Untamed (House of Night #4)(44)

Then I waited for the explosion, which didn't happen.

Sister Mary Angela took her time before responding. Then she took my hand in her firm, warm grip. "Greetings, Zoey Redbird." She looked carefully from me to Aphrodite and then to Darius, who she raised one gray brow at and said, "You look rather mature for a fledgling."

He nodded his head in a small respectful bow. "You are observant, Priestess. I am an adult vampyre, a Son of Erebus."

Oh, great. He'd called her priestess. Again I waited for a freak-out that didn't come.

"Ah, I see. You're the fledglings' escort." She turned her attention back to me. "Which means you two must be important young women to warrant such attention."

"Well, like I said, I'm the Leader of the Dark Daughters and--"

"We're important," Aphrodite interrupted me again, "but that's not the only reason Darius is with us. Two vampyres have been murdered in the past couple days, and our High Priestess wouldn't let us leave campus without protection."

I gave Aphrodite a WTF look. It really wasn't like her to have diarrhea of the mouth. "Two vampyres have been killed? I had heard of only one murder."

"Our Poet Laureate was killed three days ago." I couldn't say his name.

Sister Mary Angela looked upset. "That is dreadful news. I will add him to our prayer list."

"You'd pray for a vampyre?" The question seemed to escape my mouth without warning me first, and I felt my cheeks get warm again.

"Of course I would, as would my sisters."

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude, but don't you think that all vampyres are doomed to hell because we worship a goddess?" I asked.

"Child, what I believe is that your Nyx is just another incarnation of our Blessed Mother, Mary. I also believe devoutly in Matthew 7:1, which says 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' "

"Too bad the People of Faith don't believe like you do," I said.

"Some do, child. Try not to paint them all with the same brush. Remember that the judge not goes both ways. Now, what can Street Cats do for the House of Night?"

My mind was still having trouble grasping the fact that this nun was so totally okay with vampyres, but I mentally shook myself and focused enough to say, "As the Leader of the Dark Daughters, I thought it would be a good idea if we got involved with a local charity."

Sister Mary Angela's warm smile was back. "And, naturally, you thought of cat rescue."

I returned her smile. "Yes! The truth is, I haven't been Marked very long, and I think it's weird that even though our school is smack in the middle of Tulsa, we're so isolated from the city. It just doesn't feel right to me." She was really easy to talk to, and I found myself opening up to her. "That's what brought me--" I caught Aphrodite's frown from my side vision and hastily added, "us--that's what brought us here. We thought it would be cool if we could volunteer to help with the cats, and also raised money for Street Cats. Like maybe we could sponsor a flea market and give you guys the money we make."

"We're always in need of money and experienced volunteers. Do you own a cat, Zoey?"

My grin widened. "Actually Nala owns me, and she'd tell you that if she were here."

"You do, indeed, have a cat," she said. "And what about you, Warrior?"

"Nefertiti, the most beautiful calico in the world, chose me as her own six short years ago," Darius said.

"And you?"

Aphrodite looked like she wanted to fidget, and I suddenly realized that I'd never seen a cat with her.

"No. I don't have one," Aphrodite said. When the three of us stared at her, she shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know why, but no cat picked me."

"Do you not like them?" the nun asked.

"I like them okay, I guess. It just seems they don't like me," Aphrodite admitted.

"Huh," I said with a little too much suppressed amusement, and she glared at me.

"That's quite all right," Sister Mary Angela inserted smoothly. "We can still put a willing volunteer to work." Jeesh, the nun wasn't kidding about putting us to work. I told her we had time to give her a couple of hours or so before we had to head back to school, and she started cracking the whip. Aphrodite automatically coupled up with Darius, clearly enjoying her part in the whole "keep the warrior busy so Zoey can rendezvous with Stevie Rae" (who had not shown yet) plan, and Sister Mary Angela sent the two of them into the cat room to clean litter boxes and brush cats with the two other nuns on duty, Sister Bianca and Sister Fatima, who Sister Mary Angela had introduced to the three of us very matter-of- factly, like it was totally normal that fledglings and vampyres (with their Marks covered) were volunteering in the community. I'm not a particularly slow learner, so by this time I'd stopped waiting for a nun freak-out, and it dawned on me that these religious women were a whole different type of "religious" than my horrid step-loser and his People of Faith sycophants. (Yes, thank Damien for my increased vocab.)

Sadly, Sister Mary Angela sent me to inventory hell. Apparently the nuns had just gotten in a shipment of various cat toys--a big shipment, like a massive box of more than two hundred feathery, mousey, catty toys--and Sister Mary Angela ordered me to log each separate (and annoyingly perky) cat whatnot into their computer system. Oh, and she also quickly taught me to use their "newfangled" (the nun's word for it) cash register computer system, and then she gave me a stern, "We'll stay open late tonight, and you are in charge of the store," and disappeared into the office that sat beside the boutique part of the store and across the hall from the cats waiting to be adopted.