Stolen Secret Read online

  “What about Ophelia?” Megan asked. “She could come back any minute.”

  “I have to help the warlocks. Then we’ll go to see Emmanuel.” I held a hand up before Issa could protest. “You don’t have to come.”

  “Yes, he does,” Dimitri said. Issa glared at his maker. Dimitri met his gaze, and Issa dropped his eyes to the ground, the cords between them sizzling. Well, I guess that settles that.

  I closed my eyes again and pushed at the zombies. Footsteps squelched in mud, hands scrabbled at brick. Grunts and moans floated over the wall as I dropped zombies onto the waiting masses.

  With each push, more of my power drained away. By the time the warlocks erected their defenses, the moon had set. We were in that in-between time—when it was still dark but the scent of daylight floated in the air. The vampires needed to get to cover.

  “We can go for a day,” Issa said, “but I really need to come back here to use these resources.”

  Dimitri stared at him so hard that Issa raised his hands as if to shield himself from his maker’s gaze. “You will not speak to Darling that way.” Dimitri’s voice snapped with power, the lines of connection between them burning white.

  “I am sorry,” Issa said between clenched teeth, his aura pulsing with pain.

  “We will come back,” I promised.

  Tyronios stood on the steps while several of his brother’s tried to fix the doors. Good luck with that mess.

  “We must discuss what happened. What creature destroyed our defenses. We saw nothing.” They’d still been down in the ritual room when Ophelia showed up.

  “We’ll come back tomorrow night,” I promised, reaching out to hold Megan’s hand. She twined her fingers with mine, lending me her strength.

  Dimitri and Issa touched my back.

  Time to go…

  Chapter Two

  We materialized between ancient trees, their trunks knotted and familiar. Above us a moonless night’s sky spread, the depth of the universe on display—swirling purple, blue, and the sparkling white of distance stars. So much space, such vast existence.

  My exhaustion sat across my shoulder’s like a weight. Traveling through dimension drained me at the best of times…

  The sun would rise in an hour, so Megan, Dimitri, and Issa needed shelter, but we all just stood there silently.

  The vampires’ hunger swirled, mixing with mine. We all needed to feed.

  With Suki no longer in this world, would the humans share their blood with the vampires? If they knew we intended to end the zombie plague, would they sympathize and help? Even if they didn’t, would the vampires feed on them against the humans’ will?

  "We should hunt before sunrise," Dimitri said, his voice breaking the silence between us.

  "Hunt?" Issa questioned.

  "Yes," Megan answered him. "We can feed from deer, rabbits, anything with a pulse."

  Issa's bright blue eyes glowed in the darkness. “Doesn’t sound very appealing.”

  “It isn’t,” Megan admitted.

  Rustling in one of the bare branches above pulled our focus. An owl soared silently through the night, the white of its under feathers glowing softly, a small creature clutched in its claws.

  Megan shivered. "I'll never look at birds the same way," she said.

  A tugging sensation made me turn. At the horizon, a bright star glowed through the trees, reflecting in a muddy puddle. The small pool of water spread, slithering into a stream and cutting through the woods toward us.

  Dimitri stepped in front of me, one hand out as if to protect my body, as if he'd forgotten that I was actually more powerful than him even in my youth and femininity.

  The stream stopped, forming a pool, and a figure rose out of the water, glistening in the starlight. It materialized into a woman holding a chalice. Water sluiced off her naked brown skin.

  "Suki," Megan growled. Dimitri stiffened.

  I pushed past him, greeting the apparition with a nod of my head. "You’re back," I said.

  "No," the vision shook its head. "I am not here. I am not real. I am nothing but a wind inside your mind."

  That's lovely and cryptic. "If you're not here," I said, "then what are you doing here?" I made bunny quotes with my fingers just to make this conversation a little more ridiculous.

  She waded toward me, the water swirling around her knees, then ankles as she reached the shore. Suki stepped onto the bank of the newly formed waterway and held out the chalice, tilting it to expose the bottom of the cup. Seeds nestled in the bottom of the oxidized glass.

  "I must plant these," she said.

  "A little predawn gardening. That makes sense," I responded. Because why the eff not?

