Page 9 (1/2)

Zoey

"Neferet must be stopped," Thanatos said with no preaood news to h Council showing up here to call bullshit on her stupid press conference, or is Duantia co by herself?"

"I can&039;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&039; her eyes and ar and spice and everything nice"

"Neferet does riifts to manipulate and harm Vaainst her"

"Which h Council has to stand up and do so about her," I said

"I wish it were that simple," Thanatos said

My stos, and that was alood

"What do you mean? Why wouldn&039;t it be that sile humans in vampyre affairs," she said

"But Neferet&039;s already done that," I said

"Yeah, talk about closin&039; the barn door after the cows have already gone out," Stevie Rae said

"The bitch killed Zoey&039;sher head as if in disbelief "Are you saying that the High Council is just going to ignore that and let her get aith murder and talk shit about all of us?"

"And ould 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 wasme feel "I know she&039;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&039;s not just in league with evil, she&039;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 hat I&039;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 conize 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 ick" Shaylin faced Aphrodite without flinching "You&039;ve been around all thisYou have totally lost perspective"

"And you have totally lost yourup like a blowfish

"Squabbling children again" Thanatos didn&039;t raise her voice, but her words cut through the alht tension between Aphrodite and Shaylin

"They don&039;t want to fight," I spoke into the sudden silence "None of us do But we&039;re all frustrated and we expected you and the High Council to do soainst Neferet"

"Let ht understandwe take to the hu 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 pal, "Behold the world!" Her voice was powerful, lobe of the world was taking forlobes history teachers/coaches use as dust-gatherers This one looked like it was made of black sed, carved frooodness," Stevie Rae said "It&039;s so pretty!"

"It is," Thanatos said "And now behold e are in the world!" She flicked the fingers of her left hand at the globe, as if she were sprinkling it ater Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and I gasped Little sparkles began appearing, dotting the onyx landhts

"That&039;s beautiful," I said

"Are they dia closer

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

"But there are so few lights I lobe that&039;s all dark," Shaylin said

I frowned and stepped closer along with Aphrodite Shaylin was right The earth looked huge co of sparkly dots I stared and stared My eyes were drawn to the clusters of shininess: Venice, the Isle of Skye, soht in France, a few splotches in Canada, and several more sprinkled around the continental US-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&039;s Japan, isn&039;t it?" Shaylin pointed to another tiny splotch of glitter

"Yes, it is," Thanatos said

"America doesn&039;t have as many diamonds as it should," Aphrodite said

Thanatos didn&039;t respond She ain Slowly, I walked all the way around her, wishing I&039;d paid better attention in geography class-any of theh Priestess&039;s gaze again

"There aren&039;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 hu a door to our world that&039;s better left closed" Aphrodite spoke cal mature and uncharacteristically non-bitchy "They start thinking their rules apply to us, that we need the out our lights"

"Siether and the globe disappeared in a puff of sparkly smoke

"Then what do we do? We can&039;t just let Neferet get aith her crap It&039;s not like she&039;s gonna stop with a press conference, a committee, and a newspaper column She wants death and destruction Hell&039;s Bells, Darkness is her Consort!" Stevie Rae said

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

"Oh, for shit&039;s sake I can&039;t deal with onewhat&039;s what," Aphrodite said

"What Ihumans, 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&039;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 sa, which Shaylin had summed up with the succinct word she&039;draised her chin and looked super stubborn "I caift 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 froht?"

"We think so," I said

"Yep At least that&039;s what Daht about anythin&039; he&039;s researched," Stevie Rae said

"She said Neferet was the color of dead fish eyes Thaton," Aphrodite surprised

"You see auras?" Thanatos asked while she studied Shaylin like she was peering down a lass slide

"I see colors," Shaylin said "I don&039;t knohat 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 et colors Lots of colors Because of thes 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&039;s scrutiny "It&039;s the sauy, but he&039;s weak He&039;s always taken the easy road Your color is black, but not like flat black It&039;s deep and rich and I can see little lightning bolts of golden light zapping through it" She sighed "I think that means you&039;re really old and smart and powerful, but you also have a serious temper, which you keep under control Most of the time"