Cassie was still blinking the sleep out of her eyes when Rhea rushed through the bedroom doors. Usually perfectly composed, the acolyte was in a surprising state of disarray. Her hair was falling out of her ponytail and she wore an enormous, long-sleeved t-shirt over faded flannel pants. It looked like a man's shirt, really.

"Is that Rico's shirt?" Cassie asked suspiciously, looking Rhea up and down. The younger woman visibly recoiled.

"No!" she exclaimed, hands fluttering towards her face. "What—why—of course not! Why would I have Rico's shirt?"

"Mmhmm," Cassie said, unconvinced. There was something going on between her acolyte and the vampire, but she couldn't quite figure it out. But I will, she thought evilly. Soon.

"I'm sorry for waking you so early," Rhea apologized, and Cassie snapped back to attention. The younger woman looked anxious—but that wasn't necessarily unusual. Rhea was a bundle of nerves around a steel backbone.

"Yeah, it's the crack of dawn. You woke up Pritkin. What's up?"

"Well…" Rhea hesitated. "There's been a development. With the girls."

When Rhea said the girls, she always meant the clairvoyant initiates under her charge. Cassie's eyebrows shot up to her hairline and her heart started beating faster.

"Did someone have a vision? Oh my god. Was it bad? Is there trouble?"

But her acolyte was already shaking her head back and forth.

"No, no, not at all. At least, not yet. You see… overnight, four of the girls started their moon time. Tasha, Charlotte, Veronique, and Antonia."

"Moon time…?" Cassie asked blankly.

"Their… um… flowering?" Rhea offered, uncertainly.

"Rhea. Plain English."

"Their first periods!" the acolyte exclaimed.

Cassie blinked, mouth forming an 'o'. Then she started laughing.

"Oh, Rhea, no. That's nightmarish. Are they alright? I have some Midol if you need it. And some pads. And a hot water bottle. Do you need my bathroom? I can tidy it up and—"

"It's the ceremony I'm worried about!" Rhea blurted out, uncharacteristically impatient. Her face flushed red in anger or mortification. "We don't have any of the supplies, and there's baking to do, and we have to clear the apartment, and who will look after the younger girls today? I can't do it all myself!"

The last sentence almost turned into a wail and Cassie stopped laughing.

"Rhea, I have no idea what you're talking about. Is this a coven thing?"

The acolyte stared at her in mute horror.

"Raised by vampires, remember?"

"What did you do?" she asked.

"At first, I thought I was dying," Cassie said with a wry smile. Even Eugenie forgot that part of growing up. She hadn't known what to expect. She went running to the vampire, near tears, and Eugenie had responded with alarm and then amusement. "But my governess explained the biology after the fact. Then she sent out a human servant for maxi pads and ice cream. The story got out and Sal made fun of me for months."

"That's awful," Rhea replied, voice small. "When a girl starts her moon time—it's the most sacred ritual we have. We celebrate her, and let her know that she'll never be alone. She becomes a responsible member of the coven."

"But most of the girls aren't from covens—they're from Circle families."

"The Pythian Court is a coven," said Rhea, brow furrowing. "The most important coven of them all. These rites bind us together and make us even stronger. The girls will be honored to have you preside over their ceremony."

Cassie studied Rhea's face. Her expression was fierce, but her eyes were suspiciously shiny. She felt out of her depth, but this ritual obviously meant a lot to the younger woman. Whatever it is.

"So… what do we do?" she asked. Rhea held up her hand and started ticking off her fingers.

"We need to find a witch's apothecary. I have the silver bowl, but we need the right herbs and I just don't have a full stock. I think we can get the lumps of silver there, too, but the gold might be another stop. Then we need to go to the grocery store and get supplies for the mooncakes—and like, a sandwich platter—and flowers—"

"Wait a sec," Cassie interjected. "A sandwich platter? What does this thing involve?"

"Well, first the girls have to take the ritual bath. Ideally, we should have a mature witch to sponsor each of them, but I don't know who. Then they make their talismans, and you have to bless them, since you're the coven leader. At moonrise, we set them outside and dedicate them to—well, to Artemis, actually. And then we eat and tell stories until the sun sets, and then the girls can wear their talismans. And usually they get presents."

Rhea stopped suddenly and bit her lip.

"I don't know what we can give them. I should have been prepared! I never thought this would happen, four at once! We have to think of something!"

Cassie sat down on the edge of the bed and considered hyperventilating.

"Hey. Ok. This is fine," she said. She offered Rhea a bright smile. "Basically it's a birthday party with some extra stuff. How many are we, these days? About 40? I know that the vamps don't technically need to eat, but you know how crabby Fred gets when he's left out. That's like, 10 or 15 pizzas. No prob."

"No, no, no," Rhea shook her head. "They can't be inside. It can only be women, and only ones who have already…um… had their cycle. The men have to leave. And the younger children, too. But they should do something fun, because the little ones are always so sad to miss the party."

"That's all?" Cassie's voice raised an octave. "Anything else I should know?"

"I'm sorry, my lady," Rhea said sheepishly. "That's all. I think."

I did not sign up for two dozen daughters, Cassie thought, desperately. What would Agnes do? Would she go to Walmart in her pajamas? Would Gertie order Dominoes? No. They didn't do every single thing themselves. They had a staff. They would…

"Delegate!" Cassie exclaimed.

Rhea gnawed on her lower lip and gave the Pythia a look that was dangerously close to side-eye.

"Rhea, we have to delegate. We can get this done."

"Delegate to who?"

Cassie raised her hand and began to tick off her fingers, mimicking Rhea's own earlier gesture.

"We'll go get the herbs together, since you know what's what. Mooncakes. Whatever those are. Write down the recipe and hand it off to Tami. She's a phenomenal baker. Sponsors. We have four adult witches on loan downstairs, right? Gifts. I'll call Françoise. She's a witch and she has phenomenal taste. Catering. Fred has the number of every delivery joint in the city of Las Vegas. And as for the little girls—Marco knows what they like. We can ask him. Does Vegas have a zoo?"

She looked at Rhea hopefully. Rhea was silent and still for a long moment. Then she began nodding her head.

"It could work. Except… we can't send a vampire out with the younger initiates—not during midday, especially outdoors."

And that was a problem. Maybe the biggest problem. Almost all of the adults in residence were vampires. The kitchen gargoyles would care for them, but they couldn't leave the premises. Casanova would tell her to fuck off if she asked for any other staff. And she needed all of the witches to help with the other preparations.

Cassie began rubbing the bridge of her nose, a stress habit that she had somehow picked up from Pritkin.

Pritkin.

Who could go out in the daylight? Who would guard her smallest initiates with his life? Who had a hard time saying no to her?

"I have an idea about that," she said slowly. A crazy idea, she added, internally. "You go back to the girls and I'll get dressed, okay? I'll come upstairs when I'm ready. We'll have to move fast."

"Yes, my lady!" Rhea said. "Thank you!" She whirled around and sped out of the room, ponytail flying behind her. A few second later, Pritkin walked in, bearing a steaming cup of coffee in each of his hands. He kicked the doors shut behind him and immediately fixed a glower on Cassie.

"Please let your initiates know," he growled, "that I have a potion that will break them out in boils until they turn twenty-five. And I'm not afraid to use it."

She just stared at him, confused by the non sequitur.

"Cassie? What's wrong?" His voice softened with worry. He set her coffee on the nightstand and kneeled down in front of her.

"We have other problems, Pritkin," she told him. You have other problems, actually.

"Is it bad?" he asked, raising a hand to stroke her thigh.

"It's pretty bad." She hesitated for a long moment before replying.

"I'm going to need you to babysit."