You know who it's from. Ulean was behind me, I could feel the gentle breeze of her breath blowing on my ear. An entirely different sensation than when Grieve did it.

Oh, I know.

I knew who had sent the basket before I even touched the card, which sported a beautiful bouquet of red roses on the front. As I flipped it open, sloping writing--curved, elegant calligraphy--shone out in red.

From the Crimson Court to Ms. CicelyWaters & Friends.

Just a token to celebrate our partnership. Here's wishing for a long and happy connection. Your first blood tithe is due the night after next--please meet Lannan Altos in his office at the New Forest Conservatory on Sunday evening. He will have your first month's salary in advance at that time.

Best, Regina Altos

Emissary to the Crimson Court.

Fuck. I looked up from the note. I'd hoped for a month or so to adapt to the idea but their message was clear. They owned me, blood, stock, and barrel.

And it was time to pay the piper.

Chapter 18

I tried to underplay the note. No use getting Rhiannon upset. Meanwhile, we needed to go talk to Anadey and tell her what we'd found out about Peyton and ask if she could help Rhiannon. We called and she agreed to meet us the next morning at her house. We spent the rest of the evening strengthening the wards around the house and playing Scrabble.

The next morning, while Leo and Kaylin volunteered to stay home and try to pull together some sort of protection for the land itself, Rhiannon and I jumped into Favonis and headed for Anadey's apartment.

She was hunched over the table when we quietly entered at her Come in, teacup in hand, looking ten years older than when I'd met her the first day. She gazed up at us, her eyes still red from crying. "Any news?"

It was clear she was afraid to ask, but had to.

"Some. We found their hideout, thanks to Grieve. But we had to get out of there before we were caught. Heather and Peyton were both there, alive." And I prayed they still were, after our bumbling efforts. What if Myst had killed them to punish us for our intrusion? It seemed like something she might do.

We told Anadey about our trip, swearing her to silence when we described Kaylin's abilities.

She pushed back her teacup and let out a long sigh. "Okay, so I need to quit moping and do something to help save my daughter. If you have the courage to take on the Indigo Court, I have to find my own will. I'm not sure what use I can be, though. My magic's a lot more subtle than my mother's was. I work with all the elements, but I tend to do so on a more . . . molecular level. It's hard to describe. I don't cast spells so much as rearrange events."

"I wish you could time hop and rearrange Heather and Peyton being captured." I sighed. Time jumping was rare and usually only allowed one to view events, not to interfere in them.

"If I could, do you think I wouldn't have already tried?" Anadey shook her head. "There are more powers in the universe than we can hope to ever understand. And some I hope we never fully know about."

"Anadey, I have a favor to ask." Rhiannon leaned across the table. "I need help. I need your help. The fire's been unleashed from where I hid it all these years. I'm having troubles controlling it now."

Anadey blinked. "Marta told me about you--about the car incident. I wondered how long it would be before you'd open up to the energies again. You can't ever suppress something like this for good. Mother thought you had managed to eradicate it, but I knew better. That's one place we differed."

She stood up and motioned for us to follow her into the kitchen, where she rinsed out her cup and offered us peppermint cookies. "These are Peyton's favorites. I guess I thought . . . maybe if I made a batch they would act like some charm to call her home."

Accepting one of the cookies, I debated whether to ask a question that had been running through my mind. Finally, I decided that it couldn't hurt. "You didn't get along too well with Marta, did you?" I asked.

Anadey let out a stiff laugh. "My mother and I never saw eye to eye, which is one reason she never gave me entrance to her precious Society. The Thirteen Moons Society--at least this branch--was dead before it began, and what remains is a shadow of what they could have had if they'd quit being such asses. Your mother never fully belonged," she added to Rhiannon.

"What do you mean?"

"Heather tried Marta's patience, she was willing to step outside the box. Marta kept a tight rein on the leadership in fear that Heather would take over at some point, before she was ready. I know she was hoping Cicely would come home and take over, but she had no clue just what you had become, my dear."

