She smiled kindly at me.

"You're more than welcome to come on out with us, too, Zoey."

"Zoey." I heard my voice spoken like a frozen echo of Mrs. Johnson's warm kindness, and looked over her shoulder to see my mom and John coming into the hall. My heart fell into my stomach. She'd brought him. Why the hell couldn't she have come alone and let it be just her and me for a change? But I knew the answer to that. He would never allow it. And his not allowing it meant that she wouldn't do it. Period. End of subject. Since she'd mar ried John Heifer my mom didn't have to worry about money. She lived in a gihugic house in a quiet suburban neighborhood. She volunteered for the PTA. She was majorly active in church. But during the past three years of her "perfect" marriage she'd com pletely and utterly lost herself. "Sorry, Mrs. Johnson. I see my parents now, so I better go."

"Oh, honey, I'd love to meet your mama and daddy." And, like we were at any normal high school function, Mrs. Johnson turned, smiling, to meet my parents. Stevie Rae looked at me, and I looked at her. Sorry, I mouthed to her. I mean, I wasn't absolutely sure anything bad would happen, but with my step-loser closing the distance be tween us as if he were some testosterone-filled general leading a death march, I figured the odds were probably good for a night mare scene. Then my heart lifted way out of my stomach and everything suddenly got much, much better when my favorite person in the world stepped around John and held her arms out to me. "Grandma!" She enfolded me in her arms and the sweet scent of lavender that always moved with her, as if she carried a piece of her beau tiful lavender farm everywhere she went. "Oh, Zoeybird!" She held tight to me. "I have missed you, u-we-tsi a-ge-hu-tsa." I smiled through my tears, loving the sound of the familiar Cherokee word for daughter--it meant security and love and un conditional acceptance. Things I hadn't felt in my home for the past three years--things that before I'd come to the House of Night I'd only found at my grandma's farm.

"I've missed you, too, Grandma. I'm so glad you came!"

"You must be Zoey's grandmamma," Mrs. Johnson said when we'd quit clinging to each other. "It's so good to meet you. You have a fine girl, here." Grandma smiled warmly and started to reply, but John inter rupted in his usual I'm-so-superior voice. "Well, actually, that would be our fine girl you would be com plimenting." As if on a Stepford Wives cue, my mother finally managed to speak. "Yes, we're Zoey's parents. I'm Linda Heffer. This is my husband, John, and my mother, Sylvia Red--" Then, in the mid dle of her oh-so-polite introductions, she bothered to actually look at me and her voice came to a breath-gulping halt midword. I made my face smile, but it felt hot and hard, like it was poured plaster and had been sitting in the summer sun and would crack all to pieces if I wasn't careful. "Hi, Mom."

"For the love of God what have you done to that Mark?" Mom said the word Mark like she'd say the word cancer or pedophile. "She saved the life of a young man and tapped into a Goddess-given affinity for the elements. In return Nyx has touched her with several unusual Marks for a fledgling," Neferet said in her smooth musical voice as she walked into the middle of our awk ward little group, hand extended directly to my step-loser. Nef eret was what most adult vampyres are, stunningly perfect. She was tall, with long waves of dark auburn hair and brilliant, almond-shaped eyes an unusual shade of moss green. She moved with a grace and confidence that was clearly not human, and her skin was so spectacular that it looked like someone had turned a light on inside her. Today she was wearing a sleek, royal blue silk suit with silver spiral earrings (representing the path of the God dess, but it's not like most parents knew that). A silver form of the Goddess with upraised hands was embroidered over her left breast, as it was over all the other professors' br**sts. Her smile was dazzling. "Mr. Heffer, I am Neferet, High Priestess of the House of Night, although it might be easier if you would just think of me as you would any ordinary high school's principal.

Thank you for coming to parent visitation night." I could tell that he took her hand automatically. I was sure he would have refused it if she hadn't caught him by surprise. She shook his hand quickly and then turned to my mom. "Mrs. Heffer, it is a pleasure to meet Zoey's mother. We are so pleased that she has joined the House of Night."

"Well, uh, thank you!" my mom said, clearly disarmed by Nef eret's beauty and charm. When Neferet greeted my grandma, her smile widened and be came more than just polite. I noticed that they shook hands in the traditional vampyre greeting style, grasping each other's forearms. "Sylvia Redbird, it is always a pleasure to see you."