Part 37 (1/2)

Chapter 27 Misdirection

Selwyn bounded out of the theater I rushed to keep up I needed to get toto kill her

By the time I found my way out, Selas nowhere to be found It see called away fro This was the Dioscuri's last opportunity It was finished to Like the syic was split We were splitting ”Lia” I said The Dioscuri were going to kill her But why did they even want her?

I found a and started it up The throttle stuck It almost didn't work I had to take five seconds to fix it, but finally I got it figured out

Gripping it by the handlebars, I flipped ht, and I laid a trail of thick rubber, as I peeled out, heading for the Gatheringplace and away from Rome

I raced the a full-throttle and headed toward the Gathering

If I riting in : That there was a faction within the Gathering that wanted all-out war, conflagration, the vibe of co in my stomach

How could I have been so stupid? I listened for any sounds of other motorcycles, but there were none The wolves were all at the Gathering Of course That's where the danger was It was lucky I had such an awesoated the terrain, passed through the Ro to the invisible barrier There was fire, sh The Wiccans were squaring off against the olves They had their Marks out My Gaa backfired loudly Ballard found me But I had no time ”Lia,” I shouted I raced past hi the Wiccans to back off ”Bring out the cat!” shouted one of theet to Lia, fast Months traipsing through the place had taught place I knew that if I went down this halland then that one thereand then through that foyer I used a secret passageway Asher had shown ht me to my dormitory But Lia wasn't there She wasn't anywhere

”Lia Lia” I shouted hoarsely The ss My eyes I could hardly see

A distraction For so else It had to be The sandpit I didn't knohere else to go

I raced froeways Lia and I had taken every day to get to the Star Rooainst all of therain of sand Much less fight I was totally unprepared But I didn't care I couldn't afford to Lia neededcoures, I saw, as I entered the Star Room Lia was there with thehosts

Chapter 28 Last Rites

The Dioscuri were vampires But unlike any va incorporeal forrind like rusted gears

Lia was prostrate, red leather jacket covering her Wiccan Mark, over by the obelisk, so shemust have called to her The Dioscuri Like they had been calling to me for the past four months Like I was her The One But I wasn't I couldn't be It was Lia She was the reason they were all here Hundreds and hundreds of them

The Dioscuri hovered in mid-air and flew at me Time seemed to stand still I remembered a conversation I had had with Liabefore all this It was the night she and I had gone out with the Initiates, what seeo Roast chestnuts, I told oing on about, Initiation and so forth, and how it's supposed to be lineaged?” She quoted from the Head of House Ravenseal 'There re,'” she said

I made a face ”So what, Lia?” I said I wasn't exactly anxious to relive our tiether, now that ere on our way to becoed

”Soyou're linked, silly, to your mom and dad,” said Lia She made her Wiccan W and ordered three more chestnuts We took them with us and went for a walk around the fountain

”But who taught theh the stalls with her The rain was co down harder now, but we didn't care I let it soakhad et out

”Doesn't”It's like this One business We're all one Wicca That's what these people don't seeet Wiccans, the Mistresses, and so forth At least the ones I talked to They're in charge, but they have no courage It's no wonder there have been wars We don't listen to each other And I thought woood at that stuff With the Mistresses in charge, I think we're on our way to war, especially given this Chosen One business Seeeveryone wants to find her, for her powers”

”Which are?” I said

”No different than yours or ether,” said Lia, ”like the aether itself Like this ball of Light,” she said, popping it on ”I have been studying it, studying it, and I think it is this aetherical two-ness, this dichotomy, in all of us The Prime Mover may be able to manipulate the Wiccan World in weird and wonderful ways, but so can we Don't you get it? We are her You and I Whether ant to be or not, Halsey Rookh, I almost said witchI suppose makes us dark Perhaps we are at Oneness with the aether In which case, we are the One? Or so”

Her Zen-ness was on fire She wasshe was saying But I sort of did One of those rare occasions where the words were above my head but they made sense anyway

”Oh, and be careful of Julius Pendderwenn,” she said She shot her leather biker cuffs ”He's got rab you for his own”

She popped a roast chestnut in her ht overhead vanished They rushed at me, the Dioscuri Where they went, they seeht I was all alone in a sandpit with the out for me were like clahich broke upon s Body parts A head there; a lie ot too old? They were like ash And they were crawling inside of s

Lennox had said sootten it What was it? It was a different place A different ti back When I thought about him, I wanted him to, but I didn't know I hoped he did What could he really ith h?

I didn't know if he still loved me or not If I ever h I would put him to the test

I saw Lennox's moonlit eyes, fro in at o, it felt like anotherVeruschka Ravenseal had said

Ifat rota I didn't want to think about her ever again

We had lit a candle, Lennox and I Two tapers The Iron Roses He had been like iron, cold and aloof Part ofout for me That he really did care about me He was my Protector ”I am a vampire,” he seemed to say

It felt like memories hat I wished thee I colored theood for you,” he said to ht, my love I realizedI think I had always realizedthat vulnerability

”Halsey” he said ”The only thing that can hurthappened to you” It was like he was really there, standing in front of et it?” I said ”That is s, that you don't know about me I did not come directly to Rome I have secrets A past Like you But worse Besides Even if we have centuries, I will die And you will live Forever”

”A forever without you isn't living,” he said ”It's a slow, torturous existence, un-overco I want no part of it You are my life, now Without you, I would cease to be I would be one of the death Old as forever That is what happens to vaet too old”

I looked They were floating there, on the fringes ofspecters But I was still too busy with Lennoxlove

”You don't ever feel that way, do you?” I said ”That life isn't worth living?” I caressed his face withhim to look into my eyes

I didn't want Lennox to leave me, to abandon me, or to stuff me down the rota I wanted hiether

I could feel it suddenlythe sa to be sick

Perhaps we had been on an accelerated clock, the Initiates and I Lux must've known the Dioscuri were in town He had prepared us to meet them Otherwise, I told myself, he wouldn't have shown us the dark aether