Burned (House of Night #7)

Aphrodite

"Seriously, Erce, I'm only going to say this one more time. I don't care about your stupid rules. Zoey is in there." Aphrodite paused and pointed one well-manicured fingernail at the closed stone door. "And that means I'm going in there ."

"Aphrodite, you are a human - one who isn't even the consort of a vampyre. You cannot simply burst into the High Council Chamber with all of your youthful, mortal hysteria, especially during a time of crisis such as this." The vampyre's cool look took in Aphrodite's messed-up hair, tear-stained face, and reddened eyes. "The Council will invite you to join them. Probably. Until then, you must wait."

"I am not hysterical." Aphrodite spoke the words slowly, distinctly, and with forced calm, attempting to totally make up for the fact that the reason she'd been left outside the High Council Chamber when Stark, followed by Darius, Damien, the Twins, and even Jack, had carried Zoey's lifeless body inside was entirely because she had been exactly what Erce had called her - a hysterical human. She hadn't been able to keep up with the rest of them, especially since she'd been crying so hard the snot and tears had kept her from doing much breathing or seeing. By the time she'd pulled herself together, the door had been closed in her face, with Erce acting as fucking gatekeeper.

But Erce was super wrong if she thought Aphrodite didn't know how to handle a stick-up-her-ass bossy adult. She'd been raised by a woman who made Erce look like Mary Fucking Poppins.

"So you think I'm just a human kid, do you?" Aphrodite got all into the vamp's personal space, which made Erce take an automatic step back. "Think again. I'm a prophetess of Nyx. Remember her?

Nyx - as in your Goddess who is the boss of you . I do not need to be some guy's refrigerator to have the right to go before the High Council. Nyx herself gave me the right. Now move the hell out of my way!"

"Though she could have phrased it more politely, the child makes a valid point, Erce. Let her pass. I'll take responsibility for her presence if the Council disapproves."

Aphrodite felt the small hairs along her forearms lift as Neferet's smooth voice came from behind her.

"It is not customary," Erce said, but her capitulation was already obvious.

"Neither is it customary for the soul of a fledgling to be shattered," said Neferet.

"I must agree with you, Priestess." Erce stepped aside and opened the thick stone door. "And you are now responsible for this human's presence in the Chamber."

"Thank you, Erce. That is gracious of you. Oh, and I am having a few of the Council Warriors deliver something here. Be quite sure to allow them to pass, too, would you please?"

Aphrodite didn't so much as glance back as Erce murmured a predictable, "Of course, Priestess."

Instead, she strode into the ancient building.

"Isn't it odd that once again we are allies, child?" Neferet's voice followed close behind her.

"We'll never be allies, and I'm not a child," Aphrodite said without looking at her or slowing down. The entry foyer opened to a huge stone amphitheater that spread around her in circular row after row.

Aphrodite's eyes were drawn up immediately to the stained-glass window directly before her that depicted Nyx, framed by a brilliant pentagram, graceful arms upraised and cupping a crescent moon.

"It's really lovely, isn't it?" Neferet's voice was easy and conversational. "Vampyres have always been responsible for creating the greatest works of art in the world."

Aphrodite still refused to look at the ex - High Priestess. Instead, she shrugged. "Vamps have money.

Money buys pretty things, whether they're made by humans or nonhumans. And you don't know for sure that vamps made that window. I mean, you're old, but not that old." As Aphrodite tried to ignore Neferet's soft, condescending laughter, her gaze moved down to the center of the chamber. At first she didn't really comprehend what she was seeing, and then when she got it, it was as if someone had punched her in the gut.

There were seven carved marble thrones on the huge raised platform that made up the inner floor of the chamber. Vampyres were seated in the thrones, but they weren't what caught Aphrodite's gaze. What she couldn't stop staring at was Zoey, lying on the dais in front of the thrones like a dead body stretched out on a funeral slab. And then there was Stark. He was on his knees beside Zoey. He was turned just enough so that Aphrodite could see his face. He didn't make one sound, but tears were falling freely down his cheeks and pooling on his shirt. Darius was standing next to him, and he was saying something she couldn't quite hear to the brunette sitting in the first throne whose thick hair was streaked with gray.

