Naturally, we got caught sneaking back on campus. We had already floated back over the wall (and made sure we had completely removed the concealer from our marks) and were making our way back to the dorm with what I considered excellent speed and stealth when we practically ran into them-a group of vamps and upperclassmen ringed by at least a dozen of the warriors. The Twins and Damien in the group, so Neferet was including Zoey's Prefect Council. We froze, stepped back into the shadow of a big oak, and held our breath. Hoping that Zoey's newfound cool power of invisibility (or maybe mist control) would let us remain unseen. Unfortunately, as I watched, Neferet paused, which caused the entire dang group to pause. She cocked her head and I swear she sniffed the breeze like a bloodhound. Then her eyes went to the tree-my hidey place-and seemed to bore into us. My skin shivered and I knew we were completely visible again.
"Oh, Zoey! There you are. I was just asking your friends"-she paused long enough to give the Twins, Damien, and Erik one of her amazing one-hundred-twenty-five-watt smiles- "where you could have gotten off to." She dimmed the smile and exchanged it for a perfect look of motherly concern. "Now is not the time to wander about by yourself."
"Sorry. I, uh, I needed ..." Zoey trailed off, majorly aware that all eyes were on her.
I then stepped forward and cleared my throat, "She wasn't alone completely, I kept an eye on her as she had her Z.A.T."
"Z.A.T?" Neferet asked and the Twins smirked at me.
"Yeah, she always needs to be alone before rituals. It's a Zoey thing," Erin said, moving to Zoey's side hooking her arm with Zoey's.
"Yep, we call it Z.A.T.-Zoey Alone Time," Shaunee said, joining the three of us hooking her arm with Zoey's empty arm.
"It's kinda annoying, but what can you do?" Erik said, moving around behind Zoey resting his hands on her shoulders. "That's our Z."
"Well, I want you to be sure you limit your alone time in the near future," Neferet told me in a mildly chastising tone. "However, well done Percy for taking initiative and acting like a true vampire warrior."
"I will. Sorry," Zoey mumbled.
"Thank you," I said with Zoey's apology.
"And now, on to the ritual." Regally, Neferet strode out from the group, causing the warriors to scramble to keep up with her and leaving me and the rest of the group in the figurative dust. Of course, we followed her. What else could we do?
"So, did you get the dirty done?" Shaunee whispered.
"Which dirty are you talking about?" I asked, causing people to laugh a bit.
Erin rolled her eyes, smiling. "Heath. Breakup. Zoey with him," she whispered.
"Oh that!" Zoey said and her yes lit up in excitement. "Yeah, and it felt good."
"I was worried about you today." Erik had moved up and neatly nudged Shaunee from her place beside Zoey. I expected the Twins to hiss and spit at him, but instead they waggled their brows at us and fell back to walk with Damien and me.
I heard Shaunee murmur, "So damn fiiiiine." I couldn't help but chuckle at the fact they could face Neferet and Erik's looks is what did them in.
"Sorry," Zoey said hastily, feeling guilty about how nice it felt when he took my hand. "I didn't mean to worry you. We just had some tasks to accomplish."
Erik grinned and laced his fingers through Zoey's. "I hope you guys had an easy time with those tasks- and I hope Heath got the message this time."
"Poor boy looked like Zoey hit him with a baseball bat." I said then blocked. "Did I just call Heath a poor boy?"
That's when we all chuckled and Zoey leaned against Erik smiling. She looked so stress free being next to Erik that made me smile.
"How are you today, Zoey?"
Suddenly my blood went cold as I heard a voice I really wished I wouldn't hear tonight. Zoey held tightly onto Erik's hand and I saw how his eyes narrowed at Loren.
"I'm fine. Thanks," I said.
"You slept well last night? I wondered how you'd managed after last night." He then gave Erik an I-am-older-then-you-so-I-know-more look. "She had quite a shock last night."
"Yeah, I know." Erik's clipped the words out. "So did Percy, Shaunee, Damien, Erin, and Aphrodite." I could feel the tension between them and wondered if anyone else had noticed.
When I heard Damien say mutter something about kicking Loren in the shins I realized in fact they did notice. I also smiled at my friends' reactions.
We'd caught up to the group of adults that were now standing around what I realized was the trapdoor in the east wall and Zoey suddenly said, "Hey! Why are we stopped here?"
