Then they dropped their purses on the ground and turned to face the wall, and Lynette gasped softly beside her. She didn’t blame her handmaid. She’d never seen anything like it, either. Neferet looked more intently at the women’s faces, trying to understand what she saw there.
The young women were obviously human. They had none of the signs that bespoke vampyre. Their eyes were the muted colors of human eyes and not the more brilliant orbs of vampyre eyes, which enabled them to see so well in the dark. They were attractive, but not otherworldly so. Their fingernails were well groomed but not particularly sharp and obviously not capable of slicing skin to allow them a sip of blood.
Still, Neferet sniffed the air. Yes, their scent was definitely human.
But then, how had these women come to have Marks on their foreheads? Neferet peered closer. Each of them had painted on their foreheads an unusual Mark. In black, thick and dark as kohl, they had drawn the triple moon sign—a full moon in the middle flanked by two crescents. The Marks did not extend down their faces as would a true vampyre Mark. Instead, across their eyes they’d also painted a thick line of black that made them look like they were wearing masks.
The women lifted the hoods of their capes so that their faces were obscured just enough that they could be mistaken for ancient priestesses. Then they carried the tea lights and the small offerings to the wall, lighting them and tucking them into the small niches and dips in the stone. They bowed their heads and clasped their hands like they were at Saturday mass, lighting and leaving candles to the Virgin Mary.
“They worship Neferet,” Lynette whispered.
“Which means they are our allies and exactly what we need until I can discover how to break that seal and free her.” Neferet stroked a tendril fondly. “Darling children, cloak yourselves. Do not let these humans see you.” The tendrils disappeared. “Lynette, stand behind me, there—in the mist—so that they see only me.”
“Be careful,” Lynette murmured while she did as her mistress commanded. “Remember there are cameras around the grotto.”
Neferet nodded. She smoothed her form-fitting black sweater and stood straight and proud, shoulders back, head high. Then she flicked her long, elegant fingers at the grotto. “Cover the tomb, but part before me.”
The fog swirled, wafting up and over the wall of the tomb in a thick wave of gray.
“This is super freaky weather,” said one of the women as all five stepped back and the mist billowed in front of them.
Neferet cleared her throat and the five hooded figures turned their heads in unison. As one, their eyes widened in shock. Neferet wished she could see herself at that moment through their eyes. She must look magnificent, seeming to materialize from the fog before them.
The young woman wearing the purple cloak opened her mouth, but Neferet shook her head and pressed her finger to her lips before pointing up at the fog-shrouded cameras. Then she crooked her finger, motioning for the women to come closer. They did without hesitation.
The women stopped before Neferet. The vampyre flicked her fingers again, as she imagined the fog closing behind them to conceal them more completely, which it obediently did.
“Now, you may worship me,” Neferet said.
The five women dropped to their knees as they stared in adoration up at her.
This world’s Stark was right, Neferet thought. All five of these humans are easy prey, and lucky that it is me they kneel before and not the ravenous goddess within the tomb.
2
Other Lynette
“How quaint! You’re cloaked and kneeling. What an unexpected, lovely welcome.” Neferet spoke magnanimously to the five young women, though Lynette noted that she paused for several silent minutes before she continued. “You may rise. And remove your cowls. I wish to see those who worship me.”
The five women stood and hastily swept back the hoods of their velvet cloaks. Lynette was behind and to the side of Neferet. None of them so much as glanced her way. Completely unnoticed, she studied the first humans she’d seen from this new world.
They were young—probably very early twenties at most—and pretty in the Oklahoma/Texas variety of beauty pageant attractive. They were all blond, though Lynette’s keen observation told her that at most only two of the five had been born that way.
Before they’d cloaked themselves, Lynette had already noticed their clothes—expensive, and tiptoeing that fine line between overtly sexual and tasteful. Had she dressed them, the only thing she would’ve changed was their stiletto boots. Too inconvenient for walking in grass. Each of them wore their hair long and big, bringing to mind the saying that must be the same in both worlds, the bigger the hair—the closer to God, and Okies definitely liked to be close to God. Or in this case Goddess.
The one wearing the purple spirit cape spoke first. “Neferet, our Goddess of Tulsa, we—your Dark Sisters—are honored that you have appeared to us. Blessed be!” She fisted her hand over her heart, mimicking a vampyre saluting a High Priestess.
“What is your name?” Neferet asked.
“I am Vanessa, leader of the Dark Sisters,” she said.
“Tell me, Vanessa, what is a Dark Sister?”
“Us!” Vanessa said with a smile that exposed perfect teeth that must have cost her father a fortune. “I started our coven a year ago. You know. After what they did to you.” She ended the sentence in an affected whisper.
“Yes, well, that does not actually answer my question, but I shall set it aside for now. Introduce the rest of your sisters.”
Vanessa gestured to each young woman in turn. “Jenna is air. Amber is fire. Kelsey is water. Jordan is earth. And I, of course, am spirit.”
Neferet cocked her head to the side. “Do any of you truly have an affinity for your element?”
They looked confused, and then Amber, wearing the red cloak that signified fire, spoke up. “Well, uh, yeah. I mean, I’ve always felt, like, seriously connected to fire.”
Vanessa nodded. “It’s true. Each of us chose the element we’re closest to. I’ve always been the leader. So, naturally, I am spirit.”
“Oh,” Neferet said. “Naturally.”
Lynette had to press her lips together so that she didn’t laugh. These girls had no clue what Neferet was really asking. Unlike the clueless girls, she’d spent enough time in the employ of vampyres to know the difference between a true affinity and OMG I love fire.
Completely missing the sarcasm in Neferet’s voice, Vanessa continued. “The five of us have pledged ourselves to your service.”
“Why?”
Neferet’s one-word question seemed to suspend in the fog that surrounded them. The girls blinked in confusion, sharing glances. Lynette was sure she saw the earth girl and the water girl roll their eyes, but when Vanessa spoke it was with complete sincerity.