Destined (House of Night Book 9)

by P. C. Cast

  “What in the hell are you talking about?” Aphrodite asked.

  “Broken Arrow—Union—Jenks,” I said. “High schools. Too many in one town just sucks.”

  “Were you student council president or did you hold some other socially unacceptable position? Tulsa has like a zillion high schools and hell has not frozen over yet,” Aphrodite said. “Having too many bussed kids to one school is just moronic and allows the white trash to slither in. Ugh. Just ugh.”

  Thankfully, Thanatos stepped between the two of us. “Human teenage standards have never governed vampyre fledgling law. Tulsa is a middle point in the nation. It could definitely support a second House of Night. Our numbers are growing, especially with the inrush of the red fledglings, which have been discovered in other areas as well as here.”

  “There are other red fledglings? I mean, besides just ours?” I said.

  “Yes.”

  “But have any been Marked red, or have they all died and then un-died and turned red?” Aphrodite asked before I could give her a shut up look.

  “Yours is the only red fledgling on record to date as having been Marked red,” Thanatos said.

  “So you know about Shaylin?” I asked, holding my breath.

  “Yes. Neferet announced that she was blind before she had been Marked, and that now she has sight. She extrapolated that the poor child was broken, so she didn’t need to die to receive the red Markings.”

  I wanted to stand up for Shaylin and say she wasn’t broken, that she was special, but my gut told me to continue to keep my mouth shut about her True Sight.

  “Zoey, there is no reason to hide anything from someone who is seeking the truth, unless you prefer lies and deceit,” Thanatos surprised me by saying.

  I met her gaze. “I don’t prefer lies and deceit, but one big thing Neferet has taught me is to be careful about who I trust.” And then, because my gut continued to talk to me I said the rest of what was on my mind. “I hear Neferet has a new Consort. Have you heard anything about that?”

  “I have not. Zoey, are you confusing Aurox for her Consort? Whether he is or is not a gift from Nyx, Neferet has given no indication that she is romantically involved with him; he seems simply her servant.”

  “I’m not talking about Aurox,” I kept on, even though just saying his name made my stomach feel weird. “I’m talking about the white bull.”

  Thanatos looked absolutely and utterly shocked. “Zoey, the worship of the white and black bulls is an ancient one, and its popularity died out centuries ago. I only have a rudimentary understanding of that religion and its past, but I can tell you that no Priestess of Nyx has ever given herself to the white bull. What you are saying would be an abomination, and it is a grave accusation.” As she spoke Thanatos had become paler and paler, until finally she was so disturbed that the air around her lifted her hair and blew with agitated little gusts.

  An air affinity as well as an affinity for death—that’s interesting, I thought. “I’m not accusing,” I said aloud. “I’m just asking you if you’ve heard anything about it.”

  “No! The High Council, as well as the vampyre community, believe Kalona, the creature Neferet convinced was Erebus on Earth, was and still is her Consort, though he has been banished from her side for one hundred years.”

  Aphrodite snorted. “That’s bullshit. He was here with her because he thought she had control of his soul. Something got messed up, though, in the Land of the Crazy and Neferet lost control of Kalona.” I thought she was going to blurt the rest of the news about Kalona hanging around wanting to truce with us to destroy Neferet, but instead Aphrodite said something smarter. “Uh, would you answer a quick question for me?”

  Looking shell-shocked, Thanatos nodded.

  “Okay, let’s say Aurox isn’t a gift from Nyx and is instead, I dunno, say, something super evil the white bull and Neferet cooked up together because they’re being way inappropriate. What kind of cooking would create something like him?”

  “A great sacrifice,” Thanatos said.

  “You mean Neferet would have to have killed someone specifically for the creation of Aurox?” Aphrodite asked.

  “Yes, though I shudder at the thought of such psychopathic behavior.”

  “Yeah, so do we,” Aphrodite said, meeting my eyes with a sad, but knowing look. “Too many people around us have died recently.”

  “Yeah,” I echoed, feeling super sick. “Too many.”

