Chosen

whipped around Damien and her. Neferet's back was to me, so I couldn't see her face, but Damien's smile was wide and joyous. I tried not to scowl. The sacred circle was not the right place for me to be pissed off, but I couldn't help feeling annoyed. Why was I the only one who could see Neferet's fakeness?

She moved to Shaunee. 'It warms and succors us. I call fire to our circle.' As I'd experienced several times before, Shaunee's red candle burst into flame before the lighter touched it. Shaunee's smile was almost as bright as her element.

Neferet followed the circle around to Erin. 'It soothes and washes us. I call water to our circle.' As the candle lit I heard waves crashing on a distant beach and smelled salt and sea in the night breeze.

I watched carefully as Neferet moved to stand before the statue of Nyx and the green candle. The High Priestess bowed her head. 'The fledgling who personified this element perished, and it is fitting that the position of earth remain empty tonight, and that it rests upon the spot our beloved Patricia Nolan's body has so recently rested upon. It sustains us. From it we are born, and to it we all shall return. I call earth to our circle.' Neferet lit the green candle, and though it burned brightly I didn't smell even a hint of green meadows or wildflowers.

Then Neferet was standing in front of me. I don't know what kind of expression she'd showed Damien and the Twins, but to me her face was strong and stern, and amazingly beautiful. She reminded me of one of the ancient vampyre Amazon warriors, and I almost forgot that she was actually dangerous.

'It is our essence. I call spirit to our circle.' Neferet lit my purple candle and I felt my soul lift with the tickle- tummy feeling a roller coaster gives me. The High Priestess didn't pause to share any kind of special look with me, instead she began to work the crowd. Walking around inside the circle, making eye contact with the vampyres who surrounded us, she got right to the point. 'It hasn't happened for more than one hundred years—not so openly—not so brutally. Humans have murdered one of us. In this case they have awakened not a sleeping giant, but have provoked a leopard who they believed was tamed.' Neferet's voice rose, powerful with anger. 'She is not tamed!' The little hairs on my arms lifted. Neferet was amazing. How could someone who was so blessed by Nyx have gone as wrong as I knew she'd gone? 'They believe our fangs have been filed flat and our claws removed, like a fat household tabby. Again, they are wrong.' She raised her arms over her head. 'From this sacred circle, cast on the site of a murder, we call on our Goddess, Nyx, the beautiful Personification of Night. We ask that she welcome Patricia Nolan to her bosom, though it is decades too early for her to have departed. We also ask Nyx to rouse her righteous anger, and with the sweetness of her divine fury, to grant us this spell of protection so that we will not be caught in the humans' murderous web.' As she spoke the spell Neferet walked back to Nyx's statue.

'Protect us with the night;

above all it is in darkness we delight. '

When she turned to face the crowd I saw that she was now holding a small, ivory-handled knife with a wickedly-sharp-looking curved blade.

'Around this coven we ask

Nyx's curtain to be cast.'

With one hand she lifted the knife. With the other she wove intricate shapes in the air that around her became glittery and semi-substantial as she continued incanting the spell.

'All who enter or leave I shall detect,

vampyre, fledgling, human, all will be checked.

If harm is meant

to my will it shall be bent.'

Then, in a fast, ferocious gesture, Neferet slashed through her wrist, so deep that her blood instantly began to spurt, red and rich, hot and delicious. The scent washed around me, automatically making my mouth water. With grim determination, the High Priestess walked the circumference of the circle so that her blood fell around us in a scarlet arch, sprinkling grass that had so recently been soaked with Professor Nolan's blood. Finally she reached Nyx's statue again. Neferet lifted her face to the night sky and completed the spell.

'My blood binds thee,

so mote it be.'

I swear the night air rippled all around us, and for a moment I could actually see something settle on the walls of the school, like a black, gauzy curtain. She's set a spell that will not just tell her when danger enters the school, but when anyone enters or leaves it. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning. No way was the curtain of a goddess going to be fooled by my little Bram Stoker-ing. How in the hell was I going to sneak Stevie Rae her blood?

Completely preoccupied with my own drama, I hardly noticed when Neferet closed the circle. Woodenly, I let the tide of people carry me back through the trapdoor. I only snapped out of it when Loren's deep voice sounded surprisingly close to my ear.

'I'll meet you in the rec hall in a little while.' I looked up at him. My face must have been a complete question mark because he added, 'Your Full Moon Ritual. I'm your bard tonight for the opening of the circle, remember?'

Before I could say anything Shaunee's voice purred, 'We always look forward to hearing you recite poetry, Professor Blake.'

'Yeah, wouldn't miss it. Not even for a shoe sale at Saks,' Erin added, eyes twinkling.

'Then I'll see you there,' Loren said, his eyes never leaving my face. He smiled, gave me a little bow, and hurried away.

'Dee-lish-us' Erin said.

'Ditto, Twin,' Shaunee said.

'I think he's slimy.'

We all looked up to see Erik glaring at Loren's back.

'Oh, no way!' Shaunee said.

'Luscious Loren Blake is just being friendly,' Erin said, rolling her eyes at Erik like he was insane.

'Hello! Don't go all psycho-jealous boyfriend on Z,' Shaunee said.

'Uh, I gotta go change,' I blurted, not wanting to even comment on Erik's way-too-obvious jealousy. 'Could you guys go on to the rec hall and make sure everything's ready? I'll run to the dorm and be back in just a sec.'

'No problem,' the Twins said together.

'We'll take care of the last-minute stuff,' Damien said.

Erik didn't say anything. I smiled a quick and, I hoped, non-guilty smile at him, and took off down the sidewalk to the dorm. I could feel eyes on me and knew with a terrible sinking feeling that I was going to have to do something about Erik and Loren (and Heath). But what the hell was I going to do?

I was crazy about Heath. And his blood.

Erik was an amazing guy who I really, really liked.

Loren was completely delicious.

Jeesh, I sucked.

CHAPTER 21

I was trying to convince myself that this ritual was going to be a snap. I'd just cast a quick circle, offer up prayers for Professor Nolan, announce that Aphrodite was rejoining the Dark Daughters (which would be obvious after she showed her affinity for earth), and then say that because of the stress that the school has been dealing with I've decided not to Tap any new Prefect Council members till the end of the school year. It really should be an easy ritual, I told my knotted stomach over and over again. Nothing like last month when Stevie Rae died. Nothing that bad could happen tonight. Dressed and as ready as I was going to be, I opened the door to find Aphrodite standing there.

'Take a breath, will ya?' she said, backing out of my way. 'Hello! They have to wait for you.'

'Aphrodite, has no one ever told you that it's rude to keep people waiting?' I said as I hurried down the hall, practically skipped down the stairs two at a time, and rushed out of the dorm with Aphrodite scrambling to keep up with me. I nodded at Darius, who had taken up his position outside, and he saluted me.

'You know, those warriors really are some totally hot-looking vamps,' Aphrodite said, craning her neck around