Alexandria was amazing. I had never been so captivated by a lecture in all of my life! She was definitely as good as Neferet it was just in a different way. Whereas Neferet taught with fire and excitement Alexandria taught with experience and authority. Alexandria had been Marked in 1750 at age 15. She had lived through so much and had tons of firsthand knowledge which really showed. What amazed me, even though it shouldn't have, was just how amazingly beautiful she was. She looked no older than 40 but with a radiating beauty. Her fiery red hair flew behind her as she lectured animatedly, her ocean blue eyes sparking with enthusiasm as she taught. Today she lectured on the myths of vampyres that had been made throughout history as well as where those myths had come from. She touched on things that were true, but that had been greatly embellished (te-he, Damien word) such as cloaking and intuition. Most of this was information we already knew, but it was still fascinating to hear her firsthand accounts at how so many of these things had been seen as sinister and feared throughout the ages. She also taught about how humans had bred ignorance and hatred touching on what Shekinah had said about isolation. I realized that she was trying to lay a foundation for peace that Shekinah had not been able to finish in her time here. I sighed. That was good.
Dragons class had gone by in a blur which was no surprise. Fencing always took a lot of concentration and seemed to fly by. Unfortunately the distraction of Alexandria's lecture and Dragon's fighting abilities could not last that long. I frowned as I walked into the lunch room to see all of my friend's curious faces staring up at me.
"Z, what happened?!" Erin asked as soon as I entered the cafeteria.
"You dumped Mr. Gorgeous himself?" Shaunee asked astounded.
"Seriously it only happened an hour ago, how in the world did you two find out about it already?" I asked sitting down next to Damien.
"You know our number one gift and talent is for gossip, Z!" Erin said rolling her eyes.
"Yeah plus that ever-so-fine Cole and T.J. told us," Shaunee said acting as if that should have been completely obvious, which of course it should have been. It only made sense that Erik would tell his friends what had happened.
"So are you going to give us the details or what?" Erin asked taking a bite of the pasta in front of her.
"Guys give her some privacy. The whole ordeal had to be somewhat…" Damien started to say.
"Whatever vocab word you were going to fill in there, don't!" Shaunee said giving him a hard look.
"Brain sharers and vocab boy, why don't you all just lay off of Zoey. If she wants to talk, she'll talk," Aphrodite said taking a big bite of salad.
"Oh don't act like you're not just as curious as we are," Erin hissed at her.
I shook my head at them, "Look there's really not a whole lot of details to fill in. He approached me between classes to talk and I told him I just didn't think it would work between us. Too much has happened and there is still way too much happening," I said taking a drink of brown pop.
"What's happening?" Stevie Rae asked coming to sit on the other side of me.
"Zoey, broke up with Erik," jack whispered across the table.
"I don't think you need to whisper, everyone here knows," Shaunee said looking annoyed.
"You broke up with Erik?" Stevie Rae asked her voice going up a couple of octaves in surprise. I saw Venus's head snap up from a nearby table where she was eating with a few of the other red fledglings and had to literally fight myself to keep from growling at her.
"Yes, look, I just think it was for the best, now can we drop it?" I asked with a pleading look in my eyes.
"Does this have to do with Stark?" Stevie Rae asked curiously.
Apparently we couldn't drop it! I sighed, "No, yes, maybe, I don't know, a little," I stumbled through a list of answers.
I saw Aphrodite smirk and then hurriedly look across the room to where Darius was having a discussion with Dragon. I felt like I was in an episode of the "young and the restless." This was ridiculous! "Look, I'm not sure what all my feelings are right now which is part of why I broke up with Erik. It wouldn't be fair to him, but I would appreciate if we could talk about something else for now," I said meaningfully looking around the group.
"Of course, Z," Damien said side hugging me. The rest of the group murmured their "yeah's," and "sure's" but I could tell they were in no way satisfied with my answers.
"So how did your morning go?" I asked Stevie Rae in an attempt t change the subject.
"Oh-my-gosh, ya'll it was so cool!" Stevie Rae said, her Okie twang becoming strong with her excitement. "Mallika is amazing! I just spent the whole morning talking to her and getting to know her and all I can say is wow!" Stevie Rae chattered excitedly her eyes completely lighting up. "We did discuss some of what I knew about becoming a red fledgling and what I know about us as of right now. She was really understanding and supportive. She took notes and said she was going to look into some of the stuff I was telling her and see what she could find out, such as us being able to mind control and become camouflaged with our surroundings."
"Don't forget about how you like to bite," Aphrodite said under her breath as she took another bite of salad. We all stared at her for a moment before we started laughing. "What?" she said clearly annoyed.
"Yes, she's going to look into that too. We have a very strong blood lust. Even the red fledglings have a strong need and desire for fresh blood. More so then a normal Vamp even."
"Well, I'm glad you guys are trying to figure it out," I said standing up to dump my tray as the bell rang.
"You ready?" I asked glancing at Aphrodite as everyone else began to stand as well. "Natasha wants to see us both today," I said giving her a communicative expression.
"She wants to talk about the vision you mean?" she said raising an eyebrow.
"Yep, she wants to talk about that," I said as we walked into the hall.
"How did your morning with her go?" She asked casually but I could tell she was a little nervous.
"Great, she's really nice and really interested in seeing us grow in Nyx and in our abilities. We worked on meditation and focusing the elements this morning. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had. I can't wait to try it again."
"Ok you'll have to explain that to me later," she said as we entered the professor's dormitory. The oak doors to Natasha's study were already open and waiting for us. Natasha stood as we entered the room moving to great us both and suddenly I was just as nervous as Aphrodite to talk about the vision. I reached up unconsciously touching the scratch on my neck. How much did we tell her? I looked sideways at Aphrodite to see she that was struggling with the same question. We probably should have talked this through before we got here. I exhaled loudly to steady my nerves. This wasn't Neferet! She was here to help us, and I knew that. I concentrated as we walked through the door letting Nyx fill me and knew it was all going to be ok. My intuition said that this was right, and I could trust her. The Council was on our side, but I frowned as I thought about Aphrodite's vision. They were on our side for now…