There were a bunch of whoohoos accompanied by arm pumps coming from the seats behind Stevie Rae. I grinned, realizing her family had made the drive up from Henrietta. Stevie Rae kissed Rephaim quickly, then hurried to the stage.

“Aphrodite!”

All of the Sons of Erebus Warriors, led by Darius, stood and applauded loudly as Aphrodite flipped by her hair and gracefully came up to the stage.

“Shaunee!”

“That is right! Good job, Shaunee!” Detective Marx called, as he and the other TPD members, along with Erik Night all cheered and whistled.

“Shaylin!”

I was happy to see that Erik had stood and high-fived her as she walked past him—after Nicole kissed her smack on the lips.

“Lenobia!”

A big cowboy whooped and waved his appropriately white hat as the Horse Mistress, looking ethereally beautiful, made her way to the stage.

“And the last name I call is the first male to be a member of any vampyre High Council. Damien!” I said. And I joined the clapping and cheering as Damien, blushing but smiling, smoothed his impeccably tailored shirt, hugged Adam Paluka, and hurried to join us.

My friends spread out on either side of me, all looking to me for what was to come next. I swallowed my nerves and sat. They followed my lead, taking the seats waiting for them.

Okay, it wasn’t like the Vampyre High Council that still reigned in Europe from San Clemente Island. We didn’t have stone thrones and big rules about how everyone in the crowd had to act. Nor did we exclude humans from our auditorium/High Council Chamber. Right up front we’d decided to do things way differently here. To start with, we’d decided that our “thrones” would be stools with comfy padded seats that were decorated in the school’s plaid of purple, blue, and green on a black background. As I perched on mine, I continued the ceremony.

“Now I want to call to the stage our Vampyre poet laureate, Kramisha, who is also a Prophetess of Nyx. She is going to swear us in as your new High Council. Kramisha, come on up!”

The red fledglings all cheered super loud as Kramisha clomped up the stairs to the stage. She was wearing her favorite six-inch gold patent-leather stiletto boots, which matched her gold bobbed wig. She had one of her lavender-colored notebooks with her, and as she took the microphone Grandma offered her, she opened it and moved into position facing us.

“Is you ready?”

“Yes,” said the seven of us.

“Then say what I say, and know that this oath be binding from now until you’s dead.”

“Uh, or until our first four-year term is up and the North American House of Nights vote us back into our positions,” I corrected her quickly.

“Yeah, what Z says.” Kramisha nodded, totally unrattled. When she began speaking the words of the oath, her voice changed, was amplified, and seemed as if a silently watching Nyx had suddenly breathed power into her.

New times call for new places, faces.

Balance restored, we now look ahead.

Kramisha paused. Together, the seven of us repeated the binding words of her poem:

Our tests were great, but we stayed true.

Our losses were great, but we came through.

Again she paused and we repeated her words:

Tonight we pledge to stand in the Light.

To lead with wisdom, love, and might.

As I spoke the words with my six friends, I prayed that Nyx would help me, help them, to continue to grow in wisdom, to be filled with love, and to always show others the respect they deserved as I wielded my Goddess-given might.

Behold! The new High Council you see!

So we have chosen; so mote it be!

As we repeated the last lines of the oath, the seven of us stood and, as one, bowed to the crowd, who all erupted in riotous cheers.

“Okay, Z. Now tell ’em the rest of it,” Stevie Rae said. “After all, it was your awesome idea.”

I nodded, nervous again, but faced the crowd and finished what I’d started. “As you guys know, we plan on being a totally new kind of High Council because we want the world to see a totally new kind of vampyre.” The crowd instantly quieted, listening intently. “Part of what I decided, well, what we decided, all seven of us, was that we weren’t going to stay here, shut away from what’s really going on in the outside world.”

“And grow cobwebs from our butts,” Stevie Rae added, causing laughter to ripple through the audience.

“Well, yeah, something like that,” I said, grinning at my BFF. “So, starting tomorrow, your High Council is going to go out into the country, visiting different Houses of Night, listening to the problems and concerns of normal, everyday vampyres and fledglings, as well as the humans who live in their nearby communities.” I drew a deep breath, and irrevocably scattered my friends.

“Stevie Rae, you’ll go to the north.”

“So mote it be,” she said, smiling, though her eyes were filled with tears.

“Damien, you’ll go to the east.”

“So mote it be,” he agreed solemnly.

“Shaunee, you’ll go to the south.”

“So mote it be,” she intoned.

“Shaylin, you’ll go to the west.”

“So mote it be,” she said, smiling kindly at me.

“And I will stay here with thee,” Aphrodite said, her gaze wise and steady on mine.

“So mote it be,” I agreed. I turned to the audience and said, “Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again. And may you all blessed be!”

Everyone clapped, this time more soberly than before. Obviously, a bunch of people were shocked at the decision my Council and I had made, but I felt good about it. And, judging by the looks on my friends’ faces, they felt good about it, too. We’d all seen how messed up things could get when a High Council lost touch with its people. We were determined that wouldn’t happen to us.

But I had one more thing I needed to do, one thing I hadn’t told my friends about. I turned to them and said, “Guys, before you go, we need to circle one last time.”

“Circle? Right now, Z?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Circle yes, and now, kinda. Would you come with me? It’s easier to show you than to explain,” I said.

“Z, if you need us, we’ll always come with you,” Damien said.

“I’ll pull the Hummer around,” Stark said.

“I’ve already gathered your ritual candles and put them in my basket,” Grandma said.

“Fine, let’s go. The Herd of Nerds rides again,” Aphrodite said.

“I thought the city agreed to build a wall around this part of the park to keep gawkers out,” Aphrodite said, frowning at the blacked front of the sealed stone grotto.

“They did. But I asked them to wait until after today,” I explained.

“What’s up, Z?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Well, here’s the deal. Aurox won’t leave me alone,” I said.

“Aurox? Isn’t he over there, keeping Neferet from getting out here?” Shaylin asked, pointing at the grotto.

“He is, but he’s also in my dreams,” I told my friends.

“What kind of dreams?” Aphrodite asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t really know. I can’t remember anything from them except that Aurox keeps calling my name, and no matter how many times I try to answer him, I can’t reach him. But I know he’s there. I know he needs me.”

“What do you think it means?” Damien said.

“Well, I think it means he is trapped and I need to free him,” I said.

“Wait, no. If you let him out of there”—Aphrodite jerked her chin at the grotto—“Neferet and her disgusting minions will escape.”

“Actually, I don’t think that’s what will happen. I’m not going to let out Aurox’s Old Magick. I’m just going to release his soul.”

“But his soul’s already gone. We saw it that night, right before he charged the grotto, and it was definitely Heath, who definitely got out of that bull’s body,” Stevie Rae said.

“Yeah, see, here’s the thing about that—I don’t believe Aurox was soulless without Heath. I believe Aurox developed his own soul because of the choices he made, and that’s what’s trapped in there,” I said.