  Aurox

  The girl’s attention came as a surprise. He was going on his nightly rounds, as per Neferet’s standing command, especially assuring no Raven Mockers breached the boundary of the House of Night, when he passed close by the female dormitory building. She was standing under one of the big trees and as he drew close, she stepped directly into his path.

  “Hi there.” Her smile was silky. “I’m Becca. We haven’t met yet, but I’ve been checking you out.”

  “Hello, Becca.” Curious, he allowed her to halt him. She wasn’t beautiful or unusual as were some of the other fledglings, as was Zoey, his mind whispered, but he shied away from the thought. This Becca fledgling had an allure about her, and her body language, how she cocked her hip and tossed back her long blond hair, said she found him pleasing. “I am Aurox.”

  She laughed and licked her slick pink lips. “Yeah, I know who you are. Like I said, I’ve been checking you out.”

  “And what is it you have learned from checking me out?” He repeated her words.

  She stepped closer to him and tossed back her hair again. “That you can handle yourself in a fight, and that’s a good thing these days.”

  She touched him then, drawing a pink painted fingernail down his chest, and that is when her emotions hit him. He could feel her desire. It was mixed with desperation and a little meanness as well. Aurox breathed deeply, inhaling the intoxicating scent of lust tinged with cruelty. A shudder of anticipation went through him as the power within began to build.

  “Oooh, you’re hard.” Becca laughed softly, moving even closer. “Your muscles, I mean.” Her desire amplified as her breasts rubbed against his chest while she leaned in to him, licked his neck, and then bit him—not hard enough to draw blood, but also not gently enough to be purely playful.

  It pleased the bull within him, and the creature stirred.

  “Do you like pain?” Aurox asked as he ran his hands roughly down her back. Then he dipped his head so that his teeth found the soft curve of her neck. He bit, purposefully drawing blood, though he cared less than nothing for the taste of her. “Do you like pain?” He repeated the question with her blood in his mouth, even though he could feel the answer in the rush of lust that shuddered through her.

  “I like it all,” Becca moaned. “Come on. Let me take a little taste. Be my Consort—be my man.”

  Aurox didn’t think to stop her. He didn’t think at all. He only felt: lust intensified by a mean, desperate spirit. Aurox let it take him over. He ground against her, closed his eyes, and gave himself to her saying words that came from deep within his subconscious—that were so instinctive and automatic that thinking and understanding had nothing to do with them. “Yes, Zo. Bite me.”

  “You asshole! Zoey? I’ll show you some shit that will make Zoey Redbird look tame.” Becca bit him. Hard. He felt the sharp pain and the warmth of his pooling blood. Then her mouth pressed against the fresh wound on his neck—but only for an instant. He felt the change in her as soon as she tasted his blood. Her anger and lust dissipated, and was replaced by raw fear.

  “Oh, Goddess! No, that’s not right!” Becca tried to pull away from him, but Aurox lifted her, took two strides, and backed her against the tree. “Wait, no!” Becca insisted, trying to keep her voice steady even though her fear washed over and through him, feeding him, changing him. “Stop! You don’t taste right!”

  The creature within him pulsed and flexed, questing to be freed to pillage and tear. He snorted and the bull echoed within the sound.

  “Seriously,
stop! I don’t want to be with someone who’s all into Zoey!”

  Zoey …

  The name echoed within him, extinguishing the bull as water on fire.

  “What’s going on here?”

  At the sound of Dragon Lankford’s voice, Aurox stepped back, releasing Becca. The girl slumped against the tree and stared fearfully up at Aurox.

  “Aurox? Becca? Is there a problem between you two?” Dragon asked.

  “No, only a slight misunderstanding. I believed the fledgling understood what it was she desired,” Aurox said, facing the Sword Master and ignoring Becca. “I was incorrect.”

  She scurried out from the tree and moved to put Dragon between herself and him—her fear quickly replaced by confidence and anger. “I know what I don’t want, and that’s yet another guy who’s hung up on Zoey Redbird. Here’s hoping you have a thing for standing in line, ’cause there’s a whole list of guys who got there before you.”

