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CHAPTER NINE

  Zoey

  "Neferet must be stopped," Thanatos said with no preamble.

  "Sounds like good news to me. Finally," Aphrodite said. "So is the entire High Council showing up here to call bullshit on her stupid press conference, or is Duantia coming by herself?"

  "I can't wait till the humans hear the real deal about her," Stevie Rae spoke after Aphrodite, sounding as pissed as Aphrodite and not giving Thanatos a chance to reply. "I'm dang tired of Neferet smiling and batting her eyes and making everyone believe she's all sugar and spice and everything nice. "

  "Neferet does much more than bat her eyes and smile," Thanatos said grimly. "She uses her Goddess-given gifts to manipulate and harm. Vampyres are subject to her spell-humans have little defense against her. "

  "Which means the Vampyre High Council has to stand up and do something about her," I said.

  "I wish it were that simple," Thanatos said.

  My stomach clenched. I had one of my feelings, and that was almost never good.

  "What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be that simple?" I asked.

  "The High Council will not mingle humans in vampyre affairs," she said.

  "But Neferet's already done that," I said.

  "Yeah, talk about closin' the barn door after the cows have already gone out," Stevie Rae said.

  "The bitch killed Zoey's mom. " Aphrodite was shaking her head as if in disbelief. "Are you saying that the High Council is just going to ignore that and let her get away with murder and talk shit about all of us?"

  "And what would you have the High Council do? Expose Neferet as a killer?"

  "Yes," I spoke up, glad I sounded tough and mature instead of scared and about twelve, which was really how this whole thing was making me feel. "I know she's immortal and powerful, but she killed my mom. "

  "We have no proof of that," Thanatos said quietly.

  "Bullshit!" Aphrodite exploded. "We all saw it!"

  "In a reveal ritual set in motion by a death spell. Neither can be repeated. The land has been washed clean of that act of violence by all five elements. "

  "She took Darkness as her Consort," Aphrodite argued. "She's not just in league with evil, she's probably doing the nasty with it!"

  "Eeew," Stevie Rae and I said together.

  "Humans would never believe any of it, even if they had been there. " We all turned to look at Shaylin, who until then had been standing silently and watching the four of us with what I'd thought was a kinda glazed, shocky expression. But her voice was steady. Sure, she looked nervous, but her chin was lifted again and she had what I was coming to recognize as her stubborn face on.

  "What the hell do you know about it and why are you speaking?" Aphrodite snapped at her.

  "This time last month I was a human. Humans don't trust vampyre magick. " Shaylin faced Aphrodite without flinching. "You've been around all this magick too long. You have totally lost perspective. "

  "And you have totally lost your mind," Aphrodite snarled, puffing up like a blowfish.

  "Squabbling children again. " Thanatos didn't raise her voice, but her words cut through the almost-girl-fight tension between Aphrodite and Shaylin.

  "They don't want to fight," I spoke into the sudden silence. "None of us do. But we're all frustrated and we expected you and the High Council to do something, anything, to help us against Neferet. "

  "Let me show you the truth of who we are, and then you might understand more about this fight you are insisting we take to the humans. " Thanatos lifted her right arm, holding her palm up at about chest level away from her body. She cupped her hand, breathed in deeply, and with her left hand, swirled the air above her upraised palm, saying, "Behold the world!" Her voice was powerful, mesmerizing. My eyes were drawn to her palm. On it a globe of the world was taking form. It was awesome-not like those boring globes history teachers/coaches use as dust-gatherers. This one looked like it was made of black smoke. The water rippled and rolled. The continents emerged, carved from onyx.

  "Ohmygoodness," Stevie Rae said. "It's so pretty!"

  "It is," Thanatos said. "And now behold who we are in the world!" She flicked the fingers of her left hand at the globe, as if she were sprinkling it with water. Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and I gasped. Little sparkles began appearing, dotting the onyx landmasses with tiny diamond lights.

  "That's beautiful," I said.

  "Are they diamonds? Real diamonds?" Aphrodite asked, stepping closer.

  "No, young Prophetess. They are souls. Vampyre souls. They are us. "

  "But there are so few lights. I mean, compared to the rest of the globe that's all dark," Shaylin said.

