“Neferet, I apologize for the disruption.” Dragon placed his fist over his heart and bowed respectfully to his High Priestess. “This is my new fledgling. He arrived only moments ago.”
“That explains how the fledgling got here. It does not explain how
that
got here.” Neferet pointed at the panting dog.
“She’s with me,” the kid said. When Neferet turned her moss-colored eyes on him, he mimicked Dragon’s salute and bow. When he straightened, I was utterly shocked to see him give Neferet a lopsided grin that looked more than a little cocky. “She’s my version of a cat.”
“Really?” Neferet lifted one slim auburn brow. “Yet she looks oddly like a bear.”
Ha! So it wasn’t just me being overly descriptive.
“Well, Priestess, she’s a Lab, but you’re not the first person who’s said she looks bearlike. Her paws are definitely big enough to be a bear’s. Check it out.” Disbelieving, I watched as the kid completely turned his back on Neferet and told the dog, “Gimme five, Duch.” The dog obediently lifted a decidedly massive paw and slapped Stark’s hand with it. “Good girl!” he said, ruffling her floppy ears.
Okay, I had to admit it. It was a cute trick.
He returned his attention to Neferet. “But dog or bear, she and I have been together since I was Marked four years ago, so that makes her cat enough for me.”
“A Labrador retriever?” Neferet made a show of walking around the dog and studying her. “She’s awfully large.”
“Well, yeah, Duch has always been a big girl, Priestess.”
“Duch? That’s her name?”
The kid nodded and grinned, and even though he was a sixth-former, I was again surprised at how easily he spoke to an adult vamp, especially one who was a powerful High Priestess. “It’s short for Duchess.”
Neferet looked from the dog to the kid, and her eyes narrowed. “What is your name, child?”
“Stark,” he said.
I wondered if anyone else saw her jaw clench.
“James Stark?” Neferet said.
“A few months ago I dropped my first name. It’s just Stark,” he said.
She ignored him and turned to Dragon. “He’s the transfer we’ve been expecting from the Chicago House of Night?”
“Yes, Priestess,” Dragon said.
When Neferet looked back at Stark, I saw her lips tilt up in a calculating smile. “I’ve heard quite a bit about you, Stark. You and I shall have to have a long talk very soon.” Still studying the fledgling, Neferet spoke to Dragon. “Be sure that Stark has twenty-four-hour access to any and all archery equipment he might like to use.”
I saw Stark’s body do a little jerk. Obviously Neferet saw it, too, because her smile widened and she said, “Of course, news of your talent preceded you here, Stark. You mustn’t get out of practice just because you’ve changed schools.”
For the first time, Stark looked uneasy. Actually, he looked more than uneasy. At the mention of archery, Stark’s expression had transformed from cute and a little sarcastic to cold and almost mean.
“I told them when they transferred me, I’d stopped competing.” Stark’s voice was flat, and his words barely carried the short distance to our table. “Changing schools won’t change that.”
“Competing? You mean that banal archery competition between the different Houses of Night?” Neferet’s laughter made my skin crawl. “It matters little to me if you compete or not. Remember, I am Nyx’s mouthpiece here, and I say what is important is that you don’t waste your Goddess-given talent. You never know when Nyx might call on you—and it won’t be for some silly contest.”
My stomach flipped over. I knew Neferet was talking about her war against the humans. But Stark, being completely clueless, just looked relieved at not having to compete again, and his expression shifted back to nonchalance tinged with cockiness.
“No problem. I don’t mind practicing, Priestess,” he said.
“Neferet, what is it you wish us to do about the, uh, dog?” Dragon said.
Neferet paused for just a moment; then she crouched gracefully down in front of the yellow Lab. The dog’s big ears pricked forward. She stuck her wet nose up, sniffing with obvious curiosity at Neferet’s offered hand. Across the booth from me, Beelzebub hissed menacingly. Nala growled low in her throat. Neferet’s eyes lifted and met mine.
I tried to keep my face expressionless, but I don’t know how well I succeeded. I hadn’t seen Neferet since two days ago when she’d followed me out of the auditorium after she’d announced the human–vampyre war she wanted to start in retribution for Loren’s murder. Naturally, we’d had words. She’d been Loren’s lover. So had I, but that had been inconsequential. Loren hadn’t loved me. Neferet had set up the whole thing between Loren and me, and she knew I knew she had. She also knew I knew Nyx didn’t approve of the things she’d been doing.
