Carpathian 20 - Dark Slayer

away the evil of Xavier’s ritual, adding to their protection and exorcising the high mage’s abominations, consecrating and strengthening the potency of her ritual. She handed the incense to Natalya, who remained in the southern corner.
    Natalya braced herself, but there was no preparing for her brother’s face when she looked at him and saw— vampire .
    She gasped as the scales fell from her eyes and she saw inside him, past the illusion to his true nature. Deceiver. Flesh eater.
    Laughing as they tortured the infants. She needed to stop him.
    Drinker of his own children’s blood. What had possessed her to believe in him again? She cried out in fear and anger at yet another heartbreaking deception at the hands of her twin.
    Vikirnoff hissed with fear for her, his hand going to his sword. It was his brother, Nicolae, who restrained him with a hand over his sword.
    â€œWhatever you are seeing, I do not,― he said.

    â€œNatalya,― Razvan said gently. “See me.―
    His words, spoken in a calm command, dispelled the ugly illusion. Vikirnoff let out his breath and inclined his head in thanks to Nicolae.
    For a moment, Ivory’s trembling hand hovered between two stones: moonstone, one of her favorites, and her bright red piece of precious coral, straight from the sea. The coral was an umbrella piece with fine jagged crevices, without a single chip or break. The piece symbolized life and blood force, and sheltered those from evil with its protection. Not really stone, the coral was made up of many skeletons of creatures from the sea itself, but it could be used for good since the piece was found on a long-ago beach, the life already morphed into a healing, protective element. She placed the coral in the western corner.
    I
    call
    to
    the
    west,
    bring
    forth
    your
    breath ,
    Let the rains fall, clear and clean .
    She bowed to the west and again made the sign of the cross before she sketched the fleur-de-lis into the sky, the symbol of purity, representing the three who were one, removing the abomination that Xavier had sketched before, a symbol of hatred and depravity.

    The incense she chose was a mixture of lily and lilac mixed for protection and purity. She handed the stick to Shea, who braced herself in her position in the western corner.
    She looked down at the hand holding the incense and saw her mother’s hand withering, fading, the flesh shrinking, thinner and thinner, the voices around her stilling until there was silence—the silence of her childhood. Long, endless days of hiding in a tomblike house, the sun burning her skin, the small child huddled in the corner trying to find enough food to feed her shrunken stomach.
    â€œMy love,― Jacques whispered aloud. “I am with you.―
    Keep going, Ivory. I know you are doubting yourself, but the tide is turning. You are not harming these women or these infants.
    This evil must be stopped , Razvan encouraged.
    Ivory’s gaze shifted to him, to his beloved face. Her strength. His belief in her allowed her to continue. She straightened her shoulders and looked in her silken pouch for the last stone.
    For her fourth and final stone, Ivory chose a stone whose powerful magic was often used to aid childbirth and fertility as well as for protection. Golden amber, believed to bind earth, fire, air and water, but also highly symbolic of Mother Earth.

    Amber, really a fossilized resin, was deep antique gold in color and seemed almost alive with its light. Her stone contained a completely formed honeybee in the exact center. The wings were outspread and the bee was a thousand years old. This particular chunk was her favorite. With great respect she placed the amber in the northern corner.
    I call to the north, upon the earth, who can be reborn .
    I seek to undo this thing .
    She bowed to the north, and drew the sign of the cross into the floor, in the exact position where Xavier had poured his concoction of heart’s blood, evil and hatred in his black circle. She lit another stick of incense, this time using a precious frankincense and myrrh, a powerful combination for purification and protection. Syndil took the potent incense and remained in the north corner.
    Syndil knew what was coming and closed her eyes as her lost brother-kin’s face floated in front of her, filling her mind.
    Savon reached for her, tearing with greedy fingers at her clothes, slamming his body