Betrayed Chapter 11

Why is it that no author can ever get the police right? Ok, aside from the crime procedurals, some mysteries and a few exceptions in broader fiction. In a book like this, that’s set in our world—but with vampires!—you’d think PCK would do a little research like talk to a police officer and ask them how they investigate. For example, these detectives don’t need to be working in pairs.

Secondly, how would they know to talk to Zoey if they didn’t already know that pendant was a vampire symbol? Sure Zoey might have once met the victims but detectives don’t track down everyone who’s ever shaken hands with a murder victim. Yes, I know that Kayla told them Zoey was a blood drinking fiend but if they honestly believed Zoey was involved they’d have started with trying to establish Zoey’s whereabouts.

Thirdly, as they’re police in a town host to a vampire school, they’d have to know something about their culture. The part where they’re baffled by the pendant, and by Neferet referring to Samhain—when Zoey told them about Heath’s second impromptu visit—and then when Zoey mentions the DDs at the beginning of this chapter. That would be like police in San Francisco knowing nothing about Pacific Asian culture while patrolling Chinatown. It’s not only stupid but a quick way to alienate the people you’re trying to protect.

So yes, Zoey identifies the pendant as belonging to the leader of the DDs and the detectives are all, ‘UR, durr? Dark daugherps? Derp da derp?’ ‘Uhhhhh, duhhh, I didn’t know the dark had any kids, duuhhhh.’ They ask is she’s a member and Zoey tells them that she not only belongs to the DDs but she’s also their leader. So, logically, they ask if they can see her pendant. Now it’s time for Neferet to turn into a snot.

“Gentlemen, are you accusing Zoey of something?” Neferet said. Her voice was quiet, but the thread of outraged anger that ran through it brushed against my skin, causing my flesh to prickle and rise. I could see from the nervous glance the detectives shared that they felt it, too.

Ah, yes. The nebulous danger that Neferet poses. What’s she going to do? Hell, what can she do? Sic her cat on them? ‘Using my affinity for cats I will make them poop in your shoes while you sleep!’ They say they’re just asking questions and Zoey asks how he died. They say lacerations and blood loss and that he was completely drained of blood.

Considering the report of his body being found was just a few hours ago, I thought it was a bit quick for the autopsy to be done. Though I did look and I found an article on Discovery that said it can take around four hours. So either PCK did some actual research or it was a happy accident that this is plausible. Considering how everything else has been so far I know which one I believe.

Neferet says they should check the blood alcohol level in the corpse because he was a known drinker and blah blah blah. Also she says it’s not uncommon for coyotes to nibble on bodies after they were dead or even attack people. Getting a little defensive, aren’t we Neferet? The detectives say the body is still being tested and they’re sure it’ll have clues for them.

“Good. I’m sure one of the many things it will tell you is that the human boy was drunk, perhaps even high. I think you should look to more reasonable causes for this death than a vampyre attack. Now, I assume you’re done here?”

Yup, he was drunk and possibly high so whatever happened was clearly his fault. In fact, that’s what probably got him eaten by coyotes. There were a bunch of coyotes out there that are addicts and the only way to get their fix is to wait for a human to get high so they can eat them. Then they throw wild coyote sex parties that don’t end until the game wardens come to investigate.

Now that the detectives are being shooed away, they have one last question for Zoey. They ask where she was and she says at school. They are, of course, shocked that she could be going to night school. Which is doubly stupid. First for all the reasons mentioned above about culture. Second, night classes for colleges aren’t unheard of so it really wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine night classes for  high school.

“Perhaps you should do your own homework before questioning my students. Classes at the House of Night begin at eight P.M. and go till three A.M. Vampyres have long preferred the night.” The dangerous edge was still in Neferet’s voice. “Zoey was in class when the boy died. Now are we finished?”

And where might they do this homework, Neferet? Where can they go to learn about your school-for-the-incredibly-pale-who-aren’t-Warcraft-players? Is there a website with a schedule? Do you regularly talk with the locals and educate them at a seminar?

The detectives say they’re done with Zoey for now but they want to talk to Loren. Neferet says that he left the previous morning on the school’s private jet to the east coast to support students doing the international Shakespeare monologue contest. The cruelest part of that contest isn’t mocking the kids who show up, it’s making them comes hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles just to find out that there’s no such contest. Though that’s the only way to reliably harvest their tears.

We flash forward to Zoey trying to fall asleep at ten AM. Wow, that’s so strange and alien to us humans. Unless you’re a night person or ever had to stay awake late for some reason. She goes over all the details we’re already aware of in case the previous pages have burst into flames and become unreadable. Kayla probably told the police that Zoey was a killer, Zoey’s pendant is safe, Aphrodite had one but Neferet took it away and gave it to Zoey and they can’t figure out why the police need to talk to Loren.

So Zoey glances at the clock, see she’s got four hours to go before she pranks the FBI and then decides to waste more of our time. Zoey lays down and counts sheep which turns in to a prophetic dream. She sees Neferet slitting the throats of sheep and drinking from them until one of them turns into Chris. Then Neferet turns into Loren which startles her awake. Vampires drinking blood from a human? What a crazy nightmare that was, Zoey. She wakes up just after noon and decides it’s time to wander outside. Why? Probably because her intuition told her to.

I went into the bathroom and opened the little glass jar that held the concealer that completely covered fledgling tattoos. When I’d first arrived at the House of Night I’d had a mini-panic attack when I’d realized that until I entered the school grounds, I’d never seen a fledgling. I mean ever. Naturally, I thought that meant that the vamps kept fledglings locked inside the walls of the school for four years. It didn’t take long to find out the truth: fledglings had quite a bit of freedom, but if they chose to go outside the school walls they needed to follow two very important rules. First, they had to cover their Mark and not wear anything that bore any of the distinctive class insignias.

Is it really any wonder that the humans know nothing about vampires? When they go to those lengths to hide themselves, it’s no wonder people don’t like them. Also, Zoey says that they must stay around adult vampires for reasons not clear to science or else they’ll die. But they have a small window of a few hours that they can screw around and suffer no ill effects.

Zoey tries to wave away the disguise as not trying to hide or sneak around humans, oh no. See, it’s our fault that they have to do that. Seeing a fledgling doing normal teen things would make everyone freak out. You know, as opposed to showing them that they’re still basically people even if they’re not human. But no, continue the tradition of lying to people and spying on them. I’m sure that will win them over.

When Zoey steps outside, the little bit of light that’s coming through the clouds bothers her but not much. She gets in her car and opens the gate with the garage opener Neferet gave her. I have to wonder if that’s a Zoey privilege or for anyone who has a car on campus. She then drives to a Starbucks and gets a cappuccino and a big muffin which she eats while sitting under a tree.

Oh yes, and then Zoey brags about how everyone used to make fun of her because she shopped at the “chic midtown stores” rather than the mall. Aren’t we special, Zoey. You know some of us didn’t get to go shopping except for the once a year trip to the outlet mall. You know, the place where the big chains send the stuff they couldn’t sell in store so it’s discounted. But I’m sure you go a lot more crap for shopping at trendy adult stores than those of us who only got new clothes on birthdays and Christmas.

I failed to mention that she’s reading a newspaper. Zoey is walking that fine line between insufferable snot and hipster douche. She finds she can’t concentrate on the paper though. Zoey sense something it amiss. So she looks up from the movie page and sees Heath standing under a streetlight across from her.