"My Master?"
Khenti must've seen my I-don't-fucking-think -so expression, because he laughed. "I am the one who Turned you."
"Oh."
He seemed to be waiting for more.
"Er ... thank you?"
He laughed again. "You're welcome. We don't have much time and I have much to teach you."
"You mean now?"
"Yes. Koschei won't wait much longer to attack in earnest. You're not the only Turn-blood who's been targeted." He rubbed his hands together. "So, first things first."
"Well, all right." I stepped off the porch and joined him in the calf-high grass.
"Before my father went to ground, he said that I should not make too many vampires. Our abilities make us more dangerous. In other Families, they have nearly a thousand children. The Family Amahte has fewer than a hundred. Except for you and me, there is not another Amahte vampire on this continent."
My mouth dropped open. "There's not another vampire like us in America?"
"Most of the Family Amahte resides in Africa, Turkey, and a few in Greece. As you know, Turning is not easy. Most humans do not survive the process, so that is another reason we remain small in numbers."
I hadn't known that. I hadn't exactly made an effort to learn the history of my sect, much less what I could do with my abilities. I felt so ashamed. I had been so determined to hold on to my old life that it never occurred to me I was needed in this new one.
"Why are we so dangerous?" I asked. "Sitting around talking to ghosts isn't exactly the same as throwing fireballs or controlling people's minds."
"You can command the spirits who remain on the earthly plane, not just chat with them. You can also raise the dead, Patsy."
"I can bring people back?"
"Ah. Well, you can reinsert souls into bodies, but I don't recommend it. You can reanimate bodies without souls. They're like puppets. They'll do exactly as you ask, no less and no more."
I couldn't fathom why anyone would want to make a bunch of decomposing corpses walk around. Sure, there was a high yuck factor. And as the first line of defense in a war ... oh, I got it now. I remember Eva telling me once how during castle sieges in medieval times people would throw the dead over the walls. How would you like a body, all disgusting and bug-filled, falling on you?
"So, I could raise a zombie army, if I wanted."
Khenti laughed. "Yes, if you wanted."
Of all the people in Broken Heart Khenti could've given his gift, he chose the tall blonde who was hell with scissors and not much else.
"Why me?" I asked, my voice catching. I didn't feel worthy, not one bit. "I'm nobody."
"I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us - don't tell! They'd banish us - you know! How dreary to be somebody! How public like a frog To tell one's name the livelong day To an admiring bog!"
I looked at Khenti, who seemed so pleased with his recitation. He smiled. "You see, Patsy? You are not a nobody, unless you believe you are."
Well, hell. Why didn't he just say that instead of spouting off those rhymes?
"I love Emily Dickinson, don't you?"
"Er ... is she a vampire?"
"She was a poet," said Khenti. "And no, she was not a vampire. She penned those words, Patsy." He sighed. "Perhaps you should pick up a book more often."
He was probably right. Though I doubted it would be a poetry book.
"I have a question. If we get our powers from the seven Ancients, then why aren't we all just from Ruadan's line?"
"He went to Morrigu and asked for the secret for making others of his kind. She told him how to do it. Then she gave him a gift. With a spell she taught him, he could choose six others to Turn who would be his equals with their own powers. I'm sure she hoped it would cause strife and grief among our kind."
"Um ... who's Morrigu? And why would she want to cause strife?"
Khenti looked amazed. "You don't know the history of Ruadan the First?"
"No." I sighed. "Yeah, yeah I know. I need to read more books."
"Indeed. Morrigu is Ruadan's grandmother, an ancient goddess who gave him her dark blood and made him the first vampire. She's the goddess of chaos." He smiled at me. "I'll teach you what you must know to use your powers effectively. Are you ready?"
"Okay," I said, determined to master my skills and make him proud. I couldn't whine about my old life anymore. It was gone. And it was time that I embrace what I had become ... and what was in store for me as a vampire of the Family Amahte.
Khenti made me memorize words and gestures associated with my powers. By the time we'd finished, I could call a ghost and direct him to do my bidding. I could help those who were lost find the Light. I could make a dead body rise from its grave and do the boot-scoot boogie if I wanted.
"Patsy, you are an able student and a good woman."
Pleased with his compliment, I grinned. "Thanks. You're not so bad yourself."
He took my hands into his. "There is one other Amahte vampire in America. In Las Vegas. Do you know the casino-resort called the Pharaoh's Tomb?"
"Yes," I said, shaking my head in wonderment. "That's the place where my nonna breathed her last. At the slot machines."
"I'm aware," said Khenti. "It is how I knew to call her to you. You see, I own the Pharaoh's Tomb. There is a gateway of sorts there. And I am especially connected to those who pass away near its borders."
"You got my nonna to leave the Great Beyond?"
"Yes, though I did think she would be more help. She is distracted rather easily."
"You ain't kidding," I laughed.
"I opened a museum last year. One of its most popular displays is a gold sarcophagus that belongs to Pharaoh Amenemhet II."
