Chosen (House of Night #3)(39)

I grabbed Aphrodite's elbow and hauled her to her feet. "Come on! We have to get help." Leaning on each other, we stumbled to my car. I don't know how I managed to start the Bug and pull away from the curb.

"I-I-I think I'm gonna be sick again." Aphrodite's teeth were chattering so bad she could hardly talk.

"No, you're not." I couldn't believe how calm I sounded. "Breathe. Center yourself. Draw strength from the earth." I realized I was automatically doing what I was telling her to do, only in my case I was drawing strength from the five elements. "You're okay," I told her as I channeled energy from wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit to keep back the hysterics and shock I wanted to give in to. "We're okay."

"We're okay... we're okay...," Aphrodite kept repeating.

She was shivering so hard that I reached behind me and grabbed the hoodie I kept in my backseat. "Wrap this around you. We're almost there."

"But everyone's gone! Who are we going to tell?"

"Everyone's not gone." My mind flailed around. "Lenobia never leaves her horses for long. She's probably here." And then I grasped at a dark, alluring straw. "And I saw Loren Blake yesterday. He'll know what to do."

"Okay... okay..." Aphrodite murmured.

"Listen to me Aphrodite," I said sternly. She turned wide, shock-filled eyes on me. "They're going to want to know why we were together, and especially why I was dropping you off so you could sneak back."

"What do we say?"

"I wasn't with you and I wasn't dropping you off. I'd been to visit my grandma. You were..." I paused, trying to force my numb mind to think. "You were at home. I saw you walking back to the school and I gave you a ride. When we passed the wall you felt something was wrong and we stopped to check it out. That's how we found her."

"Okay. Okay. I can say that."

"You'll remember?"

She took a deep, shaky breath. "I'll remember."

I didn't bother with parking in a regular space. I screeched to a stop as close as possible to the section of the main building that held the in-residence professors' rooms. I waited only long enough to grab hold of Aphrodite again, and together we ran up the sidewalk to the old castle-like wooden front doors. Silently thanking my Goddess for the non-lock school policy, I wrenched open the door and stumbled inside just ahead of Aphrodite.

And I ran right into Neferet.

"Neferet! You have to come! Please! It's horrible!" I sobbed and threw myself into her arms. I couldn't help it. My mind knew that she had done terrible things, but up until just a month ago Neferet had been a mother to me. No, actually, she'd become the mother I wished I'd had, and in my panic seeing her sent a rush of incredible relief pouring through my body.

"Zoey? Aphrodite?"

Aphrodite had collapsed against the wall beside us and I could hear her sobbing brokenly. I realized I'd started to shake so hard that if it hadn't been for Neferet's strong arms around me I would probably have not been able to stand. The High Priestess held me gently, but firmly away from her so that she could look into my face.

"Talk to me, Zoey. What has happened?"

My trembling got worse. I bowed my head and gritted my teeth, trying to find my center again and draw enough strength from the elements to speak.

"I heard something and-" I recognized our equestrian professor, Lenobia's, clear strong voice getting closer as she strode purposefully down the hall to us. "By the Goddess!" From the corner of my graying vision I could see that she had rushed to Aphrodite and was trying to support her weeping body.

"Neferet? What's wrong?"

My head snapped up at the familiar voice and I saw Loren, hair all messed up as if he'd been asleep, coming out of the stairwell that led to his loft as he pulled on an old House of Night sweatshirt. My gaze locked on his and I somehow managed to find the strength to speak.

"It's Professor Nolan," I said, and wondered at how clear and strong my voice sounded when I felt like my body was being shaken into little pieces. "She's out by the trapdoor in the eastern wall. Someone killed her."

Chapter Fifteen

Everything happened fast after that, but it seemed to me like it was happening to someone else who had temporarily taken up residence in my body. Neferet immediately took charge. She assessed Aphrodite and me and decided (unfortunately) that I was the only one still together enough to return with them to the body. She called for Dragon Lankford, who showed up armed. I heard Neferet checking with Dragon about which warriors had already come back from winter break. It seemed like seconds later that two tall, muscular male vamps appeared. I vaguely recognized them. There was always an assortment of adult vamps coming and going from the school. I'd learned early that vampyre society was heavily matriarchal, which just means women run things. It doesn't mean that male vamps aren't respected, though. They are. It's just that their gifts are usually more in the physical realm and women's gifts are more intellectual and intuitive. Bottom line is, male vampyres are amazing warriors and protectors. These two plus Dragon and Loren made me feel about a zillion times safer.

That doesn't mean I was thrilled about leading them to Professor Nolan's body. We got in one of the school SUVs and retraced the path I'd taken to the school. With a shaking hand I pointed to the spot where I'd pulled to the side of the road. Dragon parked the SUV.