Destined (2 page)

“Is they horns? Ah, hell no! I’m outta here.” The third man turned and scurried back the way he had come. The other two began to back slowly away, eyes wide, shocked and staring.

Aurox looked to Priestess. “What is your command?” In some distant part of his mind, he wondered at the sound of his voice—how it had become so guttural, so bestial.

“Their pain makes you stronger.” Priestess looked pleased. “And
different, more fierce.
” She looked at the two retreating men and her full upper lip lifted in a sneer. “Isn’t that interesting … Kill them.”

Aurox moved so quickly the nearest man had no chance to escape. He gored him through his chest, lifting him so that he writhed and shrieked and soiled himself.

This made Aurox even more powerful.

With a mighty toss of his head, the skewered man flew into the building to land, crumpled and silent, beside the first man.

The other man didn’t run away. Instead he pulled out a long, dangerous looking knife and charged at Aurox.

Aurox feinted to the side and then, when the man overcompensated, he stomped a cloven hoof through his foot, ripping off his face as the man fell forward.

Breathing hard, Aurox stood over the bodies of his vanquished enemies. He turned to Priestess.

“Very good,” she said in her emotionless voice. “Let us leave this place before the authorities descend.”

Aurox followed her. He walked heavily, his hoofs gouging furrows in the dirty alley. He fisted his claws at his side as he tried to make sense of the emotional storm that flowed through his body, taking with it the power that had fueled his battle frenzy.

Weak. He felt weak. And more. There was something else.

“What is it?” she snapped at him when he hesitated before entering the car again.

He shook his head. “I do not know. I feel—”

She laughed. “You don’t
feel
at all. You’re obviously overthinking this. My knife doesn’t feel. My gun doesn’t feel. You’re my weapon; you kill. Deal with it.”

“Yes, Priestess.” Aurox got in the car and let the world speed past him.
I do not think. I do not feel. I am a weapon.

Aurox

“Why are you standing here
looking
at me?” Priestess asked him, staring at him with eyes of green ice.

“I await your command, Priestess,” he said automatically, wondering how it was possible to have displeased her. They had just returned to her lair at the top of the magnificent building called Mayo. Aurox had walked to the balcony and simply stood there, quietly, gazing at Priestess.

She blew out a long breath. “I have no command for you at this moment. And must you always stare at me?”

Aurox looked away, focusing on the lights of the city and how they glittered alluringly against the night sky.

“I await your command, Priestess,” he repeated.

“Oh, by all the gods! Who would have known the Vessel created for me would be as mindless as he is beautiful?”

Aurox felt the change in the atmosphere before Darkness materialized from smoke and shadow and night.

“Mindless, beautiful, and deadly…”

The voice rang in his head. The enormous white bull formed fully before him. His breath was fetid, yet sweet. His gaze was horrible and wonderful at the same time. He was mystery and magick and mayhem together.

Aurox dropped to his knees before the creature.

“Get off your knees. Get up and go back there…” She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture toward the shadows that edged the far recesses of the rooftop.

“No, I’d rather he stayed. I enjoy gazing on my creations.”

Aurox didn’t know what to say. This creature commanded his attention, but Priestess commanded his body.

“Creation
s
?” Priestess put a special emphasis on the last part of the word as she moved languidly toward the massive bull. “Do you often make gifts like this to your followers?”

The bull’s laughter was terrible, but Aurox noticed Priestess didn’t flinch at all—that instead she seemed to be drawn closer and closer to the creature as he spoke.

“How interesting! You are actually questioning me. Are you jealous, my heartless one?”

Priestess stroked the bull’s horn. “Do I need to be?”

The bull nuzzled her. Where his muzzle touched Priestess the silk of her gown shriveled, exposing smooth, naked flesh underneath.

“Tell me, what do you believe is the purpose of my gift to you?”
The bull answered Priestess’s question with one of his own.

Priestess blinked and shook her head, as if she was confused. Then her gaze found Aurox, still on his knees. “My lord, his purpose is protection, and I am ready to do as you bid to thank you for him.”

“I will accept your lush offerings, but I must explain to you that Aurox is not simply a weapon of protection. Aurox has one purpose, and that is to create chaos.”

