Revealed

here?”
    “Two men were just murdered in Woodward Park. Someone with supernatural power killed them—power no human has. That’s why the officers and I came directly here.” His face was grim. His voice lacked any emotion.
    “And I was reminding the detective that our school is under lockdown. No fledgling or vampyre has left the campus since the night the mayor was killed,” Thanatos said.
    “I left campus. I went to Woodward Park. I slammed those two guys against the stone wall at the bottom of the ridge. I killed them.” My voice sounded as dead as the men, as dead as I felt.
    “Zoey! Why the hell would you say something like that?” Stark grabbed me and gave my shoulders a shake. “Snap out of it!”
    I stared at him, hardening my heart, freezing my feelings. “You need to stay here. I don’t want to see you again. I don’t want to see anyone. I did this. I deserve this.” I moved out of his grasp. As I walked toward Detective Marx I reached up, grasped the Seer Stone, and pulled, breaking the silver chain that held it. I handed it to Aphrodite. “Don’t let anyone except you or Sgiach touch this thing. You were right. It’s awake, and it’s bad.”
    Then I faced Detective Marx. “I’m ready to go with you.”
    He glanced from me to Thanatos. “I’ll wait for you to contact the High Council and abrogate their legal claim to responsibility for this fledging so that I can take her into custody.”
    “No,” I said. “Before this happened I had broken from the High Council. I don’t recognize their jurisdiction over me. I don’t recognize Thanatos’s jurisdiction over me. Treat me the same way you would anyone else who has confessed to being a murderer.”
    He sighed deeply and then pulled the handcuffs from his back pocket. “Zoey Redbird, you are under arrest for the murders of Richard Williams and David Brown.” He closed the cold cuffs around my wrists. “You have the right to remain silent. Should you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right to have an attorney present at your questioning. Should you not be able to afford one, an attorney will be appointed for you. Do you understand your rights?”
    “Yes. I don’t need an attorney. I confess that I killed those two men. I deserve to go to jail,” I said as
I deserve this … I deserve this …
echoed through my mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Neferet
    When she was finally ready to emerge from the den, rain bathed Neferet, cleansing her of the blood and dirt in which she had been clothed. The area was in utter chaos. Despite the rain, a fire raged in the park above her.
    Neferet thought it was a delightful greeting.
    She fed off the death and destruction around her, and used the energy she gleaned to conceal herself.
    Her auburn hair was slick against her body, like a living cloak. Neferet’s faithful threads, sated and pulsing with power, lifted her. As if she had commanded a thundercloud to do her bidding, Neferet floated from the park within a veil of thunder and lightning, mist and madness.
    She threw her head back, loving the caress of the rain as it slid down her bare skin, cleansing her. Her arms lifted, and tendrils of Darkness wrapped around them. She laughed at their cold, wicked touch.
    “Let us go home. We have so very much to do!” Moving through Midtown, the storm that was Neferet drifted toward downtown Tulsa and the penthouse she had made her own at the Mayo.
    “Ah, but not so quickly,” she purred to the Darkness that cradled her. “Shall we not go to dinner? I find that I am simply starving!”
    The threads of Darkness quivered with excitement, impatiently awaiting her command.
    Neferet reached out with her mind. Seeking … seeking … perverting the gift she had been given so many decades ago.
    She followed Fifteenth Street to the west, still seeking. It was at Boston Avenue that she felt the pull to the north.
    “True north! And all of those delicious souls pretending to be so very, very good!” Neferet shivered in pleasure. “All gathered together so very, very conveniently for me. It is as if they already knew to worship me.” She made a sweeping gesture to her right. “Take me there!”
    When she reached the cathedral Neferet commanded the threads to pause—to allow her to take in the perfection of her choice. The building was truly magnificent. It glistened in the rain. The upward spires of the main tower looked like teeth. The smaller spires