Damien, Jack, and the Twins were huddled together, typically sheeplike, in a nearby row of stone benches. They were bawling, too, but their loud, messy tears were as different from Stark's silent misery as was the ocean from a babbling brook.

Aphrodite automatically started forward, but Neferet grabbed her wrist. And that finally made her turn to look at her old mentor.

"You really should let go of me," Aphrodite said softly.

Neferet raised one brow. "Have you finally learned to stand up to a mother figure?"

Aphrodite let the anger burn quietly within her. "You are no one's mother figure. I learned to stand up to bitches a long time ago."

Neferet frowned and let loose her wrist. "I've never liked your coarse language."

"I'm not coarse ; I'm real . Two different things. And you think I fucking care what you like or dislike?"

Neferet took a breath to respond, but Aphrodite cut her off. "Just what the hell are you doing here?"

Neferet blinked in surprise. "I am here because there is a wounded fledgling here."

"Oh, that's such shit! You're only here because somehow it's gonna get you something you want. That's how you work, Neferet, whether they know it or not." Aphrodite jerked her chin at the High Council members.

"Be careful, Aphrodite. You may need me in the very near future."

Aphrodite held Neferet's gaze and felt a sense of shock as she realized the eyes that met hers had changed. They were no longer brilliant emerald green. They had darkened. Was that red that glowed from deep in the middle of them? As quickly as the thought came to Aphrodite, Neferet blinked. Her eyes cleared and were once again the color of expensive gemstones.

Aphrodite drew a shaky breath, and the small hairs on her arms lifted again, but her voice was flat and sarcastic when she said, "That's okay. I'll take my chances without your 'help.' " She air quoted around the last word.

"Neferet, the Council recognizes you!"

Neferet turned to face the Council, but before she descended the stairs to them, she paused and made a graceful gesture, which included Aphrodite.

"I ask that the Council allow the presence of this human. She is Aphrodite, the child who makes claims of being Nyx's Prophetess."

Aphrodite stepped around Neferet and looked squarely from one Council member to another. "I don't claim to be a prophetess. I am Nyx's Prophetess because the Goddess wants me to be. The truth is, if I had a choice about it, I wouldn't want the job." She kept speaking even though several of the Council members had gasped in shock. "Oh, and just FYI: I'm not telling you anything Nyx doesn't already know."

"The Goddess believes in Aphrodite even though she is not quite as sure about herself," Darius said.

Aphrodite smiled at him. He was more than her big, hot, mountainlike Warrior. She could count on Darius; he always saw the best in her.

"Darius, why do you speak for this human?" asked the brunette.

"Duantia, I speak for this Prophetess ," he enunciated her title carefully, "because I have pledged myself to her as her Warrior."

"Her Warrior?" Neferet couldn't keep the shock from her voice. "But that means . . ."

"That means that I can't be completely human because it's impossible for a vampyre Warrior to swear an Oath Bond with a human," Aphrodite finished for her.

"You may enter the Chamber, Aphrodite, Prophetess of Nyx. The Council recognizes you," proclaimed Duantia.

Aphrodite hurried down the stairway, leaving Neferet to follow behind her. She wanted to go straight to Zoey, but instinct made her stop in front of the brunette named Duantia first. She formally fisted her hand, pressed it over her heart, and bowed respectfully. "Thank you for letting me come in here."

"These extraordinary times call for us to accept unusual practices." This came from a tall, thin vampyre who had eyes the color of night.

Aphrodite wasn't sure what to say to the vamp, so she just nodded and moved to Zoey. She slid her hand in Darius's and squeezed hard, trying to borrow some of her Warrior's amazing strength. Then she looked down at her friend.

She hadn't imagined it. Zoey's tattoos really were gone! The only Mark left on her was an ordinary-looking crescent-moon outline in sapphire in the middle of her forehead. And she was so damn pale! Zoey looks dead. Aphrodite stopped the thought immediately. Zoey wasn't dead. She was still

breathing. Her heart was still beating. Zoey. Was. Not. Dead.

