“Oh, Kevin, we aren’t here to socialize,” she said cryptically.
Before Marx could start to question her, Grandma spoke up, walking past him to meet the nun at the boundary of the school. “Mary Angela, I was just thinking of you earlier.” They embraced quickly.
The nun laughed and said loudly enough for a good part of the watching crowd to overhear, “And when did you think of me? Before or after you were being attacked by Darkness? You do lead such an interesting life, Sylvia.”
Aphrodite, who had come over to stand by me, snorted, saying, “Old people should have less interesting lives.”
“We should have less interesting lives,” I said under my breath.
Grandma smiled as if she could hear us. “It was afterward, when Thanatos called for the prayers of Tulsa to aid us.”
“Ah, that is a lovely coincidence, because prayer is what brought us here.”
“Please explain, good Sister,” Thanatos said. I noticed she didn’t join Grandma. I glanced at Kalona, who was sticking to her side like he expected more tendrils of Darkness to appear at any moment.
“Oh, for shit’s sake, enough with this procrastinating,” Aphrodite muttered, and then strode forward. “They want protection.”
I followed her, though Stark’s hand on my elbow slowed me down.
“I believe the correct word for what they want is ‘sanctuary,’” said Lenobia.
“You mean the politically correct word,” Aphrodite said.
“If any of us were politically correct, we would not be here.” From the middle of the flickering lamplight, a petite woman, followed by a slender man, walked to stand beside Sister Mary Angela. She nodded politely to Thanatos. “Shalom, High Priestess.”
“I greet you with peace, Rabbi Margaret,” Thanatos said. Now that they were closer to the light, the couple looked kinda familiar to me. “I greet you with peace as well, Rabbi Steven. It is always a pleasure to see our neighbors from Temple Israel.”
I realized that’s why the woman and the man looked familiar. They were the married rabbis, Margaret and Steven Bernstein, who had recently become the rabbinic leadership at Temple Israel, which literally backed to the Utica Square side of the House of Night. I remembered that they’d raved about Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies at our open house before that night had, of course, ended in disaster and death.
“So it is indeed sanctuary you seek here tonight?” Thanatos asked the couple, but her voice carried throughout the crowd.
“We do,” said Rabbi Margaret, as she and her husband, as well as a bunch of people standing behind them, nodded their heads.
“The Benedictine Sisterhood seeks sanctuary as well,” said Sister Mary Angela.
“As does the congregation of All Souls,” said an older woman, moving forward out of the shadows. She had long, faded blond hair but eyes so brilliantly blue that even in the dim light they sparkled like little aquamarines. She walked straight up to Thanatos, ignoring Detective Marx’s glower, and stuck out her hand. “It’s about time we met. I’m Suzanne Grimms, leader of The Point ministry at All Souls. Like I said, we’re asking you for sanctuary, too.”
Thanatos hesitated. She glanced at Lenobia, who smiled. She glanced at Kalona, who frowned. And then she surprised me by glancing over her shoulder at me. I met her eyes and did what my gut told me to do—I smiled and nodded.
Thanatos turned to Suzanne, grasped her forearm in the traditional vampyre greeting, and raised her voice so that it was filled with the power of Nyx: “As High Priestess of Tulsa’s House of Night, I welcome you and grant sanctuary to all who seek it!”
Beside me, I heard Stark sigh and whisper, “Ah, hell…”
Zoey
“No, Bobby! How many times does Mommy have to tell you? You cannot touch the tall man’s wings!” A frazzled-looking woman plucked a toddler from where he was teetering on the field house’s sandy floor, arms stretched out, reaching for the tip of Kalona’s wing.
I bit my cheek to keep from giggling as the winged immortal grunted in annoyance and sidestepped to avoid sticky reaching fingers. The toddler tried to lurch out of his mom’s tired arms. Kalona dodged around her the other way. As usual, whenever Kalona appeared, all the humans focused their attention on him, which seemed to be wearing on him. He looked tired. Weirdly, his wounds hadn’t totally healed yet but were painful-looking pink lines and puckered gouges. I was thinking that he must not have spent enough time on the roof of the ONEOK building when Aphrodite’s “Psst!” took my attention.
“Z, bumpkin—over here with me, now!” Aphrodite called to us. Stevie Rae and I let go of the case of water we’d been carrying into the field house and followed Aphrodite to the shadowy far wall and a little alcove that held a statue of Nyx.
