laugh in the background, a laugh that was all too familiar. My Step Loser. I could feel the fury in my bones; I could feel myself changing as the elements consumed me. That's when I saw him. He was killing students. He was driving wooden stakes, so cliché, through their hearts. Yes, that will kill us. That would kill ANYONE!
That's when I saw Coraline. She was crying, huddled in the corner. She had her arms around another student who had drank the poisoned blood, the girl was lifeless in her arms. Coraline rocked back and forth. My Step loser dad was right behind her, she didn't even see him coming as he raised the stake over his head, until she turned around to face him. That's when he stopped, his face changed. Instead of glee and joy of killing off the vampires, his face turned to that of shock and terror. "Cory?" he asked.
"Papa, please" she begged. I felt my jaw drop. Coraline was John's daughter? I wasn't aware that John had any family. "Please, please don't. Please stop" I could see the tears in her eyes.
"I didn't want to have to do this, but you've forced me. You are a devil and you shall be punished. I'm sorry Cory." He said as he raised the stake over his head.
"Wind come to me! Push him away" I flung my arm out at him and the wing gust blew him about 20 feet back. He was startled as he turned to me, his eyes wide. I'm sure I knew what I looked like when he saw me. I looked like the devil. I was something terrifying. My eyes a scarlet red, hair waving all over the place, my body radiated fire while I floated up into the air, only a mere few inches from the floor.
"You!" he pointed his finger my way. "You are the whole reason for this all!" he accused. "If you hadn't brought that devil back with you, you might have been spared, as would she" he pointed to Coraline.
"It's so nice to know that I have a step-sister, John. Makes me wonder if my mom know's about your other family" I mouthed back at him. Just then, I saw her, my mom, mouth hanging open as she opened the side door to the dining hall.
"John?" she asked accusingly. "Is this true?" her eyes watering.
He hung his head, "Yes, this child here is my daughter."
"What else haven't you told me?" My mother confronted him.
"That he's still married to my mom. That he has 2 smaller children and an older son" Coraline spoke up as she stood and came to my side. "How he tried to kill me and get the fellowship to kill me when he realized I had been marked."
"How?" my mom shaking her head, "I don't understand, how can you have a whole other family? You never let me go anywhere alone without you"
"You don't leave the house much do you?" Coraline said. "He doesn't let my mother either"
My mom turned to me, "I'm so sorry baby." Tears in her eyes, "I'm so sorry I never listened"
I ignored her for now as I still was a raging ball of fury. I narrowed my eyes at John, "You have proven over and over that you are a harm to us. You deliberately betrayed my mother, betrayed me, you've hurt both myself and Coraline, who is my pupil, I am her mentor. You will not harm us again, ever. Leave here and never come back. For if you do, there will be consequences and I won't be light as to let you off"
"You'll all die in hell anyways!" he screamed as he raised the stake and ran towards me.
Everything happened in such a blur. By the time I could see straight, my mom was laying on the ground, Coraline was crying and John was dead. When I came to my senses I realized that my mom had tried to intercept John as he was headed for me, which made him stake her, but not in the heart, in the shoulder, but she was bleeding, badly. John, I had thrown a fireball at and killed him. I suddenly felt very shaky, as if I couldn't control my hands. Coraline was over my mom trying to help her, holding her hand telling her it would be ok, that she was sorry. I ran over to where they were.
"Mom!" I yelled. I kneeled down to her, "Mom, can you hear me?" I asked.
"Yes Zoey, I hear you. I'm wounded not deaf" she cried.
"Oh mom!" I started to cry, again. I touched her face with my pale and cold fingers. She touched my hand and kissed my palm. The first intimate touch she's given me in years. Finally, my wish to finally have my mom back was given to me. It took a hard sacrifice for her, but here she was. "I'm so sorry mom"
"No Zoey, I was blind. I saw what he wanted me to see, that all things not his way was evil. I never realized that he would turn that way. What he's done here, is evil. More evil than he ever let on about Vampires"
"Coraline" I looked up at her, "Get help, go find Darius, Erik, anyone"
Coraline nodded and ran out. That's when Aphrodite, the Twins, Stevie Rae and Damien came into the dining hall. "Z, we took care of…" Aphrodite started then stopped mid sentence when she saw me crouched over my mom.
I was still crying, holding my mom, knowing that she could go at any time, not because she had a serious injury, but just from the amounts of blood she was losing. The smell of her blood was intoxicating. I was shaking just trying to regain strength to no smell it. I stopped breathing just so I wouldn't.
"Zoey, let go" Aphrodite tried to pry my fingers off my mom. "We'll take her to the infirmary with the rest of the wounded"
I looked up at her, for the first time, Aphrodite was gentle in my eyes. She always kept a hard exterior, but I knew she knew what happened. She saw it, she heard it. She felt bad for me that it came out like this. "Damien!" she yelled, "Call air to lift her mom and take her to the infirmary"
And just like that Damien called Air and asked it one request. As soft as a feather she lifted out of my lap and into the air, her arms dangling as she turned her head to look at me and stretch her good arm out to touch my face, "I love you Zoey"
"I love you too Mom" I said grabbing her fingers once more before she was lifted off to the infirmary, Damien close by.
"I'll watch over her" Damien said as he left out of the dining hall.
I stood there, in the middle of what used to be our dining hall, which was now a slaughter house, filled with lifeless bodies, vampires that were now dead or dying. The only part that scared me now was that I had no one here to tell me what to do. No one was here to help me. I had to be able to guide my prefect, my school past this. Could I do it? One thing I was sure, I had my friends. There were here, they were alive. That's all I wanted and cared about. Now what was left? Assess the damage, repair, and start again. New Beginnings were just on the horizon.