  I frowned and stepped closer along with Aphrodite. Shaylin was right. The earth looked huge compared to the sprinkling of sparkly dots. I stared and stared. My eyes were drawn to the clusters of shininess: Venice, the Isle of Skye, somewhere in what I thought was Germany. A cluster of light in France, a few splotches in Canada, and several more sprinkled around the continental U. S. -several more, but still not very many.

  "Is that Australia?" Stevie Rae asked.

  I peered around to the other side of the globe, catching sight of another spattering of diamonds.

  "It is," Thanatos said. "And New Zealand as well. "

  "That's Japan, isn't it?" Shaylin pointed to another tiny splotch of glitter.

  "Yes, it is," Thanatos said.

  "America doesn't have as many diamonds as it should," Aphrodite said.

  Thanatos didn't respond. She met my gaze. I looked away, studying the globe again. Slowly, I walked all the way around her, wishing I'd paid better attention in geography class-any of them. When I completed my circle I met the High Priestess's gaze again.

  "There aren't enough of us," I said.

  "That is the absolute, unfortunate truth," Thanatos said. "We are brilliant, powerful, and spectacular, but we are few. "

  "So, even if we could get the humans to listen to us we'd be opening a door to our world that's better left closed. " Aphrodite spoke calmly, sounding mature and uncharacteristically non-bitchy. "They start thinking their rules apply to us, that we need them to keep us in line, and that means they start putting out our lights. "

  "Simply, but well put. " Thanatos clapped her palms together and the globe disappeared in a puff of sparkly smoke.

  "Then what do we do? We can't just let Neferet get away with her crap. It's not like she's gonna stop with a press conference, a committee, and a newspaper column. She wants death and destruction. Hell's Bells, Darkness is her Consort!" Stevie Rae said.

  "We gotta fight her fire with our fire," Shaylin said.

  "Oh, for shit's sake. I can't deal with one more kid who uses bad metaphors instead of just saying what's what," Aphrodite said.

  "What I mean is if Neferet is involving humans, then we should, too. But on our own terms," Shaylin said. I saw her mouth the word hateful afterward, but Aphrodite had decided to ignore the fledgling. Again. And, thankfully, Aphrodite wasn't looking at her.

  "Shaylin, you interest me, child. Why is it you have accompanied these two Priestesses and the Prophetess?" Thanatos asked abruptly.

  We Priestesses and Prophetess went silent. Personally, I wanted to see how Shaylin was going to handle Thanatos. I liked to think Stevie Rae had shut up for the same reason. I already knew Aphrodite's reasoning, which Shaylin had summed up with the succinct word she'd mouthed: hateful.

  The little red fledgling raised her chin and looked super stubborn. "I came with them because I wanted to ask you about my gift. And they agreed. " Shaylin paused, glanced at Aphrodite and added, "Well, two of the three agreed. "

  "What gift has Nyx given you, fledgling?"

  "True Sight. I think. " She glanced nervously from Stevie Rae to me. "Right?"

  "We think so," I said.

  "Yep. At least that's what Damien's research tells us, and he's almost always right about anythin'
he's researched," Stevie Rae said.

  "She said Neferet was the color of dead fish eyes. That makes me think she might have something more than simple mental illness or mild retardation going on," Aphrodite surprised me by saying.

  "You see auras?" Thanatos asked while she studied Shaylin like she was peering down a microscope and the fledgling was pressed against a glass slide.

  "I see colors," Shaylin said. "I don't know what to call it. I-I was blind before the night I was Marked. I had been since I was five. Then, zap! I get a red crescent moon in the middle of my forehead, my vision back, and with it I get colors. Lots of colors. Because of them I know things about people. Like I knew Neferet was rotten inside the second I saw her. Even though on the outside she was beautiful. " I watched her clench her hands together behind her, and hold still under the High Priestess's scrutiny. "It's the same way I know Erik Night is basically an okay guy, but he's weak. He's always taken the easy road. Your color is black, but not like flat black. It's deep and rich and I can see little lightning bolts of golden light zapping through it. " She sighed. "I think that means you're really old and smart and powerful, but you also have a serious temper, which you keep under control. Most of the time. "

  Thanatos's lips tilted up. "Go on. "

  Shaylin looked quickly at Stevie Rae and then back at Thanatos. "Stevie Rae's colors are like fireworks. That makes me think that she's the kindest, happiest person I've ever met. "

  "That's only 'cause you never knew Jack," Stevie Rae said, smiling a little sadly at Shaylin. "But thanks. That's a real nice thing to say about me. "

  "I'm not meaning to be nice. I'm just trying to tell the truth. " Her eyes went to Aphrodite. "Well, most of the time I'm trying to tell the truth. "

  Aphrodite snorted.

