Hose of Night 3
PC and Kirstin Cast
Zoey has been depressed about her best friend, Stevie Rae, becoming a creature more like a typical vampire. She can’t tell any of her friends about it without putting everyone in danger. Damien comes to her door to get her for her birthday party and she starts to get depressed knowing she will hate all of her christmas themed birthday presents. They walk down to a small library off the main room in the girl’s dorm and her friends sing “Happy Birthday” to her. She kisses Erik and Jack arrives shortly after. He hands her a gift and she opens it first to find a snow globe with a snowman inside that plays “Frosty the Snowman.” He tells her there is a theme to her gifts and she tries to hide her disappointment.
After going through the rest of her Christmas themed birthday presents, Zoey acts like she is happy with them. Aphrodite stops by to deliver a small package that came in the mail for Zoey and then is chased out by Zoey’s friends. She opens the packaging and finds a bracelet with beach charms and hearts on it. She immediately loves it. Everyone is staring at her in disbelief as Erik hands her the card from Heath saying how he knows she hates christmas stuff for her birthday. She gets up to go so that she won’t be late meeting her grandmother, Sylvia. Everyone is upset she didn’t tell them about her preferences. Zoey tells them she told Stevie Rae before she leaves them.
Zoey meets Sylvia at Starbucks at the shopping plaza near the House of Night. Linda, her mom shows up and says she was invited. Zoey knows her grandmother never would have invited her along. Linda goes on to try to make Zoey feel guilty about not communicating with her. Sylvia changes the subject and gives Zoey her birthday presents: a lavender plant and a signed, first edition of Dracula. Linda gives Zoey a present next. Zoey is surprised when she opens it to find the Heffer family Bible. There is a bookmark and opens it to the family tree that shows her step-dad as her real dad. Linda tries to explain they want Zoey to know she is still part of their family. Zoey tosses the book back at her and calls out for John, who is standing nearby. She tell her mother she doesn’t want to see her until she is ready to accept her the way she is. Sylvia agrees and they walk away.
After leaving her mom and step-dad, Zoey and Sylvia go to a restaurant to finish talking. Zoey tells her what happened with her friends and Sylvia suggests she go home and fix it. She says she is going to, but heads downtown to find Stevie Rae instead. She says a prayer to Nyx and then does find her best friend drinking blood from a street person. Zoey whisks the person to safety using air and asks Stevie Rae to listen to her. Stevie Rae says Zoey’s attempts are pointless because she likes killing and drinking human blood. Zoey offers her one of her old outfits if she meets her the next night. Stevie Rae agrees, but says Zoey will be sorry for trying to help her.
Zoey goes to IHOP to think before returning to the House of Night. She isn’t in a hurry to get back to her dorm room even though the sun is starting to come up. She stops by the statue of Nyx and calls fire to light the green candle for Stevie Rae. She asks Nyx for help. When she is finishing up, Erik approaches her. They start talking and he explains he feels like she doesn’t like him or want him to touch her. She realizes she has been distant and blames it on everything that is going on in her life. He offers to listen to her problems and try to fix things, but Zoey gets a feeling that tells her not to tell him. She starts to kiss him and accidentally cuts his lip with her tooth. He tells her to drink, so she does. She likes it, but it doesn’t invoke the same passion as it does with Heath. Loren comes by and finds them with Erik’s hand up Zoey’s shirt.
Erik makes it a point to tell Loren that he and Zoey are a couple. When the Loren walks away, Zoey explains why the situation was embarrassing. Erik says Loren looks at her with longing and Zoey says she hasn’t noticed. They start kissing again but are interrupted by the twins, Damien and Jack. Erik suggests dates with Cole and T.J. for them and they get excited. They all agree to go see a midnight movie the next night as they go their separate ways.
The next day, Zoey leaves her friends behind to go to the library. She starts looking for books on the shelves that will help her find out what has happened to Stevie Rae. Loren comes in and she tells him she is researching for the ritual. He quotes Shakespeare and reminds her that he was a vampire that fell in love with a fledgling that didn’t survive the change. Zoey points out that relationships between vampires and fledglings are supposed to be forbidden, but he says there are attractions that can’t be ignored. He insinuates that is how he feels about her. THey start kissing and Zoey momentarily feels guilty for cheating on her boyfriend. He admits that he was upset seeing her with Erik. She tells him she wants to continue their relationship and he tells her they have to keep it a secret. He gives her a pair of diamond stud earrings and then offers to go back to his room to have sex. She isn’t ready, so she turns him down saying she has to meet her friends to practice the ritual. She asks when they will see each other again and he says he will find her.
