Redeemed (House of Night #12)(105)

“Do not tell your Rooster that, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. He already struts enough,” Grandma teased, patting Stark’s cheek fondly. She came to me and smoothed the low, heart-shaped neckline of the crimson velvet dress I’d let Aphrodite talk me into wearing. Then she brushed off another cat hair from the silver embroidered image of the Goddess with her hands raised cupping a crescent moon that rested over my heart. “There, that is the last of Skylar’s shedding. And you look absolutely lovely, Zoeybird. This dress becomes the first High Priestess of the new North American High Council.”

High Priestess of the North American High Council—when would my stomach stop clenching whenever I heard my new title?

As if reading my mind, Grandma took my face in her hands. “Your title will rest easily with you when you rest easily with yourself. I believe that will happen after you complete what you must today.”

“Yeah, Z. You know what you need to do. The sooner you get it over with, the better,” Stark said.

I met his eyes, looking for signs of jealousy or anger, and I saw none. All I saw was love and trust. I drew a deep breath. “You’re right. You’re both right. Let’s stop wasting time. It’s not going to be that bad.”

“Bad, Z? Are you kidding? It’s going to be great! Hey, remember—the world is a small place. We’re not losing anyone. They’re just going to fledge.” Stark chuckled and gave me his cute cocky smile. “Get it? Fledge.”

I shook my head but managed not to roll my eyes at him. “I get it.”

“Zoeybird, you must not think of this as the end of something. Think of it as the beginning of a grand adventure for all of you,” Grandma said.

“Okay, yeah, you’re right, Grandma. And anyway, we’re going to circle one more time before everyone takes off. Let’s do this.” With Stark on one side of me, and Grandma on the other, I walked out onto the auditorium’s stage.

The auditorium was packed, and I could see people standing all along the rear and side walls.

“Where did they all come from?” I whispered to Stark, trying not to move my lips.

“Uh, Z, your mic is on,” Stevie Rae’s voice lifted from somewhere near the front of the auditorium.

“Ah, hell,” I whispered. And then pressed my lips together as my ah, hell echoed out over the crowd. Laugher rippled back to me, but it didn’t feel mean-spirited. It felt friendly. I blinked, and as my eyes accustomed themselves to the gaslights in the auditorium, I saw that yes, the crowd was, indeed, huge, but it was also smiling up at me. I searched the faces until I found a curly blond head next to another blonde whose hair was long and straight and almost impossibly perfect. I met Aphrodite’s gaze. She lifted a blond brow and nodded at me. Then I met Stevie Rae’s sparkling blue eyes. She gave me a big smile and a thumbs-up. I let out the breath I’d been holding, cleared my throat, and began.

“I want to thank all of you for coming tonight for this swearing in of the North American Vampyre High Council, especially the humans who are here and who have become such good friends of this House of Night.” Detective Marx was easy to find in the crowd—he was taller than almost everyone else. I smiled at him and he tipped an imaginary hat to me. I liked that a half dozen or so uniformed officers had accompanied him, and made a mental note to remember to buy a bunch of tickets to the next TPD fund-raising event. “Today we’re going to do something that has never before been done in vampyre society. We’re going to make a new beginning of our own, and we’re going to include humans in that beginning.”

I paused when spontaneous applause broke out, so surprised that I could feel my cheeks get warm.

“So, well, I’m going to start by calling up to the stage the six new members of our High Council.” I met her eyes and began with my BFF. “Stevie Rae!”

There were a bunch of whoohoos accompanied by arm pumps coming from the seats behind Stevie Rae. I grinned, realizing her family had made the drive up from Henrietta. Stevie Rae kissed Rephaim quickly, then hurried to the stage.

“Aphrodite!”

All of the Sons of Erebus Warriors, led by Darius, stood and applauded loudly as Aphrodite flipped by her hair and gracefully came up to the stage.

“Shaunee!”

“That is right! Good job, Shaunee!” Detective Marx called, as he and the other TPD members, along with Erik Night all cheered and whistled.

“Shaylin!”

I was happy to see that Erik had stood and high-fived her as she walked past him—after Nicole kissed her smack on the lips.

“Lenobia!”

A big cowboy whooped and waved his appropriately white hat as the Horse Mistress, looking ethereally beautiful, made her way to the stage.

“And the last name I call is the first male to be a member of any vampyre High Council. Damien!” I said. And I joined the clapping and cheering as Damien, blushing but smiling, smoothed his impeccably tailored shirt, hugged Adam Paluka, and hurried to join us.

My friends spread out on either side of me, all looking to me for what was to come next. I swallowed my nerves and sat. They followed my lead, taking the seats waiting for them.

Okay, it wasn’t like the Vampyre High Council that still reigned in Europe from San Clemente Island. We didn’t have stone thrones and big rules about how everyone in the crowd had to act. Nor did we exclude humans from our auditorium/High Council Chamber. Right up front we’d decided to do things way differently here. To start with, we’d decided that our “thrones” would be stools with comfy padded seats that were decorated in the school’s plaid of purple, blue, and green on a black background. As I perched on mine, I continued the ceremony.