Betrayed Read Online Free PDF Page B

kid students rarely missed class. Neferet was watching me, and I remembered that she was an intuitive and she could probably sense the ridiculous babble going on in my head. I sighed. “It’s Dark Daughters stuff. I want to come up with some new leadership ideas.”
    She looked pleased. “Anything I can help you with?”
    â€œProbably, but I need to do some research and get my ideas straight first.”
    â€œVery well, come to me when you’re ready. And feel free to spend as much time in the media center as you need,” Neferet said.
    I hesitated. “Do I need a pass?”
    She smiled. “I am your mentor and I have given you permission, what more could you need?”
    â€œThanks,” I said, and hurried out of the classroom feeling stupid. I would be so glad when I’d been at the school long enough to know all the little inside rules. And, anyway, I don’t know what I’d been so worried about. The halls were deserted. Unlike my old high school (South Intermediate High School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma—which is a totally boring suburb of Tulsa) there were no Napoleon Complex, overly tanned vice principals with nothing better to do than to prowl the halls harassing kids. I slowed down and told myself to relax—jeesh, I’d been stressed out lately.
    The library was in the front center area of the school in a cool multilevel room that had been built to mimic the turret of a castle, which fit in well with the theme of the rest of the school. The whole thing looked like something out of the past. That was probably one of the reasons it had attracted the attention of the vamps five years ago. Then it had been a stuck-up rich kids’ prep school, but it had originally been built as a monastery for the Saint Augustine People of Faith monks. I remember that when I asked how the prep school had been talked into selling to the vamps Neferet had told me that they’d made them a deal they couldn’t refuse. The memory of the dangerous tone her voice had taken still made my skin crawl.
    â€œ
Me-eeh-uf-ow!”
    I jumped and almost peed on myself. “Nala! You scared the crap outta me!”
    Unconcerned, my cat launched herself into my arms, and I had to juggle notebook, purse, and small (but chubby) orange cat. All the while Nala complained at me in her grumpy old lady cat voice. She adored me, and she’d definitely chosen me as her own, but that didn’t mean that she was always pleasant. I shifted her, and pushed open the door to the media center.
    Oh—what Neferet had told my stupid step-loser John had been the truth. Cats do roam free all over the school. They often followed “their” kid to class. Nala, in particular, liked to find me several times a day. She’d insist I scratch her head, complain a little at me, and then take off and go do whatever cats did with their free time. (Plot world domination?)
    â€œDo you need help with her?” the media specialist asked. I had only met her briefly during my orientation week, but I remembered her name was Sappho. (Uh, she wasn’t the
real
Sappho—that vampyre poet had died like a thousand years ago—right now we were studying her work in Lit class.)
    â€œNo, Sappho, but thank you. Nala doesn’t really like anyone except me.”
    Sappho, a tiny dark-haired vamp whose tattoos were elaborate symbols Damien had told me were Greek alphabet glyphs, smiled fondly at Nala. “Cats are such wonderfully interesting creatures, don’t you think?”
    I moved Nala to my other shoulder and she grumbled in my ear. “They’re definitely not dogs,” I said.
    â€œThank the Goddess for that!”
    â€œDo you mind if I use one of the computers?” The media center was lined with row after row of books—thousands of them—but it also had a very cool, up-to-date computer lab.
    â€œOf course, make yourself at home and feel free to call on me if