Blood To Blood (18 page)

Backstage, Elio members
regarded us in awe as the crowd continued to chant our name under their
introduction. Bravely, Joy and her fellow band members went out to the stage
despite the fact the crowd still clamored for us.

Nina rushed toward us. “What
was that at the end? When did you rehearse that?”

LaLa glared at me. “We
didn't,” she said pointedly.

“Doesn't seem to matter, does
it?” Jules said to me. “It’s always about Angel.”

“I'm really sorry.” I
scrambled for the right words. “I got carried away.” It was a lame explanation
but I didn't know what else to say.

“Last time I checked,” LaLa
continued, “Kat
Trio
wasn't a solo act.”

That hurt. It seemed as if
everything the three of us had built together was falling apart, and from the
looks of what went down on stage, it could only get worse. I’d worked so hard
not to kill anyone with my voice, but ended up freezing everyone with it. There
was no hope for me. The girls’ reactions were nothing compared to what I was
about to face from Mom, not to mention the Council. I was done.

I threw up my hands in resignation
and turned back to Nina. I was ready to quit. But before I could tell her to
kick me out of the group, Nina smiled ear-to-ear. “Whatever that was, Angel,
you better keep doing it, because I've never seen a crowd react like that in my
entire career.”

Jules started to say
something, and then backed down as Nina continued to rave. “The crowd literally
went ballistic with that solo. I guarantee you the papers will have stellar
reviews tomorrow.”

One by one the members of our
backup band came up and shook my hand. I heard myself thanking them for being
on their toes and going with the flow. LaLa turned away, and the look on
Julietta's face said it all.

She looked betrayed.

A girl ran up to me. “You
Angel?” she asked breathlessly. Her heart hammered as if she’d run at top speed
to get to me.

“Who’re you?” I asked.

“I work for Charmain. She’s
asking you to her after-show party.”

“Me? What about my partners?”

“She just said you.”

“No thanks. Not without
them.” I tossed the words over my shoulder before turning my back to her. I
caught Julietta's look and it brought back every memory we shared, every gig,
every dream we shared, every defeat and embarrassment we'd ever suffered. She
wrapped her arms around me and I took in her sweet, delicious smell and hugged
her back as hard as I could without hurting her. LaLa wrapped her long arms
around the both of us and we stayed like that for a while. I knew I’d have to
pull away before my instincts got the better of me but for now, just for a few
brief seconds, I reveled in our bond.

A frenzied voice caught my
attention. Down the hall, hundreds of feet away in the green room, Raj
frantically called the car service and begged them to send the Hummer back to
collect us. The label execs had changed their minds, he explained, and were now
willing to pay more for the “new girls” now there was apparent star potential.

So, before the audience
erupted into pandemonium, the execs were okay with us finding our own way back
home. I held back a cynical snicker. Like Nina, the label execs saw dollar
signs in an audience manipulated from one side of the emotional spectrum to the
other. They didn’t understand the nature of the manipulation, but it didn’t
matter. As far as they were concerned, the results in the crowd could be
translated into sales. Soon they surrounded us, smiling and circling like
sharks smelling blood in the water. They shook Nina's hand while regarding us
with flashing teeth. I hugged my girls closer and wondered who was scarier, the
mortals or the immortals.

The sight of Dad, Mom, and
Cici striding toward me answered that naive question right away. I excused
myself and walked with my family to an empty side hallway off the main
corridor. Cici handed me a thermos. I drank and opened my mind to allow her to
see everything that happened while I was on stage. Seconds later, Dad joined my
sister in gawking at me as if I'd just committed a terrorist act.

Mom was the odd man out.
“What?” she asked. All she had to go on were the looks on our faces to know
something massive had happened. Dad whispered rapidly in her ear. Her face
registered bewilderment. “How do you know they were Council members and why
were they the only ones not affected by the time freeze?” she asked.

I couldn't say why. I literally
couldn't speak the words or show them with my thoughts anything that had to do
with the Lady. It was as if there was a spell on me that prevented me from
talking about her. “I can't say,” I answered.

Mom exhaled and then squared
her shoulders with an air of resolution. “Your Mahá is now more crucial and we
must start it as soon as possible,” she answered. “If, at your Mahá, you are
branded a threat, the verdict will be passed. There would be nothing I can do
to save you. For now, I will do damage control to stop the momentum of backlash
that is sure to be brewing as we speak.”

And with that she
disappeared. All I could do was gulp.

“This is grave news,” Dad
said to me in a gentle tone, “and I am sorry you are hearing this on what
should be one of the best nights of your life.”

“She reversed the freeze!”
Cici’s voice sounded an octave higher than usual. “That must count for
something in her favor.” He sadly shook his head “no.”

“What is most frustrating is
we cannot assist you with this,” he said. “You will have to reign it in on your
own so that your Mahá will find you able to turn it on and off at will.
Otherwise, the consequences will be death for you. And possibly us for aiding
and abetting.”

I felt sick. After all that
we had been through, I ended up putting my family at risk anyway, and in a
worse way than I could ever imagine. Was there no one who could help me? Help
us?

“Mahá will last about five to
seven mortal days,” Dad said. “Unfortunately, you’ll have to be absent from
school.” Well, at least there was
some
light in this tunnel. “We’ll tell
everyone that you’re on a family trip,” he added. “One designed to give you a
chance to rest after all the excitement you have had recently.”

“Great, everyone’s going to
think I had a nervous breakdown.”

“It’ll explain that scary
solo,” Cici pointed out.

Whatever. I didn’t want Mahá;
I just wanted to work on the tracks and see Sawyer again. But now it looked
like I might die before getting a chance to do either. Through a red haze, I
swore that if I saw the Lady again, I’d be ready to use my power to protect my
family and put an end to her threat.

