I wrapped myself in a long T-shirt that I slept in sometimes and then pulled a satin robe around me. I wasn’t cold, but the feel of the material was comforting. Before long, Camille and Delilah had joined me. Nerissa was still in the tub.
“Will you braid my hair up again? It’s pretty like this, but I’m . . . it’s not me.” I seldom took it down from the long cornrows, and by now they had become as much a part of me as my scars were, as being a vampire was.
Camille took one side, Delilah the other, and as they braided away, interspersing the colorful beads Nerissa had bought me for a present some time back, I flipped on the television. We got surprisingly good reception down here, thanks to cable, and I found an episode of Jerry Springer, delighting Kitten. She had the weirdest crush on the talk-show host, and how she could sit through hours of the drivel escaped me, but it made her happy and so we watched with her, not talking, but just enjoying being together.
When Nerissa padded in, wearing her pink camisole and boy shorts, they automatically made room on the bed for her. Camille left Delilah to finish my braids, and she took the brush and began to glide it through Nerissa’s hair. Nerissa closed her eyes, almost purring.
After a while, during a commercial, Camille finally spoke. “This is the weirdest wedding night ever.” She sounded a little worried, as if she were afraid of offending us, but I let out a bark of laughter, as did Nerissa. Delilah joined in.
“I dunno about this. Politics suck, but you know, this could be the saving grace that binds the regular Supe Community together with the Vampire Nation. Think if we were united, how much more clout we’d have.” I shook my head, happy to have my braids back. “Think . . . about what we might be able to accomplish.”
“I’d rather think about that than the Degath Squad.” Delilah rummaged through her pockets until she found the candy bar she was looking for. “I dread going out for them, but I guess tomorrow we’d better start making inquiries. We have to find them before they find us.”
“What I’d like to know is what exactly Shadow Wing means to accomplish by creating the faux Keraastar Knights. I need to know more about their history, and the only one who knew much about it was Queen Asteria. And she’s dead and all their written history pretty much bit the dust.” Camille frowned. “I guess I’ll ask Aeval. She might know, but this has to do directly with the spirit seals and since she was on the opposing force in that battle . . .”
Delilah suddenly straightened up and, mouth full of candy, asked, “What about Pentangle?”
Camille tilted her head to one side, considering. “She would know—she would have to know. And it’s not like I’ve never met her. She came to me when I was trapped in Gulakah’s mind. I wonder how I can get in touch with her.”
Summoning an Elemental Lord or Lady seemed incredibly risky, but for something of this nature, Camille was right. She should go directly to the source who could tell her details she might otherwise never find. The Keraastar Knights were bound to the spirit seals that we found, and when enough of them gathered, they would be instrumental in repelling Demonkin and holding the realms apart. The Maharata-Verdi, an ancient scroll that was created when the spirit seal was first broken into nine pieces and scattered, predicted the force of nine knights rising. Each would be a magical warrior to fight against the demon hordes. A Fae Queen would ride at their helm, bringing them together. That Fae Queen, we now knew, would be Camille. But we needed as many of the spirit seals as we could find, preferably all nine of them, and we also needed to find the Keraastar Diamond, a gem that the Fae Queen needed to wear to bind the knights and unite their power.
If the demons did break through into this realm, if they were able to reunite the worlds, as Shadow Wing was attempting, there was a good chance that everything would go boom. Not as in nuclear explosion boom, but the magical chaos unleashed would change the face of the planet and all civilizations living in all three of the realms—Otherworld, Earthside, and the Sub-Realms.
Sobering, I turned off the TV. “I guess you guys should get to bed. I’ll spend what time I have left before sunrise seeing if I can find out anything on the Degath Squad. I’ve got several vamps I can e-mail to ask if they know about anything. And I think I’ll e-mail Neely from the United Worlds Church and start moving ahead on forging a relationship between them and the Vampire Nation.”
And with that, Nerissa crawled into bed as I went into the sitting room and fired up her laptop. Camille and Delilah kissed me good night and headed upstairs to their loves.
The wedding had been an odd diversion, but now our minds were back on the demons. Because while we had taken out Telazhar, there was a Demon Lord on the horizon, waiting to meet us in battle. And he wouldn’t wait forever.
Chapter 14