Aphrodite turned cool blue eyes to Shaylin and said, "It puts the lotion in the bucket."

"Oh, boy," I said. "Aphrodite, just drink your breakfast. Shaylin, that's a good example of what you and I were talking about before. I don't question your gift. I don't doubt it. I do have an issue with your judgment in deciphering it."

"I deciphered it perfectly," Shaylin said, sounding upset and defensive. "But Aphrodite pissed me off. So I messed up. I said I was sorry."

"Apology not accepted," Aphrodite said, and turned her back on Shaylin.

Which was when Damien came rushing into the room, holding his iPad and looking more disheveled than he usually looked when he emerged from what he liked to call his beauty rejuvenation period. He hurried straight to me, lifted his iPad, and said. "You guys have to watch this!"

I was only mildly curious at first as I saw the Fox 23 evening news anchor, the totally to-die-for gorgeous Chera Kimiko talking. We hearted us some Chera. Not only was she vampyre-level beautiful, but she was actually a real person, versus the usual plastic talking heads news anchor types.

Aphrodite peeked over my shoulder at Damien's iPad. "Kimiko is classic. I'll never forget that time she spit out her gum right in the middle of the news. I thought my dad was gonna shit kittens because-"

"Chera's great, but this is bad," Damien cut her off. "And serious. Neferet just gave a press conference."

Ah, hell ...

CHAPTER SIX

Zoey

We all huddled around Damien's iPad. He pressed play and the Fox 23 video began. Along the bottom of the screen blazed the caption: CHAOS AT THE TULSA HOUSE OF NIGHT? Then the screen was filled with Neferet and a bunch of guys in suits. She was standing someplace really pretty-lots of marble and art deco. I felt a little start of recognition. Chera Kimiko was speaking off camera.

"Vampyres and violence? You'd be surprised at who is saying yes. Fox 23 exclusively has breaking news tonight from a former High Priestess at Tulsa's House of Night."

A stupid commercial came up and while Damien tried to skip it I said, "The picture looks like she's someplace downtown."

"It's the lobby of the Mayo," Aphrodite said dryly. "And that's my dad standing behind her."

"Ohmygoodness!" Stevie Rae's eyes were giant and round. "She's giving a press conference with the mayor?"

"And some of the city council. Those are the rest of the suits with him," Aphrodite said.

Then the video started to play and we all shut up and gawked.

"I am here to officially and publicly sever my ties with the Tulsa House of Night and the Vampyre High Council." Somehow Neferet managed to look regal and victimized at the same time.

"She's so full of shit," Aphrodite said.

"Shhh!" the rest of us shushed her.

"High Priestess Neferet, why would you sever ties with your people?" asked one of the reporters.

"Can we not be considered one people? Are we all not intelligent beings with the capacity to love and understand one another?" Apparently she was speaking rhetorically because she didn't wait for an answer. "Vampyre politics have become distasteful to me. Many of you know that recently I opened employment at the House of Night to the Tulsa community. I did so because of my conviction that humans and vampyres can do more than just uneasily co-exist. We can live and work and even love together."

Stevie Rae made gagging noises. I kept shaking my head back and forth in disbelief.

"I received so much resistance from the Vampyre High Council that they sent their High Priestess of Death, Thanatos, to Tulsa to intercede. The current vampyre administration promotes violence and segregation-just look at the past six months and the record of increasing violence in Midtown Tulsa. Do you really believe all of the attacks, especially those involving bloodletting, were human gang related?"

"High Priestess, are you admitting that vampyres have attacked humans in Tulsa?"

Neferet's hand flew dramatically to her neck. "If I knew that with one hundred percent certainty, I would have gone to the local police immediately. I only have suspicions and concerns. I also have a conscience, which is why I have left the House of Night." Her smile was luminous. "Please, you no longer need to call me High Priestess. From here on I am simply Neferet."

Even through the video I could see the reporter blushing and smiling at her.

"There have been rumors of a new kind of vampyre, one with red Marks. Can you substantiate that rumor?" asked another reporter.