Hidden (House of Night #10)(32)

Aurox bowed his head under the weight of his confusion and longing. Tentatively, silently, he mimicked Rephaim with his own prayer. It was simple. It was sincere. And it was the first time in his life Aurox had ever prayed.

Nyx, if you are, indeed, a forgiving goddess, please help me ... please ...

CHAPTER NINE

Zoey

"Neferet must be stopped," Thanatos said with no preamble.

"Sounds like good news to me. Finally," Aphrodite said. "So is the entire High Council showing up here to call bullshit on her stupid press conference, or is Duantia coming by herself?"

"I can't wait till the humans hear the real deal about her," Stevie Rae spoke after Aphrodite, sounding as pissed as Aphrodite and not giving Thanatos a chance to reply. "I'm dang tired of Neferet smiling and batting her eyes and making everyone believe she's all sugar and spice and everything nice."

"Neferet does much more than bat her eyes and smile," Thanatos said grimly. "She uses her Goddess-given gifts to manipulate and harm. Vampyres are subject to her spell-humans have little defense against her."

"Which means the Vampyre High Council has to stand up and do something about her," I said.

"I wish it were that simple," Thanatos said.

My stomach clenched. I had one of my feelings, and that was almost never good.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be that simple?" I asked.

"The High Council will not mingle humans in vampyre affairs," she said.

"But Neferet's already done that," I said.

"Yeah, talk about closin' the barn door after the cows have already gone out," Stevie Rae said.

"The bitch killed Zoey's mom." Aphrodite was shaking her head as if in disbelief. "Are you saying that the High Council is just going to ignore that and let her get away with murder and talk shit about all of us?"

"And what would you have the High Council do? Expose Neferet as a killer?"

"Yes," I spoke up, glad I sounded tough and mature instead of scared and about twelve, which was really how this whole thing was making me feel. "I know she's immortal and powerful, but she killed my mom."

"We have no proof of that," Thanatos said quietly.

"Bullshit!" Aphrodite exploded. "We all saw it!"

"In a reveal ritual set in motion by a death spell. Neither can be repeated. The land has been washed clean of that act of violence by all five elements."

"She took Darkness as her Consort," Aphrodite argued. "She's not just in league with evil, she's probably doing the nasty with it!"

"Eeew," Stevie Rae and I said together.

"Humans would never believe any of it, even if they had been there." We all turned to look at Shaylin, who until then had been standing silently and watching the four of us with what I'd thought was a kinda glazed, shocky expression. But her voice was steady. Sure, she looked nervous, but her chin was lifted again and she had what I was coming to recognize as her stubborn face on.

"What the hell do you know about it and why are you speaking?" Aphrodite snapped at her.

"This time last month I was a human. Humans don't trust vampyre magick." Shaylin faced Aphrodite without flinching. "You've been around all this magick too long. You have totally lost perspective."

"And you have totally lost your mind," Aphrodite snarled, puffing up like a blowfish.

"Squabbling children again." Thanatos didn't raise her voice, but her words cut through the almost-girl-fight tension between Aphrodite and Shaylin.

"They don't want to fight," I spoke into the sudden silence. "None of us do. But we're all frustrated and we expected you and the High Council to do something, anything, to help us against Neferet."

"Let me show you the truth of who we are, and then you might understand more about this fight you are insisting we take to the humans." Thanatos lifted her right arm, holding her palm up at about chest level away from her body. She cupped her hand, breathed in deeply, and with her left hand, swirled the air above her upraised palm, saying, "Behold the world!" Her voice was powerful, mesmerizing. My eyes were drawn to her palm. On it a globe of the world was taking form. It was awesome-not like those boring globes history teachers/coaches use as dust-gatherers. This one looked like it was made of black smoke. The water rippled and rolled. The continents emerged, carved from onyx.

"Ohmygoodness," Stevie Rae said. "It's so pretty!"

"It is," Thanatos said. "And now behold who we are in the world!" She flicked the fingers of her left hand at the globe, as if she were sprinkling it with water. Aphrodite, Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and I gasped. Little sparkles began appearing, dotting the onyx landmasses with tiny diamond lights.

"That's beautiful," I said.

"Are they diamonds? Real diamonds?" Aphrodite asked, stepping closer.

"No, young Prophetess. They are souls. Vampyre souls. They are us."

"But there are so few lights. I mean, compared to the rest of the globe that's all dark," Shaylin said.

I frowned and stepped closer along with Aphrodite. Shaylin was right. The earth looked huge compared to the sprinkling of sparkly dots. I stared and stared. My eyes were drawn to the clusters of shininess: Venice, the Isle of Skye, somewhere in what I thought was Germany. A cluster of light in France, a few splotches in Canada, and several more sprinkled around the continental U.S.-several more, but still not very many.