Untamed

'Our Poet Laureate was killed three days ago.' I couldn't say his name.

Sister Mary Angela looked upset. 'That is dreadful news. I will add him to our prayer list.'

'You'd pray for a vampyre?' The question seemed to escape my mouth without warning me first, and I felt my cheeks get warm again.

'Of course I would, as would my sisters.'

'I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but don't you think that all vampyres are doomed to hell because we worship a goddess?' I asked.

'Child, what I believe is that your Nyx is just another incarnation of our Blessed Mother, Mary. I also believe devoutly in Matthew 7:1, which says 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' '

'Too bad the People of Faith don't believe like you do,' I said.

'Some do, child. Try not to paint them all with the same brush. Remember that the judge not goes both ways. Now, what can Street Cats do for the House of Night?'

My mind was still having trouble grasping the fact that this nun was so totally okay with vampyres, but I mentally shook myself and focused enough to say, 'As the Leader of the Dark Daughters, I thought it would be a good idea if we got involved with a local charity.'

Sister Mary Angela's warm smile was back. 'And, naturally, you thought of cat rescue.'

I returned her smile. 'Yes! The truth is, I haven't been Marked very long, and I think it's weird that even though our school is smack in the middle of Tulsa, we're so isolated from the city. It just doesn't feel right to me.' She was really easy to talk to, and I found myself opening up to her. 'That's what brought me—' I caught Aphrodite's frown from my side vision and hastily added, 'us—that's what brought us here. We thought it would be cool if we could volunteer to help with the cats, and also raised money for Street Cats. Like maybe we could sponsor a flea market and give you guys the money we make.'

'We're always in need of money and experienced volunteers. Do you own a cat, Zoey?'

My grin widened. 'Actually Nala owns me, and she'd tell you that if she were here.'

'You do, indeed, have a cat,' she said. 'And what about you, Warrior?'

'Nefertiti, the most beautiful calico in the world, chose me as her own six short years ago,' Darius said.

'And you?'

Aphrodite looked like she wanted to fidget, and I suddenly realized that I'd never seen a cat with her.

'No. I don't have one,' Aphrodite said. When the three of us stared at her, she shrugged uncomfortably. 'I don't know why, but no cat picked me.'

'Do you not like them?' the nun asked.

'I like them okay, I guess. It just seems they don't like me,' Aphrodite admitted.

'Huh,' I said with a little too much suppressed amusement, and she glared at me.

'That's quite all right,' Sister Mary Angela inserted smoothly. 'We can still put a willing volunteer to work.'

Jeesh, the nun wasn't kidding about putting us to work. I told her we had time to give her a couple of hours or so before we had to head back to school, and she started cracking the whip. Aphrodite automatically coupled up with Darius, clearly enjoying her part in the whole 'keep the warrior busy so Zoey can rendezvous with Stevie Rae' (who had not shown yet) plan, and Sister Mary Angela sent the two of them into the cat room to clean litter boxes and brush cats with the two other nuns on duty, Sister Bianca and Sister Fatima, who Sister Mary Angela had introduced to the three of us very matter-of-factly, like it was totally normal that fledglings and vampyres (with their Marks covered) were volunteering in the community. I'm not a particularly slow learner, so by this time I'd stopped waiting for a nun freak-out, and it dawned on me that these religious women were a whole different type of 'religious' than my horrid step-loser and his People of Faith sycophants. (Yes, thank Damien for my increased vocab.)

Sadly, Sister Mary Angela sent me to inventory hell. Apparently the nuns had just gotten in a shipment of various cat toys—a big shipment, like a massive box of more than two hun­dred feathery, mousey, catty toys—and Sister Mary Angela ordered me to log each separate (and annoyingly perky) cat whatnot into their computer system. Oh, and she also quickly taught me to use their 'newfangled' (the nun's word for it) cash register computer system, and then she gave me a stern, 'We'll stay open late tonight, and you are in charge of the store,' and disappeared into the office that sat beside the boutique part of the store and across the hall from the cats waiting to be adopted.

Okay, it wasn't like she actually left me 'in charge.' I could see Sister Mary Angela through the big glass window that took up almost all the wall space on that side of the room, which meant that she could also see me. Yes, she was mega-busy, making calls and doing other important looking stuff, but I did feel her eyes on me pretty often.

Still, I have to admit that I thought it was cool that Sister Mary Angela—a woman who was supposed to be married to God—was so accepting of us. It made me wonder about if I really had been, to use some of the nun's words, incorrectly painting all religious folks (except for Nyx's religious folks) with the same brush. I don't particularly like to admit when I'm wrong, especially since I seem to have had to do a lot of that kind of admitting lately, but these wimpled women had definitely given me something to think about.

So I was pondering much deeper religious stuff than was my norm, and literally up to my elbows in cat stuff when the door chimed cheerily and in walked Stevie Rae.

We grinned at each other. I cannot tell you how amazing it is to see my best friend not dead. Not even undead. She looked like my Stevie Rae again with her short curly blond hair, her dimples, and her familiar Roper jeans with a button-up shirt (sadly) tucked into them. Yes, I love the girl. No, she doesn't have very good fashion sense. And no, I was not going to let what was Aphrodite being her usual bitchy self make me doubt my BFF.

'Z! Ohmygoodness, I've missed you! Hey, did you hear the news?' she said all in a rush in her adorable Okie twang.

'News?'

'Yeah, about the—'

But she was interrupted by a sharp rap on the window of Sister Mary Angela's office. The nun's silver brows lifted questioningly. I pointed to Stevie Rae and mouthed, my friend. The nun drew a little pretend crescent moon in the middle of her forehead with her finger and then pointed at Stevie Rae (who was staring at Sister Mary Angela with her mouth unattractively flopped open). I nodded vigorously. The prioress gave me a quick nod, smiled, and waved a welcome to Stevie Rae, and then went back to her phone-calling.

'Zoey!' Stevie Rae whispered. 'That's a nun.'

'Yes,' I said in a normal voice. 'I know. Sister Mary Angela runs this place. There are two more nuns back in the cat room with Aphrodite and the Son of Erebus she's keeping busy with some seriously disgusting flirting.'

'Bleck! Aphrodite and her flirting is so nasty. But, more importantly, nuns?' Stevie Rae blinked in confusion. 'And they know we're fledglings and stuff?'

I guessed she was referring to herself with the and stuff comment, so I nodded. (Well, I certainly wasn't going to try to explain to the nuns about red vamps.) 'Yep. Apparently they're okay with us 'cause they think Nyx is just another form of the Virgin Mary. Plus it seems nuns are not into judging others.'

'Well, I like the whole not-judging part, but Nyx and the Virgin Mary? Ohmygoodness, that is the weirdest thing I've heard in a long time.'

'Which must make it majorly weird, 'cause I imagine being dead and then undead you heard some very weird stuff,' I said.

Stevie Rae nodded solemnly and said, 'So weird that, like my daddy would say, it'd knock a buzzard off a meat wagon.'

I shook my head, grinned, and threw my arms around her. 'Stevie Rae, you crazy kid, I've missed you!'

CHAPTER 16

Our big hug was broken up by an annoying waterfall of Aphrodite giggles tumbling down the hall from the cat