“Go out into the neighborhood. Feed, but not from the houses closest to this one. Go to those distasteful apartment buildings that are eyesores on Twenty-First Street. Kill as many of the humans who infest them as you wish. Sate your hunger. We shall expect the homeowners to thank us later.” The tendrils of Darkness fell from her body to glide toward the door. “Darlings! Bring us home something to eat too. Two humans. Try to find ones who are not too terribly old or unattractive. Oh, and be sure they are still alive. We dislike it when our food gets cold. And hurry. You know we cannot abide being alone.”
She watched the stream of living Darkness disappear, then Neferet drew a bath as she gulped the wine and blood. In the well-appointed—though tastelessly decorated—bathroom, she lit candles and then stood naked before a full-length mirror.
She was thin and uncommonly pale. Her bones were plainly visible beneath her porcelain skin so that she seemed almost a living skeleton, but what struck her most about her altered appearance was the sheer length of her body and the power she exuded.
“We are no longer mortal,” she told her reflection as her hands stroked her naked figure. “We are truly the Goddess of Tulsa who has emerged from her cocoon to become goddess of two worlds.” She poured another goblet of bloody wine and drank deeply. “Yes, we shall go to that other world and claim what was ours, and what should be ours. Though I will need to do away with that weaker version of me so that our dear Lynette’s blood is not tainted when we drain her.” Neferet grimaced, which made her look even more alien. “She Imprinted with a human! How obscene. When Lynette was mine, I didn’t Imprint with her.” Neferet added bath salts to the steaming, claw-footed tub before sliding into the water. “We Imprinted once, though never with a human. What was that Warrior’s name?” She shrugged her skeletal shoulders. “No matter. He was insignificant. We do remember he took his own life because he was too weak to be with us.” Her laughter echoed manically from the marble walls, which Neferet decided she rather liked.
“But now a lesser version of us has Imprinted with our Lynette. Oh, no. That will not do.”
Neferet sank to her chin in the fragrant water as she plotted a future that included ruling two worlds.
“It isn’t usurping. It is the survival of the fittest,” she said. “Which means we shall survive. That Neferet is not us, though she did us a favor. We shall thank her by making her end swift and relatively painless. And should she resist, well, perhaps she shall be brought here and gifted to Zoey Redbird and the boring children who follow her. That should keep them busy for some time.”
She sat up in the tub, sloshing water over the sides. “That is it! That is how we get to the Other World! Oh, and he will be so pleased to see us. But not yet. Not until we have regained our strength. Then we shall call him—then it shall begin.”
Neferet’s laughter echoed from the walls as she drank and plotted and waited expectantly for dinner to be delivered.
16
Zoey
After midnight Stark and I had finally crawled out of the cocoon we’d made in front of the fireplace—only because we were starving, and I’d remembered the dining hall was serving tacos. “I’m really glad Grandma got stuck here. I know she’s super healthy and all, but I worry about her out there on that farm all by herself.”
“But I think she likes it out there.” Stark pulled on a sweatshirt with the Andolini’s Pizza logo on it, which didn’t help my hunger level.
“Yeah, I know she does, and it’s important for her to be independent, but I’ve been thinking about it and what if we start busing fledglings, with vamp supervision of course, to her farm? It could be part of an herbology class that I’ll bet Grandma would really get into teaching.”
“Which would mean she wouldn’t be so alone. I think it’s a great idea.” Stark kissed my forehead. “I love how close you two are.”
“It’s the way it should be,” I said as I sat in front of the mirror and gathered my hair into a high ponytail. “There’s no reason for kids to lose their families when they’re Marked—not if their families want to stay connected.”
“No way was Grandma Redbird going to let a little thing like you turning into a vampyre stop her from being part of your life.”
I leaned toward the mirror and ran mascara along my lashes as I answered. “Yeah, I was lucky like that, but lots of kids have families who are too intimidated or too filled with lies about what a House of Night is and what happens here to feel the same way. It’s those families I’d like to reach. I think it will only make our adult vampyres happier and healthier if they know the students still have the support of their people back home—along with their new House of Night families.”
“You’re doing a really good job of opening the door to humans. And don’t worry about that blip at the swim meet with Kacie. If humans want all of the cool things that go along with being close to us—like our artists, storytellers, actors, singers, historians; the list goes on and on—then they’re going to have to accept that some of us die. It’s something fledglings live with every day until their Mark is filled in. It’s past time humans took their heads out of the sand.”
“Or their butts,” I said.
He laughed. “Exactly. Come on! You look fantastic, as always. Let’s eat. Damien texted me earlier.