Basically, she’d seriously hurt my heart, and I hated Neferet almost as much as I feared her. I hoped none of those things showed on my face as our High Priestess strolled over to our table. With a slight hand gesture, she had Stark and his leashed dog following along behind her. The Twins’ cat gave one more long hiss before streaking off. I frantically petted Nala, hoping she wouldn’t totally lose her mind as the dog got closer. Neferet stopped when she reached our table. Her eyes skipped quickly from me to Aphrodite before they came to rest on Damien.
“I’m glad you’re here, Damien. I’d like you to show Stark his room, and help him find his way around campus.”
“I’d be happy to, Neferet,” Damien said quickly, looking all sparkly-eyed when Neferet beamed her one-hundred-watt thank-you smile at him.
“Dragon will help you with the details,” she said. Then her green eyes moved to me. I braced myself. “And Zoey, this is Stark. Stark, this is Zoey Redbird, the leader of our Dark Daughters.”
He and I nodded at each other.
“Zoey, as you are our High Priestess in Training, I’ll leave the issue of Stark’s dog with you. I trust that one of the many abilities Nyx has gifted you with will help you acclimate Duchess into our school.” Her cold eyes never left mine. They told a different story than her syrupy-sweet voice. They said,
Remember that I’m in charge here and you’re just a child
.
I purposefully broke eye contact with her and gave Stark a tight smile. “I’d be happy to help your dog fit in.”
“Excellent,” Neferet cooed. “Oh, and Zoey, Damien, Shaunee, and Erin.” She smiled at my friends, and my friends grinned like utter fools right back at her. She completely ignored Aphrodite and Jack. “I’ve called a special Council Meeting for tonight at ten thirty.” She glanced at her diamond-studded platinum watch. “It’s almost ten o’clock right now, so you need to finish up eating because I expect you Prefects to be there, too.”
“We will!” They trilled like ridiculous baby birds.
“Oh, Neferet, that reminds me,” I said, raising my voice so that it carried across the room. “Aphrodite will be joining us. Since she’s been gifted by Nyx with an earth affinity, we all agree that she should be on the Prefect Council, too.” I held my breath, hoping that my friends would go along with this.
Thankfully, except for Nala’s low growl at Duchess, no one said anything.
“How could Aphrodite be a Prefect? She is no longer a member of the Dark Daughters.” Neferet’s voice had gone cold.
I radiated innocence. “Did I forget to tell you? I’m so sorry, Neferet! It must have been because of all the horrible things that have happened recently. Aphrodite has rejoined the Dark Daughters. She swore to me, and to Nyx, to uphold our new code of conduct, and I allowed her back in. I mean, I thought that’s what you’d want—to have her come back to our Goddess.”
“That’s right.” Aphrodite sounded uncharacteristically subdued. “I’ve agreed to the new rules. I want to make up for my past mistakes.”
I knew it would make Neferet look mean and spiteful if she publicly rejected Aphrodite after she’d made it obvious that she wanted to change. And Neferet was all about appearances.
The High Priestess smiled at the room in general, not looking at Aphrodite or me. “How very generous of our Zoey to accept Aphrodite back into the bosom of the Dark Daughters, especially as she’ll be held responsible for Aphrodite’s conduct. But then our Zoey seems to be comfortable with a great deal of responsibility.” She did look at me then, and the hatred in her gaze made my breath catch in my throat. “Do be careful that you don’t strangle under so much self-inflicted pressure, Zoey dear.” Then, as if she’d thrown a switch, her face was filled with sweetness and light again, and she beamed at the new kid. “Welcome to the House of Night, Stark.”
“Well, uh, are you hungry?” I asked Stark after Neferet and the rest of the vamps had glided out of the cafeteria.
“Yeah, I guess,” he said.
“If you hurry, you can eat with us, and then Damien can show you to your room before we have to go to the Council Meeting,” I said.
“I think your dog is pretty,” Jack said, leaning around Damien to get a better look at Duchess. “I mean, she’s big, but she’s still pretty. She won’t bite, will she?”
“Not if you don’t bite her first,” Stark said.
“Oh, eew,” Jack said. “I’d get dog hair in my mouth and that’d be nasty.”
“Stark, this is Jack. He’s Damien’s boyfriend.” I decided to get the introductions and the possible
Oh, no! He’s a fag!
issues out of the way.
“Hi,” Jack said with a really sweet smile.
“Yeah, hi,” Stark said. It wasn’t a hugely warm hi, but he didn’t seem to be giving off any homophobe vibes.
“And this is Erin and Shaunee.” I pointed to each of them in turn. “They also answer to Twin, which will make sense once you’ve known them for about two-point-five minutes.”