  “Becca, there is no reason to be crude. You know vampyres believe in freedom to choose and mutual desire. If the desire is not mutual, then choose to walk away gracefully,” Dragon said firmly.

  “Sounds good to me,” Becca said to Dragon and then sneered in Aurox’s direction. “Good f-ing bye to you, jerk.” She stomped away.

  “Aurox,” Dragon began slowly. “Vampyre society is open to the many different roads that lead to desire and the fulfillment of passion, but you need to know that some of those roads should not be taken unless there is clear consent from all involved and a certain, deeper level of experience.” Dragon’s sigh made him sound old and tired. “Do you understand what it is I’m trying to explain to you?”

  “I do,” Aurox said. “The fledgling, Becca, has a mean spirit.”

  “Does she? I suppose I haven’t noticed.”

  “I do not believe Zoey Redbird has a mean spirit,” he said.

  Dragon’s brows lifted. “No, I do not believe she does, either. You do know that Neferet and Zoey don’t get along, don’t you?”

  Aurox met his gaze. “They are enemies.”

  Dragon’s gaze did not waver. “You could describe them as such, yes, though I wish circumstances were otherwise.”

  “You are not a follower of Neferet’s,” Aurox said.

  The Sword Master’s expression froze and his tired but open countenance shut down. “I follow myself and no one else.”

  “Not Nyx?”

  “I won’t stand against the Goddess, but I also won’t stand for anyone except myself. The dragon is the only path left to me.”

  Aurox studied him. His emotions were veiled. The vampyre gave off nothing—not anger, not despair, not fear. Nothing. It was a puzzlement. Perhaps it was that puzzlement that had him speaking of the mystery within himself. “I said Zoey’s name instead of Becca’s.”

  Dragon’s brows went up again, and his expression said he was mildly amused. “Well, Aurox, women—mean-spirited or not—do not like it when you’re with one of them and speak another’s name.”

  “But I do not know why I did it.”

  Dragon shrugged. “Zoey must have been on your mind.”

  “I did not realize it.”

  “Sometimes we don’t.”

  “So, it is normal?” Aurox asked.

  “Over more than one hundred years the one consistent thing I have found is that there really is no normal when it comes to women,” Dragon said.

  “Sword Master, may I ask a favor of you?”

  “You may,” he said.

  “Do not repeat any of what happened here tonight to Neferet.”

  “I keep my own counsel, boy. You should remember to keep yours, too.” The Sword Master clapped him on the shoulder and walked away, leaving Aurox confused, troubled, and as always, alone.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Zoey

  “This is going to be a cluster fuck of massive proportions,” Aphrodite whispered to me as we stood outside the room designated as Thanatos’s classroom first hour on Monday. The room was one of the biggest in the school. Actually, except for the drama classroom, which was really more like a mini-auditorium, and the auditorium itself, this was the biggest “regular” classroom in the school. Great, I thought, all the more room for the explosion that’s getting ready to happen.

  “It’s not like we can cut this class,” I muttered back to Aphrodite. Then, to the rest of my group I said, “Okay, let’s go in. Don’t worry. We’re together so it really can’t be that bad.” My nerd herd, as well as Stevie Rae, Rephaim, and all of her red fledglings flanked me. Everyone nodded and looked resigned and ready for whatever was getting ready to hit the fan. I opened the door and stepped inside.

  My seer stone immediately began radiating heat.

  Dallas and his group were already in class, predictably filling up the back row of desks.

  Aurox sat in a desk in the front row over at the far side, obviously separating himself from Dallas’s group. I wondered why he wasn’t hanging out with the bad guys, since he was on Neferet’s team like they obviously were, but I kept my gaze carefully averted from him.

  “I’m gonna try and keep a positive attitude,” Stevie Rae said, ignoring the sneer Dallas was sending her and the mean laughter that wafted like cheap perfume from Nichole. She took Rephaim’s hand and smiled, kissing his cheek. “Don’t let them get to you.”

  “Good luck with that,” Erin said.

  Shaunee, standing several kids away from Erin, said nothing.

  “He’s red, and I don’t mean a good red like Shaunee is,” Shaylin said, peeking over my shoulder at Dallas.

