By the time the first student went down, coughing a bloody mess, everyone started to panic. Stark was telling everyone that something with the blood was bad and to put the cups down if they had them. Many students started to panic running up to Neferet, Caren and I asking what they should do if they ingested the blood. A good portion of the House of Night had ingested the blood. Why would they have any reason to think it was bad? We didn't. It wasn't until I noticed it and now everyone was in panic mode. I instructed Stark and Erik along with Darius and Dragon to go out and anyone who did not ingest any blood should go back to the dorms, all the other students who did should stay and we would figure something out.

Neferet stepped over the first student, a girl; she was only a third former and new to the House of Night. She was coughing up blood everywhere; her eyes had turned the color of black coal. "Help me" she managed to gargle out. Neferet stepped over her and placed her hands on the girl's temples.

"She's been infected. The blood was poisoned."

"Can you do anything?" I asked.

"No, not this soon. I would have to run tests, it would take a tremendous amount of time, and we don't have that right now." Neferet said as she rushed to another student that had started to cough and throw up.

"What wickedness is this?" Caren asked. I had never noticed her beautiful but slight Irish accent before until now.

The blood

I heard the small whisper and my ears perked up as I looked around the room at the tons of student bodies lying on the floor.

Remember your dream Zoey

The whisper said again. Dream, Dream. Monsters, my Mom and Step-loser. Wait. The dream with my mom and step-loser! They were holding a vial that they were trying to get me to drink. "It's the blood" I said to myself but loud enough to Caren to hear.

"The blood? What is it Zoey?" Caren asked.

I turned to look her right in the eyes, "The blood, the blood is poison."

"How can that be? We got it from the professor's kitchen" Caren said. It made me think for a minute, how could anyone have access to those fridges, other than a few students who knew where to look.

"Where do you get the bagged blood from?" I asked her.

"Normally a bank" Caren said and as immediately as she said it her face lit up in surprise.

"The Banks!" we said in unison. "Neferet!" we yelled.

"All the blood from the banks, get rid of it!" I told her.

Neferet gave me an odd look, "But we need it for nourishment!"

"Not if it's going to kill us!" I added. "Get someone up to the kitchen and pitch all the blood. Save a bag or two for testing.

As Neferet left to head towards the kitchen Caren and I started to shuffle through all the students' bodies that lined the floor. Stark and Erik came bursting through the door running straight for me.

"Priestess" Stark said.

"Z!" Erik said at the same time Stark called to me.

"Hurry! You need to come outside, we have a situation" Stark said. He held his hand out for me to grab, along with Erik and they both ran with me outside with Caren not too far behind. What was outside was more frightening than I had ever imagined. The whole courtyard was littered with students bodies. Many rejecting the change, others were sobbing and crying over friends, roommates, best friends who were dying. My heart dropped to the floor as did my knees that gave out from under me.

"Zoey!" Erik and Stark called. "Zoey!"

My head snapped up to see Aphrodite. "Are you ok? I was trying to tell you something and you totally snapped into another world, were you even listening to me?"

I turned to look at her, my brows furrowed, "What? Sorry, where are we?"

Aphrodite gave me a confused look, "Are you ok Zoey? We're here, at the party, where we've always been, look, I snuck us some drinks!"

I hit the cups out of her hands as she screamed from the red blood and wine mix that splashed all over her white dress, "DON'T DRINK IT!" I screamed. I ran towards the fountain and grabbed all the cups that were lying out while I eyed all the students in the ballroom, "DON'T DRINK THE BLOOD!" I screamed again.

Stark and Erik came rushing over to me along with Neferet and Caren, "What on earth is going on Zoey?" Neferet asked.

"The blood, its poison!" I tried to tell them.

"Poison? Zoey, are you ok?" Neferet asked as she touched my face. "You're freezing! What's the matter?"

"I…I…I don't know. I was sitting there talking to Aphrodite, then the Twins, then people were just starting to die from drinking the blood. All the students, they…they…" I trailed off looking down at the ground.

"Zoey? It's ok, what did you see?" Stark asked as he lifted my chin.

"Students, bodies, everywhere, rejecting the change, poison was put in the blood before transported from the bank" Aphrodite said. Everyone turned to look at her as she collapsed on the floor, her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she shook violently.

