At least the fighting had stopped.
“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Lucien asked.
“I—I don’t know,” Evee said. “I guess I was afraid it wouldn’t work. Just another failure.”
Lucien took hold of her chin with a thumb and forefinger and turned her head so she faced him. She had no choice but to look into his eyes.
“None of this is your fault. Whatever is causing the sporadic instabilities of your spells is not your fault. The Cartesians are powerful creatures, and their intention is to create havoc, to destroy the Originals and the Triad. Don’t give up on your powers. Don’t let the Cartesians see or feel your weakness, because that’s what they’ll focus on. We need to make sure you and your sisters stay safe, and the way you can help make that happen is to remain strong.”
Evee nodded, reprimanding herself silently for having succumbed to complacency. There was no room for it when it came to protecting her Nosferatu, for it was her job to keep them safe.
Ronan nudged Lucien. “We need to strengthen the canopy again, then go hunting for more Nosferatu before it gets any later. It’ll be feeding time before we know it, and the ones that are missing are going to be looking for food. That could mean attacks on humans if we don’t find them and bring them into the fold.”
Without a word, Lucien pulled his scabior from its sheath, which was attached to his belt, and Ronan followed suit. Together they did a quick flick of their wrists, twirled their scabiors around their fingers with lightning speed, then aimed them at the opposing poles. From the bloodstones that sat atop their scabiors shot a fierce bolt of lightning into the poles. They did the same with the remaining two poles, setting them alight until the catacombs lit up like a football field at game time.
Nosferatu scattered from the brilliance of the light, hiding behind crypts or crawling onto death shelves.
“Looks like that should hold them for now,” Lucien said.
Evee nodded and then motioned Pierre, her overseer, to the catacomb gates. She told him what they had in mind, and that he was to keep tabs on all the Nosferatu within the catacombs just as he had been doing prior to them getting out of control.
Although Evee trusted Pierre with her life, she feared that if they didn’t hurry and collect the missing Nosferatu and get all of them to the North Compound for feeding time, more fights would break out. Then they might lose the protection of the scabior canopy, and the Cartesians would find her Originals and annihilate them. Then it wouldn’t be long before humans throughout the city would die senseless, useless deaths.
Evee feared that might be going on even now with her Nosferatu. She felt in her gut that somewhere in the city more deaths had already taken place. She could only hope she and her sisters wouldn’t be next.
The Benders seemed very confident in their abilities and seemed to have a solid plan in place, or as solid as one might have in such a situation.
Evee, on the other hand, had not known this much fear—ever.
Lucien didn’t like the idea of leaving the catacombs to hunt for the missing Nosferatu. Although he knew that finding them was a task that had to be taken care of, he worried about the scabior dome flickering out again. If it happened once, it might happen again. Despite what he had told Evee about the energy generated by the squabbling Nosferatu making the dome less effective, Lucien wasn’t convinced of that. That was just an assumption. He had no idea what had really caused the dome to weaken. The truth was that no Bender ever before had created a large-scale electrical barrier that locked in any creature. Having run out of options when so many Originals went missing, the cousins had found their task upon arriving in New Orleans more than overwhelming, and had opted to give it a try.
The first attempt had been at the North Compound to protect Viv’s Loup Garous. When that had proven successful, he and his cousins had used the same technique to protect the Chenilles in the Louis I Cemetery, then here in the catacombs under St. John’s Cathedral. The waning of power here concerned him greatly. Whatever hunting was needed must be done quickly and with specific directives so they wouldn’t be chasing their tails as he felt they had been doing for the last day or two.
As Lucien considered a game plan, he noticed that Evee had moved closer and was now standing between him and Ronan.
“I know we have to look for the missing,” Evee said. “But I want to apologize for zeroing out on the two of you earlier. All of the Nosferatu are my charge. You are here to help, which is much appreciated, and I had no business zoning out on you the way I did.”
Lucien put a hand on Evee’s shoulder and felt his pulse quicken when he touched her. Although Evee was dressed casually in jeans and a light blue T-shirt, she might as well have been dressed in a ball gown and tiara for all he cared. She was astonishingly beautiful no matter what she wore, and the simple act of touching her made his insides quiver.
“Don’t beat yourself up over that,” he said to her. “With all that’s going on, I think you’re handling yourself quite well. We just need to keep our heads about us.” He gave her a soft smile. “For all you know, I might be the next one to ‘zero out,’ like you said, so I’ll have to count on you and Ronan reining me back in.” He squeezed her shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, if you go to la-la land again, I promise to be there to bring you back.”
He saw a flash of gratitude in Evee’s eyes, and he felt his smile broaden. He forced himself to look away from her and down at his watch. “Time’s pushing. If we’re going to do any hunting for missing Nosferatu before feeding time, we’d better get started.”
Evee nodded, took a step back and squared her shoulders. “If we’re going to get this done,” she said, “we’ll need to split up. I know the two of you are here to protect me and my Originals, but look at what we’re dealing with now. Too many missing Nosferatu, and humans, innocent humans, unwittingly waiting to be an Original’s next meal. The closer we get to feeding time, the hungrier the Nosferatu will become. Humans will definitely be their target. So splitting up and hitting different directions only makes sense.”
Lucien held up a hand. “No way are we splitting up.”
“That would put you in too much danger,” Ronan said, the frown on his face deepening.
“That would make us utterly irresponsible in our task to protect and defend,” Lucien said.
Evee’s eyes narrowed. “So are you saying that going off on your own, knowing there are loose Nosferatu, Loup Garous and Chenilles, any of which could slaughter you within seconds, is irresponsible?” she asked Lucien.
“Yes,” Lucien said defiantly. “The bottom line is splitting more than we already have is ludicrous. We’d be asking for disaster.”
“Yes,” Ronan said. “Like we don’t have enough to deal with now. I think we should stick together.”
“Of course,” Evee said. “Any wuss would want to play the safe card. Look, if the two of you would just stop yammering and get to searching, we might actually get the job done.”
Lucien had to bite the inside of his cheeks to keep from laughing. If anything, Evee was not short on piss and vinegar once she had her mind set on something.
Ronan, on the other hand, evidently felt different. Appearing dumbstruck, he looked away, his cheeks turning a shade of pink.
“Look,” Evee said to Lucien and Ronan. “I didn’t mean for that to come out so...bitchy. I apologize.”
Lucien looked up at her with a stoic expression. “Apology accepted.”
With