by P. C. Cast
"How are you today? I hear that one of our young fledglings died last night and that you were witness to his passing."
I swallowed. "Yes, I was with Stark when he died. And I'm as okay as I can be today."
"Do you still feel up to visiting Street Cats? You know it could be a difficult first meeting."
"I know, but I still want to go. It helps if I stay busy."
"Very well. You know yourself best."
"I'd like to take Aphrodite with me, if that's okay with you."
"She's the fledgling with the earth affinity, isn't she?"
I gave a quick, nervous nod and said, "Earth is the affinity Nyx gave her." Okay, well, it wasn't technically a lie.
"Earth is a calming influence. Usually those with an affinity for it are well grounded and dependable. You made an excellent choice as to who should accompany you today, young priestess."
I tried not to look guilty. Aphrodite grounded and dependable? As the Twins would say, please just please. "Well, she and Darius are waiting for me, so I better go."
"Just a moment." Shekinah glanced down at a paper she held in her hand and then passed it to me. "Here is your new class schedule. With my approval, Neferet has transferred you from an entry-level of Vampyre Sociology to a sixth former level of the class." She looked pointedly at my unusual Mark, already filled in even though I am still definitely a fledgling. And of course, no vamp or fledgling has ever had the expanded tattoo Marking I have down my neck, shoulders, back, and waist. Shekinah couldn't see those, but her knowing gaze said that she was more than aware they were there. "You're too unusually developed to stay in such a simplistic level of sociology. I have a feeling, and your High Priestess agrees, that you are going to need to know details about vampyre life a normal third former would not need to know."
"Yes, ma'am," was all I could think to say.
"Putting you in the advanced class has altered your schedule somewhat. I've made sure you're excused today until after lunch. Just be sure you've returned by then, and that you attend the correct classes."
"Okay, I will. Oh, would you make sure Aphrodite is excused, too?"
"I've already done that," she said.
I swallowed hard. "Well, thanks. I mean, thank you." As usual, the uber-knowledge of the vamps made me extremely nervous. "Um, I was thinking that I would suggest to the Street Cats people that the Dark Daughters sponsor a flea market–like sale, with the money going to them. Do you think that would be okay?"
"I think it's a lovely idea. I'm sure the Dark Daughters and Sons will have some interesting items to sell."
I thought about the Twins' designer shoe horde, Erik's collection of Star Wars action figures (who knows—he might have grown out of them now that he's an "adult" vamp), and Damien's obsession for braided hemp choker necklaces, and I had to agree with her. "Yeah, interesting is a good way to describe the stuff."
"I'm giving you the autonomy to decide how you want to proceed with your charity work. I agree with you that more interaction with the local populace is a good idea. Segregation breeds ignorance, and ignorance breeds fear. I've already begun working with the local police about the murders, and I agree with them that it seems to be the work of a very small, very disturbed group of humans. I do have my doubts about allowing you to interact with humans right now, but I believe the good in your idea outweighs the risks."
"So do I."
"And you will be well protected in the company of Darius."
"Yeah, he reminds me of a mountain," I said without thinking, then blushed at my moronic description.
But Shekinah smiled. "He does, indeed, remind one of a mountain."
"Okay, well, I'll let you know how it goes with Street Cats."
"Please do report back to me tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I've decided to call a special New Year's Ritual in which we will focus on cleansing the negative energy from the school. After the deaths of the two professors and now this poor fledgling, the grounds need a powerful, thorough cleansing. I've heard that you're very familiar with cleansing rituals, as you were raised to be aware of your Native American heritage."
"Yes!" I couldn't keep the surprise out of my voice. "My grandma still follows the Cherokee ways."
"Good. Then I'll count on you and your group of very gifted peers to perform the cleansing ritual. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, so let's plan the ritual to begin at midnight. We will call in the new year with a schoolwide cleansing near the east wall."
"The east wall? But that's where . . ." I trailed off, feeling sick.
"Yes, that is where Professor Nolan's body was left. It is also a place of great power, and thus it should be the focal point of your cleansing."