“Hey, there,” Shaunee said, giving him a very obvious
look
.
“Ditto,” Erin said, giving him an identical
look
.
“This is Aphrodite,” I said.
His slightly sarcastic smile was back. “So you’re the Goddess of Love. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Aphrodite was looking at Stark with a weird intensity that didn’t seem particularly flirtatious, but when he spoke to her, she automatically executed a truly spectacular hair flip and said, “Hi. I like it when I’m recognized.”
His smile widened and got even more sarcastic as he gave a little laugh. “It’d be hard not to recognize you—the name’s pretty obvious.”
I watched as Aphrodite’s intense look instantly dissipated and was replaced by her much more familiar public expression of snobby disdain, but before she could verbally begin to slice up the new kid, Damien spoke. “Stark, I’ll show you where the trays and stuff are.” He stood up and then stopped in front of Duchess, looking more than a little confused.
“No worries,” Stark said. “She’ll stay put. As long as no cats do anything stupid.”
His gaze had shifted to Nala, who was the only cat left close to Duchess. Nala hadn’t started growling again, but she was perched on my lap, staring unblinkingly at the dog, and I could feel the tension in her body.
“Nala will be good,” I said, hoping she would. I really had no control over my cat. Hell, who actually had control over
any
cat?
“All right, then.” He gave me a quick nod before telling the dog, “Duchess, stay!” Sure enough, when he followed Damien over to the main line, Duchess stayed.
“You know, dogs are a lot louder than cats,” Jack said, studying Duchess like she was a science experiment.
“It’s all that panting they do,” Erin said.
“And they’re more flatulent than cats, Twin,” Shaunee said. “My mom has those ginormic standard poodles, and they are some gaseous creatures.”
“Okay, well, this has really been
not
fun,” Aphrodite said. “I’m out of here.”
“Don’t you want to stay around and make eyes at the new guy?” Shaunee asked in a too-nice voice.
“Yeah, and he seemed to like you so much,” Erin said sweetly.
“I’ll leave the new guy to you two, which is only right, being as he likes dogs so much. Zoey, come by my room when you’re done with your nerd herd. I want to talk to you about something before the Council Meeting.” And with a hair fling and a sneer for the Twins, she left the cafeteria.
“She’s not actually as bad as she pretends to be,” I told the Twins. They gave me disbelieving looks and I shrugged. “It’s just that she pretends to be bad a lot.”
“Well, we say
please
, just
please
, to her crappy attitude,” Erin said.
“Aphrodite makes us understand why women have drowned their babies,” Shaunee said.
“Just try to give Aphrodite a chance,” I said. “She’s started letting me in past that hateful crap she puts up. You’ll see. She can be nice sometimes.”
The Twins didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds, then they looked at each other, and at the same time they shook their heads and rolled their eyes. I sighed again.
“But on to a much more important topic,” Erin said.
“Yeah, the new hottie,” Shaunee said.
“Check out his butt,” Erin said.
“I wish he’d sag them jeans a little so I could get a better look,” Shaunee said.
“Twin, sagging is seriously lame. It’s so clichéd gang-wannabe circa 1990s. Hotties should just say no to it,” Erin said.
“I’d still like to see his butt, Twin,” Shaunee said. Then she glanced over at me and smiled. It was a reserved version of her old, friendly grin, but at least it wasn’t the sarcastic wariness she’d been treating me with for the past couple days. “So, what do you think? Is he Christian Bale hot, or just Tobey Maguire hot?”
I wanted to burst into happy tears and yell,
Yea! You guys are starting to talk to me again!
Instead I acted like I had some sense and joined the Twins in checking out the new kid.
Okay, so they were right. Stark was cute. He was medium tall, not quarterback tall like my human ex-boyfriend, Heath, or abnormally gorgeous Superman tall like my fledgling-turned-vampyre ex-boyfriend, Erik. But he wasn’t short, either. Actually, he was about Damien’s height. He was kinda on the thin side, but I could see muscles through his old T-shirt, and his arms were definitely yummy. He had cute, messy guy hair, that sandy color between blond and brown. His face was okay, too, with a strong chin, straight nose, big brown eyes, and nice lips. So, dissected into separate parts, Stark was an okay-looking kid. As I watched him, I realized that what took him from
meh
to
hot
was his intensity and his confidence. He moved like everything he did was deliberate, but that the deliberateness was tinged with sarcasm. It was like he was a part of the world, and at the same time he was flipping it off.