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Neferet
Neferet would not have seen the press conference had she not called rooly subservient blond boy was alh to interest her The last bellboy who had had the good fortune to answer her su in sick for the next several days Weak and bruised, he would not re except a fascination for her beauty and a series of dark, erotic dreams Fever dreams, his doctor would no doubt call them Humans were such frail creatures Such a sha
Neferet studied this bellboy He was tall, and he looked extrein froin blood would ne he was carrying past her, shethe bottle inside in blood was so very sweet that a bad complexion and sweaty pal to touch hiht here fine,from her breasts to her , all the while he reeked of sexual desire, fear, and fascination
"Right there is perfect" Neferet ran a long, pointed fingernail down the low bodice of her silk robe
"Wow," he gulped, working the gold foil off the top of the chane with inexperienced, shaky hands "I hope you don&039;t mind me sayin&039; this, but you&039;re way prettier than those other vampyres on the news"
"Other vampyres? News?"
"Yes, ht now"
"Turn it on for ne&039;s not-"
"Leave it! I ao"
The boy did as he was told and then slunk out, still casting longing glances at her Neferet paid hi before her on the large flat screen television It was Thanatos, Zoey, and several of her group They were outside at the House of Night, clustered together and talking easily with the reporter Neferet scowled They all looked so normal
Her lip curled as she heard Thanatos explain away Dragon Lankford&039;s death as a tragic bison accident
"That wretched Aurox," Neferet muttered "Imperfect, inept Vessel! All of this is his fault"
She kept watching the interview, s when she heard her name mentioned Neferet pressed the volume button and Thanatos&039;s voice blared, " Neferet is a disgruntled ex-employee with no whistle to blow"
Neferet&039;s body became very cold
"She dares to naer built to such intensity that the glass door to the penthouse balcony burst open, raining shards of crystal across theTulsa, and we love it So, let&039;s just all get along!" Zoey&039;s ridiculously cheerful voice grated up and down Neferet&039;s spine
"I will not allow you to undo what I have begun, you obnoxious child!" Neferet seethed When Thanatos announced that the Tulsa House of Night would be taking applications for hu with the reporters After the new High Priestess&039;s benevolent, ain, Neferet watched in disbelief as the news anchors chattered inanely about how interesting all the vareat the open house and job fair would be for the city as a still shot close-up of Zoey&039;s s face decorated the screen She punched the power button, unable to bear one more instant of Zoey Redbird
Fro roo On the screen the silhouetted figure of Nyx&039;s upraised arms flashed and beside the icon were the words: VAMPYRE HIGH COUNCIL
Neferet walked slowly over to the computer and clicked thethe video cah Priestesses seated on their carvedyour call"
Duantia, the senior ht she sounded very, very old There certainly see, thick hair, and Neferet was sure she could see bags under her dark eyes "You were summoned to appear before us, yet there you are in Tulsa, and here we are in Venice What has delayed you?"
"I am busy" Neferet pitched her voice to sound more amused than annoyed Or afraid She must never allow them to believe she feared them, or anyone, at all "It is not convenient to make a trip to Italy at this timent over you in absente reo"
Neferet scoffed "Save your Latin for vampyres too old to live in the present"
Duantia continued as if she hadn&039;t spoken "Our sister High Priestess, and the seventh member of this Council, Thanatos, has produced irrefutable evidence though a reveal ritual witness by High Priestess Zoey Redbird, her-"
"That insolent child isn&039;t a High Priestess!"
"You will not interrupt h the Internet, thousands of miles away, Duantia&039;s poas palpable It was only with a supree from the computer screen
"Say what you ain," Neferet said emotionlessly
"The reveal ritual over which Thanatos presided itnessed by the young High Priestess, Zoey Redbird; her circle, each ifted by Nyx with an elemental affinity; as well as several Sons of Erebus Warriors During this ritual the earth gave record that youher to the white bull of Darkness, who appears to be your Consort"
Neferet watched the High Councilthe word Consort associated with the white bull was difficult for theh Council would have to bear more than simple words
"Neferet, what do you say in your defense?" Duantia concluded
Neferet drew herself up to her full height She felt the threads of Darkness rustle around her, lapping at her ankles and slithering around her calves "I need no defense Killing the human was not an act of murder It was a sacred sacrifice"
"You dare call Darkness sacred?" the Council member named Alitheia shouted
"Alitheia, or Truth, as ould say in a language that isn&039;t dead, I will impart a little of your own to you The truth is that I am immortal In a little over a hundred years I have attained ed to acquire The truth is that in another hundred years, , powerful, beautiful, and a goddess If I choose to sacrifice a human, no matter for what purpose, it is sacred and not sin!"
