Zoe a month later
It's been a month since I went to and returned from the darkness, since Aphrodite saved me by sacrificing her own life, since we came back to Tulsa where everything has changed, and stayed that way till today, the day I had the most annoying dream.
The moment I got to school, I noticed something weird, all students welcomed me warmly. At first I thought Kalona had this new crazy plan for Tulsa, but Steve Rae and the others said that it was okay, and Tulsa is ours again. When I was heading to my room, I saw a group of red fledglings I haven't seen before. Steve Rae told me all about Nefferet's spell and how Brad broke it and lead the red fledglings to the place where they are supposed to be. To that I replied "the one day I managed to miss!"
You probably know all the above, so why not start with the things you don't. First, vampires can't live without a high priestess. So the vampire council met up and elected Ilene to do that (I was told she was the only one who was trying to do something against Kalona when all others almost fell to his spell). That is of course until I am old and experienced enough to take on that task myself (I hate the council for doing that to me).
Second, the Tulsa House of Night can't manage without a high priestess of its own. So, the school met up and said the Lenobia should be a temporary high priestess whose sole task is to train me to do that the moment I change. So for the last four weeks I've been going to Lenobia's office after classes so she can teach me all she can, and I love each meeting more than the one before. So I've been asked to do stuff for the school like ordering chalks and supplies for classes, I've been even asked to go, with Lenobia, to interviews with new teachers tomorrow ("you are going to work with them more than I am" Lenobia said to convince me to go).
The school also decided that my sole purpose was to train a replacement as well. That way I can get enough experience and leadership skill as soon as possible so that I can be the vampire high priestess. Sadly, the vampire council was on board.
This made me feel scared. I mean my whole life is being planned for me, by people I look up to and some friends and I don't even have a say in it. But I have to do this, basically because there is no one else the whole world, including the council, who can be trusted as much as everyone trusts me, and I hate that. Their trust in me will lead me to a point where I take a wrong step and fall down a cliff knowing that the whole vampire world is following. This is why I keep my friends close and constantly asking for their advice.
This brings us to my friends. Shawnee and Erin are fighting more and more, just last week we had to separate them during the day (sleep time) because we feared they'll just kill each other, they also asked us to stop calling them twins! Damian and I are closer than ever, I can't count the times he spent all night with me helping me with juggling my duties (school, high priestess and leader of dark daughters). Jack did help as well every now and then, I should note that every time he is around, I just can't stop laughing, he keeps on telling jokes making me forget the stress of all things I have to do.
As for Eric, he offered to stay in the House of Night because of the lack of teachers. I accepted and we agreed to keep a professional relationship and forgetting the past. Thank goodness for that because I am not in the position to deal with romantic issues, and Stark, being the amazing warrior he is, understands that and keeps romance to a minimum. Darius and a few other warrior sons of Erebus came to the House of Night to guard us. He told me that guards are posted in all other Houses as well.
And finally, Steve Rae and the other red fledglings are skipping class because all classes seem to explain all about blue vamps, but not red ones. So they gather around in an empty room and try to discover things about them. The one thing they all agree on is that they only change when they make the right choice (for instance, Stark changed when he pledged to be my warrior, and Brad changed when he killed Nicole so that he could bring the fledglings to their real leader) so most of the time they hang around and debate on what the right choice is. I've been to their "class" a couple of times, and the subjects they talk about are really interesting. I haven't told her yet, but I am giving Steve Rae a philosophy class the moment I become high priestess whether she likes it or not.
Speaking of the red fledglings, their number is not increasing even though we had a couple of rejections during the past month. Those who died are being kept in a room in the infirmary we keep checking on them to see if they wake back up, but up until now, no one did. This led us to believe that Nefferet did something to the dead fledglings so they can come back to life, but we don't know what, so we have a team made of most of the members of the dark daughters and sons to research about that. So far they found a few interesting events in vamp history and mythology, but nothing related to red vamps yet.
Oh, I almost forgot, the night before we left Italy, I told you that Kalona attacked me in my "dream" and woke up to see the wound where he hit me. It was nothing, especially because the Ilene called four healers to deal with the wound the moment she heard how I got it, saying that dreams are unpredictable and everything that happens in a dream should not be dealt with lightly.