“You’re going to throw your perfume container at someone?”
“Oh, please, get with this century. It’s pepper spray, not perfume. I’ve been living under a basement in tunnels downtown. The Brady district and Greenwood and such are undergoing a lovely renovation, but I’ve learned it pays to be protected and prepared.”
“Then I will give you your privacy.” He did bow to her then. Aphrodite was so annoying that he tended to forget how amusing she could be as well. She made a shooing gesture at him with her pink painted fingertips before she ducked down into the basement.
He considered calling after her and telling her Zoey was just outside with Aurox, and then he reconsidered. It really would be amusing to see what would happen if Aphrodite discovered Zoey in Aurox’s arms.
Kalona was chuckling as he left the field house, exiting through the stables. He stood outside, collecting himself, and tried to ascertain from which direction his bastard of a brother would be arriving. It did not take him long to figure it out. Dreading the encounter, but resigned to its inevitability, Kalona headed for Nyx’s Temple.
He didn’t attempt to enter. Truthfully, he averted his eyes as he passed the wide wooden doorway and followed the stone building around to the rear of the temple, hoping that when his brother manifested, in his typically garish fashion, he’d do so wherever Kalona stood and the building would block enough of his light to keep from bringing the entire faculty down upon them.
Kalona did not have to wait long. The ball of sunlight that materialized above the ground was, indeed, garish, but Kalona did not give in to the urge to shield his eyes. Erebus stepped from the blinding rays, nodding and smiling wryly.
“Excellent job coming when I summoned you, brother,” Erebus said.
“It baffles me how you pretend that I want anything to do with you. You have been coming to me. I have existed for centuries without, as they would say in the modern world, giving you a call—or a thought.”
“Or a thought? Really? I believe your thoughts have often turned to the Otherworld since your Fall.”
“You are not Nyx, brother. It also baffles me how you mistake interest in the Goddess for interest in yourself.”
Erebus smiled. “I can end your bafflement with that. Nyx and I are inseparable. Her interests are mine, just as mine are hers.”
“Inseparable? Truly?” Kalona made a big show of searching around his brother. “Is the Goddess hiding in your sun ball? Oh, no. She wouldn’t be. I seem to recall the Goddess prefers the cool, soft touch of moonlight to the vulgar light of the sun.”
“Nyx sent me here!”
Kalona’s smile was slow and satisfied. “Then I welcome you, brother, as the Goddess’s errand boy.”
Erebus unfurled his wings. They spread around him and shimmered like sunlight on gold bullion.
“I come not as a boy, but as an immortal, Consort to the Goddess of Night, and I come with her warning!”
“Impressive,” Kalona said dryly. “But if you don’t stop sparkling and shouting, your warning will be witnessed by all of midtown Tulsa.”
Erebus’s wings folded along his back. His voice lost its Otherworldly volume, but his expression lost none of its immortal self-importance.
“Have you captured Neferet yet?”
“Surely you watch me enough to already know the answer to that question.”
“So, you have ignored Nyx’s edict.”
“I have not ignored anything. I’ve been busy fulfilling my oath bound duties to this House of Night’s High Priestess,” Kalona said.
“You’re out of practice if executing three children can distract you so much that you ignore Nyx’s command and fail to notice that Old Magick is manifesting in the modern world.”
Kalona refused to rise to Erebus’s bait. He didn’t address his remark about Nyx, and only said blandly, “Sgiach has been wielding Old Magick for centuries.”
“Yes, Kalona, but Sgiach is an ancient queen who has been wielding Old Magick for all those centuries on the Isle of Skye, a place that has long been devoted to preserving Old Magick. Tulsa, Oklahoma, is not the Isle of Skye, and there is no ancient vampyre queen here experienced in the use of Old Magick.” Erebus spoke in a patronizing tone as if he lectured the empty-headed village idiot.
“I know exactly where I am and who is with me. My facts are correct, unlike yours. I beheaded a vampyre who had been condemned for attempted murder by my High Priestess. She did not wield Old Magick. She simply invoked ancient law. And the vampyre I executed was not a child,” Kalona added, as usual not appreciating his brother’s tone.
“The boy was barely eighteen.”
“If you wish to take issue with the execution of a confessed murderer, then take issue with Thanatos, the school’s Council, two Prophetesses of Nyx, and Zoey Redbird.”
“Yet none of them lifted the sword that severed the vampyre’s head, just as none of them left two fledglings to certain death,” Erebus said.
“I am sworn Warrior to Thanatos. If she commands something of me I am bound to obey.”
“It is sad, for you, that you did not show Nyx that type of blind loyalty while you were her sworn Warrior,” Erebus said.
Kalona met his brother’s amber gaze steadily. “I have learned from the mistakes in my past. Have you?”
Erebus looked away.
“Pass along the warning you were sent here to deliver and begone. You bore me,” Kalona said.
“Very well, you are warned that by invoking ancient laws Old Magick has been awakened. Nyx cautions that you are playing with forces you may not be able to control.”
“Shouldn’t Nyx be telling this to Thanatos? It is her High Priestess who has begun trafficking with those forces.”
“And yet it is you who can tip the scales in a battle between Light and Darkness. The Goddess has seen it happen before near you. Raven Mockers were fashioned from Old Magick.”
Kalona felt a terrible stab of guilt, but still he said, “My sons were fashioned from rape and rage.”
Erebus nodded solemnly. “Yes. Old Magick.”
“Nyx wields Old Magick!” Kalona said.
“Have you become so delusional, so arrogant, that you believe you can wield the same power as the Goddess?”
“I harbor no delusions! My mind has not been so clear since I Fell.” Kalona advanced on Erebus. “And my arrogance is nothing compared to yours, little brother. Without me to provide balance, it is you who believes he is as mighty as Nyx.”
“Balance is exactly my point, brother. The bulls are Old Magick, and should be eternally locked in combat,” Erebus said.
“I have naught to do with the white and black bulls.”
“Do you truly believe that? You were by her side long enough to know that Old Magick is as tricky as it is powerful. Be wise! Be thoughtful! Have a care for the powers you are awakening before it is too late. That is the Goddess’s warning!”
Kalona squinted and looked away as the ball of sunlight engulfed Erebus and then disappeared, leaving annoying gold glitter that the immortal had to brush from his own wings.
“Nyx!” Kalona spoke to the sky. “He calls me arrogant, and yet he disappears in a sunburst of golden glitter. I do not understand how you continue to bear his foppish presence!”
Familiar laughter that had always reminded the immortal of a full harvest moon echoed around Kalona. He closed his eyes against the pain of her absence, even as hope increased his heartbeat.
“You watch me. I know you do,” Kalona whispered.
The laughter faded. Kalona opened his eyes. Feeling as if he carried a great weight, he started walking. He needed to get back to watch over the fledglings. That one thing he could do, and do well.