"Does the Goddess reveal anything to you when you look at her, Prophetess?" asked the tall, thin woman who had spoken to her before.

Aphrodite dropped Darius's hand and slowly knelt next to Zoey. She glanced at Stark then, as he was kneeling directly across Z from her, but he didn't move. He hardly blinked. All he did was weep silently and stare at Zoey. Is this what Darius would be like if something happened to me? Aphrodite shook away the morbid thought and re-focused on Zoey. Slowly, she reached out and rested her hand on her friend's shoulder.

Her skin was cool to the touch, as if she were already dead. Aphrodite waited for something to happen.

But she got not even the slightest twinge of a vision or a feeling or anything.

With a sigh of frustration, Aphrodite shook her head. "No. I can't tell anything. I can't control my visions. They just hit me, whether I want them to or not, and the truth is, it's usually a case of not."

"You aren't using all of the gifts Nyx has given you, Prophetess."

Surprised, Aphrodite looked up from Zoey to see the dark-eyed vampyre had risen, and was gracefully approaching her.

"You are a true Prophetess of Nyx, are you not?" she asked.

"Yeah, I am," Aphrodite said with no hesitation, but with equal parts confusion and conviction.

In a flutter of silk robes the color of the night sky, the woman knelt beside Aphrodite. "I am Thanatos.

Do you know what my name means?"

Aphrodite shook her head, wishing Damien was sitting closer so she could peek at him for the answer.

"It means death. I am not Leader of the Council. Duantia has that honor, but I have the unique privilege of being unusually close to our Goddess, as the gift she gave me long ago was the ability to aid souls as they pass from this world to the next."

"You can talk to ghosts?"

Thanatos's smile transformed her stern face and made her almost pretty. "In a fashion, yes, I can. And because of that gift, I know something of visions."

"Seriously? Visions aren't anything like talking to ghosts."

"Are they not? From what realm do your visions come? No, perhaps more accurately, in what realm do you exist when you receive your visions?"

Aphrodite thought about how she'd had too many damn death visions and how she'd started actually seeing the shit that was happening from the dead people's points of view. She drew in a fast breath, and in a rush of understanding admitted, "I'm getting visions from the Otherworld!"

Thanatos nodded. "You traffic with the Otherworld and the realm of spirits much more than I, Prophetess. All I do is guide the dead as they transition, and through them I glimpse Beyond."

Aphrodite looked hastily down at Zoey. "She is not dead."

"Not yet, no. But her body will not last more than seven days in this soulless state, so she is close to death. Close enough that the Other-world has a strong hold on her, stronger even than it has on the newly dead. Touch her again, Prophetess. This time focus and use more of the gifts you've been given."

"But I - "

Annoyingly enough, Thanatos cut her off. "Prophetess, do what Nyx would want you to do."

"I don't know what that is!"

Thanatos's stern expression relaxed, and she smiled again. "Oh, child, simply ask for her help."

Aphrodite blinked. "Just like that?"

"Yes, Prophetess, exactly like that."

Slowly, Aphrodite placed her hand back on Zoey's cold shoulder. This time she closed her eyes and drew three long, deep breaths, just like she'd watched Zoey do before casting a circle. Then she sent a silent but fervent prayer up to Nyx: I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important, but you know that already because you know I don't like to ask for favors. Not from anyone. Plus, I'm not really good at this supplication bullshit, but you already know that also. Aphrodite sighed internally. Nyx, I need your help. Thanatos seems to think I have some kind of link to the Otherworld. If that's true, could you please let me know what's happening to Zoey? She paused in her silent prayer, sighed, and bared herself to Nyx. Goddess, please. And not just because Zoey's like the sister my mom was too selfish to have. I need your help with this because so many people depend on Zoey, and, sadly, that is more important than me.