  I waited for her to get to me-to tell Thanatos that my colors had gotten darker because I was super worried-but she didn't say anything about me at all. She just gave a little nod of her head, like she'd decided something inside herself, and finished by saying, "That's why I'm here. I need your advice about how to use my gift and to know the truth about it. "

  I think it was then that I started to respect her. Thanatos wasn't just any High Priestess. She was a member of the High Council and her affinity was for death. Okay, Thanatos was scary. Seriously. Yet here was Shaylin, all less than a hundred pounds of her, less than a month old as a fledgling, standing up to Thanatos, without giving away anything too private about me. She hadn't even said the stuff about Aphrodite's flickery nice spot color. That took guts. Lots of them.

  I glanced down at Shaylin's clenched hands and saw that her fingers had gone white. I knew how she felt. I'd had to stand up to a powerful High Priestess shortly after I'd been Marked, too.

  I moved closer to Shaylin. "Whatever you want to call what she sees, Shaylin has a gift. I agree with Damien. I think it's True Sight. "

  "We all do," Stevie Rae said.

  "Can you help me?" Shaylin asked.

  Thanatos surprised me then. She didn't say anything. She turned and walked over to her desk, gazing down at it as if the answer to Shaylin's question were written on the big daily calendar she used as a desk pad. She just stood there like that, with her head bowed, for what seemed like a super ridiculously long time. I'd decided that I needed to clench my hands behind me to keep from fidgeting, too, when the High Priestess finally turned around and faced the four of us.

  "Shaylin, the answer I have for you is the same as the answer I have for Zoey and Stevie Rae and Aphrodite. " I heard Aphrodite mutter something about not remembering asking her a damn question, but Thanatos spoke over her. "Each of you has been unusually gifted by our Goddess, and that is fortuitous for us because we will need all of the powers Light can gift us with if we are to battle Darkness. "

  "You mean beat Darkness, don't ya," Stevie Rae said.

  I knew Thanatos's answer before she spoke it. "Darkness can never truly be beaten. It can only be battled and exposed by love and Light and truth. "

  "Losing side. Again," Aphrodite said under her breath.

  "I am going to give each of you a task so that you may exercise your gifts. Prophetess, I give the first to you," Thanatos spoke to Aphrodite.

  Aphrodite sighed heavily.

  "You have been gifted by Nyx with visions that are warnings of dire things to come. Did you have a vision before Neferet's press conference?"

  "No. " Aphrodite looked surprised by Thanatos's question. "I haven't had a vision for about a week now. "

  "Then what good are you, Prophetess?" Her words were hard, cold. Thanatos almost sounded cruel.

  Aphrodite's face got real pale, and then blazed with pink. "Who are you to question me? You're not Nyx. I don't answer to you. I answer to her!"

  "Exactly. " Thanatos's expression relaxed. "Then answer to her. Listen to her. Watch for her signs and signals. Your visions have become increasingly painful and difficult, have they not?"

  Aphrodite nodded in a quick tight movement.

  "Perhaps that is because our Goddess wishes for you to exercise your gift in other ways. You did so, briefly, before the High Council. Remember?"

  "Of course I remember. It's how I knew Kalona and Zoey's souls had left their bodies. "

  "But you didn't need a vision to tell you that. "

  "No. "

  "My point has been made," Thanatos said. She turned to Stevie Rae. "You are the youngest High Priestess I have ever met, and I have lived a very long time. You are the first red vampyre High Priestess in the history of our people. You have a powerful affinity for earth. "

  "Yeaaah. " Stevie Rae drew the word out as if she was waiting for Thanatos's punch line.

