Hidden (House of Night #10)(35)

Her words hit us like an invisible wall. We all stopped, turned, and gawked at her. I swallowed past the lump of dryness in my throat and said, "But you said we can't stand up to Neferet in the human community. So, what are we press conferencing about?"

"We are continuing in goodwill what Neferet began only to create chaos and conflict. She opened this school to human employees. We are going to announce in the conference that, though we are sad to see Neferet leave our school's employ, we are happy to take job applications from the community for more positions at the House of Night. We will smile. We will be warm and open. James Stark will be present and will be charming and handsome and harmless."

"You're going to make Neferet look like nothing more than a disgruntled employee?" Aphrodite said. "That's brilliant!"

"And normal," I said.

"Something humans will totally understand," Shaylin said.

"Hey, if ya really want to be normal and human-like, we need to have an open house job fair thingie." We stared at Stevie Rae.

"Go on," Thanatos said. "What is your idea, High Priestess?"

"Well, my high school used to have a job fair for seniors at the end of the school year. It was kinda like a regular open house at school, what with the bad punch and the baked goods and all. But businesses from Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and even from Dallas would come and take job applications and set up interviews for the seniors while the rest of us hung around and wished we were graduating." Stevie Rae smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Guess I thought of it 'cause I missed my chance, gettin' Marked and all."

"Actually that is an interesting idea," Thanatos shocked me by saying. "We will mention our willingness to open our school to a job fair"-she spoke the words as if they were in a foreign language-"during the press conference later tonight."

"If you're gonna have a real open house we need a bunch of folks here. How 'bout we invite Street Cats and do a whole fund-raising cat adoption thing? That'd be something Tulsa could get behind," Stevie Rae added.

"And it would be normal," Aphrodite said. "Charity events are normal, and they bring out the people with the big bucks, and that's a good thing."

"An excellent point," Thanatos said.

"My grandma can help coordinate with Street Cats. She and Sister Mary Angela, the nun who's their director, are friends," I said.

Thanatos nodded. "Then I will call Sylvia, and ask her if she feels up to coordinating what we shall call an open house evening and job fair for Tulsa. The presence of your grandmother, as well as the nuns, will have a normalizing, calming affect."

"My momma can bake like a ton of chocolate chip cookies and come, too," Stevie Rae said.

"Then invite her. I have faith in you, as does Nyx. Do not disappoint either of us. And now, you are truly dismissed."

We left Thanatos's classroom talking about the press conference and the open house and how it felt good that we had a Plan. It was only later that I realized I hadn't said one single word about the Aurox/Heath situation ...

CHAPTER TEN

Shaunee

The Sons of Erebus Warriors went grimly about the job of stacking timber and building Dragon's pyre. Shaunee tried to do what she could to help them. She could tell how well wood would burn just by touching it, so she pointed out all of the particularly dry logs, or planks, and guided the Warriors into placing them just right, so that the fire would burn cleanly and quickly.

Shaunee tried to be encouraging. She told them they were doing a good job, and that Dragon would be proud of them, but that only seemed to make them quieter, grimmer. Darius was even silent and almost felt like a stranger. It was only after Aphrodite breezed up, tossing her hair and talking with her usual take-no-prisoners attitude that things started to get better.

"So, handsome, do you remember the lecture Dragon gave you when you and I first started going out?" Aphrodite winked at several of the other Warriors. "I'll bet Stephen and Conner and Westin remember it, don't ya? Wasn't it the three of you who had to pull extra training with Darius after Dragon found out he was fraternizing with a fledgling?" Aphrodite had lowered her voice and affected a tone that sounded weirdly like the Sword Master.

The Warriors had actually smiled. "Three days in a row Dragon made each of us have a go at your boy there."

Darius snorted. "Watch yourself, Conner. I have not been a boy for decades."

Conner laughed. "I think that's what Dragon was having a problem with."

Aphrodite smiled flirtatiously and ran a hand down Darius's thick bicep. "He was trying to tire you out so that you wouldn't be energetic enough to fraternize with me."

"That would have taken an army of vampyres," Darius said.

It was Stephen's turn to snort. "Really? Is that why Anastasia had to intervene?"

Aphrodite's blond brows went up. "Intervene? Anastasia? You didn't tell me that, handsome."

"It must have slipped my mind, as I was too busy fraternizing with you, my beauty."

"Ha!" Westin scoffed. "There is no way any one of us could forget Anastasia, hair flying, descending upon our Sword Master, calling him to task for picking on poor, young Darius."

Shaunee had to join the laughter. "She seriously said Dragon was picking on Darius?"