“Until we catch Neferet, I’m afraid we are,” Thanatos said.

“Catch her? What good will that do?” Zoey said.

Aphrodite saw that she wasn’t the only person watching Zoey closely. Thanatos’s brows lifted and she cocked her head to the side. “Priestess, we have all agreed Neferet is responsible for the deaths that happened last night, have we not?”

“Neferet did it,” Z said.

“So Neferet must be found and turned over to the authorities. Until then, the truth is that the human authorities will find no proof that will place blame on any of us, as we are innocent.”

“Hang on. Does that mean you’re going to let our professors start being DNA tested?” Zoey asked.

“No. That means we are going to find Neferet and provide her matching DNA to the human authorities.”

“Neferet is a powerful immortal. She’s not going to let us catch her, let alone take her to the cops.”

“Zoey, you say that, yet you and your circle managed to defeat that powerful immortal and rescue your grandmother from her.”

“We beat her before. We’ll beat her again.” Stevie Rae sounded way more positive than Z.

“Actually, all we have to do is find Neferet. Get her to a public place and start nailing her with hard questions. She’s going to lose her temper and do something batshit crazy, especially if a detective asks her for a DNA sample,” Aphrodite said. “Yeah, it’s going to suck for us when she explodes into spiders or eats some locals or whatever, and humans start to understand that there’s more going on here than vampyre versus human, but that won’t suck nearly as much as being under house arrest and blamed for shit no one here did.”

“I believe it is time humans understand there are more forces at work than just those of human and vampyre.” Kalona surprised Aphrodite by agreeing with her. “Evil is always stronger when it is underestimated.”

“You’re going to let humans see you?” Zoey asked Kalona.

“I am going to bring Neferet to justice and protect this school. If that means I show myself to humans, then so be it.”

“I have a question.” Stevie Rae half raised her hand.

“Yes?” Thanatos said.

“How’re we gonna find Neferet?”

“That will be the easy part. We will remain here, stay on the path of our Goddess, and wait for Neferet to reveal herself,” Thanatos said.

“That’s crap!” Z sounded like she was ready to explode. “When Neferet kidnapped Grandma I was sitting in the tunnels in the kitchen. I was just waiting and whining to Nyx to help me save Grandma. And, guess what? The Goddess appeared to me and basically told me that a child sits around and cries. A High Priestess actually does something. So, now you’re telling me that our big decision is to sit around and wait?”

“No, what I’m telling you is that we are going to show wisdom and act with patience. We have one of our own to bury, and then we are going to resume classes, and our lives, and not allow our school to be overrun by angry locals or ourselves to drown in Neferet’s Darkness. I expect you and Stevie Rae to show your leadership skills and to help me, and the rest of the faculty, keep everyone calm and on task. And now, if you are done attempting to lecture me about a Goddess I have served faithfully for centuries, I have a funeral over which I need to preside.” Thanatos’s tone said she’d heard enough from everyone—especially Zoey—and she stood. With Kalona following in her shadow, she left the room.

Aphrodite stepped between Zoey and the door. “At the risk of sounding more like you than I’d like to sound, I’m going to tell you that you need to adjust your attitude.”

Z narrowed her eyes. “This situation doesn’t piss you off?”

“Of course it does, but snapping at the one grown High Priestess who is actually on our side is just stupid.”

“Z, you did sound kinda snappy.” Stevie Rae looked uncomfortable, but that didn’t stop her from speaking.

Zoey drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, fingering the Lifesaver-looking Seer Stone that dangled from a long silver chain around her neck. “It’s just so damn frustrating to have Neferet doing crap again, and have us just hanging out, waiting for her next move.”

“Okay, you said ‘damn’ and ‘crap’ in one sentence, so I’m starting to feel hopeful that perhaps the mental breakdown you’re obviously having might cause an update of your boring non-curse curse words,” Aphrodite said. “Other than that, I still say you need to check your attitude. This isn’t the same old, same old with Neferet. She’s been shunned by the High Council.”

“Yeah, even if they’re too chicken to go after her themselves, it’s a big step that they’ve shunned her,” Stevie Rae added.

“I’d call them something more descriptive than chicken, but the point is still made. And we have an entire school going against her. Neferet can’t hide forever—like we’ve all already said, if nothing else, she’s just too damn crazy to go unnoticed for very long.”

“No,” Z said. “That’s part of the problem—the entire school isn’t against her. Dallas and his friends have definitely been on her side, and are definitely not with us.”

“But, Z, Neferet killing Aphrodite’s dad changes everything.” Stevie Rae glanced at Aphrodite. “Sorry again.” Aphrodite shrugged and Stevie Rae rolled on. “What she did this time was real public. She ate the mayor. The cops are involved. Thanatos is going to make sure they get evidence that will prove what she did, and Dallas is not gonna want to get smacked with a murder charge, or even a helpin’ a murderer charge,” Stevie Rae said.

“Dallas and his disgusting friends would not do well in jail. They’re going to sit tight and shut up. Sure, they’re going to be a pain in the ass to be around, but that’s really no different than normal school,” Aphrodite said.

“Yeah, I guess you guys are right,” Z said. “Sorry about the Negative Nancy thing. I really just want to do something that will fix everything. You know, make everyone be nice and stop calling Darkness and whatnot.”

“That’s not being Negative Nancy. That’s being Deluded Debbie. People suck. They do stupid things and they’re not nice. The end,” Aphrodite told her. “As proof of my point, let’s go to Erin’s funeral. She didn’t act right, and I’m pretty damn sure her funeral is going to suck.”

Aphrodite was seriously sick of attending funerals. Not only was it bad when someone decent, like Dragon Lankford or poor little gay Jack, died, it was sad and sucked and couldn’t even be made better by wearing awesome clothes. Black. Boring. Depressing.

And to put a cherry on the shit sundae of an event, Zoey was definitely having anger control issues. She’d snapped at the High Council. She’d snapped at Thanatos. That was not Zoey-like behavior. And she’d failed to mention to his own daughter the little detail about the cops having DNA evidence on whoever killed her dad. Aphrodite glanced over at Z. She was walking beside Stevie Rae and nodding at something the bumpkin was babbling on and on about, but she didn’t have her usual I’m smiling at my BFF look on her face. Z was frowning. She looked tired. No, actually, she didn’t look tired. She looked annoyed. Or pissed. Yeah, Z definitely looked pissed.

Aphrodite didn’t know what the fuck to do.

Maybe Zoey needed to hear about her latest vision, the one that starred Out of Control Angry Z and ended with her in jail and a bunch of people being eaten.

But Aphrodite’s instinct was still telling her that this wasn’t a Zoey who could be reasoned with—or at least not right now she couldn’t be.

Maybe after the funeral was over. Maybe Z was just super tense because funerals were awful.

The three of them had gotten to the middle of campus—the all too familiar pyre/funeral area in the center of the giant oaks that ringed the school. Thanatos and Kalona were at the head of the pyre, standing by Dallas, who looked stone-faced, but was nodding at whatever Thanatos was saying to him. His friends made a little semi-circle of fashion disasters behind him.