"Hang tight. I'll be right there!" A noise from above made me cut off the connection and switch the phone off. I pressed my finger to my lips when Heath started to speak. Heath put his arm around me, and we tried not to breathe. Then I heard the coo-coo of a pigeon and the flutter ing of wings. "I think it's just a bird," Heath whispered. "I'm going to go look." I was too tired to argue with him, plus Marx was on his way and I was sick of the damp, nasty tunnel. "Be careful," I whis pered back. Heath nodded and squeezed my shoulder, then climbed up the ladder. Slowly and carefully he lifted the metal grate, sticking his head up and peering around. Pretty soon he reached down and motioned for me to climb up and take his hand. "It's just a pi geon. Come on." Wearily, I climbed to him and let him pull me up into the basement. We sat in the corner by the grate for several long min utes, listening intently. Finally, I whispered, "Let's go outside and wait for Marx there." Heath had already started to shiver, but I re membered the blanket Aphrodite had made me bring. Plus, I'd rather take my chances with the weather than stay in the creepy basement. "I hate it in here, too. It's like a damn tomb," Heath said softly between chattering teeth. Hand in hand, we walked across the basement, passing through the slatted grayish light that reflected down from the world above. We were at the iron door when I heard the distant wail of a police siren. The terrible tension in my body had just begun to relax when Neferet's voice came from the shadows. "I should have known you would be here." Heath's body jerked in surprise and my hand tightened in warning on his. As I turned to face her, I was centering myself and could feel the power of the elements beginning to shimmer in the air around me. I drew a deep breath and carefully blanked my mind. "Oh, Neferet! I'm so glad to see you!" I squeezed Heath's hand one more time before I let go of him, trying to telegraph play along with whatever I say through touch. Then I ran, sobbing, into the High Priestess's arms. "How did you find me? Did Detec tive Marx call you?" I could see indecision in her eyes as Neferet smoothly disen tangled herself from my arms. "Detective Marx?"

"Yeah." I sniffed and wiped my nose on my sleeve, forcing my self to beam relief and trust to her. "That's him coming right now." The sound of the siren was very close, and I could hear that it had been joined by at least two other cars. "Thank you for find ing me!" I gushed. "It was so terrible. I thought that crazy street person was going to kill both of us." I moved back to Heath's side and took his hand again. He was staring at Neferet, looking a lot like he was in shock. I realized that he was probably remembering pieces of the only other time he'd seen the High Priestess--the night the vampyre ghosts had almost killed him--and imagined his mind was too freaked out for Neferet to make much sense of what was going on inside his head. Good thing, too. Then car doors were slamming and heavy feet were crunching through the snow. "Zoey, Heath ..." Neferet moved swiftly to us. She lifted her hands, which glowed with a weird, reddish light, suddenly re minding me of the undead things' eyes. Before I could run or scream or even take a breath, she grabbed our shoulders. I felt Heath go rigid as pain shot through my body. It blasted against my mind and my knees would have buckled had her hand not been like a vise, holding me up. "You will remember nothing!" The words echoed through my agony-filled mind, and then there was only darkness.

Chapter Thirty-One

I was in a beautiful meadow that was in the middle of what looked like a dense forest. A warm, soft breeze was blowing the scent of lilacs to me. A stream ran through the meadow, its crys tal water bubbled musically over smooth stones. "Zoey? Can you hear me, Zoey?" An insistent male voice in truded on my dream. I frowned and tried to ignore him. I didn't want to wake up, but my spirit stirred. I needed to wake up. I needed to remember. She needed me to remember. But who was she? "Zoey ..." This time the voice was inside my dream and I could see my name painted against the blue of the spring sky. The voice was a woman's ... familiar ... magical ... wondrous. "Zoey ..." I looked around the clearing and found the Goddess sitting on the other side of the stream, gracefully perched on a smooth Ok lahoma sandstone rock with her bare feet playing in the water. "Nyx!" I cried. "Am I dead?" My words shimmered around me. The Goddess smiled. "Will you ask that of me each time I visit you, Zoey Redbird?"

"No, I'm, uh, sorry." My words were tinged pink, probably blushing like my cheeks.

"Don't be sorry, my daughter. You have done very well. I am pleased with you. Now, it is time you awakened. And also I wish to remind you that the elements can restore as well as destroy." I started to thank her, even though I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, but the shaking of my shoulder and a sud den blast of cold air interrupted me. I opened my eyes. Snow swirled all around me. Detective Marx was bending over me, shaking my shoulder. Through the weird fog in my mind I found one word. "Heath?" I croaked. Marx jerked his chin to his right and I tilted my head to see Heath's still body being loaded into an ambulance. "Is he ..." I couldn't finish. "He's fine, just banged up. He's lost a lot of blood and they've already given him something for the pain."