"Isn't that what Neferet did when she performed her ritual there?" Neferet had performed a kind of funeral service for Prof Nolan at the place her body had been found. That had also been when Neferet cast a strong spell around the school that would let her know whenever anyone came or went from the House of Night.
"Cleansing and protection are two very different things, Zoey. Neferet was focusing on protection at that time, which was a perfectly admirable response to such a tragedy. There has been time for our heads to clear now, and it is time to look to the future. For that, we need to cleanse the past. Do you understand?"
"I think so," I said.
"I'll look forward to your circle," she said.
"Me, too," I lied.
"Be vigilant and wise today, Zoey."
"I'll do my best," I said. I gave her a respectful salute and a little bow as I left.
So I had to lead a cleansing ritual for the whole school tomorrow—minus my earth element—even though everyone believed Aphrodite still had her affinity for earth. Well, everyone believed Aphrodite was still a fledgling, too. Oh, jeesh. I was in serious trouble. Again.
CHAPTER 15
Trying to keep from freaking out totally about the cleansing ritual, I checked my new schedule while I hurried toward the parking lot. Well, Shekinah had been right—switching me to an upper level of Vamp Sociology had messed up my schedule, shuffling around my first four classes and totally moving drama from second hour to fifth hour, right before the only class that had stayed the same, my Equestrian Studies class.
"Great," I mumbled to myself. "So besides a totally messed-up ritual, I have class with Erik to look forward to." I was trying to keep my empty stomach from turning inside out when I spotted Aphrodite and Darius standing beside a very cool black Lexus. Okay, actually I spotted Darius and his huge muscular self. Aphrodite was standing in his shadow, batting her eyes at him.
"Sorry I took so long," I said as I got into the backseat of the car. Aphrodite, who slid gracefully into the passenger's side, said, "Hey, no problem. Don't stress about it."
I rolled my eyes. Now it was okay for me to be late? Jeesh, she was so transparent.
"Uh, Aphrodite," I said sweetly as Darius pulled smoothly off school grounds. "Be sure to mark your calendar for midnight tomorrow."
"What?" She shot me a look over her shoulder that clearly said she wished I'd disappear into the leather upholstery so she could be alone with Darius.
"Tomorrow—midnight—you—me—Damien—the Twins—big circle casting and cleansing ritual in front of the entire school."
Her blue eyes got all round and startled looking. "That's going to be—," she began, sounding breathless and semi-hysterical.
"Fun!" I inserted the word before she could say something like a total disaster.
"I'm looking forward to it," Darius said, smiling warmly at Aphrodite. "The power of your circle is unique."
I could see Aphrodite pulling herself together so that when she returned Darius's smile, she sounded like her normal flirty (and slightly bitchy) self when she said, "Well, unique is definitely one way to describe it."
"I have never known so many powerfully gifted fledglings," Darius said.
"Honey, you have no idea how gifted I am," she said breathily, leaning toward him and laughing softly.
Y
eah, I thought as I sat there chewing the inside of my cheek practically raw and worrying while Aphrodite flirted outrageously and a little nauseatingly with Darius, he and everyone else—except for Aphrodite and Stevie Rae—really have no idea about what's really going on with us. Hell, not that the three of us actually knew exactly what was going on, much less what we were going to do when we had to cast a circle minus one of the five elements. I remembered what had happened when Aphrodite had tried to invoke earth in her dorm room, and I knew it would be more than obvious to anyone watching that she no longer had her earth affinity. And how were we going to explain that?
Damien and the Twins would probably get pissed at me all over again for keeping this new thing from them. Great.
What I needed was a major distraction during the circle casting so no one would notice the lack-of-an-earth-affinity detail. Okay, no. What I really needed was a vacation. Or an extra-strength Advil.
I pawed around in my purse, looking for the Advil and couldn't find any—of course, drugs don't work on fledglings very well, so it probably wouldn't help my headache anyway. Didn't look like I was going to get the distraction, either. What it looked like I was going to get was typical for me—more trouble and stress and probably a nice dose of raging diarrhea.