"Neferet, is Darkness your Consort?" Duantia&039;s question shot through the silence following Neferet&039;s shout
"Conjure the white bull and ask Darkness yourself But only if you dare," Neferet sneered
"High Council, what is your judgaze as each of the High Council members stood and, one at a time, pronounced the same word, over and over, "Shunned!"
Duantia stood last "Shunned!" she said firnized as a High Priestess of Nyx You will no longer be recognized as a vah Council members turned their backs to Neferet, and then the screen bleeped the CALL ENDED sound and the picture went blank
Neferet stared at the black screen She was breathing heavily, trying to control the tuh Council had shunned her!
"Horrid old crones!" she ranted Too soon! Neferet had, of course, intended to break with the High Council, but not before she had divided them and set them at each other&039;s throats so that they would be too busy with the destruction happening within tooutside their cozy little island "I al as Erebus atme to reveal him as a fraud" Unable to quiet her frustration, Neferet stalked frolass She went out on the balcony, pressing her hands against the cold stone balustrade "Zoey caused Thanatos to be sent to Tulsa to spy on me And it was Zoey&039;s mother as too weak, too imperfect a sacrifice Had Aurox not been a cracked vessel, the reveal ritual would have been stopped by Rephaih Council and viewed as a domesticated ally by Tulsa huer "Zoey Redbird will pay for what she has caused!"
Neferet reached down and ripped the silk robe froht Naked, she threw out her ar hair veiled her like a dark curtain "Come to me, Darkness!" She braced herself, ready for the painful pleasure of her white bull&039;s icy touch
Nothing
The only ht was the restless, dark tendrils that had become her constant companions
"My lord! Come to me! I am in need of you!" Neferet called
"Your call is not a surprise, my heartless one"
Neferet heard his voice in her head, as always, but she did not feel his awe-inspiring presence She dropped her ar for him "My lord, I cannot see you"
"You need so why he had not appeared to her, Neferet did not allow her confusion to show Instead she responded seductively "What I need is you, my lord"
Instantly, the thickest of the snake-like minions of Darkness detached itself from the others that slithered over her ankles It whipped around her waist, slicing through her s a perfect circle of scarlet The other tendrils crawled up her legs,to feed from the ash of her blood
Neferet was very careful not to cry out
"Lying to me is not wise, my heartless one"
"I need more power," Neferet admitted "I want to kill Zoey Redbird, and she is well protected"
"Well protected and the beloved of a goddess Even you are not ready to openly destroy one such as her"
"Then helpthe razor-like thread that continued to cut into her skin and the other tendrils that were feeding from her
"You disappointfor aid You see, my heartless one, I should not be able to predict your actions That bores me, and I have no desire to waste my powers on predictability and tedium" The voice battered relentlessly at her mind
Neferet did not flinch
"I will not ask you to forgive me," she said coldly "You knehat I hen first we cae"
"Indeed, and that is why I have always called you my heartless one" The voice was less of a violation Noas tinged with aan You were such a delicious surprise Surpriseto your aid Until then, I grant you control over the bits of Darkness that choose to remain with you Do not despair Many will choose you You feed theain, h forher waist detached itself and disappeared into the night
Neferet collapsed She lay on the cold stone balcony, watching the threads of Darkness lap her blood She did not stop the the stock of how many remained true to her
If the bull would not help her, Neferet would help herself Zoey Redbird had been a proble she had allowed that child to interfere with her plans She would not kill her, though That would bring down the wrath of Nyx too soon Unlike the Vanored No, Neferet thought, I need not kill Zoey All I need do is create a being to do the job for me The Vessel failed once because of an imperfect sacrifice With the perfect sacrifice I will not fail