T
he next morning we were at the Mahá
house. “
Your
house,” Cici reminded me. We were sitting on the
double-spiral staircase that opened to the grand foyer. I looked around, still
amazed. With twenty-six bedrooms and Victorian architectural details, including
a tower and turrets, it was more a mansion than a house.

Mom stood with PE’s Head of
Decor and watched a couple of the mortal employees hang an enormous, cross-like
object above the main entrance. I looked to Cici.
That's the Yah.
The
official living symbol of our house as law for this Mahá. It’s a scary ancient
thing. If a guest breaks the Law of the Mahá house, it’s the same as dissing
the Yah. If you diss the Yah, it can somehow kill you with permission from the
owner of the house.

Diss the Yah. Die. Got it.

Nearby, Dad was talking in
Mandarin to an immaculately dressed Asian woman. “Who’s that?” I asked.

“An old friend of Dad’s and
your personal stylist for the Mahá. She’ll make sure your makeup, jewelry,
scent, hair will be perfect.”

A girl about my age bounced
over, carrying a makeup case.  “I'm Demeter, your makeup artist!” she
trilled.

“Hi…”

“I’m your biggest fan!” She
smiled widely, as if she wanted to say more, but Mandarin Woman laid a hand on
her arm. “Well, nice meeting you, Angelika!” she said before being led away.

“RoRo!” Cici yelled suddenly.
Without thinking, she flew out the door. The mortals in the room stood
dumbfounded at what they’d just witnessed. Dad nodded at his apprentice Eric,
who rapidly went to each one and touched them with a crooked wand I call “the
erase stick.” As soon as I knew they had all forgotten what happened during the
last one or two minutes, I went down to greet my oldest sister.

Of all of us, Aurora was
probably the most aptly named. Her personal radiance competed with the sunlight
streaming through the windows. Her smile was brilliant as she rushed to hug
everyone. Her waist-length beaded braids jingled like bells as she stroked my
hair and face. “You have grown so beautifully,” she said in a perfect, formal
European accent. Her mate, Roman (they didn't use the mortal terms of husband
and wife) came in, carrying their suitcases. He was one of those chilly
vampires that walk in the sunlight.

Technically, he didn't have
to be here, since Mahá is just for natural-born immortals, but he and Aurora
never traveled apart from each other if they didn't have to. He was protective
of her, and drawn by her innate warmth. She was addicted to his particular type
of wildness and cold, deadly nature. It was a match made in heaven. He greeted
us all with his thick Russian accent.

Suddenly, I was forcefully
pushed from behind. Taken off-guard, I forgot Mom's charm-school lesson and
broke into a low snarl as I whipped around.

Nobody was there...but there
was the faint outline of a tall, masculine person...

“Adrian, cut it out,” Cici
chided.

My brother appeared out of
invisible mode. “Idiot!” I said, hugging his massive frame. He was my only
non-Shimshana sibling, but he could change into any existing animal he wanted.
At five hundred and eighty-one years of age, he was also still single, probably
because he’d just returned from spending the last seventy years living as a
turtle.

My oldest siblings, twin
brothers Menelik and Memnon, arrived wrapped in flowing black robes. Silent and
sullen, they looked as if they still lived in another millennium. I had met
them briefly as a baby and now, at one thousand, eight hundred fifty-one years
of age, they looked exactly the same as they had then. They moved as one
person, and although they themselves were telepathically linked, they were not
telepaths. They both knelt at Mom’s feet.

“D'qatsmaa Aemeh,” they said
in stereo.

Aramaic for “divine
mother.” They’re stuck in the past
.
They were traumatized when Tunde killed their Dad.

Their eyes rested on me. “Um,
hi,” I said awkwardly.

“Hi,” they repeated the word
back before they turned to look at each other with what looked like
astonishment.

“I designed a family wing for
us,” Cici told everyone. “Staff will help you settle in. The commencement
ritual starts in an hour.” The staff hustled their luggage away to the service
elevator and led them all up the main staircase.

Cici turned to me. “And as
for you, it's time you got ready.” With that, she guided me to my private
suite.

It was huge. A panel of
windows and French doors faced the east and overlooked the Pacific Ocean. The
bed was a canopy style (I’d always wanted one of those) with a wrought iron
headboard featuring vines and angel faces. It was very elaborate, like
something I'd seen on TV, and all the bedding was white and fluffy. There was
an altar along the western wall, it was enclosed in an intricately carved
cabinet that now had its doors flung open.

“Whoa,” was all I could say.
Cici held herself proudly as I explored the room. It was three times the size
of my bedroom at home. A small row of high, cross-shaped portholes let in
natural light and fresh sea air. But it was the collection of clothes that
knocked me for a loop. In the equally large dressing room, one entire wall was
nothing but shoes from top to bottom. Attached to the walls were sliding
ladders for easy access to the upper shelves.

“They're separated by color
and function,” Cici offered. “You've got your kicks here, heels, flip-flops for
the beach party, slides...This wall over here is all ceremonial and ritual gear.”

There were long flowing
traditional garments and capes. One in particular caught my eye, and I
recognized the midnight blue fabric Mom had picked out. I ran my hand along its
exquisite purple, gold, and silver embroidery. There was even a section of jewelry,
and some of it looked very old. Amulets, headdresses, bracelets, rings,
necklaces. My head was spinning.

“This wall over here is
non-ceremonial clothing,” Cici said while pointing to sections with dresses,
drawers full of cool comfortable underthings, bikinis, t-shirts, shorts,
skirts.

“I feel like I'm in a store.
Am I really going to wear all this stuff?”

“You're sure gonna try,” Cici
said while pulling out a white dress. “Jump in the shower. There's a special
soap in there. Make sure the water's really hot to open up your pores.”