Darius didn't have any trouble finding the Street Cats building. It was a cozy-looking square brick building with big front windows crowded with cat stuff. I made a mental note to pick up a little something for Nala from their gift shop. My cat was grumpy enough without her thinking that I'd been cheating on her (translation: I would smell like a zillion other cats) and hadn't even brought her a present.
Darius held the door open for Aphrodite and me, and we entered the brightly lit shop area of the building. Yes, all three of us had on sunglasses, but the lights still bothered our eyes. I glanced at newly re-human Aphrodite. Well, they bothered at least two sets of our eyes.
"Welcome to Street Cats. Is this your first visit?"
I looked from Aphrodite to the—
Nun?!
I blinked in surprise and felt the urge to rub my eyes. The nun smiled up at me from her seat behind the front counter, deep brown eyes looking alive and sparkly in a pale face that was obviously old but surprisingly smooth and framed by a white-cuffed, black nun-hat thing.
"Young lady?" she prompted me, her smile not fading.
"Oh, uh, yeah. I mean, yes. This is the first time I've been to Street Cats," I said not brilliantly. My mind was racing. What was a nun doing here? Then from my side vision, I glimpsed another black-robed figure flit by and realized there were more nuns in the hallway off the gift shop. Nuns? Was there a whole flock of them here? Wouldn't they totally freak when they found out vampyre fledglings wanted to do charity work for Street Cats?
"Well, excellent. We always welcome first-time visitors. What is it Street Cats can do for you?"
"I didn't know the Benedictine sisters were involved with Street Cats," Aphrodite surprised me by saying.
"Why, yes. We've been running Street Cats for the past two years. Cats are very spiritual creatures, don't you think?"
Aphrodite snorted. "Spiritual? They've been killed for being witches' familiars and in league with the devil. If a black one walks across their path, people think it's bad luck. Is that what you mean by spiritual?"
I wanted to smack her for how disrespectful she sounded, but the nun wasn't ruffled at all. "Don't you think that is because cats have always been so closely associated with women? Especially those considered wise women by the general public? So, naturally, in a predominately male-dominated society, a certain type of people would see sinister things in them."
I felt Aphrodite's little start of surprise. "Yes, that's what I think. I'm surprised you think so, too, though," she said honestly. I noticed Darius had stopped pretending to shop and was listening to their exchange with obvious interest.
"Young lady, just because I have a wimple over my head, it doesn't mean it has kept me from thinking or having a mind of my own. And I can guarantee you I have had many more run-ins with male domination than have you." Her smile made her words less harsh than they might have been.
"Wimple! That's what it's called," I heard my stupid mouth blurt, and then felt my cheeks burn as they turned bright red.
"Yes, that is exactly what it is called."
"I'm sorry. I've—I've never met a nun before," I said, and blushed some more.
"That's not surprising. There really aren't many of us. I'm Sister Mary Angela, prioress of our little abbey and manager of Street Cats." She turned her smile on Aphrodite. "Did you recognize our order because you're Catholic, child?"
A little burst of laughter came out of Aphrodite. "I'm definitely not Catholic. I am the daughter of Charles LaFont, though."
Sister Mary Angela nodded in understanding. "Ah, our mayor. Then, of course, you're familiar with the charitable work our order does." Then her brows lifted as she realized what else it meant that Aphrodite was the only daughter of Tulsa's mayor. "You are a vampyre fledgling."
She didn't sound overly freaked, but I decided this was as good a time as any to let the nun know Satan was in the house. I took a deep breath and held out my hand for her to shake, saying in one big rush: "Yes, Aphrodite is a fledgling and I'm Zoey Redbird, vampyre fledgling and Leader of the Dark Daughters."
Then I waited for the explosion, which didn't happen.
Sister Mary Angela took her time before responding. Then she took my hand in her firm, warm grip. "Greetings, Zoey Redbird." She looked carefully from me to Aphrodite and then to Darius, who she raised one gray brow at and said, "You look rather mature for a fledgling."