"Goddess Nyx, what is this?!" Caren yelled. "NATASHA!" she yelled.

Another member of the high council came running over to Caren, she was beautiful, almost the image of Nyx. She had snow white hair that fell down to the ground it was so long. Her gown was crystal blue that showed off her icy blue eyes that almost reflected against her pale skin. She rushed over and knelt in front of Aphrodite and placed her finger tips on Aphrodite's temples.

"Speak child, what do you see?" Natasha asked in a soft and gentle voice that sounded like it would have come from angels.

"The ball, students were drinking from the fountain, one girl drops, a third former." Aphrodite started. I stared in amazement as she recounted my entire vision.

I nudged Stark and Erik to go to the fountain and make sure no one drank from it. Better yet, to discard of all the wine and blood there was. It was better to be safe than sorry. As they tended to it, Aphrodite recounted my entire; I suppose vision, to Natasha, Caren and Neferet as well as some other bystanders that were circling us.

"This is very bad, very bad indeed" Caren stood up rubbing her chin as if in deep thought.

"Someone has tampered with the blood, we must find out whom!" Neferet commanded. "We have incurred many enemies here at the House of Night in Tulsa. We do not have a strong base here and I fear for my children that they will be harmed."

"What enemies do you have that would do such a thing?" Natasha asked. "These are but children, not warriors. They wouldn't have even made their change yet, they can not even defend themselves!"

"The People of the Faith don't care if we are children or adults" I chimed in. I knew who was responsible. I knew it from my visit with Jack that something bad would happen where the People of the Faith are concerned.

"The People of the Faith are doing this? Are you sure?" Caren asked. "Neferet, do you have knowledge of this?"

"No sister, I do not. Zoey?" Neferet answered and looked at me for answers.

"I had a dream the other night; I had told Neferet about it. We didn't think it much more than a dream at the time, it could have been a vision, but either way, we didn't think we were in immediate danger." I started. "That's when my friend Jack appeared tonight to warn me."

"Jack? The boy that rejected his change just a day ago?" Neferet asked. "The same boy that came to you in your dream?"

"Yes, well, no, he didn't come to visit me in my dream; he has been visiting me spiritually. Nyx has sent him" I said with no doubt in my mind about what I was saying. Although I did feel like, "Hey, I'm Zoey, your new High Priestess, I'm not crazy, I swear, I've been visited by Nyx a dozen times and oh yeah, I can see dead people!" I might as well change my name to Haley Joel Osmond.

Caren looked surprised as did Natasha, "Tell us"

"I had two dreams just the other night." I looked at Natasha; "Neferet offered to retrieve you if I needed some help, I told her that wasn't necessary" Natasha nodded. "Well, my first dream was of my real mom and her husband. He happens to be an Elder for the People of the Faith."

"You have reason to suspect your own parents?" Caren asked looking oddly at me.

"They are no longer my parents, he never was and my mother wouldn't ever again." I said quickly as my Grandma came over and hugged me tightly. "These are my parents" I grabbed Grandma's hand and Neferet's. "Anyways, in my dream they were trying to get me to drink a vile of blood. I have a reason to suspect it wasn't under good intentions. That is when I saw Jack. He warned me about the dream. Then there was my second dream…"

"Just a moment" Caren said as she went into deep thought. "You dreamt your mother and her husband were trying to trick you into drinking poisonous blood?"

"Yes" I nodded my head.

"And he is of the People of the Faith?" Caren asked again.

Again I nodded ashamed that I knew this would probably bring an end to my relationship with my mother, but she ruined that years ago. Though I was sure it would bring an end to much more than just our relationship.

"Continue" Caren gestured with her hand.

"My second dream was something entirely different. It was horrifying and terrible. It seemed like monsters, demons, whatever they were, were killing fledglings. My dream was of a young girl that was ripped to shreds. Jack visited me again to tell me that the two may be related, but wouldn't tell me how. He just told me that Nyx sent him to warn us of a terrible evil coming our way."

"And when were you going to come to tell us this?" Caren asked.

"She had the dreams last night, she conversed with me and I was going to take appropriate action to call local House of Night's to see about any fledglings missing or reported to show but didn't. I haven't received word back yet. I didn't think it wise to alert and alarm everyone if nothing came up." Neferet defended me.