Aphrodite felt a warmth begin to build under her palm, and then it was like she'd slipped from her own body and slid into Zoey's. She was only within her friend for a moment - no longer than one heartbeat - but what she felt and saw and knew shocked her so badly that, in the next instant, she found herself back in her own body. She cradled the hand she'd been pressing against Zoey to her chest, gasping with fear. Then, with a moan, she doubled up with vertigo, dry heaving while tears and spit spewed from her face.

"What is it, Prophetess? What did you see?" Thanatos asked calmly as she wiped Aphrodite's cheeks and steadied her with a strong hand around her waist.

"She's gone!" Aphrodite bit back the sob and began pulling herself together. "I felt what happened to her. Just for a second. Zoey threw the full power of spirit at Kalona. She tried to stop him with everything inside her, and it didn't work. Heath died in front of her. That ripped her spirit to pieces." Feeling weirdly light-headed, she looked hopelessly through her tears at Thanatos. "You know where she is, too, don't you?"

"I believe I do. You must confirm it, though."

"The pieces of her spirit are with the dead in the Otherworld," Aphrodite said, blinking hard against the stinging of her red-tinged eyes. "Zoey is completely gone. What happened out there, she just couldn't handle it - she still can't."

"You saw nothing more? Nothing that might help Zoey?"

Aphrodite swallowed back rising bile, and lifted her trembling hand. "No, but I'll try again and - "

Darius's touch on her shoulder held her back from touching Zoey.

"No. You're still too weak from the breaking of your Imprint with Stevie Rae."

"That doesn't matter. Zoey's dying!"

"It matters. Do you want your soul to become as Zoey's?" Thanatos said quietly.

Aphrodite felt a stab of new terror. "No," she whispered, and covered Darius's hand with her own.

"And this is exactly why it is often unfortunate that the young are given great gifts by our loving Goddess.

They rarely have the maturity to know how to use them wisely," Neferet said.

At the sound of Neferet's cool, patronizing voice, Aphrodite saw a jolt go through Stark's body, and his gaze finally lifted from Zoey.

"This creature shouldn't be allowed in here! She did this! She killed Heath and shattered Zoey!" Stark sounded like he had to grind the words around gravel to speak them.

Neferet shot him a cool look. "I realize you are under duress, but you cannot be allowed to speak to a High Priestess in that fashion, Warrior."

Stark surged to his feet. Darius, lightning fast as always, held him back. Aphrodite heard him whisper urgently, "Think before you act, Stark!"

"Warrior," Duantia addressed Stark, "you were present when the human boy was killed, and Zoey's soul shattered. You have borne witness to us that it was the winged immortal who did the deed. You said nothing of Neferet."

"Ask any of Zoey's friends. Call Lenobia and Dragon Lankford at the Tulsa House of Night. All of them will tell you Neferet doesn't have to be physically present to cause someone's death," Stark said. He shook off Darius's restraining hand and swiped angrily at his face as if he just noticed he'd been crying.

"Sh-she can make really horrendous things happen even when she's not there," Damien spoke up hesitantly from across the room. The Twins and Jack tearfully but forcefully nodded their support.

"There is no proof that Neferet had a hand in this deed," Duantia said gently to all of them.

"Can't you tell what happened to Heath? Couldn't you talk to his ghost or whatever and find out?"

Aphrodite asked Thanatos, who had returned to her throne when Neferet had begun to speak.

"The human's spirit did not tarry in this realm, and before it departed, it certainly didn't seek me out,"

Thanatos said.

"Where's Kalona!" Stark ignored everyone else and shouted at Neferet. "Where are you hiding your lover, who caused this?"

"If you mean my immortal consort, Erebus, that is exactly why I have come to the Council." Neferet turned her back to Stark and spoke only to the seven Council members. "I, too, felt Zoey's soul shatter.

I had been walking the labyrinth and mentally preparing myself to depart San Clemente Island for what might be a very long time."

Neferet had to pause because Stark snorted sarcastically, and said, "You and Kalona plan to take over the world from Capri. So, no, you probably won't be returning here in the near future unless you mean to drop bombs on the place."

Darius touched his shoulder again in a silent warning to be careful, but Stark shook him off.