  Suki threw back her head and laughed. I glanced over at Megan; she shrugged. Issa stood behind my best friend, his hands balled into fists, his aura radiating scarlet waves of anger. What climbed up his butt?

  Suki’s laugh faded, and she shook her head. “You are still in your cocoon, my Darling, yet to realize that you reside in a shell that is an entire universe. On the verge of emerging."

  Issa stepped forward. "You speak in riddles, Force. But I recognize you." Suki's eyes landed on him, and her lips curled into a condescending smile.

  "Yes, Warlock, we have met, but I did not come for you."

  "What do you know of this being?" Dimitri asked Issa.

  The doctor turned to his maker. "This is the Seventh Force."

  "And what does that mean?" Dimitri asked, all patience.

  "I help to create balance," Suki answered. "For every strike a being makes, it must take six back upon themselves. Six plus one makes seven.” She waved her hand. “And so some call me Seventh Force.” She shrugged.

  Issa took another step forward, moving in front of Megan—as if he planned to protect her. These vampires and their antiquated ideas of chivalry. Megan could handle herself better than Issa.

  "It is the rule of three for warlocks and witches,” Issa said. “The Seventh Force is for humans, she holds no power over my kind.”

  Seventh smiled, slow and snake like. “You are no longer a warlock.”

  Issa tensed, his shoulders straightening and the crimson of his anger bleeding into ochre—it wasn’t sadness but something close. Grief maybe, not so much an emotion as a state of being.

  Seventh’s gaze returned to me. In her eyes, the light of the universe shone. She may not control warlocks, but she had plenty of power to go around. The Force did not have an aura that I could see. Because the body in front of me was not her own?

  "Will you sit with me and converse?” she asked, polite as could be. “Perhaps allow me to peel back some layers of the cocoon in which you reside." I didn't answer right away, and she cocked her head. "You worry about your friends, perhaps. They need to feed, as do you. If you will allow me, I shall nourish all of you."

  I looked over at Issa, hoping for guidance. His focus remained on Seventh Force, his brilliant topaz eyes burning with hunger and jaw clenched tight.

  "Can we trust her?" I asked him.

  “Do not eat or drink what they offer,” he responded. “They are a law, a force, but also a trickster.”

  Seventh shook her head, laying a hand over her heart. "I shall not harm you. I swear. I only ask for an audience." She bowed her head toward me. “Please.” She waved her hand to the side. A fire lit in the center of a circle of stones. Trees bent, offering their limbs as seating for us.

  Nifty trick.

  Megan's hand curled around my forearm, and I glanced back at her. The whites around her eyes showed. A vampire who leapt onto a giant eagle's back and flew into a storm feared this apparition…

  But Seventh held answers. I'd battled with a sister I never knew existed. I needed information. I turned back to the Force, appearing in Suki’s form, and offered my agreement with a wave of my hand, suggesting she go first. Seventh smiled and led the way to the warmth of the fireside.

  We sat on the branches circling the flames. Seventh next to me,
then Megan and Dimitri, with Issa on the force’s other side.

  “What should I call you?” I asked.

  Her eyes met mine, and that eerie expansive light shone at me. Then she dropped her gaze to her chalice. “You may call me Suki or Seventh. Both are correct and neither captures my true nature.” Seventh Force it is then.

  She dropped a seed onto the ground. The earth swallowed it, and a vine unfurled. The green sprout rose up, straining into the darkness, splitting into branches and releasing leaves. Tomatoes budded, growing full and red. The skin split, juices flowed, and the flesh rotted on the vine.

  Okay…

  “Suki, the woman that Emmanuel loved, is gone, but I have kept her form for my own use.” The Force smiled at me, ageless and beautiful in a dead woman’s skin. My eyes wandered to her breasts and down to the apex of her thighs. “Does my nakedness bother you?” she asked.

  I shrugged. Her skin still looked wet, shiny, and beautiful. I was hungry. The air around Seventh shimmered and clothing covered her body—the same long skirt, collared blouse, and head scarf Suki always wore. "I knew your mother," she said, pulling my focus back to her face.