It hurt to hear her point out my weaknesses. "I never had anybody to teach me how to practice my magic the right way," I said, my words clipped to keep the pain from my voice.

Anadey shook her head. "Oh heavens, do you think I'm criticizing you? Not at all. You have no concept how far you've come by working solitary, teaching yourself through experience. You're far stronger than you believe. For one thing, you didn't have anybody to teach you the right way to do things, so you never believed you were doing them wrong."

While I thought over what she had said, Rhiannon quietly took over, rinsing our cookie saucers. After a moment, she dried her hands on a tea towel and turned back to Anadey.

"So, can you help me? Will you help me?"

Anadey let out a long sigh and nodded. "Yes, but you have to agree to several conditions. You must put yourself in my hands. You must listen to me. I won't teach you the standard practices toward harnessing your powers, but I will help you find the best way for you. Every witch is different, every spell caster and sorcerer needs to learn their own path if they are to truly coexist with the energies they have locked inside them. Whatever you might call yourself, you're of the magic-born, and you're a daughter of the fire. Will you take direction from me, even when you're afraid?"

Rhiannon gazed into Anadey's face, the fearful look that was in her eyes beginning to slide away. "I will."

"Then we begin work tomorrow--Sunday, so be here at sunrise and prepare to stay all day. We'll fast-track you. And, both of you, if there's anything I can do to help bring my daughter home, you will let me know? Because somehow, for some reason, Cicely, I think you are at the heart of this and both Heather's and Peyton's safety rests on your shoulders."

Wearing such a heavy cloak of responsibility weighed me down. As I left the apartment, I glanced back to see Anadey waving through the window. At least Rhiannon would get the help she needed to rope in her powers, to use them instead of letting them use her.

By the time we got home, Leo and Kaylin had warded the land as best as they could. It felt better--stronger, like we had a cushion separating us from the forest. I decided to spend the afternoon combing the pages of A History of the Vampire Nation, while Rhiannon flipped through the The Rise of the Indigo Court.

We needed to familiarize ourselves with both bloody worlds as much as possible. Most of the texts seemed Biblical, in that there were long lists of names--who begat whom and who sired whom--and brief encounters by people who had lived and died centuries ago.

The afternoon slid by and as evening arrived, Kaylin and Leo made a beeline for the local fried chicken joint and returned with a couple of buckets of chicken and biscuits. As they came through the door, I looked up.

"You made sure that they don't have any cross contamination with fish there, right?"

Rhiannon nodded. "Not a problem. Not a fin or scale in the joint. Just chicken." She sat the food on the table and gathered some napkins and plates for us. "What are you doing?"

"Reading till my eyes have crossed. And I finally found something that I think we need to know. Listen." I reached for a drumstick with one hand as I held the book open with the other.

The Najeeling Prophecy (see Chapter 7: Examining the Book of the Undead) speaks of a member of the Indigo Court who will rise to power, hand-in-hand with his traitorous love. Together, they will bring about the necessary events that will set in motion the final war in which the Vampire Nation will go to war with the Indigo Court. The outcome of the war is not known; the investigator who translated the Book of the Undead died in a freak accident before he could finish his translation, and the actual Book of the Undead disappeared.

"I think this is talking about Grieve and me." I tapped the book with my other hand as I took a bite of the drumstick. Though the word "traitorous" made me uneasy.

"How can you be sure, though?"

"Crap. I knew I forgot something." With all the commotion, I realized I still hadn't told them about my meeting with Crawl. Quickly, I sketched out my visit to the Blood Oracle. "I was going to tell you earlier, but with Grieve . . . and the visit to the Marburry Barrow, it got lost in the scuffle."

"You went to see the Blood Oracle and you didn't think it was important to tell us? Christ, Cicely, you can't just shut us out of stuff like that. We're all in this together, you know." Leo looked huffy and I was beginning to see that he really didn't like feeling left out of things. Either that or he was feeling touchy because until I'd returned, the vampires were his territory.

