"Please, bring the bottle inside my suite," Neferet purred.

Virgin blood was so very sweet that a bad complexion and sweaty palms could be easily overlooked. After all, she was not going to touch him. At least not very much ...

"Is right here fine, ma'am?" His eyes kept flitting from her br**sts to her mouth and then back to the bottle he was opening, all the while he reeked of sexual desire, fear, and fascination.

"Right there is perfect." Neferet ran a long, pointed fingernail down the low bodice of her silk robe.

"Wow," he gulped, working the gold foil off the top of the champagne with inexperienced, shaky hands. "I hope you don't mind me sayin' this, but you're way prettier than those other vampyres on the news."

"Other vampyres? News?"

"Yes, ma'am. They're on Fox 23 late night right now."

"Turn it on for me!" she snapped.

"But the champagne's not-"

"Leave it! I am fully capable of opening it myself. Put on the news and go."

The boy did as he was told and then slunk out, still casting longing glances at her. Neferet paid him no mind. She was utterly engrossed in the scene unfolding before her on the large flat screen television. It was Thanatos, Zoey, and several of her group. They were outside at the House of Night, clustered together and talking easily with the reporter. Neferet scowled. They all looked so normal.

Her lip curled as she heard Thanatos explain away Dragon Lankford's death as a tragic bison accident.

"That wretched Aurox," Neferet muttered. "Imperfect, inept Vessel! All of this is his fault."

She kept watching the interview, smirking at Stark and Zoey, only concentrating when she heard her name mentioned. Neferet pressed the volume button and Thanatos's voice blared, "... Neferet is a disgruntled ex-employee with no whistle to blow..."

Neferet's body became very cold.

"She dares to name me an employee!" Neferet continued to watch. Her anger built to such intensity that the glass door to the penthouse balcony burst open, raining shards of crystal across the marble floor.

"We're sharing Tulsa, and we love it. So, let's just all get along!" Zoey's ridiculously cheerful voice grated up and down Neferet's spine.

"I will not allow you to undo what I have begun, you obnoxious child!" Neferet seethed. When Thanatos announced that the Tulsa House of Night would be taking applications for human professors her mouth gaped along with the reporters. After the new High Priestess's benevolent, merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again, Neferet watched in disbelief as the news anchors chattered inanely about how interesting all the vampyre interaction was and how great the open house and job fair would be for the city as a still shot close-up of Zoey's smiling face decorated the screen. She punched the power button, unable to bear one more instant of Zoey Redbird.

From the clever little alcove that was tucked between the living room and the dining room, Neferet's computer began to ring. On the screen the silhouetted figure of Nyx's upraised arms flashed and beside the icon were the words: VAMPYRE HIGH COUNCIL.

Neferet walked slowly over to the computer and clicked the mouse to answer, automatically activating the video camera. She smiled coolly at the six somber High Priestesses seated on their carved marble thrones. "I have been expecting your call."

Duantia, the senior member of the Vampyre High Council, spoke first. Neferet thought she sounded very, very old. There certainly seemed to be more silver than brown in her long, thick hair, and Neferet was sure she could see bags under her dark eyes. "You were summoned to appear before us, yet there you are in Tulsa, and here we are in Venice. What has delayed you?"

"I am busy." Neferet pitched her voice to sound more amused than annoyed. Or afraid. She must never allow them to believe she feared them, or anyone, at all. "It is not convenient to make a trip to Italy at this time."

"Then you force us to pass judgment over you in absente reo."

Neferet scoffed. "Save your Latin for vampyres too old to live in the present."

Duantia continued as if she hadn't spoken. "Our sister High Priestess, and the seventh member of this Council, Thanatos, has produced irrefutable evidence though a reveal ritual witness by High Priestess Zoey Redbird, her-"

"That insolent child isn't a High Priestess!"

"You will not interrupt me!" Even through the Internet, thousands of miles away, Duantia's power was palpable. It was only with a supreme effort that Neferet didn't cringe from the computer screen.