Vanessa’s expression had been getting more and more petulant, but Neferet’s words transformed her face. She smiled smugly, giving I-told-you-so looks to the other four women, who watched raptly.
Then Neferet gracefully descended the staircase and disappeared out the tall front door.
Lynette also smiled at Vanessa as she walked past her and into what used to be the girl’s excessively opulent suite. “That’s handmaid—not maid. Big difference, my dear.” Before Lynette closed the door in her face she said, “What’s the password to that computer?”
Vanessa looked into her ex-room at a gold trimmed reproduction of a Louis XIV style desk on which sat a gold laptop. Her expression twisted like she’d sucked a lemon as she said, “Goddess123—capital G, no spaces.”
“How clever. Have my dinner brought up on a tray. You can knock and leave it out here. I’ll get it when I’m done preparing the Goddess’s toilette. Thank you.” Then Lynette firmly closed the door.
She could hear the excited and more-than-a-little-pissed-off chatter of the women from the hallway, but Lynette didn’t trouble herself to listen. She knew their type. She’d grown up dealing with their mean, entitled attitudes. In high school those girls would have made her life miserable because she’d been what they called “trailer trash.”
“Never again,” she said to herself as she drew Neferet’s bath and then quickly found her mistress suitable nightclothes. “Now I am the best friend of a vampyre who will soon be a goddess.”
Humming to herself, Lynette opened Vanessa’s laptop, typed in her silly password, and began searching for the real story of what happened to this world’s Neferet.
The day passed quickly, and while Neferet slept in the golden-canopied bed, Lynette got little rest. She was far too busy researching this Tulsa’s news—especially after she’d read multiple articles, as well as press releases from the House of Night—about their fallen High Priestess, the immortal Neferet. Though Lynette noted the House of Night was very careful to downplay her immortality. They talked around the issue—focusing on her descent into insanity and the fact that they were certain she could not break free of her prison and would not be a threat to humans again.
Lynette doubted everything she read, but there was one undeniable thread that ran through all of the stories. This world’s Neferet was insane.
There were also several intriguing stories about a winged being named Kalona. Apparently, that was one of the many details Vanessa had gotten wrong. He wasn’t Erebus, nor was he Neferet’s Consort. Zoey Redbird had given a lengthy interview about Kalona, making it clear that he’d been firmly on the side of the House of Night and had been killed by Neferet right before she broke out of the besieged Mayo. Zoey had explained, briefly, that even though Kalona should have been immortal, he was vulnerable to Neferet’s dark magick because he’d willingly given away a sliver of his immortality to save Stark. Without saying much, Zoey had made the winged being seem like a hero. The Tulsa Police Department was definitely enamored with him, so much so that over the past year they had erected a statue in his honor in front of their headquarters.
Vanessa and the other four girls left for classes at TU, but first Vanessa reluctantly gave Lynette the keys to her BMW as well as a platinum credit card, which Lynette used at several stores. Then, as dusk neared, she returned to prepare the vampyre’s breakfast, doing her best to re-create the dishes Mrs. Muir had been so good at. As Lynette cooked, she was surprised by the sense of longing she felt for Balmacara Mains, Mrs. Muir, Noreen, and even poor wee Denise. She hoped with all of her being that they would soon return to their world. This version of Tulsa, with its intermingling of vampyres and humans, was unsettling.
Lynette’s instincts told her that it was all a facade and that the peaceful appearance of this Tulsa was really a smokescreen covering a fire-keg ready to explode.
Neferet surprised Lynette by waking much later than usual—several hours past sunset, but when she called Lynette into Vanessa’s suite the vampyre seemed completely refreshed and herself. As she helped Neferet dress, Lynette quickly recounted everything she’d found out about this strange world, as well as what their Neferet had really done to become entombed.
“I believe she is insane, my lady,” Lynette said in conclusion.
Neferet waved away her concern while she broke her fast with Lynette in the sitting room adjunct to the bedroom. “Of course she is. She was immortal—a goddess—and she only aspired to be a Tulsa deity. I knew then that there must be something severely flawed within her. And if she wasn’t completely mad before they entombed her, after a year of starvation, it is quite certain that she must now be so.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Lynette asked.
“Well, first, I want you to make a copy of all of the news stories about this world’s Neferet and tuck them safely within your travel bag. Should she try to cause me problems after I rescue her, I will
