Right. Now, this chapter was really hard to write. I'm too much of an inexperienced writer to structure this story well so I'm having to fluff it out slightly. I also have awful geography and no knowledge of Tulsa since I'm English so I had to look up airports near or in Tulsa. And even that didn't go so well. But, hey, here's some Neferet evilness...

It's set in the daytime before Thanatos' ritual. And Neferet's announcement regarding her new found High Council of Nyx membership and whatnot.

Also; I'm writing this on the 21st of December to be uploaded in a few days (It actually transpired to be a lot more) time, so, Happy Apocalypse, my dears!

Neferet POV

'What the white bull – My Consort- said to me has given me an idea. A magnificent idea. It is pleasantly convenient that a member of the High council just happens to currently be visiting in Tulsa. It strikes me that she may have a meeting with Thanatos, given their familiarity and the fact that they are a part of the same board, but I suppose I'll just have to take that chance. I step out into the parking lot of the Mayo and head towards my latest acquisition – A Rolls Royce - If my plans manage to come to full fruition I'll need a more inconspicuous way to travel – A more human way. I frown in distaste. Given my vampyric abilities I have never understood those vampyres that choose to travel in human methods of transportation. Like the Son Of Erebus warrior Darius with his incredibly ostentatious hummer. Foolish child. I'd hoped to maybe be able to win him on side but I find the idea of killing him far more agreeable.'

'I start off on my journey in the direction of the hotel that Athena happens to be staying at with her human consort Jethro. In the beginning I had thought that Athena's relationship with Jethro had been a clever ploy to make her seem more...what was the term the humans used these days? "PC"? Who better as a High Priestess then a vampyre with a human mate? But no, she was far stupider than she seemed. The least powerful and dangerous of the High Council.' Neferet had never understood how anyone could allow a human – with their clammy, blemished flesh – to touch them. Neferet had before, but then she had been to young, too weak, to defend herself. Never again. She was strong now, far stronger than any human and more deadly than all of them together. If it wasn't for vampyres natural dependence upon them she would simply exterminate them all herself. Get up extremely early in the morning and begin hunting. But, given even her need for blood, perhaps preservation of game was for the best. For they do not hunt all of their cows to extinction, as she will not hunt all humans. But she will take what she is owed. Neferet. Queen of the Tsi Sgili. Destroyer of the world. She rather liked that title.

'I reach my designated location – Athena's hotel in downtown Tulsa – And exit the Rolls Royce. The hotel is distasteful and unfashionable. I have always enjoyed the finer things in life – things fit for a Queen - but it is clear from what I see that Athena does not so much. How dull. As I pass through the front entrance I nod slightly to one of my many paid-for watchmen. Humans in menial positions of work that I pay to keep a look out and gather information for me, discreetly. This one – who's name I do not know – I hired when I last visited after learning of the High Priestesses temporary residence here.

I turn myself to smoke and shadows and will myself invisible, passing silently throughout the halls until I come to the correct room where I crush the doorknob in my hand – no need for any caution now – and force my way into her room. I find exactly what I expected to find. Jethro is a young and rather attractive young man with ridiculous messy hair and a slow expression and I find myself unable to understand Athena's attachment to him and can only assume she is undergoing some very-late life crisis. His eyes widen and pulse rises and he looks up at me, like a deer caught the headlights, his base animal instinct telling him to run. But he is far too slow to do so and would not have been able to even if the boy had tried because I am faster. And stronger. And better.

'Hello, my dear. I have been looking for you'

'Who are you?', he says, his eyes shifting back and forth between me and the balcony.

'Now, now. Must we skip straight to business? Is there no time for polite small talk?' I detest small talk.

'What are you doing here? You don't belong in here.' The boy has a somewhat nasally voice and an accent I can't quite place. Texan mixed with something unidentifiable. It irritates me and I find my patience wearing thin. I force myself to relax. You cannot rush a good plan. I jam the door closed behind me and turn back to face him.

'I have a proposition for you' Foolish human. I see his eyes rove over my lithe form as the inevitable crosses his mind. They are all the same.

'What kind of proposition?', Jethro asks.

'Well it's quite simply, really. I need to speak to your other half, so to speak, but I'm not sure where she is. I also need to show her that I am quite serious in what I have to say, therefore, Jethro, my proposition is simply this: I am going to grant you unimaginable pain and in return allow you to live. Or, you may attempt to run now and I will give you a head start. I'm willing to be...sporting about this.'

He swallows noisily and rises to his feet. 'Please. How old are you? You can't just come in here and think you can start pushin' me around. You've got five seconds to leave my hotel room before I call the cops. I won't hit a chick but if that's what it takes I'll do it.'

'Don't be a fool, dearest Jethro. I am being quite civil about this. And I am also running out of both time and patience. So. Decide.', I bite out and he flinches at the sharpness of my words.

'I'm callin' the cops, lady. You had your chance.' He turns to pick up the telephone on the bedroom nightstand but before he can do so I am there standing in his way, as quick as a flash.

'Gah! What the fuck are you doing?!'

I reach out and wrap my fingers around his neck and squeeze, delighting as he makes chocked squealing sounds.

'I gave you a chance, you hapless boy. And you might have made it, too. All you would have had to do was make it to the reception hall. But your own human arrogance has now cost you your very existence upon this Earth. How typical.'

'Please.', he gasps, writhing while I constrict him.