"Neferet is offering prayers for Professor Nolan's spirit, as well as invoking a protective spell around the school grounds," Loren said. His voice sounded way too friendly and my blood started to boil.
"But isn't her blood and stuff still..." I trailed off making a vague gesture out at the grassy area on the other side of the wall, the horrible grassy area that had been drenched with Professor Nolan's blood just yesterday.
"No, don't worry. Neferet has had it cleansed," Loren said simply looking at me and I could see the annoyance in his eyes. Neferet's solemn but powerful voice broke through our little drama, calling everyone's attention to her.
"We are going to move through the trapdoor to the site of the atrocity. Make a crescent around the statue of our beloved Goddess, which I placed in the exact spot Professor Nolan's ravaged body was discovered. I ask that you concentrate your hearts and minds on sending positive energy to our fallen sister as her spirit flies free to the wondrous realm of Nyx. Fledglings," her gaze swooped over us, "I want you each to take your position by the candle which represents your element." Neferet's eyes were kind, her voice gentle. "I know it is unusual to use fledglings in an adult ritual, but never before has a House of Night been gifted with so many extraordinary young people at one time, and today I believe it is only right that I tap into your affinities to add power to what we ask of Nyx." I could practically feel Damien and the Twins vibrating with excitement. "Can you do this for me, for us, fledglings?"
They all nodded and the High Priestess smiled, clearly pleased with herself and I wondered if anyone else could see past her beautiful exterior to the cold, calculating person within. Neferet turned and ducked through the open trapdoor followed closely by the rest of us. I'd readied myself for something terrible, or at the very least for something bloody, but Loren had been right. The area that had been so gruesome just yesterday had been completely cleansed of any nastiness, and I wondered briefly how the Tulsa cops had gathered their evidence, and then shook myself. Surely Neferet had waited for them to do their job before she'd cleaned everything. Hadn't she?
In the spot where Professor Nolan's body had been there was now a beautiful statue of Nyx that looked like it had been carved from a single slab of onyx. Her hands were upraised, and within them she held a thick green candle symbolizing earth. Without speaking, the vamps formed a semicircle around the statue. Zoey, Damien, Shaunee, and Erin went and took their place by a large candle representing their element. I could see the warriors had spread out and were surrounding us. With their backs to our group they stared out into the night, bristling with alertness. Without any of her usual theatrics (which were always cool to watch), Neferet walked to Damien, who was nervously holding the yellow wind candle, and raised the ceremonial lighter.
"It fills us and breathes life into us. I call wind to our circle." Neferet's voice was strong and clear, obviously augmented by the power of a High Priestess. She touched the lighter to the candle's wick and instantly wind whipped around Damien and her. Neferet's back was to me, so I couldn't see her face, but Damien's smile was wide and joyous. I tried not to scowl. This ceremony was not a place for me to be angry, but I wished others could see through her lies.
She moved to Shaunee. "It warms and succors us. I call fire to our circle." As I'd experienced several times before, Shaunee's red candle burst into flame before the lighter touched it. Shaunee's smile was almost as bright as her element.
Neferet followed the circle around to Erin. "It soothes and washes us. I call water to our circle." As the candle lit I heard waves crashing on a distant beach and smelled salt and sea in the night breeze. It helped me relax and focus on Professor Nolan. I watched carefully as Neferet moved to stand before the statue of Nyx and the green candle. The High Priestess bowed her head. "The fledgling who personified this element perished, and it is fitting that the position of earth remain empty tonight, and that it rests upon the spot our beloved Patricia Nolan's body has recently rested upon. It sustains us. From it we are born, and to it we all shall return. I call earth to our circle." Neferet lit the green candle, and though it burned brightly I didn't smell even a hint of green meadows or wildflowers.
