Revealed (House of Night #11)(13)

“Detective, can I force her to come with me?” Mrs. LaFont asked him.

“Actually, that’s a good question.” The detective looked from Aphrodite to Thanatos. “I don’t see a crescent on her forehead. Is her Mark covered for some reason?”

“No. Aphrodite is an unusual member of the House of Night. She was once Marked, but her crescent disappeared, though the gifts Nyx gave her when she was a fledgling did not disappear, hence the fact that our High Council has named her a Prophetess of Nyx. So, though Aphrodite is not fledgling nor vampyre, she has been Chosen by our Goddess, and will always have a home at the House of Night.”

Detective Marx blew out a long breath. “Well, being Marked and Chosen by Nyx means that Aphrodite was emancipated from her human parents. Though the circumstances are odd, I’d say that with the ruling of the Vampyre High Council, her emancipation remains valid. Mrs. LaFont, I believe the answer to your questions is no, I cannot force your daughter to go with you.”

“Aphrodite.” Mrs. LaFont’s voice was frigid. “Will you do as I say and come home with me, or will you choose to remain with your father’s murderers?”

“I choose my real family and my real home,” Aphrodite said with no hesitation, sliding her hand into Darius’s and holding tightly to him as her mother spewed venom at her.

“Then I wish I’d never given birth to you. Don’t ever call me your mother again. Don’t ever speak to me again. I deny your existence completely. You are as dead to me as is your father.” Mrs. LaFont turned her back to her daughter and walked quickly away.

In the silence her mother had left behind, Aphrodite’s voice seemed very small when she said, “I’d like to really go home now. I’ll be on the bus, waiting for you guys to get done here.”

“Bus?” Detective Marx asked.

“Yes,” Thanatos spoke wearily. “Some of our students and vampyres have chosen to live together off campus. Dawn is nearing. They really should be returning to their home.”

“Is this new off-campus housing because there is a new kind of vampyre?” He glanced at Stark’s red tattoos. “A red vampyre?”

“There is, indeed, as Neferet announced in her public interview, a new type of vampyre among us, and some of them are among the fledglings and vampyres who have chosen to live off campus,” Thanatos said, her voice growing wary.

“And is what Neferet said about these new vampyres also true?”

“If you mean the part about us being violent and dangerous—no. That’s not true,” Stark said, meeting the detective’s gaze.

The detective hesitated, and then, with terrible finality, he said, “High Priestess, I am going to have to insist none of your fledglings or vampyres be allowed to leave campus until we have investigated tonight’s crime more thoroughly and are able to rule out a killer being from your House of Night. If you require one, I’m positive I can wake up a judge and get an injunction ordering your campus to remain closed, but I have to tell you I think it would look better if an official order wasn’t necessary.”

With no visible hesitation, Thanatos said, “There is no need for an injunction. I will voluntarily comply with your request. Zoey, tell the students to get off the bus. Until further notice, everyone will be living on campus.”

CHAPTER THREE

Aphrodite

“I don’t know which is worse, the fact that the ass**le police aren’t letting us go home to the depot tunnels, or the fact that I’ve actually started thinking of those shitty tunnels as home,” Aphrodite muttered as she dug through her purse. “Where the hell is my bottle of Xanax?”

“Let me help you, my beauty.” Darius gently took the Red Valentino purse from Aphrodite, unzipped a little side pocket within, and pulled out the pill bottle. “Xanax or wine, not both,” he said, holding the bottle just out of her reach.

“My dad is dead,” she said flatly.

“I think the point is, Darius doesn’t want to see you dead, too,” Zoey said, plopping heavily down on the couch next to her in the little infirmary waiting room. “I get what you’re feeling, and I know it might seem like a good idea to make yourself totally numb tonight, but there’s no way to escape the death of a parent.”

“Even a shitty parent?” Aphrodite asked Z.

“Yeah, even one of those,” Zoey nodded knowingly. “You’re going to have to deal with it sometime. From my experience I’d say that it’s better to do that sooner rather than later.”

Aphrodite frowned, but put down the bottle of red wine she’d been drinking straight out of. “Fine. I choose Xanax.”

“But only one,” Darius insisted.

“Again, fine. Just give it to me. Even semi-numb sounds really good right now.”

Darius was putting the little blue pill in Aphrodite’s palm when Shaunee’s voice caused her to look up in surprise. “I don’t want to be numb. Not even semi-numb.” Shaunee entered the waiting room, followed by Stevie Rae, Rephaim, Damien, and Thanatos. “If I’m numb I might forget what happened tonight, and that means I’ll forget the last night of Erin’s life. Her life deserves to be remembered. And, Aphrodite, your dad’s life deserves to be remembered, too.”

Aphrodite popped the pill into her mouth and swallowed it without anything to drink. “When I remember my dad, I’m going to remember a weak man who was bullied by my mom into being a shitty guy. I’m not sure I want to remember that. What are you going to remember about Erin? How you two split one brain for all that time, or how you two split up?”