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"Travis Foster is a human?"
"Completely, and a valued e," Adaaze shifted around I could see when his eyes lit on the distant pyre, which had slow "Please correctpile is part of the stables During my research I read that vampyres burn their dead on pyres Have I chosen a bad time for this interview?" He asked the question in a considerate tone of voice, but I could see the curiosity that was bright in his eyes
"You are not wrong That is the rerave loss at the House of Night that had nothing to do with the stable fire Our Sword Master, Dragon Lankford, was recently killed in a tragic accident on a lavender farm that adjoins the national preserve known as the Tall Grass Prairie" I closedto turn Dragon&039;s ic accident" that could be explained to the hue male bison escaped the confines of the preserve Several of us were co ritual at the lavender fare smoke and our circle The creature attacked us Our Sword Master protected our fledglings, losing his life doing so"
"That&039;s terrible! I&039;m so sorry" Adam looked upset Actually, we all looked upset, which was hiding our shock at Thanatos&039;s big, giant lie
"Thank you, Adah it was a horrible accident and a terrible loss to our House, our Sword Master died as he lived, an honorable Warrior who protected our young ones Because of him no one else was harmed, and the ritual was even coon Lankford&039;s bravery for centuries to come" She dabbed at her eyes with a lace handkerchief she&039;d pulled froeon&039;s pyre to focus on Thanatos&039;s grief and her very huether
It was really well staged She h Priestess of Death had taken when she was a fledgling
Thanatos finished wiping her eyes and drew a deep breath "And to answer your other question, no, this is not a bad time for our interview We invited you, reht, even during our sadness So, let us officially begin Is here by the bench a good place?" Thanatos gestured at one of the long stone benches that lined the entranceway to the school lobby During a regular school day, kids would be clustered around theht they were completely empty
"Perfect," Adam said
While he and the cameraman set up, Thanatos took her position in the center of the bench Quietly she said, "Zoey, Stark, beside ht "Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, and Damien, over here" They settled on the bench to her left
When Ada, I felt a flutter of nerves Even h School would see this!
"Thanatos, I ondering if you could elaborate on the coh Priestess of this Tulsa House of Night, h Priestess here" Adam paused and smiled "You don&039;t look like Death toAda voice
"No, actually, I&039;ve never died," he joked back
"Well, Neferet&039;s comment can be easily explained I aifted with an affinity for aiding the dead to pass from this realm to the next I am no more Death than you are Huht help you understand if you would think of me as a very accurate medium"
"Neferet also ested that they erous" I watched the camera shift from Stark to Stevie Rae "Could you elaborate on that, as well?"
"Certainly, but first I feel I need to er in the eht In truth, the way our society works, once a High Priestess loses her job, she has lost that position for life She will never serve as High Priestess at any other House of Night As you can i transition for the terminated employee, as well as for her employer Vampyres do not have slander and liable laws We use the oath and honor system Obviously this time that syste is that Neferet is" His word trailed off, and he nodded, encouraging Thanatos to finish the sentence for him
"Yes, it is a sad but true fact, Neferet is a disgruntled ex-employee with no whistle to blow," Thanatos said s beside me not far fro coht member in particular-Jaht away I could tell he was unco the TV audience, would see anything except a very cute guy with red facial tattooing that looked like opposing arrows
"So, Jim Is it okay that I call you that?" Adam asked
"Well, it is, but it&039;d be cool with me if you called me Stark Everyone else does"
"Okay, Stark, Neferet said you killed your ht, and she implied that you&039;re a threat to the community here Would you care to respond to that?"
"Well, that&039;s a bunch of bullpoopie!" I heard rinned his cocky half sh mine for all of the video audience to see "Z, don&039;t alht hear and that wouldn&039;t be cool"
"Sorry," I muttered "How about I just let you talk"
Stark&039;s grin got bigger "Well, that&039;ll be a first"
Annoyingly enough, , even though I considered s him with a pillow next time we slept
His voice was hesitant at first, but the longer he talked, the stronger and surer he became "My mentor, William Chidsey, esome He was nice And smart I mean, really smart And talented He helped me Actually, he was more like a father than a mentor to me" Stark paused and wiped his hand across his face When he started talking again it was as if it were just hiotten that the camera was there at all "Adam, I found out pretty early, when I hat huh school, that I&039;d been given this gift" Stark enunciated the word, not sarcastically, but not like it was an awesoift was a responsibility, and not a cool responsibility at that "I can&039;t ave hi look "You kno and arrows Well, whatever I aim at-I hit Unfortunately, it&039;s not as literal as that Think about it-there&039;s lots of wiggle roo at, and what you&039;re really thinking about, and what you&039;re ai a bow and arrow and ain So, you draw the bow, point the arrow, and sight the n But what if, inside your head you&039;re thinking, &039;Okay, I want to hit that thing that stops cars&039; Next thing you know your arrow has found its way sh the radiator of the next car that drives by"
"Well, I see how thatproble as in epic proportions It took ure it out and to be able to control it Between then and now, I ain and I squeezed his hand, trying to telegraph h it "And because of that iven my oath on it"
"And that is why Jaht" Thanatos took up the thread of conversation, and the camera followed her "We believe in second chances in Tulsa" Her gaze shifted to Aphrodite I had to make my mouth not flop open as she continued smoothly, "Would you not say that this is an excellent place for second chances, Aphrodite LaFont?"
I shouldn&039;t have worried With the ca Aphrodite was totally in her element She walked forward, toward the camera (of course), then sat at Thanatos&039;s side "I couldn&039;t agree with youfor almost four years, but Nyx, our benevolent Goddess, chose to take ift My parents agree with ht Actually, we&039;ve talked about the possibility of h Council in Venice when I graduate frorinned into the camera "You can tell that if you pull our credit card bills for the last few months Wow! I have such awesomely cool parents!"
Okay, seriously That was such a load of stinking, festering bullpoopie that I couldn&039;t even speak Thankfully, Stevie Rae was not soparents, onna make the best chocolate chip cookies in the known universe, and bring them to the open house and bake sale we&039;re havin&039; here real soon, right, Thanatos?"
Thanatos didn&039;t miss a beat "You are absolutely correct, Stevie Rae This co weekend, should the te a ca that Street Cats will be here with cats for adoption Actually, I&039;d like to announce right now that all proceeds from our bake sale"-she so to benefit our local charity, Street Cats In addition, the grand to have her lavender products for sale on our grounds"
"Don&039;t forget the job fair"
Everyone, including the cameraman, turned at the sound of our Horse Mistress&039;s voice Lenobia was standing there, leading her beautiful black mare, Mujaji, who looked like an absolute dreaood of you to join our press conference," Thanatos said
"Wow! What a gorgeous horse he is!" Adaushed as the cameraman did a close-up on Mujaji
Darinned "Honey, that&039;s a she, not a he"
"Oh,with a cute flush to his cheeks "The guy-girl thing never made much difference to me"
"Because we&039;re all the sa froirl, hu Tulsa, and we love it So, let&039;s just all get along!"
Thanatos laughed, and the sound was like music "Oh, Zoey, I could not have said it better myself And Lenobia, you were correct to re that during the open house and Street Cat benefit, the Tulsa House of Night will, as the first House of Night in our written history, be taking job applications for hu for professorial positions in our drama department, as well as in our literature depart benevolent and wise "The House of Night welcomes Tulsa Until Saturday ish you all ain"