“Man, I’m beat,” Stevie Rae said.
“Seriously,” I agreed.
“We’re overdue for a break,” Aphrodite said, tossing cans of brown pop to Stevie Rae and me. Then she totally surprised me by cracking open her own can.
“Pop? You? I thought you hated it.”
“I do, and this isn’t pop. It’s Sophia champagne,” she said, sipping happily through a little pink straw that she’d unwrapped from the side of the slender pink can.
“Champagne in a can—who knew?” Stevie Rae said.
“Anyone civilized.”
“I didn’t know,” I said.
“My point exactly,” Aphrodite said. Then she cut her eyes to Kalona, who was standing in the middle of the field house, obviously looking for someone and just as obviously trying to ignore the people who were staring at him.
“Kalona and humans, especially little humans, equals apocalyptic train wreck,” Aphrodite said.
“In total agreement with you,” I said. “Does he look tired to you guys?”
Aphrodite snorted. “We all look tired.”
“I think he looks like he always does, except beat up, which makes it kinda mean that I was rootin’ for that baby to grab a feather,” Stevie Rae said.
“Kalona’s an immortal. He’s fine, and a baby yanking on his feathers would be beyond awesome,” Aphrodite said. “I wonder what I could bribe a toddler with to do that—or, better yet, his mom to allow him do that. Do you think she likes mimosas?”
“That mom sure looks like she needs a mimosa, without the orange juice. She’d probably like one of your pink cans,” Stevie Rae said.
“I don’t say this often because it isn’t often true, but I think you’re right, Stevie Rae,” Aphrodite said. “I’ll need more than one of these little cans, though. Looks like a job for the Widow Clicquot.”
“Widow Clicquot? Is she from Temple Israel?”
“Oh, you poor, ignorant peasant,” Aphrodite said, shaking her head sadly at Stevie Rae.
Kalona had made it past the toddler, and he was moving again. Ugh, it seemed he was heading in our direction. “Tell me he isn’t coming our way.”
“Wish I could,” Aphrodite said.
“He’s like a ginormic homing pigeon,” Stevie Rae said.
“Should we meet him halfway?” I asked, yawning. I glanced at the school clock. It read 5:30 A.M. There was a little over an hour left before sunrise, and for once I totally understood red fledgling exhaustion.
“Save Kalona from the humans? Not no, but hell no,” Aphrodite said.
“Ditto on that,” Stevie Rae said.
I shrugged and yawned again. “Okay by me. I’m too tired to move anyway.”
Thanatos had decided that the best place to put all the humans—and there really was a bunch of them—was in the biggest building on campus, our field house. I thought it was a good idea. The place was huge, and with them all together in here they’d be easy to keep track of. Of course the majority of the field house floor was sand because it was used for Warrior training, and the sand sucked. Sand, sleeping bags, and tired, scared, grumpy, gawking humans don’t mix well together, so we’d all (meaning almost everyone on campus except for Thanatos, Grandma, Detective Marx
, and the religious leaders) spent the past several hours struggling to spread tarps and transform the Warrior training grounds into a what was finally starting to look like a temporary tornado shelter. Not that that was much better, but at least it was less sandy and was more or less neatly sectioned off in family sleeping areas.
“Check it out.” Aphrodite bumped me with her shoulder. “The guy Rabbi Steven Bernstein has Kalona cornered. I’ll bet he’s asking him all sorts of crazy Torah questions.”
“It’s Kalona’s own fault,” I said. “It wouldn’t kill him to wear a shirt.”
“Right? What’s with his constantly naked chest?” Aphrodite agreed.
“Hey, guys, check it out.” Stevie Rae pointed. “I think Nicole and Shaylin are gettin’ to be real good friends. I’m glad. Nicole’s done a lot of changin’, and, well, Shaylin needs a BFF, especially after you went all psycho on her, Z,” Stevie Rae said, then quickly added, “Sorry, Z. Not to be mean or anything.”
I sighed. “No problem. I did go psycho on her, and I’m glad she has a nice BFF, too.”