Zoey goes to meet her friends and boyfriend to practice the ritual. She feels guilty about her tryst with Loren, but the twins make her laugh and almost forget it. Jack gives her a cylinder filled with fireplace matches for the ritual. Damien asks Zoey if she wants Jack to leave, but she tells him that he is part of the group now. They all get into their places and Zoey starts calling the elements as she lights her friends’ candles. She drops the match on her way to light Erik’s. Whens he gets another lit and tries to light the green candle for earth, it stings him and he drops it. Aphrodite appears and takes his place with the others protesting. Zoey gets a feeling that Nyx really did send her and finishes the circle, proving the goddess gave Aphrodite an affinity for earth.
None of Zoey’s friends want to accept Aphrodite into their circle. Zoey points out that they don’t have to follow Nyx’s wishes and puts it to a vote. They all agree to let Aphrodite take Stevie Rae’s place. Zoey scolds Aphrodite for lying in the circle when she tries to make it seem like she doesn’t care about anything. She bid the elements farewell and sends her friends along to IHOP and the movies telling them she will catch up. She walks with Aphrodite who tells her how her visions now put her in the perspective of the person in them. She knows about Stevie Rae and had a vision of Neferet putting her in direct sunlight to kill her. She had another vision indicating if this happened, a lot of vampires would die.
Zoey tells Stevie Rae what happened between her and Neferet. Aphrodite tells her she can’t bring Stevie Rae back to the House of Night because that is where she died in her vision. She offers to let Stevie Rae stay at the guest apartment above the garage at her parents house while they are away skiing. Zoey knows she has to get blood for Stevie Rae and Aphrodite tells her there are pouches of it in the kitchen. Zoey decides to skip the movie to get everything together and agrees to meet Aphrodite to go meet Stevie Rae.
Using a big bag, Zoey packs some of Stevie Rae’s clothes she retrieved from storage. She makes her way to the kitchen to stuff the bag the rest of the way with blood. On her way out, she runs into a fledgling named Ian who wants to be tutored by Professor Nolan for the next Shakespeare competition. Zoey makes her way to WalMart to get the rest of what she needs and then heads back to school to get Aphrodite. Erik calls just as she pulls up and isn’t happy that she stood him up. Aphrodite gets in the car and gives Zoey directions to her parents house. They go to the back of the garage and into the huge apartment above it. Zoey puts the blood in the fridge and warns Aphrodite to be nice to Stevie Rae because the undead vampire can probably rip her throat out. Aphrodite agrees to keep her mouth shut and Zoey leaves.
Zoey goes to the meeting place using her fledgling abilities to make herself invisible to humans. She doesn’t know if Stevie Rae has the same ability, so she tries to make it quick. She gives her friend a bag of blood and tells her there is more at the apartment. Stevie Rae is against staying away from the others because Neferet will know something is going on. Zoey tells Stevie Rae she has gone through a different kind of change than the normal vampires and points out that she doesn’t have to be around the adults anymore. As they walk, Stevie Rae tries to convince Zoey to sneak into someones house and share a teenage girls blood with her. Zoey keeps her moving until they get to the apartment. Aphrodite has to invite her in and Zoey sends her to the bathroom and goes to grab more blood packets. She gives everything to Stevie Rae who shoos her out. Zoey joins Aphrodite in the living room. Despite Zoey’s warning, Aphrodite is still shocked at Stevie Rae’s appearance and smell. She wants to talk about it, but Zoey says they will wait until Stevie Rae joins them.
When Stevie Rae comes out of the bathroom, Zoey is happy to see she looks more like her old self. She demands to know why Aphrodite is helping them and Zoey explains it is part of Nyx’s plan. Aphrodite isn’t nice about the situation and Stevie Rae starts to strangle her. Zoey asks Nyx for her help and tells Stevie Rae she can’t kill because she isn’t a monster. Aphrodite explains that she is helping to achieve atonement. They decide that at least part of her soul is missing and needs to be healed. Zoey decides that she will research souls and they will meet the next night after the Full Moon Ritual.
On the way back, Aphrodite insists Zoey drop her off at the trap door so they aren’t seen together. Zoey points out that Nyx wants her in Zoey’s circle and Aphrodite eventually agrees to rejoin the Dark Daughters. Aphrodite gets a strange feeling, but ignores it to sneak back into the House of Night. As Zoey is getting ready to head back to the garage, she hears her scream. Zoey rushes over to find Aphrodite vomiting. Zoey looks up and sees Professor Nolan has been killed - hung on a cross, staked and beheaded. Zoey gets Aphrodite back in her car and they come up with a story about Zoey picking Aphrodite up on her way back from her grandmothers. As soon as they get in the door, Neferet is there and Lebonia and Loren join shortly after. Zoey tells them what they found.