Then Neferet was standing in front of Zoey. I held my breath as I saw the stirn expression on her face. "It is our essence. I call spirit to our circle." Neferet lit the purple candle and I felt my soul lift with the tickle-tummy feeling a roller coaster gives me. The High Priestess didn't pause to share any kind of special look with Zoey, instead she began to work the crowd. Walking around inside the circle, making eye contact with the vampyres who surrounded us, she got right to the point. "It hasn't happened for more than one hundred years-not so openly-not so brutally. Humans have murdered one of us. In this case they have awakened not a sleeping giant, but have provoked a leopard who they believed was tamed." Neferet's voice rose, powerful with anger. "She is not tamed!" The little hairs on my arms lifted. Neferet was amazing. How could someone who was so blessed by Nyx have gone as wrong as I knew she'd gone? "They believe our fangs have been filed flat and our claws removed, like a fat household tabby. Again, they are wrong." She raised her arms over her head. "From this sacred circle, cast on the site of a murder, we call on our Goddess, Nyx, the beautiful Personification of Night. We ask that she welcome Patricia Nolan to her bosom, though it is decades too early for her to have departed. We also ask Nyx to rouse her righteous anger, and with the sweetness of her pine fury, to grant us this spell of protection so that we will not be caught in the humans' murderous web." As she spoke the spell Neferet walked back to Nyx's statue.
"Protect us with the night;
above all it is in darkness we delight."
When she turned to face the crowd I saw that she was now holding a small, ivory-handled knife with a wickedly-sharp-looking curved blade.
"Around this coven we ask
Nyx's curtain to be cast."
With one hand she lifted the knife. With the other she wove intricate shapes in the air that around her became glittery and semi-substantial as she continued incanting the spell.
"All who enter or leave I shall detect,
vampyre, fledgling, human, all will be checked.
If harm is meant
to my will it shall be bent."
Then, in a fast, ferocious gesture, Neferet slashed through her wrist, so deep that her blood instantly began to spurt, red and rich, hot and metallic. The scent washed around me, automatically making my mouth water. (Which surprised me- it didn't affect me that way before.) With grim determination, the High Priestess walked the circumference of the circle so that her blood fell around us in a scarlet arch, sprinkling grass that had so recently been soaked with Professor Nolan's blood. Finally she reached Nyx's statue again. Neferet lifted her face to the night sky and completed the spell.
"My blood binds thee,
so mote it be."
I swear the night air rippled all around us, and for a moment I could actually see something settle on the walls of the school, like a black, gauzy curtain. She's set a spell that will not just tell her when danger enters the school, but when anyone enters or leaves it. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from groaning. No way was the curtain of a goddess going to be fooled by Zoey's Bram Stoker-ing. How in the hell were we going to sneak Stevie Rae her blood?
Completely preoccupied with my own thoughts and worries, I hardly noticed when Neferet closed the circle. Woodenly, I let the tide of people carry me back through the trapdoor. I only snapped out of it when Erik's voice snapped me out and we caught up to the herd.
"I'll meet you in the rec hall in a little while." Loren said to Zoey when me and Erik caught up with her. She looked at him with a confused look and he just smiled, "Your Full Moon Ritual. I'm your bard tonight for the opening of the circle, remember?"
Zoey then stood up straight, "I'm sorry professor but Erik had already offered to be my bard yesterday. While I appreciate your offer I would rather keep what I had already decided."
"Ah, of course Miss Redbird." Loren said and awkwardly walked away and Erik wrapped his arm around her. He had a big frown as he watched as Loren walked away. I looked at Erik then nudged him and he looked at me.
"Hey man, look I get it but I doubt Zoey wants you to be Jealous." I said and he sighed nodding.
"I really don't want you to be super Jealous, hello I snuck out to break up with Heath once and for all." Zoey said, giving him a smile. "And, I don't Loren."
"You're affected by him." Erik said as he looked at her. "He is using his vamp persuasion to fog your mind- it just doesn't work now that you have a support system."
Zoey nodded then she looked like she remembered something. "Oh hell- Percy we need to finish some dirty business."
"Want us to finish the last minute preparations?" Annabeth asked walking up to us with a smile.
"Yes- it's some SR dirty business." Zoey said and Nico looked at me.
"So how is the family?" He asked and suddenly everyone became super interested.
"Staying with SR. Apparently Demigods smell bad to SR's type of Vamp." I said and everyone looked confused at me. "It means they are safe with her."
"Well you two better hurry off and finish this work you need to do." Shaunee said hooking her arms with Annabeth's and Erin's.
Erin then hooked her's with Nico who couldn't help but smile. "Go on, hurry up- oh and don't forget to bring the reformed hag."
Zoey and I shook my head but Zoey hugged Erik and we ran off to do some last minute cramping, trying to find a ritual that could help Stevie Rae. Annabeth winked at me before I ran off with Zoey. She knew what we were up to.