Aphrodite and I swiveled our gazes to watch the two dark-haired girls. They were making up sleeping bags together. They did look super buddy-buddy. Actually, as I kept watching them, I saw their shoulders touch and their heads tilt toward each other. My brows went up. Nicole reached out and brushed Shaylin’s hair back from her face, caressing her cheek as she did so, weirdly reminding me of something Stark would do to flirt with me. I cleared my throat. “Hmm, they do seem close.”
“Everybody should have a BFF!” Stevie Rae beamed at me.
“Uh, Stevie Rae,” I began, still watching the touches and looks that Nicole and Shaylin passed back and forth. “I think they might—”
“Oh, for shit’s sake, Z. You scared Shaylin gay!” Aphrodite said.
I frowned at Aphrodite. “Be nice.”
“Ohmygoodness!” Stevie Rae’s eyes looked twice their size as we saw Nicole sneak a quick kiss on Shaylin’s neck. “I didn’t know you could scare somebody gay.”
“Seriously, bumpkin, I ask again—are you retarded?”
“You know how I feel ’bout the r-word,” Stevie Rae said.
“And you know how little I care.”
“And you both know how bad you make my head hurt when you bicker. Aphrodite, don’t be mean about Shaylin and Nicole. They can love whoever they want to love. Stevie Rae—no, you can’t scare someone gay. Jeesh.”
“Hey, I don’t care who she loves or who she sleeps with, but I am going to enjoy watching the shit storm that’s brewing.” Aphrodite pointed a little way from the bed Shaylin and Nicole were making. “Here comes Clark Kent, right on cue. And I think he just saw the kiss.”
“Yepper,” Stevie Rae said. “He musta. Look at him.”
“Befuddled. That’s what Grandma would say about how he looks. Totally befuddled,” I said. “I know I shouldn’t, but I’m going to enjoy watching this.”
“Are you kidding? I want to record it and watch over and over,” Aphrodite said.
Erik had already started talking to Shaylin. Even from how far away we were, I could see he was using his hundred-watt movie star smile on her.
“I know he can be a douche sometimes, but you have to admit he is a cutie patootie,” Stevie Rae said. “Not like Rephaim, but still.”
Aphrodite made a gagging sound.
Nicole didn’t hesitate, and she didn’t back off. She stuck to Shaylin’s side, reached out, and wrapped her arm intimately around the girl’s slender waist, staring straight at Erik with obvious possessiveness.
“I knew Nicole would be the guy,” Aphrodite said.
“Erik looks like his head is gonna explode through that cleft in his chin,” I said.
“Zoey, Thanatos has summoned you, Stevie Rae, and Aphrodite. She asks that the three of you join her in the Council Chamber. That is, if you are finished watching the humans,” Kalona said sarcastically, jerking his head toward the non-humans we had actually been watching.
The three of us jumped guiltily at the sound of his voice. As usual, Aphrodite recovered first.
“Well, thank Nyx and the little baby Jesus for getting us out of here before sunrise,” Aphrodite said. “It’ll take me days to get the sand out of my sparkly Jimmy Choo flats. I’m way better at Prophetess-ing than I am at schlepping.” She flipped her hair and twitched toward the door. I could hear her sucking up the last of the champagne through her straw.
“Okay, uh, thanks,” I said lamely. “Should we get Stark and Darius and Rephaim, too?”
“The males are busy.” Kalona cut his eyes to where our three males were struggling with the end of a ginormous tarp.
“Well, okie dokie, then. We’re outta here,” Stevie Rae said, waving at Rephaim. I blew Stark a quick kiss before following her out.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Zoey
We passed Sister Mary Angela, the girl Rabbi Bernstein, and the All Souls minister as we entered the hallway to the Council Chamber.
“Zoey, Aphrodite, Stevie Rae,” the nun greeted us, gesturing to the women standing beside her. “Let me introduce the three of you to Rabbi Margaret Bernstein and Suzanne Grimms.”
“Merry meet,” we chimed, semi-together.
The women looked tired, but they smiled. “We’re happy to meet you and to be welcome here,” said Rabbi Bernstein.
“Yes, and thank you for all the hard work you must have done helping everyone get settled in,” said Suzanne.
We nodded our you’re welcomes, and as the women moved away, Sister Mary Angela caught my eye. “Good luck, Zoey.”
“She knows something we don’t,” Aphrodite whispered.
I signed in agreement, headed to the Council Chamber door, then almost crashed into Shaunee, who burst around the corner looking everywhere except right in front of her.