Zoey shows the adults where the body is and then Loren takes her back inside. He brings her to the kitchen and makes her food and wine that is mixed with blood. He tells her the note attached to the body indicates the murder was done by the People of Faith. He says they will retaliate and the warriors, the Sons of Erebus, would be swarming the school to keep them safe. Zoey has a feeling that she isn’t supposed to tell him about her new relationship with Aphrodite, so she keeps it safe. He starts kissing her. He walks her back to her dorm and kisses her goodbye after quoting Shakespeare. Zoey goes to her room and pulls the card from her mom and stepdad out of the trash to see it has a cross with a note on it. She calls her mom to ask her where she was that night, but her mom instantly thinks Zoey did something wrong. Zoey ends up regretting making the call and says goodbye to her mom. She lays down and goes to sleep.
Zoey wakes up that night because she can hear Heath in her head. She has a few text messages from him and decides she has to tell him it is really over. She also decides she has to stay away from Loren. She tells Heath she will meet him at Starbucks and then gets ready to leave. As soon as she opens her dorm door, Aphrodite is there to tell her they aren’t letting anyone off campus. She knows of a spot by the stables where a tree split by lightning makes it easy to get over the wall (rope tied to one of the branches will allow her to get back in). She then gives Zoey a canvas bag full of blood pouches for Stevie Rae. She cleaned out the kitchen since everyone is coming back immediately. Zoey takes the bag and leaves.
On her way out, Zoey’s friends ask her where she is going. She tells them she is going to break it off with Heath for good and not to tell Erik where she went. They agree and she leaves. As soon as she steps out the door, she runs into Darius, one of the Sons of Erebus. She sees that they are all over campus. She goes down the path and then makes her way through the grass. She stops to focus and make herself silent and invisible before continuing over the wall. She covers up her tattoo and then starts walking. Heath meets her on her way because Kayla and her new friends saw him and followed him to Starbucks. She asks what he remembers from the night he was kidnapped, but it isn’t much. She tries to tell him it is over, but he starts kissing her hand.
Zoey tries to tell him it is over again and that she wants a vampire like her, not a human. Heath cuts his neck and she can’t resist drinking his blood. She starts to grind against him and they end up on the ground with Zoey ridding him. A couple of boys start to heckle them and them start walking up. Zoey is afraid they will hurt Heath, so she uses wind to put them in the middle of the road. They are hit by a truck. Heath is surprised at her actions and reminds her that her goddess, Nyx, isn’t mean. He tells her that she can’t loose herself just because she is becoming a vampire. Then he tells her to get out of there before the police arrive and start asking questions. They agree to meet again and party declaring their love for each other.
Zoey is in a daze after what she did, but still makes it to Aphrodite’s house to deliver the blood to Stevie Rae. However, she forgets to become visible again as she enters the apartment and Stevie Rae almost attacks her. Zoey apologizes and tells her about her day and everything that has been going on. She gives her the blood and warns her to ration it as best she can. As Zoey is getting ready to leave for Neferet’s Full Moon ritual, Stevie Rae realizes she has been dead for a month. Zoey says she plans to cast a circle with Stevie Rae inside and ask Nyx for help. Stevie Rae wonders if now is the time to do it, but Zoey thinks it is a bad idea for her to come onto campus with the warriors there. She leaves with the promise to figure something out quickly because Stevie Rae’s humanity won’t last much longer.
After making it back over the wall, Zoey sees Neferet leading her friends to her full moon ritual. Neferet seems to smell her and Zoey’s cover faded. Her friends say Zoey always needs alone time before a ritual and they continue on their way. Neferet leads them outside the wall to where Professor Nolan was killed. They perform the ritual there and Neferet makes a barrier around the entire school so that she will be aware of everyone’s comings and goings. Zoey knows she will have to find a way to sneak blood to Stevie Rae. Afterwards, Loren comes up to Zoey to tell her he will meet her in the rec hall for her own ritual. Erik is jealous and Zoey tries not to feel too guilty.
Zoey hurries back to her room to change before the Dark Daughters ritual and Aphrodite meets her at the door. Zoey tells her about Neferet’s spell that will alert her of anyone coming to or leaving the House of Night. Aphrodite stops to flirt with a Son of Erebus so that they will not enter the rec hall together. When they are all in place, Zoey starts the circle and lets her form turn to mist as she dances to the music and the poem Loren reads. When she comes to Aphrodite, she assures everyone that it is not by mistake. She finishes the ritual and is pleased with how everything went until Erik starts screaming in pain.
