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I felt drawn to Kalona from the first second I saw him, I said slowly I wouldn&039;t lie to Grand her the truth would be easy But als and even the vampyres were drawn to him--actually, it was like they were under some kind of spell he was able to cast Grandma nodded So I already heard from Stevie Rae But it was different with you? More than just this ical allure he has? Yeah

With me it wasn&039;t so much that I was under his spell I sed past the dryness inhe was Erebus come to earth, and I knew he planned evil with Neferet I saw his darkness But I also wanted to be with hiht still be able to choose to be good, but because I wanted hiainst that desire, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya

You chose your own path, that of love and goodness and your Goddess, and thus the creature was banished You chose love, she repeated slowly Let that be balht, panicky feeling in an to loosen I can follow my own path, I said withI was A-ya reincarnated Then I frowned There was no denying that she and I were connected Call it essence or soul or spirit or whatever--it tiedas surely as the earth had imprisoned him for centuries I&039;h with Kalona

What do I do, Grandma? Grandma took my hand in hers and squeezed As you said, you follow your path And right now that path is leading you to a soft, warm bed and a full day&039;s sleep One crisis at a ti at a time, she said And it&039;s tiela said as she bustled into the room with a Dixie cup of water in one hand and pills in another Grandma smiled wearily up at the nun and took theas she placed the pills on her tongue and drank the water Grand to let you rest now I love you, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya You did well today I couldn&039;t have done it without you

I love you, too, Grandma I bent and kissed her forehead, and as she closed her eyes and settled back against her pilloith a contented sela from the room and fired questions at her as soon as ere in the hall Did you find roo okay? Do you have a clue if Stevie Rae got Erik and Heath and whoever else together to check out the area around the abbey? Is everything safe out there? Sister Mary Angela held her hand up to stop my word flood Child, take a breath and let ed to stay quiet as I followed her down the hallhile she explained that she and the nuns had set up a cozy dors in the basement, after Stevie Rae had told her they&039;d bewas upstairs in the guest doriven an all clear on the Raven Mockers outside You know, you really are incredible I smiled at her as we paused outside a closed door at the end of a long hall Thank you I am my Lady&039;s servant, and you are most welcome, she said simply and held the door open for me This is the stairwell that leads down to the basement I&039;ve been told that most of the kids are down there already Zoey! There you are You have to come check this out You will not believe what Stevie Rae did, Damien said as he hurried up the stairs toward us I felt my stomach clench What? I irinned atIt&039;s incredible Daht about that, said Sister Mary Angela, co down the stairs after us But I think incredible is the wrong word for it Is the right word more like terrible or horrible? I asked

He squeezedsuch a worrier You beat Kalona and Neferet tonight; everything&039;s going to be okay I squeezed his hand back and h I knew deep in ht had not been an ending or even a victory It had been a terrible, horrible beginning

Wow I stared around in shocked disbelief Wow squared is more like it, Damien said Stevie Rae really did this? That&039;s what Jack told me, Damien said He and I stood side by side and peered into the darkness of the newly hollowed earth Okay--creepy

I spoke ave me an odd look What do you mean? Well, I paused, not entirely sure what I did h the tunnel definitely made me feel uneasy Uhed Of course it&039;s dark It&039;s supposed to be dark It&039;s a hole in the ground To round, said Sister Mary Angela as she joined us at the th For some reason it comforts me Perhaps it&039;s the way it smells The three of us sniffed I smelled, well, dirt But Damien said, It sreed

See, it&039;s not creepy, Z I&039;d definitely hide down here during a tornado, Da overly sensitive and kinda silly, I blew out a long breath and peered into the tunnel, trying to see it with new eyes and feel it with a ht for a second, Sister? Of course Sister Mary Angela handed ht she&039;d carried with us from the main basement into this little side section she&039;d called their root cellar The ice storm that had encased Tulsa for the past several days had knocked out the abbey&039;s power--as it had enerators, so in thewith the zillions of candles the nuns liked so much, but they hadn&039;t wasted electricity in the root cellar, and the only illuht

This I shined into the hole in the ground The tunnel wasn&039;t very big If I spread my arms, I could easily touch both sides of it I looked up It only clearedto find the sense of comfort the nun and Damien obviously felt My nose wrinkled The place reeked of dark and das that had been stirred up fros slithered and crawled, which automatically made my skin shiver and crawl Then I mentally shook ross? I had an affinity for earth I could conjure it I shouldn&039;t be afraid of it Gritting my teeth, I took one step into the tunnel Then another And another Hey, uh, Z, don&039;t go too far You have the only light, and I wouldn&039;t want Sister Mary Angela to be left back here in the dark She , turned around, shining the flashlight toward the entrance and illuela&039;s serene one You wouldn&039;t want the nun to be afraid of the dark? Daela rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment It is kind of you to think ofDa hit ed I kneasn&039;t alone in that tunnel anye to run--to get out of there as fast as I could and to never, ever coetting mad I&039;d just faced a fallen immortal--a creature I was connected to on a soul-deep level--and I hadn&039;t run then I wasn&039;t going to run now Zoey? What is it? Damien&039;s voice sounded far away as I whirled around to face the darkness

Suddenly a flickering light, like the glowing eye of an underground , but it was bright, te spots inme so that when I looked up therotesque Then I did what any sensible kid would do I sucked air and let loose with irl scream, which was instantly and creepily echoed by the three le-eyedbehind asp I was starting to do exactly what I&039;d just promised myself I wouldn&039;t do--run like hell, when one of the heads stopped screaht Shit, Zoey! What is wrong with you? It&039;s just the Twins and me You scared us crapless, said Aphrodite Aphrodite? My hand clutchedout ofpast rip The Tere still standing in the tunnel Erin was holding a thick pillar candle so tightly her knuckles hite

