House of Night 09 - Destined

Stevie Rae said.
    “That depends on your mother,” Aphrodite said.
    “No, Prophetess. It depends on the Mother ,” Thanatos corrected.
    “Well, that’s good news,” Damien said. “My mom wasn’t the nightmare Aphrodite’s was, but she wasn’t exactly nurturing, either.”
    “This conversation is interesting and everything, but shouldn’t we be focusing on the spell?” Stark said. “Isn’t anything else asking for problems?”
    “Young Warrior, you are correct,” Thanatos said. “Let us begin. Sylvia, please lead us to the spot where you discovered your daughter’s body.”
    “Very well.” Grandma only had to walk a few feet from where we were. The spot was super obvious. There, at the edge of the lavender field that flanked the north side of Grandma’s house, backing to her lawn, was a perfect circle of burned plants. The entire ground was blackened and dead and horrible. Even the plants that framed the circle looked blighted and dying.
    “There is no blood,” Thanatos said, holding up her hand so that none of us actually entered the circle of destruction.
    “That was one of the oddities the sheriff and his deputies could not explain,” Grandma said.
    Thanatos moved so that she stood directly in front of Grandma. She rested a hand on her shoulder, and I saw Grandma take a deep, gasping breath, as if the High Priestess had infused her with energy through her touch.
    “I understand this is difficult. But the question is necessary. Exactly what was the manner of your daughter’s death?”
    Grandma drew another breath and then said in a clear, strong voice, “My daughter’s throat was slit.”
    “Yet they found no blood on the earth surrounding her body?”
    “No. None here. None on the porch. None in the house.”
    “And in her body itself? Was there blood remaining in her body?”
    “The coroner’s report said no. He also said it was impossible. That something more than just a neck slash happened to Linda, but all he had were questions and no answers. That’s all anyone has had.”
    “Sylvia Redbird, we are here to get answers if you are strong enough to see them.”
    Grandma lifted her chin. “I am.”
    “Then so mote it be. All vampyre rituals begin with an altar to our Goddess at their center,” Thanatos told us. I was thinking that we all already knew that, and then her next words stopped the question in my mind. “Sylvia, I would ask that you form the altar at the heart of this ritual. Are you willing to do that?”
    “I am.”
    “Then so be it. You will enter the tainted ground at my side and show me exactly where you found your child. That will be the site of our altar and the center, the heart and spirit of our circle.” She glanced at the rest of us. “No one else come within. Nyx’s circle is not yet cast, but our intention is clearly set on this space. You will only cross its boundaries as each element is called.” She looked from Stark to Darius and Rephaim. “Warriors, form a triangle outside and surround the circle.” Thanatos pointed straight ahead of her. “Rephaim, that direction is north. Your place is there. Stark, take the position in the east. Darius, your place is west.”
    “Where do you want me?” Aphrodite asked.
    “Outside the circle protecting the only position that remains—to the south.”
    “She is not a Warrior,” Darius said.
    “No, she is something more powerful, a Prophetess of our Goddess. Do you doubt her strength?”
    Aphrodite put her fists on her hips and raised a blond brow at him.
    “No. I would never doubt her strength,” Darius said. And with a bow to Thanatos, he, Aphrodite, and the other Warriors moved to their places outside the circle.
    Thanatos took Grandma’s hand and, carrying her spellwork basket, she said, “Are you ready, Sylvia?”
    Grandma nodded and said yes in Cherokee. “ Uh. ”
    Together they stepped into the circle of destruction. Grandma led Thanatos to a spot just a little south of the center. She pointed. “Here was my daughter.”
    “Sit where your child once lay. Face north, the direction of the element earth, and represent the spirit of Nyx in this, a circle we would reclaim from destruction and through revealed truth make it our own.”
    Grandma nodded solemnly. She sat with a grace that had her buckskin dress fluttering softly. She was facing north, with her back to us, but I could see her chin was lifted and her shoulders were square and proud.
    At that moment I was so proud of her I