“Thank you. But seriously. What are you going to do about the Twins?”
“Give them space!” I didn’t mean to shout but the echo off the stone building told me otherwise. I took a deep breath and tried to stop feeling like I wanted to smother Aphrodite. “I can’t be responsible every time one of my friends has issues with another of my friends. That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It’s in a stupid but prophetic poem,” she said, filing her nails.
“I still don’t see how that makes me—”
I shut up as a big black Lincoln Town Car pulled through the circle entrance and stopped in front of Aphrodite and me. While we watched with unattractively open mouths, a Son of Erebus Warrior got out of the driver’s seat, ignored us completely, and opened the back door of the car.
Long and lean and dressed in dark blue velvet, Thanatos took the Warrior’s hand and gracefully emerged. She smiled at us and nodded acknowledgment when we bowed to her, but her attention was clearly on the depot building.
“What a lovely example of 1930s Art Deco workmanship,” she said, her gaze taking in the scope of the front of the depot. “I mourned the passing of rail travel. When it finally matured it was a wonderfully relaxing way to move across this great country. Actually, it still is today. Sad that there are so few modern rail routes from which to choose. You should have visited a depot in the forties—tragedy, hope, despair, and courage all concentrated into one vibrant, living space.” She continued to gaze lovingly at the old building. “Not like the horrid airports of today. They’ve been bleached of all romance and soul and life, especially since the tragedy of nine-eleven. So sad … so sad…”
“Uh, Thanatos, can I help you with something?” I finally asked after it became obvious that she was going to stand like, forever, and just stare at the depot.
She motioned for the Warrior to get back in the car. “Wait for me across the street in the parking garage. I will be along shortly.” He bowed to her and drove away. She faced Aphrodite and me. “Ladies, I believe it is time for a change.”
“A change of what?” I asked.
“Apparently a change of our entrance,” Aphrodite said dryly. “Kalona came up here. Thanatos is up here. We need to put out some kind of welcome mat ’cause the whole enter-through-the-nappy basement thing is not working for us.”
“Strangely put, but I think true,” Thanatos said. “Which is one reason why I have, in the name of the Vampyre High Council, purchased this building for you.”
I blinked in surprise and tried to formulate an appropriate response when Aphrodite said, “I hope that means renovation.”
“It does,” Thanatos said.
“Wait,” I said. “We’re not a House of Night. Why would the High Council get involved in where we’re living?”
“Because we’re special and cool and they don’t want us to exist in a dirty hovel,” Aphrodite said.
“Or because they want to control where we live and what we do,” I said.
Thanatos raised her brows. “You speak with the command of a High Priestess.”
“I’m not really one,” I assured her. “I’m still a fledgling. Stevie Rae is the High Priestess here.”
“And where is she?”
“She’s with Rephaim. It’ll be light soon and she likes to be with him before he changes into a bird,” I said bluntly.
“And what are you?”
I frowned. “You know as much as I do about what I am. You know Stark was gifted with a Guardian Sword in the Otherworld, which means that to some extent I’m a Queen because he’s my Warrior and Guardian.”
“Why all the questions? I thought you were on our side,” Aphrodite said.
“I’m on the side of truth,” Thanatos said.
“You know Neferet is a lying bitch,” Aphrodite said. “We told you that on San Clemente Island when Z was in LaLa Land.”
“She means the Otherworld.” I rolled my eyes at Aphrodite.
“Yeah, right, the Otherworld. Whatever,” she said. “But we told you the real deal about Neferet then, and you acted like you believed us. You even helped us figure out the Skye stuff with Stark. So, what’s up with you now?”
There was a super big pause, which meant there was time enough for me to wonder if Aphrodite and I had gone too far. I mean, Thanatos was a powerful, ancient vampyre, a member of the High Council whose Goddess- given affinity was death. It probably was a bad idea to question her, let alone piss her off.
“I believe what you told me when Zoey’s soul was shattered was what you, all of you, thought was the truth,” Thanatos finally said.
“I’m back, and we’re not in Italy, but the truth hasn’t changed. Neferet hasn’t changed,” I said.
“And yet she insists that she has been forgiven by Nyx who gifted her with Aurox as a sign of divine favor,” Thanatos said.
“That’s bullpoopie,” I said. “Neferet hasn’t changed and Aurox is no gift from Nyx.”
“I do believe Neferet is hiding a truth,” Thanatos said.
“That’s one way of putting it,” I said.
“But not the way we’d put it,” Aphrodite said.
“We don’t mean to be disrespectful,” I added. “It’s just that we’ve faced off against Neferet for a while now, and we’ve seen things that she’s been careful to keep from the High Council and, really, most vampyres in general.”
“But when we try to out her no one believes us because we’re kids,” Aphrodite said. “And a messed-up group of reject kids at that.”
I raised my brows at Aphrodite and she amended, “Well, not me. I’m talking about the rest of you guys.”
“That is part of the reason I’m here,” Thanatos said. “To be the eyes and ears of the High Council.”
“So, what exactly does it mean that the High Council has bought this building?” I asked.
“Hopefully it means I can give my mom’s gold card a rest and some of us—as in those who don’t need to crawl into a coffin when the sun rises—can have decent rooms up here once this building is renovated,” Aphrodite said.
“It does mean that. It also means that this could become a legitimate House of Night on its own, without any ties to the original Tulsa House of Night,” Thanatos explained. “The Council believes it might be wise to have a red fledgling House of Night that remains, for the most part, separate from the original.”
“Okay, no. That’s exactly why BA hasn’t built two high schools. It’d be just too much rivalry in one district,” I said. “Hating on Union and Jenks is good enough for us—and BA needs to do that with a combined front.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Aphrodite asked.
“Broken Arrow—Union—Jenks,” I said. “High schools. Too many in one town just sucks.”
“Were you student council president or did you hold some other socially unacceptable position? Tulsa has like a zillion high schools and hell has not frozen over yet,” Aphrodite said. “Having too many bussed kids to one school is just moronic and allows the white trash to slither in. Ugh. Just ugh.”
Thankfully, Thanatos stepped between the two of us. “Human teenage standards have never governed vampyre fledgling law. Tulsa is a middle point in the nation. It could definitely support a second House of Night. Our numbers are growing, especially with the inrush of the red fledglings, which have been discovered in other areas as well as here.”
“There are other red fledglings? I mean, besides just ours?” I said.
“Yes.”
“But have any been Marked red, or have they all died and then un-died and turned red?” Aphrodite asked before I could give her a
“Yours is the only red fledgling on record to date as having been Marked red,” Thanatos said.
“So you know about Shaylin?” I asked, holding my breath.
“Yes. Neferet announced that she was blind before she had been Marked, and that now she has sight. She extrapolated that the poor child was broken, so she didn’t need to die to receive the red Markings.”