To be safe Caren suggested that we end the party early, though it had only just begun, there was way too much up in the air to worry about someone getting hurt or even dying. She made us all assemble in the ballroom and instructed us that under no circumstances were students to drink anything that looked like blood or smelled like blood unless given by a Professor. On parent visits, students were not to accept any food or drinks unless they were literally trying to put their lives at stake. We were just trying to protect them. Many of the students complained, other's just shrugged their shoulders, but most ended up leaving without a word said. It made me very worried. Very worried!

Caren instructed all students to go back to their dorms, which she was sorry that the party was cut short, but that we should all remain in our dormitories until the morrow. Erik came to find me first and asked if he could walk me back to my dorm. I just stood there for a bit, not answering him.

"Zoey?" he said, "Z!"

My head shook as I looked at him, "Sorry, yes?"

"I asked you if you wanted me to walk you back…are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need to lie down." I shrugged it off. "If you want to walk with me, that's fine, I don't really care either way. Hey" I said looking around the room, "Where is Aphrodite?"

"After her vision Darius picked her up and took her back to her room. She's there resting. Do you want to go see her?" Erik asked.

"Might be a good idea. I need to ask her how she knew what I saw"

Erik chuckled and shook his head, "Did Neferet not really tell you anything?"

"Why? What?" I looked at him confused.

"Your Consulate is you're most trusted. You bonded, so what you see, she sees, what you feel, she feels. You'll never be able to keep a secret from her and her from you. You are one in two people basically." Erik explained. I let out a big, "oh!"

"So my vision triggered her own, or at least what I saw?"

"Yes, but I think she had a more violent reaction than you did, I've never seen her convulse when she has a vision before."

We continued to talk as we walked back towards the dorms. Stark was walking back towards the ballroom and met with us half way, "Hey!"

"Hey, what's going on?" Erik asked him.

"Priestess" Stark said as he saluted and bowed. "I was walking Stevie Rae and Damien back to their rooms. Seems a lot of them are shook up, especially the red fledglings. They need blood in order to survive; they can't just abstain from it. We need a solution and in a hurry."

"It's the People of the Faith poisoning the bags of blood." I started thinking out loud. "Do you think we could find out if the owners and operators of the banks were members?"

"Hmm…I never thought of that!" Erik exclaimed.

"That's a great idea; I can get Darius to help me out. I know where we get the blood from; maybe we can do a little good vampire bad vampire routine?" Stark grinned.

"It's good cop, bad cop and that's probably a bad idea, we don't want to be seen trying to attack humans. We need to be cooperative. We need to get the police involved." I stated, obviously knocking Stark's idea out of the water. "But, if you wanted to check the place out, be my guest. That might actually give us a good lead."

Stark nodded and started to walk away. I grabbed his forearm and pulled him closer to me so I could whisper in his ear, "Please be careful. I wouldn't know what to do if you got hurt." Then I kissed him on his cheek.

"I love you too Priestess, don't worry about me, I'll be fine" Stark said loud enough for Erik to hear and smiled as he winked back at Erik who's own smile faded to a scowl.

As Erik and I walked back towards the dorms I got a very silent and reserved feeling from Erik. "Is something wrong?" I asked him.

"No, I'm just having a hard time with some personal stuff." He said rather coldly.

"Like what that wouldn't concern you and I?"

"It does include us, and you wouldn't like it." Erik heaved a heavy sigh and stopped in front of me looking me right in the face. "I know I said I'd be there, that it wouldn't matter to me, but it does. It matters a lot to me. I think it eats me up from inside knowing that it's my own brother that I'm competing with. That I can't just simply win your heart, that I've been so disgusting in the past towards you, it eats at my soul Zoey."

I looked into his beautiful blue eyes and could feel nothing but compassion for him. He was really laying everything out on the table right now. "Erik…I..." started to say before he cut me off with a kiss to my lips. His hands found my face and held me tight. He kept pulling me closer and closer to him and finally wrapped an arm around my waist as he continued to kiss me, which I couldn't help but to kiss back. This whole boy this was mighty confusing, but this felt natural. I suddenly felt my back being pressed up against hard bark and Erik grabbing my wrists, pinning me on either side. Erik soon broke away from the kiss and just looked at me. How I loved his eyes and how he looked at me. I just shyly smiled at him and he let my wrists go and we continued to walk towards my dorm without saying anything else.