The next scene was of a dark-haired young man. This one was obviously deliberately filmed; the boy was looking directly into the camera. He took a knife from his belt and very coolly made a cut on his left wrist. Blood welled up in the wound and dripped to the ground.
"The second Wild Power," Grandma Harman said. "A vampire prince."
The boy turned and held out the arm that was bleeding. The camera focused on a large boulder about thirty feet away. And then the tape went into slow motion again, and Keller could actually see the blue fire shoot out from his hand.
It started as a burst, but what followed was a steady stream. It was so bright that the camera couldn't deal with it; it bleached out the rest of the picture. But when it hit the rock, there was no doubt about what happened.
The two-ton boulder exploded into gravel.
When the dust settled, there was only a charred crater in the ground. The dark-haired boy looked back at the camera, then shrugged and targeted another boulder. He wasn't even sweating.
Keller's breath came out involuntarily. Her heart was pounding, and she knew her eyes were glittering. She saw Galen glance sideways at her but ignored him.
Power like that, she thought. I never really imagined it. If I had that power, the things I could do with it... Before she could help herself, she had turned to him. "Don't you see? That's what you'll bring to our side if you choose to fight with us. That's what's going to give us a chance against them. You have to do it, don't you understand?"
It was the wrong thing to say. Diana's reaction to the video had been completely different from Keller's own. She was staring at the TV as if she were watching open-heart surgery. Unsuccessful open-heart surgery.
I don't - I can't do anything like that!"
"Diana-"
"And I don't want to! No. Look." A veil seemed to have dropped down behind Diana's beautiful eyes.
She was facing Keller, but Keller wondered if she actually saw anything. She spoke rapidly, almost frantically.
"You said you had to talk to me, so I listened. I even watched your-your special effects stuff." She waved a hand at the screen where the boy was blowing up more boulders. "But now it's over, and I'm going home. This is all-I don't know. It's all too weird for me! I'm telling you, I can't do that kind of thing. You're looking at the wrong person."
"We looked at all your cousins first," Grandma Harman said. "Thea and Blaise. Gillian, who was a lost witch like yourself. Even poor Sylvia, who was seduced over to the enemy side. But it was none of them. Then we found you." She leaned forward, trying to hold Diana with her eyes. "You have to accept it, child. It's a great responsibility and a great burden, but no one else can do it for you. Come and take your place with us."
Iliana wasn't listening.
It was as simple as that. Keller could almost see the words bouncing off her. And her eyes...
Not a veil, Keller thought. A wall had dropped down. It had slammed into place, and Diana was hiding behind it.
"If I don't get home soon, my mother's going to go crazy. I just ran out for a few minutes to get some gold stretchy ribbon-you know, the kind that has like a rubber band inside? It seems like I'm always looking for that. We have some from last year, but it's already tied, and it won't fit on the presents I'm doing."
Keller stared at her, then cast a glance heavenward. She could see the others staring, too. Winnie's mouth was hanging open. Nissa's eyebrows were in her hair. Galen looked dismayed.
Grandma Harman said, "If you won't accept your responsibilities as a Wild Power, will you at least do your duty as the Witch Child? The winter solstice is next Saturday. On that night, there's going to be a meeting of the shapeshifters and the witches. If we can show them a promise ceremony between you and the son of the First House of the shapeshifters, the shapeshifters will join us."
Keller half expected Iliana to explode. And in the deepest recesses of her own heart, she wouldn't really have blamed her. She could understand Iliana losing it and saying, What do you think you're doing, waltzing in and trying to hitch me up to some guy I've never met? Asking me to fight is one thing but ordering me to marry-giving me away like some object-that's another.
But Iliana didn't say anything like that. She said, "And I've still got so many presents to wrap, and I'm not anywhere near done shopping. Plus, this week at school is going to be completely crazy. And Saturday, that's the night Jaime and Brett Ashton-Hughes are having their birthday party. I can't miss that."
Keller lost it.
"What is wrong with you? Are you deaf or just stupid?"
Iliana talked right over her. "They're twins, you know. And I think Brett kind of likes me. Their family is really rich, and they live in this big house, and they only invite a few people to their parties. All the girls have crushes on him. Brett, I mean."
"No," Keller answered her own question. "You're just the most selfish, spoiled little brat I've ever met!"
"Keller," Nissa said quietly. "It's no good. The harder you push her, the more she goes into denial."
Keller let out her breath. She knew that it was true, but she had never been more frustrated in her life.
Grandma Harman's face suddenly looked very old and very tired. "Child, we can't force you to do anything. But you have to realize that we're not the only ones who want you. The other side knows about you, too. They won't give up, and they will use force."
"And they've got a lot of force." Keller turned to the old woman. "I need to tell you about that. I didn't want to say it on the phone, but they already tried to get Iliana once today. We had to fight them at the mall." She took a deep breath. "And they had a dragon."
Grandma Harman's head jerked up. Those steely lavender-gray eyes fixed on Keller. "Tell me."
Keller told everything. As she did, Grandma Harman's face seemed to get older and older, sinking into haggard lines of worry and sadness. But all she said at the end was, "I see. Well have to try to find out how they got him, and what exactly his powers are. I don't think there's anybody alive today who's an expert on-those creatures."
"They called him Azhdeha."
"Hmm-sounds Persian."
"It is," Galen said. 'It's one of the old names for the constellation Draco. It means 'man-eating serpent'"