Hidden

Aphrodite’s eyes narrowed and she slapped her hand against the tabletop. “That’s it, new kid. I have been through too much battle-against-Darkness crap to put up with your mouth or your know- it-all attitude.” She looked like she was getting ready to go for Shaylin’s throat. I was considering running and trying to find Darius when Stevie Rae bubbled into the room.

“Hey, y’all! ‘Mornin’!” she said around a big yawn. “Man, I’m tired. Is there any Mountain Dew left in the fridge?”

“Oh, for shit’s sake, it’s not morning. It’s sunset. And why the hell is everybody awake?” Aphrodite threw up her hands.

Stevie Rae frowned at her. “It’s polite to say mornin’ to people, even if it’s not technically correct. And I like to be up early. There’s nothin’ wrong with that.”

“He’s a bird!” Aphrodite said, pouring herself some more champagne.

“Are you drinkin’ already?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Yes. Who are you? A bumpkin version of my mom?”

“No, if I was any version of your momma I’d be okay with you drinkin’ your breakfast, ’cause your momma is seriously messed up.” Stevie Rae put the can of Mountain Dew back in the fridge. “And now that I think about it, drinkin’ pop for breakfast probably isn’t a great idea, either. I’ll bet there’s some Lucky Charms around here somewhere.”

“They’re magically delicious,” Shaylin said. “And if you find them I’ll have some, too.”

“Count Chocula.” Since it didn’t look like Aphrodite was going to kill anyone (at that moment) my voice was working again. “If you see a box of that, I’ll take it.”

“What the hell’s wrong with mimosas?” Aphrodite was saying. “Orange juice is for breakfast.”

“What about the champagne part? That’s alcohol,” Stevie Rae said.

“It’s pink Veuve Clicquot. That means it’s good champagne, which cancels out the alcohol part,” Aphrodite said.

“Do you really believe that?” Shaylin asked.

Looking at me and pointedly ignoring Shaylin, Aphrodite said, “Why is it speaking to me?”

“I have a headache, and we haven’t even left for school yet,” I told Aphrodite.

“The stables almost burned down and our High Priestess was outed for being a murderous demi-goddess. I think we can all miss school today,” Aphrodite said.

“Nuh uh,” Stevie Rae said. “We gotta go to school because of all that. Thanatos is gonna need us. Plus, Dragon’s got to have his funeral pyre. That’s gonna be bad, but we have to be there for it.”

That even shut up Aphrodite. She continued to drink while Stevie Rae poured herself and Shaylin some Lucky Charms (which is a lesser cereal than Count Chocula, even though it does have marshmallows), and we all just looked generally gloomy.

“I’m gonna miss Dragon,” I said. “But it’s really cool that he’s with Anastasia again. And the Otherworld is awesome. Really.”

“You got to actually see them reunited, didn’t you?” Shaylin asked, wide-eyed.

“We all did,” I said, smiling.

“It was beautiful,” Stevie Rae said, sniffling and wiping her eyes.

“Yeah,” Aphrodite said softly.

Shaylin cleared her throat. “Look, Aphrodite, I didn’t mean to sound so bitchy before. What I said was wrong. I shouldn’t use my gift like that. You do have a flickery yellow light inside your moonlight light, but that’s not because you’re going to blow out. It’s part of your uniqueness—your warmth. Here’s the truth—it’s small and hidden, because you keep how warm and good you really are hidden most of the time. But that doesn’t change that it’s still there. So, I’m sorry.”

Aphrodite turned cool blue eyes to Shaylin and said, “It puts the lotion in the bucket.”

“Oh, boy,” I said. “Aphrodite, just drink your breakfast. Shaylin, that’s a good example of what you and I were talking about before. I don’t question your gift. I don’t doubt it. I do have an issue with your judgment in deciphering it.”

“I deciphered it perfectly,” Shaylin said, sounding upset and defensive. “But Aphrodite pissed me off. So I messed up. I said I was sorry.”

“Apology not accepted,” Aphrodite said, and turned her back on Shaylin.

Which was when Damien came rushing into the room, holding his iPad and looking more disheveled than he usually looked when he emerged from what he liked to call his beauty rejuvenation period. He hurried straight to me, lifted his iPad, and said. “You guys have to watch this!”

I was only mildly curious at first as I saw the Fox 23 evening news anchor, the totally to-die-for gorgeous Chera Kimiko talking. We hearted us some Chera. Not only was she vampyre-level beautiful, but she was actually a real person, versus the usual plastic talking heads news anchor types.

Aphrodite peeked over my shoulder at Damien’s iPad. “Kimiko is classic. I’ll never forget that time she spit out her gum right in the middle of the news. I thought my dad was gonna shit kittens because—”

“Chera’s great, but this is bad,” Damien cut her off. “And serious. Neferet just gave a press conference.”

Ah, hell …

CHAPTER SIX

Zoey

We all huddled around Damien’s iPad. He pressed play and the Fox 23 video began. Along the bottom of the screen blazed the caption: CHAOS AT THE TULSA HOUSE OF NIGHT? Then the screen was filled with Neferet and a bunch of guys in suits. She was standing someplace really pretty—lots of marble and art deco. I felt a little start of recognition. Chera Kimiko was speaking off camera.

“Vampyres and violence? You’d be surprised at who is saying yes. Fox 23 exclusively has breaking news tonight from a former High Priestess at Tulsa’s House of Night.”

A stupid commercial came up and while Damien tried to skip it I said, “The picture looks like she’s someplace downtown.”

“It’s the lobby of the Mayo,” Aphrodite said dryly. “And that’s my dad standing behind her.”

“Ohmygoodness!” Stevie Rae’s eyes were giant and round. “She’s giving a press conference with the mayor?”

“And some of the city council. Those are the rest of the suits with him,” Aphrodite said.

Then the video started to play and we all shut up and gawked.

“I am here to officially and publicly sever my ties with the Tulsa House of Night and the Vampyre High Council.” Somehow Neferet managed to look regal and victimized at the same time.

“She’s so full of shit,” Aphrodite said.

“Shhh!” the rest of us shushed her.

“High Priestess Neferet, why would you sever ties with your people?” asked one of the reporters.

“Can we not be considered one people? Are we all not intelligent beings with the capacity to love and understand one another?” Apparently she was speaking rhetorically because she didn’t wait for an answer. “Vampyre politics have become distasteful to me. Many of you know that recently I opened employment at the House of Night to the Tulsa community. I did so because of my conviction that humans and vampyres can do more than just uneasily co-exist. We can live and work and even love together.”

Stevie Rae made gagging noises. I kept shaking my head back and forth in disbelief.

“I received so much resistance from the Vampyre High Council that they sent their High Priestess of Death, Thanatos, to Tulsa to intercede. The current vampyre administration promotes violence and segregation —just look at the past six months and the record of increasing violence in Midtown Tulsa. Do you really believe all of