“I’m ready. Okay, so, what happened to me? Well, I—!” Kevin’s words broke off in a terrible gasp. It felt like Anastasia was pouring liquid fire on his back and he had to struggle to stay conscious.
“Breathe, u-we-tsi. Breathe. Deeply, in and out, in and out. This will pass,” Grandma soothed as she blotted his back.
Kevin fisted his hands and drew several long breaths with his g-ma.
“And now I will begin the sewing. The good news is that this is a long, straight wound. You’ll have a scar, but it should heal well.”
“It beats losing my head,” Kevin managed through gritted teeth.
When she started sewing he thought he was going to pass out—wished he would pass out, but when he didn’t, Kevin turned his concentration to his story and tried to pretend he was outside his body, standing beside Dragon, looking out at the cold winter night as he spoke.
“Three nights ago, I was part of a group of red vampyre soldiers and fledgling trainees who were pulled from our quarters in the tunnels under the depot and dropped into an alternative world.” Kevin had to pause and draw several breaths as the pain in his back threatened to overwhelm him.
“What do you mean by alternative world?” Dragon said.
“That world is just like this one, only Neferet isn’t in charge there. My sister is.”
Anastasia’s busy hands paused. “Zoey?”
“You knew my sister?”
“I did. She was a lovely young woman. She was only in my Spells and Rituals class a few weeks before she was killed, but she already showed promise with spellwork. You remember her, do you not, Bryan?”
“I remember that her death was the official beginning of Neferet’s war,” Dragon said.
“Neferet killed her,” Kevin said.
“How do you know that?” Dragon asked sharply.
“Because in the other House of Night world, Neferet tried to start a war with humans the same way—by framing humans for vampyre deaths she was actually responsible for.”
“And your dead sister told you that?” Dragon said.
“No, my alive sister told me that—at the Tulsa House of Night where she is one of several powerful High Priestesses who run everything. Zo and her group defeated Neferet and stopped the war from happening.”
“Boy, you just made your first mistake. Their number is few, but we do have spies in the Red Army camp. I can check with them about this disappearance yarn you’re spinning.”
“Good,” Kevin said between gritted teeth as Anastasia hooked the needle through another piece of his torn flesh. “I want you to. Have your people ask what happened to General Dominick and his soldiers.”
“I will. You may count on that.”
“Good,” Kevin repeated.
“But until then, let’s say I believe you. How did being pulled into another version of our world restore your humanity?”
“It was something Nyx did after she gifted Aphrodite with the ability to grant second chances.”
“Aphrodite?” Dragon laced the name with sarcasm. “You mean the blue priestess who has death visions?”
“That’s her. Only in that world she’s a Prophetess of Nyx who is as powerful as she is beautiful.”
Dragon scoffed. “Well, in this world she’s practically useless, unless you’re so besotted by her beauty that you can overlook her selfish indulgences and petty greed.”
“But even here she’s a Prophetess,” Kevin said.
“She’s a Prophetess who has visions she can rarely interpret. Even before Anastasia and I fled to join the Resistance there were rumblings that Neferet was displeased with her.”
“And why wouldn’t she be?” Anastasia said as she continued to sew sutures along Kevin’s back. “I loathe everything Neferet stands for, but Aphrodite is a terrible Prophetess. She uses her beauty and her Goddess-given gift to manipulate. I truly believe she withholds information from her visions unless she believes she can gain from them. I don’t understand why Neferet doesn’t rid herself of the creature.”
“I do. Aphrodite is a master at knowing how far she can push Neferet. When she’s pushed too far, Aphrodite simply has a vision that is suddenly clear enough to interpret, and that coincidental vision is also of high value to Neferet,” Dragon said.
“She’s different in the other world,” Kevin insisted. “She sacrificed her humanity to save the first red fledglings. And since then, in that world, every red fledgling and vampyre has the ability to maintain their humanity. All because of Aphrodite.”
“And because of that difference, Kevin believes he can reach the Aphrodite who is in this world and convince her to make the same sacrifice,” Grandma Redbird added.
There was a long silence during which Kevin tried to think through the blazing pain in his back for something more—something that would convince Dragon that he was telling the truth.
When Dragon spoke again, Kevin heard the change in his voice. It was only slight, but some of the sarcasm and anger seemed to be missing. “What makes you think Aphrodite is reachable? The Prophetess you describe has little in common with the one in our world.”
“Because even in another world, who we are at our core seems not to change too much. The only difference is that we have been through alternative life experiences, which have the power to change our personalities and our reactions,” Kevin said. “Zoey told me to find you and Anastasia in this world. She said you would help me defeat Neferet because you helped her in that world.”
“Are Bryan and I mated in that world too?”
Kevin considered not telling her, but he rejected that thought quickly. The truth was one of the few strengths he had, and he wasn’t about to start lying and messing that up.
“You were,” he told Anastasia.
“Were?” Dragon said.
“You were killed. I’m not sure how. Zoey didn’t have time to tell me that. Only that you died bravely saving others.”
“We both are dead?” Anastasia’s voice sounded shaky.
“Yes. I’m sorry,” Kevin said.
Anastasia’s bloody hand rested gently on his shoulder for a moment. “Don’t be. If my Bryan perished, I would not wish to live without him.”
“And I would not draw breath in a world without you, my love,” Dragon said.
From the corner of his eye, Kevin saw Anastasia turn and look up at her mate. “And it is your capacity to love that makes you more than your sword—more than a dragon. Think of it, Bryan. If it is true—if Kevin can reach Aphrodite and convince her to repeat whatever it was she did in that other world—Neferet’s war would be drastically changed.”