He nodded his head in a small respectful bow. "You are observant, Priestess. I am an adult vampyre, a Son of Erebus."
Oh, great. He'd called her priestess. Again I waited for a freak-out that didn't come.
"Ah, I see. You're the fledglings' escort." She turned her attention back to me. "Which means you two must be important young women to warrant such attention."
"Well, like I said, I'm the Leader of the Dark Daughters and—"
"We're important," Aphrodite interrupted me again, "but that's not the only reason Darius is with us. Two vampyres have been murdered in the past couple days, and our High Priestess wouldn't let us leave campus without protection."
I gave Aphrodite a WTF look. It really wasn't like her to have diarrhea of the mouth.
"Two vampyres have been killed? I had heard of only one murder."
"Our Poet Laureate was killed three days ago." I couldn't say his name.
Sister Mary Angela looked upset. "That is dreadful news. I will add him to our prayer list."
"You'd pray for a vampyre?" The question seemed to escape my mouth without warning me first, and I felt my cheeks get warm again.
"Of course I would, as would my sisters."
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but don't you think that all vampyres are doomed to hell because we worship a goddess?" I asked.
"Child, what I believe is that your Nyx is just another incarnation of our Blessed Mother, Mary. I also believe devoutly in Matthew 7:1, which says 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' "
"Too bad the People of Faith don't believe like you do," I said.
"Some do, child. Try not to paint them all with the same brush. Remember that the judge not goes both ways. Now, what can Street Cats do for the House of Night?"
My mind was still having trouble grasping the fact that this nun was so totally okay with vampyres, but I mentally shook myself and focused enough to say, "As the Leader of the Dark Daughters, I thought it would be a good idea if we got involved with a local charity."
Sister Mary Angela's warm smile was back. "And, naturally, you thought of cat rescue."
I returned her smile. "Yes! The truth is, I haven't been Marked very long, and I think it's weird that even though our school is smack in the middle of Tulsa, we're so isolated from the city. It just doesn't feel right to me." She was real
ly easy to talk to, and I found myself opening up to her. "That's what brought me—" I caught Aphrodite's frown from my side vision and hastily added, "us—that's what brought us here. We thought it would be cool if we could volunteer to help with the cats, and also raised money for Street Cats. Like maybe we could sponsor a flea market and give you guys the money we make."
"We're always in need of money and experienced volunteers. Do you own a cat, Zoey?"
My grin widened. "Actually Nala owns me, and she'd tell you that if she were here."
"You do, indeed, have a cat," she said. "And what about you, Warrior?"
"Nefertiti, the most beautiful calico in the world, chose me as her own six short years ago," Darius said.
"And you?"
Aphrodite looked like she wanted to fidget, and I suddenly realized that I'd never seen a cat with her.
"No. I don't have one," Aphrodite said. When the three of us stared at her, she shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know why, but no cat picked me."
"Do you not like them?" the nun asked.
"I like them okay, I guess. It just seems they don't like me," Aphrodite admitted.
"Huh," I said with a little too much suppressed amusement, and she glared at me.
"That's quite all right," Sister Mary Angela inserted smoothly. "We can still put a willing volunteer to work."
Jeesh, the nun wasn't kidding about putting us to work. I told her we had time to give her a couple of hours or so before we had to head back to school, and she started cracking the whip. Aphrodite automatically coupled up with Darius, clearly enjoying her part in the whole "keep the warrior busy so Zoey can rendezvous with Stevie Rae" (who had not shown yet) plan, and Sister Mary Angela sent the two of them into the cat room to clean litter boxes and brush cats with the two other nuns on duty, Sister Bianca and Sister Fatima, who Sister Mary Angela had introduced to the three of us very matter-of-factly, like it was totally normal that fledglings and vampyres (with their Marks covered) were volunteering in the community. I'm not a particularly slow learner, so by this time I'd stopped waiting for a nun freak-out, and it dawned on me that these religious women were a whole different type of "religious" than my horrid step-loser and his People of Faith sycophants. (Yes, thank Damien for my increased vocab.)
