Betrayed

'Oh, I see. Now your nervousness around me makes much more sense.' Neferet sighed sadly. 'Aphrodite ... she has become a problem. It really is a pity. As I said on Samhain when I realized how far wrong she'd gone, I feel partially responsible for her be­havior and her transformation into the dark creature she has be­come. I knew she was selfish, even when she first joined our school. I should have stepped in sooner and taken a firmer hand with her.' Neferet's gaze caught mine. 'How much did you over­hear today?'

A warning skittered down my spine. 'Not very much,' I said quickly. 'Aphrodite was crying really hard. I heard you tell her to look within. I knew you wouldn't want to be interrupted.' I stopped, careful not to say specifically that that was all I had heard—careful not to lie outright. And I didn't look away from her sharp eyes.

Neferet sighed again and sipped her wine. 'I would not nor­mally talk about one fledging to another, but this is a unique case. You know that Aphrodite's Goddess-given affinity was to be able to foresee disastrous events?'

I nodded, noting the past tense she used when she mentioned Aphrodite's ability.

'Well, it seems that Aphrodite's behavior has caused Nyx to withdraw her gift. It's something that is highly unusual. Once the Goddess touches someone, she rarely revokes what she has given.' Neferet shrugged sadly. 'But who can know the mind of the Great Goddess of Night?'

'It must be awful for Aphrodite,' I said, more thinking aloud than really meaning to comment.

'I appreciate your compassion, but I did not tell you this so that you would pity Aphrodite. Rather, I tell you so that you know to be on your guard. Aphrodite's visions are no longer valid. She might say or do things that are disturbing. As leader of the Dark Daughters, it will be your responsibility to be certain that she does not upset the delicate balance of harmony among the fledg­lings. Of course we encourage you to work out problems among yourselves. You are much more than human teenagers, and we expect more from you, but feel free to come to me if Aphrodite's behavior becomes too'—she paused, like she was considering the next word carefully—'erratic.'

'I will,' I said, my stomach beginning to hurt again.

'Good! Now, why don't you tell me the plans you've made for your reign as leader of the Dark Daughters.'

I put Aphrodite out of my mind and outlined my new plans for the Prefect Council and the Dark Daughters. Neferet listened at­tentively and was openly impressed by my research and what she called a 'logical reorganization.'

'So, what you want from me is to lead the faculty in voting on the two new Prefects, because I agree with you that you and your four friends have more than proven your worth and are already an excellent working Council.'

'Yes. The Council wants to nominate Erik Night for the first of the two open positions.'

Neferet nodded her head. 'Erik is a wise choice. He's popular with the fledglings, and he has an excellent future before him. Who did you have in mind for the last position?'

'Here's where my Council and I disagree. I think we need an­other upperclassman, and I also think that person should be one who belonged to Aphrodite's inner circle.' Neferet raised her brows in surprise. 'Well, including a friend of hers reinforces what I've said all along, that I didn't come into this because I'm power crazy and set out to steal what was Aphrodite's or anything stupid like that. I just wanted to do the right thing. I didn't want to start some kind of silly clique war. If one of her friends is on my Council, then the rest of them might understand that it's not about me getting over on her—it's about something more impor­tant than that.'

Neferet considered for what seemed like forever. Finally she said, 'You know that even her friends have turned from her.'

'I realized that today in the dining hall.'

'Then what is the point of putting an ex-friend of hers on your Council?'

'I'm not convinced they are ex-friends. People act different in private than they do in public.'

'Again, I agree with you. I already made the announcement to the faculty that Sunday the Dark Daughters and Sons will con­vene a special Full Moon Ritual and meeting. I would expect that the vast majority of the old members will attend—if for no other reason than curiosity about your powers.'

I gulped and nodded. I was already way too aware that I was the main attraction in a freak show.

'Sunday is the right time for you to tell the Dark Daughters about your new vision for it. Announce that there is one spot left on your Council, and that it must be filled by a sixth former. You and I will look over the applications and decide who is the best fit.'

I frowned. 'But I don't want it to just be our choice. I want the faculty to vote, as well as the student body.'

'They will,' she said smoothly. 'Then we will decide.'

I wanted to say more, but her green eyes had gone cold; I'm not ashamed to admit that that scared me. So instead of arguing with her (which was totally impossible) I went down a different road (as my grandma would say).

'I also want the Dark Daughters to get involved with a com­munity charity.'

This time Neferet's brows totally disappeared into her hairline. 'You mean community as in the human community?'

'I do.'

'You think they will welcome your help? They shun us. They abhor us. They are afraid of us.'

'Maybe that's because they don't know us,' I said. 'Maybe if we acted like part of Tulsa, we'd get treated like part of Tulsa.'

'Have you read about the Greenwood riots in the 1920s? Those African-American humans were part of Tulsa, and Tulsa destroyed them.'

'It's not 1920 anymore,' I said. It was hard to meet her eyes, but I knew, deep inside, that I was doing the right thing. 'Neferet, my intuition is telling me this is something I must do.'

I watched her expression soften. 'And I did tell you to follow your intuition, didn't I?'

I nodded.

'What charity will you choose to get involved with—providing they actually allow you to help them?'

'Oh, I think they'll let us help them. I've decided to contact Street Cats—the cat rescue charity.'

Neferet threw back her head and laughed.

CHAPTER 8

I was already out of the dining hall and heading to the dorm when I realized that I hadn't said anything to Neferet about the ghosts, but no way did I want to go back upstairs and start that subject. The conversation I'd already had with Neferet had com­pletely exhausted me, and despite the beautiful dining room with its great view and its crystal and linen, I'd been eager to get out of there. I wanted to go back to the dorm and tell Stevie Rae about the whole Loren thing and then do nothing but veg out and watch bad reruns on TV and try to forget (at least for one night) that I had a terrible premonition about Chris's disappearance and that I was A Big Deal now and in charge of the most impor­tant student group at the school. Whatever. I just wanted to be me for a while. As I'd told Neferet, Chris was probably safely at home already. And there was plenty of time for everything else. Tomor­row I'd write down an outline of what I was going to say to the Dark Daughters on Sunday. I guess I'd also have to work on a Full Moon Ritual ... my first real public circle casting and formal rit­ual. My stomach started to gurgle. I ignored it.

I was halfway to the dorm when I remembered that I also had an essay due Monday for Vamp Soc. Sure, Neferet had excused me from most of the third former work in that class so I could focus on reading ahead in the higher level Soc text, but I'd been trying really hard to be 'normal' (Whatever that was—hello—I'm a teenager and a fledgling vampyre. How could any of that be nor­mal?), which meant I made sure I turned in papers when the rest of the class did. So I hurriedly backtracked to my homeroom class, where my locker and all of my books were kept. It was also Neferet's room, but I'd just left her having wine with several of the other profs upstairs. For a change I didn't have any worries about overhearing something awful.

As usual, the door was unlocked. Why have locks when you had vamp intuition to scare the bejeezus out of