  "Which one?" I asked. The one who bore me onto this plane… or Mother Earth? I resisted the urge to giggle but just barely.

  "Love," she answered, her voice soft. Ah, the one who bore me.

  Seventh looked into the fire, and the flames reflected in her eyes, warming them. "She was beautiful like you. All of your kind are physically stunning.”

  "That's not exactly new information, Seventh."

  Her eyes met mine. "No, of course not. So impatient, the young and physical." She took another seed from her cup. This one she tossed into the flames. The scent of fresh snowfall rose with the smoke. I blinked, and heavy snow covered the ground and bowed the tree limbs. My breath crystallized in the suddenly frigid air. Show-off.

  I warmed my chi, wrapping it around my body to keep the cold at bay. Megan shifted on her tree limb, brushing some of the snow aside. Her eyes met mine over the fire. She mouthed: What the fuck? I suppressed a smile.

  Seventh raised a hand, two fingers pointing skyward, her thumb tucked into her palm. A shooting star streaked across the sky, burning its way through the atmosphere.

  Seventh took another seed and dropped it onto the ground. It sank into the snow, which melted away from it. The circle grew outward, the snow dripping off the trees. Warmth infused the air until no snow remained… as if it had never existed.

  From the dropped seed, a small, green sprout uncurled into the night. A flower dark as blood topped the small stem. Light twinkled as if a star nestled among the soft petals. Next to the flower, mushrooms sprouted from the soil, the caps vibrant red with white spots. Suki plucked one and held it out to me.

  "No, thanks," I said.

  "Remember," Suki said, "for every sword one thrusts out into the world, six will come back to them." She shifted, trying to bring the mushroom closer to me, but I shook my head. “If I harm you, so will I be harmed.”

  "No, thanks." I wasn’t going to eat bright red mushrooms from a strange force. My father taught me better than that.

  "You will never be able to leave your cocoon if you do not expand your mind."

  "I'll take my chances with ignorance," I responded.

  She lowered her hand, still holding the mushroom, and with a wave of her chalice, cups appeared in front of each of us filled with a bright pink liquid scented of spring flowers’ sweetness. "I promised you nourishment, please drink." I looked across the fire at Issa. He picked up his glass, sniffing the perfumed drink.

  Megan shook her head. "No way."

  "I will not harm you," Seventh said. "It is not my nature."

  "What is in your nature then?" I asked, not touching the cup in front of me. Seventh met my gaze, twirling the mushroom between her fingers.

  "I am lonely," she said. "That is why I bonded with Suki. At first, I thought it was just that I wanted to mess with Emmanuel—the prick son of the god who thinks he's all powerful—and his son who thinks that he is a savior.” So not an Emmanuel fan…. “I went to Suki at the end of her human life and offered eternity with her lover if she would join with me. Suki agreed, and so we bonded. I lent her immense power. The sight she had became clarity of vision with me inside of her.

  “Suki could do anything but retain the love of Emmanuel. For he knew she was not the same. He did not know why—didn't realize the reason he stopped loving her until I burst from her body, leaving her to shrivel into ash." The force in front of us looked sad, as if it had regrets, as if the rotting tomato left on the vine was a mistake.

  "Why are you telling me this?” I asked.

  Seventh met my gaze. "I tell you these things so that you will believe me that I have nothing to do with the zombies."

  "These could all be lies." And probably were...

  Seventh Force waved a hand, and the trees around us shifted in a new wind. "I am a balancing agent," she said. "The zombies are unnatural."

  "What do you mean?” I asked. She looked at me, eyes glittering with the light of the universe. My breath stopped. This being appeared as a woman but wasn’t even close—timeless, bodiless power sat before me.

  "Time is not as you see it," Seventh said. “Each of us has a path we are walking. Humans are a creation, a collaboration between Emmanuel's father and Mother Earth—the spirit of this planet. First they created Adam—a strong and interesting being, but lonely.” A small smile curved her lips. This force understands loneliness.