  "It is your task to practice leadership. You defer to Zoey far too often. You are a High Priestess. Draw strength from the earth and begin behaving as a High Priestess should. " Thanatos didn't give Stevie Rae a chance to respond. Her dark gaze skewered Shaylin. "If you have True Sight your gift is only as good as you are. Do not squander it on pettiness and jealousies. "

  "That's why I'm here," Shaylin spoke quickly. "I want to learn how to use it the right way. "

  "That, young fledgling, is something you must grow up and teach yourself. Your task is to study those around you. Come to your High Priestess with your results. Stevie Rae will use the power of her element, as well as her growing leadership power, to guide you. "

  "But I don't know-" Stevie Rae began and Thanatos cut her off. "And you never will know. Anything. Anything important at all. Unless you take on the responsibility of being a High Priestess. Learn to rely on yourself so that others may feel secure in relying on you. "

  Stevie Rae closed her mouth and nodded, looking like she was about twelve and the exact opposite of a High Priestess. But I didn't have time to say anything to her because Thanatos had finally turned her torpedo eyes on me.

  "Use your Seer Stone. "

  "Huh?"

  "It frightens you," she spoke as if I hadn't said anything. "The truth is the world should frighten you, should frighten all of you, right now. Fear is not a reason to avoid your responsibilities. You have a piece of old magick that responds to you. Use it. "

  "How? For what?" I blurted.

  "A Seer Stone, a True Color gift, a Prophetess, a High Priestess-all of those powerful things are useless unless you all begin to answer those questions for yourself. You say you are not bickering children? Prove it. You are dismissed. " She turned her back to us and strode to her desk.

  My friends and I obviously had the same impulse at the same time. As one we began scurrying for the exit door.

  "I will light Dragon Lankford's pyre at midnight. Be present for the ceremony. Immediately afterward I need you and the rest of your circle in the school lobby. I have called my own press conference. "

  Her words hit us like an invisible wall. We all stopped, turned, and gawked at her. I swallowed past the lump of dryness in my throat and said, "But you said w
e can't stand up to Neferet in the human community. So, what are we press conferencing about?"

  "We are continuing in goodwill what Neferet began only to create chaos and conflict. She opened this school to human employees. We are going to announce in the conference that, though we are sad to see Neferet leave our school's employ, we are happy to take job applications from the community for more positions at the House of Night. We will smile. We will be warm and open. James Stark will be present and will be charming and handsome and harmless. "

  "You're going to make Neferet look like nothing more than a disgruntled employee?" Aphrodite said. "That's brilliant!"

  "And normal," I said.

  "Something humans will totally understand," Shaylin said.

  "Hey, if ya really want to be normal and human-like, we need to have an open house job fair thingie. " We stared at Stevie Rae.

  "Go on," Thanatos said. "What is your idea, High Priestess?"

  "Well, my high school used to have a job fair for seniors at the end of the school year. It was kinda like a regular open house at school, what with the bad punch and the baked goods and all. But businesses from Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and even from Dallas would come and take job applications and set up interviews for the seniors while the rest of us hung around and wished we were graduating. " Stevie Rae smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Guess I thought of it 'cause I missed my chance, gettin' Marked and all. "

  "Actually that is an interesting idea," Thanatos shocked me by saying. "We will mention our willingness to open our school to a job fair"-she spoke the words as if they were in a foreign language-"during the press conference later tonight. "

  "If you're gonna have a real open house we need a bunch of folks here. How 'bout we invite Street Cats and do a whole fund-raising cat adoption thing? That'd be something Tulsa could get behind," Stevie Rae added.

  "And it would be normal," Aphrodite said. "Charity events are normal, and they bring out the people with the big bucks, and that's a good thing. "

  "An excellent point," Thanatos said.

  "My grandma can help coordinate with Street Cats. She and Sister Mary Angela, the nun who's their director, are friends," I said.

  Thanatos nodded. "Then I will call Sylvia, and ask her if she feels up to coordinating what we shall call an open house evening and job fair for Tulsa. The presence of your grandmother, as well as the nuns, will have a normalizing, calming affect. "

  "My momma can bake like a ton of chocolate chip cookies and come, too," Stevie Rae said.

  "Then invite her. I have faith in you, as does Nyx. Do not disappoint either of us. And now, you are truly dismissed. "

  We left Thanatos's classroom talking about the press conference and the open house and how it felt good that we had a Plan. It was only later that I realized I hadn't said one single word about the Aurox/Heath situation . . .