Priestess inhaled a deep, shocked breath. She blinked rapidly, and her gaze went from the bull to him, and then returned to the bull.

“Truly?” she asked in a soft, reverent voice. “Through this one creature I can command chaos?”

The bull’s white eyes were like a sick, setting moon.
“Truly. He is, indeed, one creature, but his power is vast. He has the ability to leave disaster in his wake. He is the Vessel that is the manifestation of your deepest dreams, and are they not for utter and complete chaos?”

“Yes, oh yes,” Priestess breathed the words. She leaned against the bull’s neck, stroking his side.

“Ah, and what is it you will do with chaos now that it is at your command? Will you take down the cities of humans and rule as vampyre queen?”

Priestess’s smile was beautiful and horrible. “Not queen. Goddess.”

“Goddess? But there is a Goddess of Vampyres. You know that all too well. You used to be in her service.”

“You mean Nyx? The Goddess who allows her minions free choice and a will of their own? The Goddess who will not intercede because she believes so strongly in the myth of freewill?”

Aurox thought he could hear a smile in the beast’s voice, and wondered how that was possible.
“I do mean Nyx, Goddess of Vampyres and Night. Would you use chaos to challenge her?”

“No. I would use chaos to defeat her. What if chaos threatens the very fabric of the world? Would Nyx not step in and defy her own rules to save her children? And by doing so wouldn’t the Goddess rescind her edict that grants humans freewill and betray herself? What would happen then to her divine reign if Nyx changes what is destined to be?”

“I cannot say, as that has never before happened.”
The bull snorted as if in amusement.
“But it is a surprisingly interesting question—and you know how much I enjoy being surprised.”

“I only hope that I can continue to surprise you over and over again, my lord.”

“Only is such a small word…”
the bull said.

Aurox continued to kneel on the rooftop long after Priestess and the bull had departed, leaving him discarded and forgotten. He stayed where he had been left, staring up at the sky.

CHAPTER TWO

Zoey

“A short bus? Really?” All I could do was shake my head and stare at the squatty yellow thing that said
HOUSE OF NIGHT
in fresh black letters across its side. “I mean, it’s nice that my call to Thanatos worked so fast and we’re being allowed to go back to school, but
a short bus
?”

“Twin! They sent the retard bus for us!” Erin said, giggling.

“Twin, that’s really mean,” Shaunee said.

“I know, Twin. I can’t believe Neferet’s so f-ing evil she sent the retard bus for us,” Erin continued.

“No, I don’t mean Neferet’s being mean. I mean it’s mean to say
retard,
” Shaunee explained, rolling her eyes at her Twin.

“I think Shaunee’s correct,
and
you should consider expanding your vocabulary. You’re using
mean
too many times; it’s redundant,” Damien said.

Shaunee, Erin, Stevie Rae, Rephaim, and I stared wide-eyed at Damien. I knew we were all thinking it was great to hear him obsessing about vocabulary again, but we didn’t want to say anything because we were all scared he might burst into tears and retreat back into the soggy depression that had been haunting him since Jack’s death.

Aphrodite and Darius chose that moment to emerge from the depot’s basement and as per usual, Aphrodite bridged the gap between decorum and disaster by invoking her one tried and true rule: Care About How It Looks.

“Oh, for shit’s sake. I’m not getting in
that
. The short bus is for ’tards,” Aphrodite said with a snort and a hair toss.

“Y’all, it’s not that bad. I mean, obviously it’s a new bus. Check out the fresh black House of Night lettering,” Stevie Rae said.

“It might as well say Social Suicide,” Aphrodite said, frowning at Stevie Rae.

“I’m not lettin’ you rain on my parade. I
like
school,” Stevie Rae said. She stepped up into the bus, grinning at the Son of Erebus Warrior who had, unsmilingly, opened the door for her.

“Priestess.” He greeted her somberly with a nod, and then, totally ignoring our own Son of Erebus Warrior, Darius, he looked at me and, with even a more clipped nod said, “Zoey, I am to notify you and Stevie Rae that there will be a school Council Meeting, which will convene in a thirty minutes. You are both to attend.”

“Okay, well, Stark’s letting everyone else know you’re here, so we’ll be ready to leave in just a sec,” I said, smiling at him like his face didn’t look like a storm cloud.