Shaunee was standing next to her, so close their shoulders were s-eyed Uh, hi, I said I didn&039;t know you guys were down here Shaunee thawed first Ya think? She wiped a shaking hand delicately across her forehead and turned to Erin Twin, did she scare me white? Erin blinked at her BFF I don&039;t think that&039;s possible She squinted at Shaunee But no, she didn&039;t You&039;re still a gorgeous cappuccino Erin&039;s hand that wasn&039;t holding the candle flew up to her thick, golden hair and patted through it frantically Did she ray? I frowned at the Twins Erin, your hair is not falling out or turning gray, and Shaunee, you cannot be scared white Jeesh, you guys scared me first, I said Look, next time you need to chase off Neferet and Kalona, just scream like that, Erin said Yeah, it makes you sound like you lost every bit of your damn mind, Shaunee said as they swept past me I followed the hiela had just finished crossing herself I set the flashlight butt end down on a table croith stuff in glass jars that looked eerily like floating fetuses in the uys doing down here? I said That Dallas kid told us this is how they got here from the depot, Shaunee said He said it was cool down here and that Stevie Rae had ht we&039;d come down here and see for ourselves, Shaunee said And why are you down here with the Twins? I asked Aphrodite The Dyna Naturally they turned to uys suddenly appear like that, anyway? Da could start Easy-peasy Erin walked quickly back down the tunnel, still carrying her candle She turned to face us after she&039;d gotten just a few feet farther in than I&039;d been The tunnel ht disappeared, then she stepped back and reappeared That&039;s e didn&039;t see each other till the last second It really is a that Stevie Rae somehow did this, Damien said I noticed he didn&039;t ht Sister Mary Angela approached the entrance She touched the side of the newly hollowed out hole with reverence and said, Stevie Rae did this, but she did it with pine intervention

By pine intervention,&039; are you talkin&039; &039;bout in-Mary-is-just-another- for from the other side of the root cellar made us all jump Yes, child That is exactly what I mean I don&039;t wanna off end you, but that&039;s just about the weirdest thing I&039;ve ever heard, Stevie Rae said She walked over to us, and I thought she looked pale As she got closer to rin e to her cute, fairl screarinning back at her I was inside the tunnel and I didn&039;t expect to run into the Twins and Aphrodite Well, that erthe opportunity to change the subject, I said, Uh, speaking of monsters, did you find any Raven Mockers left up there? Stevie Rae&039;s eyes shifted from mine It&039;s all safe Nothin&039; for you to worry about, she said quickly I&039; Those creatures were such an abo man and beast She shivered I&039;m relieved we are rid of them But it wasn&039;t their fault, Stevie Rae said abruptly Pardon me? The nun looked more than a little confused at Stevie Rae&039;s defensive tone

They didn&039;t ask to be born like they were--all mixed up because of rape and evil They really were victi why Stevie Rae sounded like she was standing up for the nasty Raven Mockers Damien shivered Do we have to talk about them? Nope, we sure don&039;t, Stevie Rae said quickly Good, and anyway, the reason I brought Zoey down here was to show her the tunnel you made, Stevie Rae I have to tell you--I think it&039;s astonishing Thanks, Daured out I could actually do it Stevie Rae took a few steps past me and into the mouth of the tunnel, where she was instantly surrounded by the total darkness that stretched behind her like the insides of a huge ebony snake

She raised her arainst the dirt walls of the tunnel Suddenly she reminded me of a scene from Samson and Delilah, an old e that flashed through my memory hen Delilah had led the blind Samson to stand between massive pillars that held up the stadiuotten histhe pillars apart and destroying hiht, Zoey? Huh? I blinked, disturbed by the sad, destructive scene I&039;d been reliving in my mind I said, Mary didn&039;t ave me did Jeesh, you&039;re not payin&039; attention to me at all, Stevie Rae said She&039;d taken her hands frooing on inside your head now? look Sorry, ere you saying about Nyx? Just that I really don&039;t think Nyx and the dang Virgin Mary have anything to do with each other; Jesus&039; mama definitely didn&039;t help ged a shoulder I don&039;t want to hurt your feelings or nothin&039; like that, Sister, but that&039;s what I think You&039;re entitled to your own opinion, Stevie Rae, said the nun, looking as cal you don&039;t believe in so doesn&039;t make it any less possible that it exists Well, I&039;ve been giving this soht, and personally I don&039;t find it such an odd hypothesis, Da Handbook 101, Mary is illustrated as one of the ave me a stern look that clearly said you really should be a better student before he nodded, and in his best schoolteacher voice continued, Yes It is well docu the influx of Christianity into Europe, shrines to Gaea, as well as Nyx, were converted to shrines for Mary long before people converted to the new

Daround as I peered into the tunnel The darkness was deep and thick Just inches behind Stevie Rae I could see nothing Absolutely nothing I stared, i could be lurking mere feet from us and we&039;d never know it, not if they didn&039;t want to be seen And that scared me Okay, but that&039;s ridiculous! I told myself It&039;s just a tunnel Still, my irrational fear pushed at me Which, sadly, pissed me off and made me want to push back So, like every moronic blond extra in a horror movie, I took one step into the darkness And then another The dark sed me My mind kneas only a couple of feet fro about religion and the Goddess But ainst my chest

My heart, my spirit,soundlessly for me to run! Get away! Go! I felt the pressure of the earth as if it wasn&039;t a hole in the ground, but instead it had filled in, coveringfaster and faster I knew I , but I couldn&039;t stop myself I wanted to back away from the hole that snaked away froe was a stumbled half step back I couldn&039;t hts sparkled in ray Then I was fallingfalling