"But she succeeded in fighting them off. She found Michael's sword, that must have been what she was looking for. It had been stolen from my father's study, you know. The Silver Bloods must have had it," Mimi said, thinking of the burglary. "so we know what killed these two," she said. "But then something else happened...."
"Yes. Nan came back, and that was a surprise. Jordan didn't see that one coming," Kingsley said.
"So Nan killed her, or at least she thought she did."
"Yes."
"But the irises?, you said she isn't dead," Mimi said. "But Jordan is dead."
"Yes. But Jordan was just a physical shell for the Watcher." Kingsley looked at Mimi. "You really don't remember any of this? You should be ashamed."
"I don't have to apologize for anything?" But she felt as if she should.
"The Watcher is not exactly one of us. While her spirit can be called up in the blood to be born in a new cycle, there's something that the Silver Bloods don't know. In Rome, when Sophia was the first of us to recognize Lucifer in the Emperor Caligula, when her cycle was completed, the Coven decided she was too valuable to be bound by blood alone. So Michael set her spirit free. She is more than vampire. She is like a ghost. She inhabits a body, a machine, but she can leave it, and exchange it, at any time."
"So, Nan Cutler killed her body, but Jordan had time to release her spirit into something else? What?"
Kingsley looked out the window, at the colorful birds hanging in the trees. "My guess is she went into one of those macaws out there. An intelligent bird. But that would just be a temporary shelter. She would look for a Red Blood as soon as she could."
"So you mean to tell me... she's out there? Living in another body?" Mimi asked skeptically.
"Yes."
Mimi crossed her arms. "A human. A Red Blood."
"Yes." Kingsley's patience was wearing thin. "they are made from the same physical shell as we are. A human host."
"And you know all this, that she's still alive, just by looking into her eyes?"
"If the Watcher had truly been destroyed, Jordan's eyes would have pupils. You know what they say... eyes... windows... soul. Do I have to put it together for you, Force?"
They buried Jordan near the waterfalls. Kingsley fashioned a cross from two branches and stuck it in the mound. The four of them clustered around the grave while he said a few words.
"We give to the earth the body of Jordan Llewellyn, who carried the spirit of the Pistis Sophia. We ask the earth to take what is hers, and send it back with gratitude and love and sorrow. Rest in peace."
Mimi and the Lennox brothers murmured soft Amens.
Afterward, they stacked the bodies of the dead Silver Bloods in the backyard and made a funeral pyre. It was only when the first flames caught the wind that Mimi realized it was getting dark. The sun was setting. More than forty-eight hours had passed with no sleep. Mimi was a vampire, but she would have really loved a comfy bed right then. She watched the fire engulf the bodies and send sparks up toward the night sky.
All this and still no Watcher. So what if the Watcher was still alive: this time they didn't even know what she was she still a she, or looked like anymore. She could be anybody.
"Where would the Watcher go for safety?" Kingsley asked. He was talking to himself. "To the one who called her. But with Cordelia gone, and Lawrence dead, she has only one recourse. Allegra Van Alen."
"But Allegra's in a coma. She's not going to be much help to anyone," Mimi pointed out. "Unless, don't tell me..."
"The Watcher has other forms of communication at her disposal, even deeper than our forays into the glom, which have not been able to pierce the wall Gabrielle has erected around herself." Kingsley nodded. "Besides, I have a feeling that after a year in the Rio slums, I'm sure she's feeling it too...."
"Feeling what?"
"I think the Watcher wants what you want, Force," he said softly. "What's that?"
"She wants to go home.
ER 31
Bliss
"Is it really you? How is this possible?" Bliss asked, marveling at how well he looked. The Dylan she remembered had been skin and bones, but this Dylan looked healthy. His cheeks were pink, and his dimples were back.