  I looked at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m red?” Shaunee asked.

  “Yeah,” Shaylin told her. “Your color’s clear and easy to understand. You’re like a campfire—warm and good.”

  “That’s real nice,” Stevie Rae said.

  “Thanks,” Shaunee said. “That is nice.”

  “But what about Dallas?” Rephaim asked.

  “He’s red like a bomb. Like anger. Like hate,” she said.

  “Then I say we go down front and get as far away from him as possible,” Stevie Rae said.

  “Some things are harder than others to get away from,” Erin said, but she wasn’t looking at Dallas. She was looking at campfire-red Shaunee, who was looking at her fingernails.

  “Don’t be such a Negative Nancy,” Stevie Rae told Erin, neatly breaking the awkward silence. Then she beamed her sweet, open smile at me. “Let’s go sit up front!”

  “Okay, I’ll follow you,” I said, even though I wanted to run screaming from the room.

  “I want to run screaming from the room.” Aphrodite spookily echoed my thoughts as she followed me following Stevie Rae and Rephaim.

  I clamped down on the “ditto” I wanted to say and, by default, took the desk on the other side of Stevie Rae that was front and center in the room. The bell chimed and Thanatos entered from a door that led from a small office directly to the front of the room, which was raised, kinda like a stage, and had a podium smack in the middle of it with a Smart Board behind it.

  “Oooh! Pretty colors!” Shaylin said from her seat behind me.

  “Merry meet,” Thanatos said. We all echoed her greeting. I thought she looked regal and powerful. She wore a night-colored dress that was decorated only with the silver threads of the embroidered outline of Nyx with her arms raised cupping a crescent moon. “Welcome to the first of a first. In all of our history there has never been a class quite like this one, made up of different types of fledglings, changelings, humans, and even vampyres. I stand before you representing the High Council of Vampyres which is, as long as you exist within our society, your ruling Council.” Thanatos gave me a long look during the last part of her sentence. I met her gaze steadily. Hell, I agreed with her.

  I just wasn’t one hundred percent sure whether my group and I wanted to exist within vampyre society.

  “I know you are wondering exactly what this class will entail, but I have only
a partial answer to your wondering. I am here to hone and guide you on a journey that is as rare and unique as are each of you. This class will take the place of your vampyre sociology hour; therefore, I will bring to you subjects that all fledglings and vampyres must eventually attempt to understand, such as death and Darkness, Guardianship and Imprints, Light and love. But because of the unique makeup of this class there are also subjects you will bring to me, and thereby to all of us. I give you my oath that I will seek only the truth with you, and if I do not have an answer for your questioning I will do my best to discover it with you.”

  I thought that so far the class didn’t sound too bad, and was actually starting to feel kinda at ease and curious when the poo hit the fan.

  “So, let us begin seeking truth. I want each of you to spend a few moments in reflection. Then, on a piece of paper, write at least one question you would like to have answered through this class. Fold it, and after you leave I will read them. Be honest with your inquiry, without fear of censure or judgment. You need not affix your name to the question if you would rather remain anonymous.”

  There was a pause, and then Stevie Rae’s hand went up.

  “Yes, Stevie Rae,” Thanatos called on her.

  “I just wanna be sure we’re all clear. We can ask about anything? Anything at all, without worryin’ ’bout getting’ in trouble?”

  Thanatos was smiling kindly at Stevie Rae, and began to respond saying, “That is an excellent—” when from the back of the room Dallas’s exaggerated whisper of “I wanna ask what a bird has that a guy don’t, and why she likes it so much!” could be heard clearly.

  Stevie Rae grabbed Rephaim’s hand and I knew it was to keep him from getting up to confront Dallas. Then I wasn’t paying attention to my BFF or her boyfriend as Thanatos reacted. The change that came over her was fast and utterly, totally scary. She seemed to grow larger. Wind whipped around her, lifting her hair. When she spoke I was reminded of the scene in LotR when Galadriel gave Frodo a look at what kind of terrible dark queen she would become if she took the ring from him.