Zoey immediately goes to Erik, who is curling up in pain. Aphrodite tells her that he is completing the change, not dying. Damien and Jack leave to get Neferet. After the change is complete, the high priestess takes Erik to complete the purification rituals. Zoey is numb as everyone eats and then clears out. Her friends start cleaning up and she tells them she will finish because she needs some time alone to process everything that is happening. Once they are gone, she starts crying. Loren comes in and tells her he sensed that she needed him. He has her drink his blood and then rips off her dress to drink from her. Their new imprint breaks the bond between Zoey and Heath. Zoey has sex with Loren.
After their fornication, Zoey remembers her other boyfriends. Loren explains the breaking of the bond with Heath would only temporarily hurt him. She pushes aside the thought of Erik. Loren asks her to tell him about what has been bothering her. Zoey ignores the feeling in her gut telling her not to and tells him about Stevie Rae. She leaves out the parts with Neferet or Aphrodite’s involvement. Loren doesn’t seem to believe that Zoey and Aphrodite aren’t friends, so Zoey lies to try to convince him. Erik walks in to find them together and storms out. Zoey and Loren get dressed and he promises he will find her the next day. They go their separate ways. As Zoey is walking back to her dorm, Erik is waiting.
Erik demands to know why Zoey would hurt him like she has. Zoey tries to tell him that she didn’t mean for him to find out that way, but it isn’t very comforting to him. He calls her a slut and tells her that Loren is just using her. He predicts that he will dump her soon when he grows tired of her. He leaves her standing there and takes off. Zoey is upset, so she starts to go to Loren’s room. When she gets there, the door is slightly open. She overhears Loren talking to Neferet about how much of a chore it is to have to seduce Zoey to get information when he really only wants to be with Neferet. Neferet tells him it is only until they isolate Zoey from her friends. Zoey watches as they start groping each other until Neferet looks right at her. Zoey takes off and starts running. She absent mindedly ends up near the part in the wall with the trap door. Darius is there and says she was probably drawn there because it is a place of power. She asks him to give her some time alone and he agrees after warning her that if she tries to leave, she will be surrounded by the sons of Erebus within minutes. Zoey sits in the grass and cries.
Aphrodite leads Damien and the twins to Zoey. Jack and Erik join them shortly after. Erik tells them all that Zoey is having sex with Loren and then starts digging into her. Aphrodite uses her affinity for earth to get him to back off and tells him to leave. After he is gone, Zoey starts to explain, but is interrupted by Stevie Rae’s arrival. She says she got a text message from Zoey telling her to meet her there. Zoey realizes Loren must have taken her phone. Everyone is happy to see her, but she tries to tell them she is different. She tells Zoey that she either needs to fix her immediately or let her finish becoming a monster. Aphrodite points out that Neferet’s spell only alerts her of humans, vampires, or fledglings that come and go from the House of Night. Neferet should not be alerted about Stevie Rae’s presence because she is none of those. Damien and the twins gather round to hug a reluctant Stevie Rae.
After Zoey tells them what has been going on (leaving out Neferet’s involvement to keep them safe), Damien, Jack, and the twins are furious with Zoey for lying to them about Stevie Rae. She tries to explain that she couldn’t tell them, but doesn’t want to endanger them. They agree to cast the circle and try to heal Stevie Rae. Zoey sends Jack away so that he doesn’t get hurt. She goes around to each of her friends to invoke the elements, but Stevie Rae gets mad when she realizes Aphrodite is representing earth. She rushes at her and starts drinking her blood. Zoey isn’t able to get her off, so she completes the circle and throws a ball of elemental energy at them. Aphrodite holds Stevie Rae to her to get her to keep drinking from her. When the circle breaks, Stevie Rae is crying. She has changed into a full new type of vampire with her red crescent and tattoos.
Darius leads a group of warriors to where Zoey and her friends are. They tell him Aphrodite was the one who left. He sends some men after her and tells the others Neferet has called an assembly. As they start walking back with everyone ignoring Zoey, she suddenly collapses in pain. Darius starts to carry her, but the pain eventually stops and she is fine. He tries to get her to go to the infirmary, but she insists she is okay. They go to the assembly and Neferet announces that if there is another act from the humans against vampires, she will have to declare a state of war. Darius returns and talks to Neferet quietly. She then announces that Loren was killed. Zoey’s friends stare at her and she realizes the pain she felt was the breaking of the imprint they had. Zoey rushes out. Neferet comes up to her and tells her his death is her fault. He felt her pain and thought she was the one who crossed the barrier. Zoey calls Neferet out on being evil. The high priestess points out that Zoey doesn’t have any allies, but Zoey feels the elements around her and uses them to push Neferet down. She reminds her mentor that Nyx is still with her. Later, Zoey checks on her new tattoos around her waste. She goes back to her dorm and Nyx warns her to be ready for what is coming.