“Hey, y’all, it still smells new!” Stevie Rae yelled. I could see her short blond curls bobbing as she gawked around inside. Then she popped back out and skipped down the stairs to take Rephaim’s hand and grin up at him. “Wanna sit in the backseat with me? It’s real bouncy!”

“Seriously,” Aphrodite said. “That bus is perfect for you; you’re a retard. And I hate to be the one to break it to you—oh wait, that’s a lie; I don’t really hate it—but even though the Vamp High Council has clearly put the pressure on Neferet and forced her to bus us back to the House of Night, birdboy is still not welcome there. Did you forget in the afterglow of whatever you two could have been doing in the one-point-two seconds between sunset and now that he wasn’t a bird?”

I saw Stevie Rae tighten her hand clamp on Rephaim. “I’ll have you know it’s been more than one-point-two seconds since sunset, none of your business what we’ve been doin’,
and
Rephaim’s goin’ to school. Just like the rest of us.”

Aphrodite’s blond brows went up to her hairline. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

“No,” Stevie Rae said firmly. “And you should understand that better than anyone else.”

“Me? Understand? What in the hell are you talking about?”

“You’re not a fledgling, red or regular. You’re not a vampyre. You’re maybe not even a human.”

“’Cause she’s a hag,” I heard Shaunee whisper.

“From Hell,” Erin whispered back.

Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at the Twins, but Stevie Rae wasn’t done.

“Just like Rephaim, you’re something that’s not quite normal, but Nyx has given her blessing to you—
even
if none of the rest of us understands why the heck she’d do that. Anyway, you’re goin’ to school. I’m goin’ to school. So’s Rephaim. The end.”

“Stevie Rae has a point,” Stark said as he joined us in the parking lot outside the depot, the rest of the red fledgling kids trailing along behind him. “Neferet’s not gonna like it, but Nyx forgave and blessed Rephaim.”

“In front of the entire school,” Stevie Rae added quickly.

“They know that,” Rephaim murmured to her. He looked from her to the rest of us, his gaze finally settling on me. “What do you think?” he surprised me by asking. “Should I try to go to the House of Night, or would that just be causing trouble for no reason?”

Everyone gawked at me. With a quick glance at the stony-faced Son of Erebus Warrior in the bus, I said, “Uh, would you guys go ahead and get on the bus? I need to talk to my … uh…” I trailed off with a gesture that took in Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, and the rest of my closest friends.

“Your circle,” Stevie Rae said, smiling at me. “You’re goin’ to talk to your circle.”

“And their accoutrements,” Damien added, nodding at Aphrodite, Darius, and Kramisha.

I grinned. “I like that! Okay, would you guys get on the bus while I talk to my circle and their accoutrements, please?”

“I ain’t sure I like being called
accoutrements,
” Kramisha said, narrowing her eyes at me.

“It means—” Stevie Rae began, but Kramisha interrupted her with a shake of her head. “I know what it mean. I’m sayin’ I ain’t sure I like it.”

“Could you journal about it later and right now shut up and follow Zoey so we can get this over with?” Aphrodite said while Kramisha sucked air and glared. “And for the record,” she pointed at everyone except Darius. “You are a Nerd Herd. I am your token Popular and Perfect.”

The Twins looked like they were taking verbal aim at Aphrodite so I said, “Guys, focus. Rephaim’s question is important.” Thankfully, that shut everyone up and I motioned for my circle, accoutrements, and Aphrodite to follow me down the sidewalk and out of hearing range as the red fledglings clambered into the bus and I frantically tried to think about Rephaim’s very important question.

My mind felt mushy. Last night had been awful. I glanced at Stark and felt my cheeks getting warm. Okay, well, not all of it had been awful, but still, hard questions filled my head. I mentally shook myself. I wasn’t just a kid anymore. I was the first Fledgling High Priestess and all these guys looked up to me and expected me to Know the Right Answers (well, to everything except geometry, Spanish translations, and parallel-parking issues).

Please, Nyx, let me say the right thing.
I sent up a quick, silent prayer, then met Rephaim’s gaze and realized suddenly it wasn’t
my
answer we needed.