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I licked the tip of his finger and he moaned my name, "Zo!"

The taste hit , ier in ainst naled the end of third hour and the beginning of lunch rang My eyes opened wide and I realized what I was doing

"No, this isn’t right! No Aurox" Shakingas heavily as I was "I won’t tell anyone I won’t ever betray you like that"

I wanted to cry "If you really care about o Please"

He nodded, wrapped a napkin around his bleeding finger, and bolted frole gulp I wiped rilled cheese and forced myself to eat it And when my friends all crowded into the booth I smiled and talked and let Stark put his ar inside No one

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Neferet

Neferet’s eyes moved under her closed lids as she relived the twentieth century For a tis of her is had been the exception: her dreams and the old woman The first had proven to be lies and the second to be spectacularly more than the truth It was ironic that her dreams were the more enjoyable to revisit

Neferet had returned to Tower Grove House of Night and to a school all too willing to shower her with concern and coether had been the untimely deaths of her first familiar, little Chloe, and her Warrior Everyone understood when Neferet withdrew from social events and spent an unusual amount of time in meditation and prayer

They had no idea that Neferet actually spent her prayer tiod that came to her only when she was unconscious

Kalona had been clever Though he was spectacularly handsome, he came to her dreams as the Faceless God, who asked only that she reveal her fantasies to hi at all Afterward--after it was far too late--Neferet realized that she had not been drea her subconsciousher Then, all she had knoas the desire his inited within her She continued to open herself to hirew stronger She began to question theher And, ultiod from his unjust imprisonment so that she and he could rule side-by-side, Nyx and Erebus on earth Together they would herald a new age where vaer exist in an uneasy, pathetic peace with humans Quietly, Neferet set about events that would irrevocably change the shape of vampyre-human relations As the iods alk the earth bow to those who should be worshipping them?

Neferet used the loss of her Warrior as an excuse to travel, to not be tied to the tedious job of being a professor Seeking, always seeking that which filled her dreaan to call her an aht in a special way

Neferet thought of herself as an aift to knohich High Priestesses wanted, needed, to be flattered or challenged, threatened or praised, adored or ignored, and then she gave theht, exciteh Priestess needs and wants had been endless While Neferet "served," she gained standing in the vaht of herself as a powerful, alluring chameleon She learned how to make her people see in her what each of them most trusted, respected, and ultimately, worshipped

And always, always, Neferet was drawn to the heart of the nation--to Oklaho city, Tulsa, where she had buried the record of her human past, and where Kalona’s drea her

Seek my release … seek my release … His whispers had filled her dreams and haunted her life

It was the twenty-second of April in the year 1927 when the wealthy human couple, Waite and Genevieve Phillips, issued an invitation for vaala they were holding to celebrate the co called Philbrook

Neferetthose who accepted the invitation Philbrook did not interest her, nor did the philanthropic, liberal human couple and their wealthy socialite friends

The city did interest Neferet It smelled of oil and alcohol, money and blood and power--always power

It was the scent of power, like the essence of her dreaht and wandering through the city Newly completed oil mansions dotted the landscape Neferet drifted past thelanced in their s--barely noticed the leaded glass and the ice-like sparkling of the new electrical chandeliers Instead she was pulled away fro ato her