"I am immortal I do not need the bull to create All I need is a sacred sacrifice and power I have learned the spell Aurox was only the beginning" Neferet stroked the threads of Darkness and allowed theh, she assured herself, there are just enough left
Zoey
"Goddess knows I hate to say it, but I rong This is like watching The stupid Bachelorette" Aphrodite shook her head and rolled her eyes She, Stevie Rae, and I alking slowly to the parking lot and the waiting bus full of kids We wereat Da by the Fox 23 news van s
"Shhh!" I whispered at Aphrodite "They&039;re gonna hear you and that will embarrass Damien"
"Oh, please," Aphrodite snorted "Gay boy&039;s all atwitter, or atitter, or whatever He&039;s not paying any attention to us"
"I&039;," I said
"Look! They&039;re takin&039; out their phones!" Stevie Rae gushed in a whisper that was too exclaain," Aphrodite said "It&039;s not like watching The Bachelorette It&039;s like watching the National Geographic Channel"
"I think he&039;s a cutie patootie," Stevie Rae said
"The guy talking to Damien?" Shaylin asked as she joined us
"Yeah We think they&039;re
"He has soft, pretty colors," Shaylin said "Actually, they go real ith Da?" Aphrodite snorted sarcastically
Shaylin frowned "They don&039;t have rainbow colors That&039;s such a horrible stereotype They have summer sky colors-blues and yellows Damien also has some billohite stuff that looks a lot like cumulus clouds"
"Oh, for shit&039;s sake, it has no sense of huotta stop callin&039; Shaylin it It&039;s not nice," Stevie Rae said
"So, for future reference, how not nice is it on the retard- blond brow at Stevie Rae "Is it more asstard, fucktard, or old school, hardcore, retard not nice?"
"You&039;re the High Priestess, but I say answering her at all just encourages her You know, like what happens when you pick up a screa very matter-of-fact
All I could think was holy crap, Aphrodite is going to yank her hair out by the roots
Instead Aphrodite laughed "Hey, it ht actually have a personality"
"Aphrodite, I think you ed," Stevie Rae said
"Thank you," Aphrodite said "I&039; Gay Boy If he flirts forto-" Her words stopped when she turned toward the bus My eyes followed her gaze Shaunee and Erin were standing just outside the bus&039;s open door Shaunee looked upset Erin&039;s face had no expression on it whatsoever I could see that they were talking, but ere too far away to hear what they were saying
"There&039;s so about her," Shaylin said
"Who her?" Stevie Rae asked
"Erin," Shaylin said
"Shaylin&039;s right There&039;s so about Erin," Aphrodite said
I couldn&039;t tell which shocked , or that they were agreeing
"Tell me what you&039;re seein&039;," Stevie Rae spoke quietly to Shaylin
"Here&039;s the best way I can describe it There was this culvert that ran behind the house I lived in when I was a kid, just before I lost ht I used to play by it and pretend that it was a bubbling, beautifulup in the Colorado Rockies, &039;cause it was clear and even kinda pretty But the second I got too close to it I could s rotting The water looked good, but under the surface it was dirty, polluted"
"Shaylin" I was seriously at the edge ofto one of Kraood thing "What in the hell are you saying? Erin is the color of polluted water? And if she is, why didn&039;t you say so!" Shaylin yelled When faces on the bus, along with Shaunee and Erin, turned their heads toward us, she added, "Winter seeht?"
Kids shook their heads and squinched their foreheads at her, but at least they see
"Oh, for shit&039;s sake You are no good at espionage at all" Aphrodite lowered her voice and huddled us up "Z, get a clue It&039;s si is that Erin looks like she used to-pretty, blond, popular, perfect You know, typical But the truth is that under the surface, there&039;s so You can&039;t see it I can&039;t see it But Shaylin can" Aphrodite glanced over at the bus We all looked with her in time to see Shaunee shake her head no, and disappear quickly up the black, rubber-treaded stairs while Erin stood there looking beautiful but very, very cold "Seeht be able to see it, too Not that we&039;d believe her We&039;d believe she was just pissed at Erin because the Dorkaically separated"
"I think that&039;s pretty harsh," I said