me, and I wished--for about the zillionth time--that she was my mom. Then I remembered what she had told me almost a month ago, that her mom had died when she was a little girl, and her dad had abused her, physically and mentally, until she had been saved by being Marked. "Did you ever forgive your father?" I asked tentatively. Neferet looked down at me and blinked several times, as if she were slowly coming back from a memory that had taken her far, far away. "No. No I didn't ever forgive him, but when I think of him now it is as if I'm remembering someone else's life. The things he did to me he did to a human child, not a High Priestess and vampyre. And to a High Priestess and vampyre he, like most humans, is completely inconsequential." Her words sounded strong and sure, but as I looked into the depths of her beautiful green eyes I saw a flicker of something old and painful and definitely not forgotten, and wondered how honest she was being with herself ...
Chapter Two
I was incredibly relieved when Neferet said there was no reason for me to stay in the reception hall. After the scene with my fam ily I felt like everyone was staring at me. I was, after all, the girl with the freaky Marks and the nightmare family. I took the short est way out of the reception hall--the sidewalk that led outside through the pretty little courtyard that the windows of the dining hall looked out onto. It was a little after midnight, which was--yes--a totally weird time for a parent open house, but the school begins classes at 8:00 P.M., and finishes up at 3:00 A.M. On the surface it seemed to make more sense to have parent visitation begin at 8:00, or maybe even an hour or so before school started, but Neferet had explained to me that the point was that parents accept their child's Change, and understand that days and nights would for ever be different for them. On my own I decided that another plus of making the time inconvenient is that it gave a lot of par ents the excuse they needed not to come, without outright telling their kid, Hey--I don't want anything to do with you now that you're turning into a bloodsucking monster. Too bad my parents hadn't taken that out. I sighed and slowed down, taking my time following one of the winding paths through the courtyard. It was a cool, clear November night. The moon was almost full, and its bright silver light was a pretty contrast to the antique gaslights that illuminated the court yard with their soft yellow glows. I could hear the fountain that sat in the middle of the garden, and I automatically changed direction so that I was heading toward it. Maybe the soothing tinkle of the water would help my stress level ... and help me forget. When I rounded the curve that led to the fountain I was walk ing slowly, and daydreaming a little about my new almost-boyfriend, the totally delicious Erik. He was away from the school for the yearly Shakespeare monologue competition. Naturally, he'd finished first at our school, and had advanced easily to the Houses of Night international competition. It was Thursday, and he'd only been gone since Monday, but I missed him like crazy and couldn't wait till Sunday when he was supposed to get back. Erik was the hottest guy at our school. Hell, Erik Night might be the hottest guy at any school. He was tall, dark, and handsome--like an old-time movie star (without the latent homosexual ten dencies). He was also incredibly talented. Someday soon he was going to join the rank of other vamp movie stars like Matthew McConaughey, James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Hugh Jack man (who is totally gorgeous for an old guy). Plus, Erik was truly a nice guy--which only added to his hotness. So I will admit to being preoccupied with visions of Erik as Tristan and me as Isolde (only our passionate love story would have a happy ending), and didn't notice that there were other people in the courtyard until a raised male voice shocked me with how mean and disgusted it sounded. "You are one disappointment after another, Aphrodite!" I froze. Aphrodite? "It was bad enough that your getting Marked meant that you couldn't go to Chatham Hall, especially after everything I