“Jeeze, be careful,” I said, grabbing her so that neither of us fell over.
“What in the world are you doin’ running around up here?” Stevie Rae asked. “My mamma would say you’re actin’ like your hair’s on fire.”
Shaunee raised a brow. “I’d rather have my hair on fire than have a lost cat. I can’t find Beelzebub anywhere.”
I’d been super happy to have discovered that while I was locked up, Shaunee and Kramisha had gone to the depot and brought all of our cats—and Duchess, of course—back to the House of Night. Nala had launched herself at me when I’d gone up to my dorm room to change, and I’d squeezed her so hard she’d been super disgruntled and sneezed in my face.
“Why are you stressing? You know how cats are—they come when then want and they go when they want. I have no clue where Maleficent is right now,” Aphrodite said.
“I just hope she’s not around here,” Stevie Rae said under her breath.
I jumped in before Aphrodite could start hissing. “I gotta agree with Aphrodite. Beelzebub is probably just glad to be out of those tunnels and he’s stretching his paws.”
“That’s what I’d think, too, but Beelzebub never misses dinnertime. Never. And I always feed him right before sunrise. I shook his Whiskas bag and he didn’t come running as usual. So I started checking things out. Have you guys noticed that the cats are being super stealthy?”
I thought about it. I’d seen Nala before we’d gone to the Mayo, but since we’d been back she hadn’t made an appearance. Actually, now that I was thinking about it, I hadn’t seen any of the cats recently. “Huh, now that you mention it, no. I haven’t seen any of the cats. Duchess was in the field house with Damien and Stark, but Cammy wasn’t with him, and neither was Nala.”
“Like that surprises you? Please. Don’t be asstards. The field house is swarming with humans. I’m not a cat, but that makes me want to be super stealthy. I sure as shit can’t blame them for disappearing.”
“Makes sense,” Stevie Rae said. “Cats are weird like that. No offense,” she added, glancing at Aphrodite.
“I embrace weird. As I’ve said before, normal is overrated.?
??
“Okay, well, I’ll try not to worry about him. Sorry I crashed into you guys. See you later.”
“Join us in the Council Chamber, young fledgling.” Kalona’s voice surprised all of us.
“He lives in super stealth mode,” Stevie Rae whispered to me.
“Thanks for asking, Kalona, but no thanks,” Shaunee told him. “No one ever leaves a Council Meeting saying, ‘Wow! That was fun! I can’t wait to do it again!’”
I started to laugh and wave Shaunee away, but then my gut kicked in, making my mouth say, “Actually, I’d appreciate it if you did join us.”
Shaunee stopped, sighed, and shrugged. “All right. I guess it’s better than making beds in the field house.”
I smiled my thanks to her and the five of us entered the Council Chamber.
Thanatos and Grandma were sitting beside each other. Lenobia was there as well. I was surprised to see Detective Marx standing, arms crossed, behind Thanatos. I thought there wasn’t anyone else in the room, but a movement in the darkness by the rear door caught my eye, and I saw Aurox was there again, as if stationed on guard. He didn’t look at me.
“Zoey, Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, Kalona, please come in—sit,” Thanatos said. “Shaunee, I don’t believe I called for you.”
“I asked her to join us,” I said.
“Then she is welcome as well,” Thanatos said, gesturing for us to take our seats.
It wasn’t until I got to the table that I saw that the big, flat screen of the computer was lit up. I blinked in surprise and then smiled and hurried the last few feet to the table.
“Sgiach! Hi, it’s super awesome to see you!” I blurted.
The queen smiled and responded much more regally (and appropriately), “Merry meet, Zoey. It pleases me to see you as well.”
“We called Queen Sgiach, thinking to speak with one of her Warriors who could relay the message to her that we would like to confer,” Thanatos explained.
“And then were surprised—and pleased—when the queen herself answered our call,” Grandma added.
I quickly added in my head: if it was almost 6:00 A.M. in Tulsa, it had to be almost noon in Scotland. What the heck was Sgiach doing awake? I took a closer look at the queen. She was seated at the huge wooden desk in her private library—that all seemed normal. But Sgiach wasn’t looking normal. Her hair was crazy messy. Her face was smudged with dirt and, I leaned closer to the screen to get a better look … “Blood! Why is there blood and dirt on you? Are you okay?”