"I meant to tell you, and I just did. So much is happening, it's hard to keep everything sorted out. But yes, Crawl seems to think I'm 'the one' and I have a feeling that this connects to what he was talking about." I shrugged. "Like it or not, the vampires think I'm their special-needs girl. Frankly, I'd rather be anonymous to them. This is why they want me to spy on the Indigo Court--they think that by doing so I'll start this big war between the two and they expect to come out victorious."

"Meanwhile, members of the Indigo Court are kidnapping the magic-born to create their own army of vampiric magic using slaves to fight in the war. Think of the chaos if they manage to harness a group of witches as powerful as Marta and Heather--the havoc they could wreak." Leo rubbed the bridge of his nose and I knew he was thinking about his sister.

"They'd be almost invincible." I stopped as Ulean touched my shoulder.

Something is happening outside. You need to attend to it. Be cautious. They're approaching.

"Trouble, guys. Ulean just warned me." I put down the book and the food, and cautiously peeked out the front door, Rhiannon on my heels. There was something--I could feel it--on the periphery of the land.

"Wait," I whispered.

She paused, glancing over my shoulder. "Something out there?"

I nodded. Turning, I scanned the yard, not sure what to look for. Ulean, can you hear me?

Yes . . . over at the boundary. Leo and Kaylin did their work well, they cannot approach.

What's out there? I can hear it . . . feel it.

Ulean whisked past me, leaving me with the dizzying scent of lavender and lemon, calming and yet invigorating. It washed away some of the gloom from my aura and I inhaled deeply, letting out a slow breath while I waited. After a moment, she returned.

You come to a crossroads . . . be careful, Cicely. Please, don't rush into action. Listen carefully. Words carry deception even if they come from someone you love.

A shiver raced down my spine. What the hell was going on? I slowly descended the steps, Rhiannon behind me. Leo and Kaylin followed.

As we crossed the yard toward the ravine, I felt like we were standing on the edge of a precipice, over a crashing ocean full of sharp, jagged rocks. And one of those rocks was rising to meet us.

Out of the ravine, trailed by a cloud of mist that swirled in their wake, walked five figures. The mist was quicksilver, sparkling indigo, and gray, coiling like serpents in the chill night. The forest fell silent, at least to the ear, but I caught sounds on the wind: the spinning of webs, the shuffle of spiders, the rustle of twisted creatures who had no names.

I stepped over the hose, and when it hissed and became a snake, I forced myself to avoid looking down. Rhiannon gave a little gasp from behind me but I kept walking, my shoes squeaking lightly on the snow. My gaze was fastened on the figures, silhouettes in the night, but their auras were shining with brilliant swirls of cerulean and silver.

The Indigo Court.

We approached one another, across the lawn, but they stopped fifteen yards from the edge of the forest, waiting. As I gauged their distance, I realized they'd stopped right at the line where the men had warded the property. They'd done a good job: The enemy could not pass.

I kept walking and Rhiannon caught up to me, pacing by my side. Kaylin and Leo had our backs and we came to a halt a few yards away from the shrouded figures. I held up my hand and waited. Let them be the first to speak.

One member of their party stepped forward. A woman, from what I could see through the mists that surrounded them like a tangle of living, writhing webs. She stepped forward, dressed in long robes, and then I saw the tumbling red locks that cascaded down her shoulders.

Heather. Heather, it was Heather, oh great gods, my aunt, and she was a vampire.

Heather's face was pale as cream, pale as the silver moon, and her lips were rosebud red. Her eyes sparkled black, with the stars of the Indigo Court shining in them.

"Heather!" Rhiannon's cry shattered the night. "No! No!" She screamed then, the fractured pain of her voice spiraling higher and higher. "No, tell me it's not true . . . tell me you aren't one of them!"

Heather turned to her, and a faint look of pity washed over her face, and then was gone. "I'm still your mother--"

"You're not my mother! You're a demon creature--filthy vampire!"

And then, Rhiannon raised her hands and her palms crackled with flame. She thrust them forward, the fire racing off of her hands toward Heather, who leapt nimbly to the side. The flames engulfed a small juniper plant, but the snow-covered foliage sizzled and the fire went out.