"But it's your father in there," I guessed.
"Yes. I've kept his location secret from everyone, to protect his resting place. However, with Koschei just getting warmed up ... it is probably best if someone else knows the secret. In case something happens to me."
"Hey, you've lasted four thousand years," I said.
"Nothing lasts forever, Patsy. Not even vampires. " He smiled sadly. Then he hugged me.
I felt the familiar tingle of magic. Oh, crap.
Within moments, we appeared at the edge of a field. I looked around and shuddered. Why had he brought me here, of all places?
"Next time, warn me, will you?" I pulled out of his arms and shivered. "I really don't enjoy having my atoms scattered all over the place."
Khenti chuckled. "It's time to practice what I taught you."
"I've never tried to use my power on purpose. The ghosts usually find me. And some of 'em don't go away." I glared at Dottie and Nonna who popped next to me.
Khenti bowed to them. "Ladies." Then he turned to me. "It will be a good exercise for you. If Johnny and Nefertiti are trapped here, reliving their last moments, use your powers to free them."
He was making me nervous. He kept looking around and frowning. I especially didn't like it when he stared up at the sky, his expression worried.
Dottie and Nonna floated next to me. Both of them were fascinated with Khenti.
"You're cute," said Dottie for the millionth time. "You say you're not married?"
Khenti's teeth flashed white as he smiled. "No."
"Oh, stop it," I said. "He doesn't date ghosts, for God's sakes!"
"His loss," she said, and she winked at him.
Reluctance mired me to the ground. I didn't really want to go over there and tap Johnny on the shoulder, so to speak.
Johnny Angelo, 1950s movie star and reluctant vampire, believed for the last fifty years that he had turned a cat into a vamp. What he hadn't known until a couple months ago was that the feline was really Nefertiti, the woman who had seduced and bound him. Basically, she used him as a shield to protect her own sorry, evil hide. Y'see, she had been Koschei's number one henchman. Henchwoman. Whatever.
Johnny hadn't chosen to be Turned or to be married to a vampire. I felt sorry for him.
As we approached the spot, I felt my stomach take a pe. The first time I watched Johnny and Nefertiti relive the murder-suicide, I nearly threw up.
I didn't know if I could pry them from each other long enough to ask either one any questions, much less figure out how to get them into the Light.
We all watched the ugliness unfold.
"All these years ... and there she is," Johnny whispered. His hair was matted, his clothes dirty, and his smile grim. He'd been searching for his wife nonstop for weeks. "Nefertiti."
Nefertiti stared at Johnny. "Oh, my husband," she cried. "I wanted only to protect you."
"Liar," said Johnny softly. He strode forward and grabbed a fistful of Nefertiti's silky locks. "You cursed me. I watched my pregnant fiancee marry someone else. Another man raised our daughter." He twisted the knot of hair tighter, but she didn't flinch. "I hate you."
"I gave you immortality." She smirked at him. "You will live forever because of me."
"You're wrong. I'm just a walking dead man." Johnny's other hand rose and in a flash of silver, Nefertiti's head separated from her shoulders.
Johnny tossed Nefertiti's head onto the ground. His lips curved into the famous half smile that had made him such a movie-star heartthrob half a century ago. "I'm free."
Nefertiti's corpse exploded into dust.
And then, Johnny crumbled into ash.
I pressed my hand against my squirming stomach. Johnny wasn't free. He hadn't passed on to the next world. He was trapped in the cycle of his own death. For those who thought vampires were soulless, I dared them to look at this tragedy and still believe it.
"Any clue what I'm supposed to do?" I asked.
"You're the ghost whisperer," said Dottie. Then she cackled. "Why don'cha call Jennifer Love Hewitt? Maybe she can help."
I looked at Dottie and figured if I was going to experiment, I'd start with her. "Go away," I demanded in my vampire glamour voice, which I hadn't much call to use.
She dropped her ghost cig, she was so surprised. Not at my words, because I'd said them often enough. No, she started twisting and squeezing. She looked as if she were getting sucked through a straw.
Then she was gone.
Nonna glared at me. "Don't you even think about doing that to me, young lady."
"Or what?" I sassed. Then I waved my hand to ward off the lecture. "I ain't gonna send you away."
I'd probably ask Dottie to come back. I was getting used to them. I kinda liked having them around. Mostly.
"Focus, Patsy." I could tell Khenti was feeling a tad impatient with me.
I walked to the spot where the tragedy was playing out again.
"Liar," said Johnny softly. He strode forward and grabbed a fistful of Nefertiti's silky locks.
"Um ... hi, Johnny!" I waved at him, afraid he would take that hidden sword and decapitate Nefertiti before we could chat. "Yoo-hoo!"
He looked up, blinking as if he'd been asleep. The rest of the scene around him was frozen. Nefertiti stared up at him, that awful smirk on her pretty mouth.
"What's going on?" he asked in a hoarse voice. "Where am I?"