  "And so God wanted to give him a mate. So, once again, Mother Earth and All Mighty collaborated and created your ancestor, Lilith. She took after her father and refused to submit to Adam as All Mighty refused to submit to Mother Earth. So All Mighty threw Lilith across the world, banishing her from the Garden of Eden. Then he created a new being to keep Adam company—Eve, a gentle creature made of his rib." Seventh shook her head. "But we need diversity. When Adam and Eve bred, their children"—Seventh waved a hand as if to encompass all humans—“were too genetically close to each other. So zombism is merely a fate of interbreeding.”

  "That's not true," Issa said.

  Seventh bobbed her head a little. "Emmanuel's father should not have created Eve. He should never have expected Lilith to bend to Adam. Mother Earth should not have collaborated with such an arrogant deity. Zombism is the reaction to all those wrongs. It is an attempt at balance. But not mine.”

  “Whose then?” I asked.

  Seventh took a deep breath followed by a long sigh. “It does not matter.”

  Suurreee.

  “You said that I needed to find the seventh daughter of the seventh son”—I circled my hand—“etc., etc., in order to stop the zombies. Well, she found me. And she’s trying to kill me.”

  “Suki told you that, not me, but she was correct.” Seventh nodded. “Your sister.” Suki left that part out the first time we had this convo. Seventh sighed again. “Mother Earth rages. If she succeeds in ending you and destroying your bloodline, she very well might destroy herself.”

  "My sister said something about humans ruining the planet and that's why she wants to eradicate them.”

  "Yes. Well, it's true, isn't it? Humans have ravaged the planet more than any other species. But is that not the nature of our creations—to take from us all we can give. You, my dear, ended your mother's life." Because I needed that reminder. She pulled another seed from the cup and cradled it in her palm. “Drink," she said. The cup at my feet trembled. “Have a taste of knowledge."

  My hunger sank like a pit in my stomach, a devastating depth that could swallow me whole. I gritted my teeth against it, dragging my eyes away from the cup.

  Sunlight brightened the edge of the world.

  "We can't talk anymore," I said. "These guys need to get to the cave."

  Seventh let out a tinkling laugh. "These guys, I love the way you speak. Modern humans are so casual." She dropped the seed, and it landed on the soil. I stared at
it, waiting for it to do something—create a snowstorm, dive into the soil and unfurl into new life, sprout a head and start talking… It just sat there. But I felt the hunger in me ease as if something was growing to fill that emptiness.

  I stood up, the strange sensation setting off warning bells. I searched for the diamond strength at the center of me and found a forest, a living thing instead of a solid jewel. "What are you doing to me?" I asked, clutching my stomach. Seventh met my eyes. The whole universe shone out of her. The vastness of her vision, of her existence, sent searing pain through my head.

  Megan leapt up and caught me as I collapsed. The hissing of a snake filled my hearing. The waterway that Suki had created slithered around us, forming a moat, marooning us on an island with the fire and the force.

  I searched for my chi and found a small, tiny kernel amongst the foliage of confusion that Seventh had planted in me. I struck it like a match, igniting a flame. I’d burn her out of me.

  My eyes landed on Seventh. She stood, the tree branch she'd been sitting on curling around her as if for protection. My heart beat against my ribs.

  My gaze swept the branch, and new leaves sprouted. Suki nodded as if she'd planned all this. Then she faded from my vision as night fades into dawn.

  I clenched my jaw and let the fire inside me rage, let the diamond clear the forest of Seventh’s intent. I am mine.

  Chapter Three

  A hot wind scorched my back. Dimitri, Megan, and Issa fell to their knees, hands held in prayer position, heads bowed in supplication.

  Emmanuel stood behind me, on the other side of the moat, his hair floating in a wind of his own creation. His anger was palpable, a taste on the wind, a threat to the trees. They shied away from him. Animals scurried through the bare branches, fleeing from the sparks of rage crackling through the air. Would he call the dead, again?

  Emmanuel’s gaze fixed on where Seventh disappeared. Energy swirled around him—powerful, fast, and destructive.

  He closed his eyes and reached out a hand as if grabbing someone by the throat. His forearm tensed, the muscles bunching. His jaw tightened. Seventh Force materialized in his grip. Her feet dangled above the ground, hands scrabbling at Emmanuel’s wrist.