I release the boy and allow him to fall to the floor. He quickly staggers to his feet, rasping, and runs for the door. But he never reaches it in time. With his mortal eyes he could not see the tendrils snaking out of the darkest corners of the room, to cocoon around his body, slashing as they go.

Jethro screams as he tries to claw his way towards the door, his nails digging into the ugly carpet. I giggle and make a beckoning motion with my hand and Jethro slides across the floor to land at my feet.

'That's it, my love. Let me hear you pain. Let me feel it in my bones. Let me smell your fear. Let Athena feel it as it rips through you and into her. Let. Her. Know. That. I. Am. Serious.'

He begins to screech until his throat becomes bloody. For thirty, maybe fifty minutes or perhaps even an hour – In my enjoyment I loose track of time – he shrieks and his desperation becomes almost palpable within the small room. None of the other residents will hear them of course. This is the top floor and I'd previously arranged for us to have the floor and the floor below entirely to ourselves. Jethro is now rapidly loosing blood for in my playtime I had quite forgotten my original intent and I'm now beginning to worry that I'd killed him prematurely. Ruined my own plan with enthusiasm and lack of restraint. Athena still has not yet arrived to save him. Perhaps he was just a career advancement?

Ah. No. It would seem not. I sense the High Priestess enter the building and reach out to taste her emotions. Rage combined with fear concern.

'What are you doing?! JETHRO!'. Athena bursts through the broken door and stares in horror at her destroyed lover.

'I'm glad you're hear, High Priestess. I didn't know where you were and I needed a word.'

She turns her pain-filled eyes to gaze at me.

'What? What are you talking about? What are you doing to my consort?! Release him!'

'Not yet. We must talk first.'

'TALK?! Are you completely insane?'

I pause and think this through. Is that what I am? Many would indeed say so but the line between sanity and insanity is a very arbitrary thing. Perhaps.

'Perhaps, yes. Perhaps I am. But either way it does not and will not influence our deal, I assure you. Now. Sit down.', I snap at her. I'm losing my patience. Why can't people simply do as I tell them? I flick my wrist at her, harshly and her knees give out and drive her into the floor.

'I want to be inducted into the High Council of Nyx. No. Scratch that. I do not want to. But I must in order to get the things I do want. You will help me get those things or I will kill your dearly beloved.' I say the last bit with scorn and disgust.

'I cannot give you those things, Neferet. It is not within my power to grant any number of them. And even if I had such power, I would not. You are vile and cruel and your ways will lead to nought but destruction and misery. You are dark and you are pointless.'

'POINTLESS?! Pointless?! You who sits upon your throne with the cursed Duantia pretending to be lords over what is not even rightly yours! Trying to keep and alliance with humans! An alliance that none of them even have any interest in keeping! You are pointless and you are pathetic. You have power and no will to use it! What a waste.'

I sink my teeth once more into my wrist, drawing blood to the surface. Blood that is darker than the average vampyres.

'Feed, my loves!' The tendrils latch themselves onto my flesh as they feed like starving babies. My starving babies. They lash themselves at Athena, slicing her skin beneath her clothes. I am careful not to mark her where anyone would see. It would raise suspicions and I can't have that yet. Not if I want everything to be perfect.

'Give me what I desire!'

'I do not know how!', she weeps.

'You will deliver some things for me to the other High Priestesses. And you will convince Duantia of my innocence or I will kill both you and your pet. It's nothing personal. It's just good fun.'

She gasps and squirms on the ground as my children tear at her skin and release her lifeblood. 'No.', she groans. 'I can't convince Duantia that you're innocent. She already knows you've turned your back on Nyx. She isn't stupid.'

'Yes she is. Her Goddess has ultimately failed her. Religion makes people blind and desperate to believe the best.' I sigh. 'Tell her that I came to you with a story about how I have "Seen the light". Tell her that Nyx herself sent to you a message proving my redemption and that I am not in league with Darkness. That, although I killed Zoey's mother, My consort is not the white bull.'

'That's it?! That is what you want to tell her? That you are "redeemed" in the eyes of Nyx? You expect her to believe that?"

'No.' I draw a small memory stick from the folds of my robes and toss it at her.

'But I believe that this will at least make her...re-evaluate things.'

'What is it?', she enquires.

'It is video footage of the boy wonder Stark harassing a fledgling named Becca. I think it is in Duantia's best interest if she knew the whole truth about the group she's supporting so much. She will also find on there footage of Stevie-Rae Johnson devouring and killing a human. I hate to use such methods but these are desperate times and I thought this might pay off. And it did.'

Athena gives me a woozy frown and I release her from her bonds causing her to shudder and whimper into the carpet. 'Please. Let Jethro go free. I will deliver your message. Free him.'

'I'm afraid not. I'm going to have to hang onto your pet for a little while longer. Just until I'm sure that you've done exactly as I asked and you haven't told Duantia about my buying you.'

'Buying me? You have not bought me, Neferet. You do not own me.'

I almost roll my eyes. Sometimes I truly believe I am the smartest person in the world. People make such fools of themselves in trying to preserve their pride, only to end up loosing it altogether. 'I think you'll find that I have. You have agreed to do as I proposed, therefore, you are mine.' I gesture my hand slightly at the now unconscious Jethro and cloak him so that he turns to shadows and those shadows become a part of me. 'Do as I ask and you shall be rewarded. No telling on me.'

I leave the room before she can reply and grant myself a small, satisfied grin. My Consort was right indeed. People are so easy to buy.