"I do not deny that Erebus and I wish to bring back the ancient days, when vampyres ruled from Capri, and the world revered and respected us, as is our due," Neferet began by addressing him. "But I would not destroy this island or this Council. In truth, I wish for its support."

"You mean its power , and now that Zoey's out of the way, you have a better chance of getting that,"

Stark said.

"Really? Did I misunderstand what passed between your Zoey and my Erebus earlier today in this very Council Chamber? She admitted he was an immortal seeking a goddess to serve."

"She never named him as Erebus!" Stark shouted.

"And my immortal Erebus kindly named her as fallible instead of a liar," Neferet said.

"So what did you do, Neferet? Force him to kill Heath and shatter Zoey's soul because you were jealous of the bond between them?" Stark said, though it was obvious to Aphrodite that it was tough for him to admit there had been so much between Zoey and Kalona.

"Of course not! Use your mind and not your pathetic broken heart, Warrior! Could Zoey have forced you to kill an innocent for her? Of course she couldn't. You're her Warrior, but you still have free will, and you're still bound to Nyx, so you must ultimately do the Goddess's will." Without allowing Stark to speak, she turned back to the Council. "As I was explaining, I felt Zoey's soul shatter and was returning to the palace when I came upon Erebus. He was badly wounded and barely conscious. There was only time for him to say these words: 'I was protecting my Goddess,' and then he was gone."

"Kalona's dead?" Aphrodite couldn't stop herself from blurting.

Instead of answering her, Neferet turned to look up at the entrance to the Chamber. Standing there were four Council Warriors carrying between them a litter that sagged with the weight of its occupant. One black wing spilled over the side of the litter and dragged on the floor.

"Bring him forward!" Neferet commanded.

Slowly, they descended the steps until they laid the litter on the floor in front of the dais. Stark and Darius automatically moved together to stand between Zoey's body and Kalona.

"Of course he isn't dead. He is Erebus, an immortal," Neferet began in her familiar, haughty voice, but then she broke, and on a sob said, "He isn't dead, but as you can all see, he's gone !"

Almost as if she couldn't control herself, Aphrodite stood and approached Kalona. Darius was beside her in an instant.

"No. Do not touch him," he warned.

"Whether we call him Erebus or not, it is obvious that this being is an ancient immortal. Because of the power in his blood, the Prophetess will not be able to enter his body, even if his spirit is not present. He doesn't hold the same danger for her Zoey does, Warrior," Thanatos said.

"I'm okay. Let me try and see what I can find out," Aphrodite told Darius.

"I'm right here with you. I'm not going to let go of you," he said, taking her hand and walking with her to Kalona.

Aphrodite could feel the tension radiating through her Warrior's body, but she drew three more long, deep breaths and concentrated on Kalona. Hesitating for only an instant, Aphrodite reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder, just as she'd done for Zoey. His skin was so cold to the touch that she had to force herself not to pull away. Instead, Aphrodite closed her eyes. Nyx? One more time, please.

Just let me know something . . . anything to help all of us. Then Aphrodite's silent prayer finished with the thought that solidified her bond with the Goddess and finally made her truly a Prophetess in her own right. Please use me as a tool to help fight the darkness and to follow your path.

Her palm warmed, but Aphrodite didn't need to sink into him to tell Kalona was gone. Darkness told her - and with a jolt she realized she should think of it as a capital D. This was a thing in its own right - an entity vast and powerful and living. It was everywhere. It encompassed the immortal's entire body. Aphrodite got a very clear image of an inky web, like that spun by a swollen, invisible spider. Its sticky black threads were woven all around his body - holding it - caressing it - binding it tightly, as if in a twisted version of safekeeping because it was obvious the immortal's body was imprisoned - just as obvious as the fact that what was inside of his body was complete emptiness.

Aphrodite gasped and took her hand quickly from his skin, rubbing it against her thigh as if the black web had tainted her, too. She fell against Darius as her knees gave way.

"It's just like the inside of Zoey," she said, as her Warrior lifted her in his arms, purposefully not disclosing that Kalona's body was basically being held hostage. "He's not here anymore, either."