House Of Night

Betrayed (Aphrodite's POV)

Summary: Set in "Betrayed" book, but in Aphrodite's POV, starting when Aphrodite and her parents are arguing in the courtyard by the fountain.

It was dark. For normal people, it would be evening. I'm a fledgling, so evening is day for fledglings and vampyres. It was parent visitation day and my parents, and I were outside by the fountain in the courtyard.

"You are one disappointment after another, Aphrodite!" my dad yelled.

"It was bad enough that your getting Marked meant that you couldn't go to Chathom Hall, especially after everything I did to be sure you were accepted," my mother said in a brittle, cold voice.

"Mother, I know. I said I was sorry."

I sat on the stone bench closest to the fountain. My mom was standing in front of me and my dad was pacing.

"Have you forgotten that your father is the Mayor of Tulsa?" my mom snapped viciously.

"No, no, of course not, mother."

My mom continued on. "Spinning a descent slant on the fact that you're here instead of on the East Coast preparing for Harvard was difficult enough, but we consoled ourselves with the fact that vampyres can attain money and power and success, and we expected you to excel in this"—she paused and grimaced distastefully. "rather unusual venue. And now we hear you're no longer leader of the Dark Daughters and have been rejected from High Priestess training, which makes you no different than any of the other riff-raff at this wretched school." She hesitated, then hissed to me in a whisper, "Your behavior is unacceptable."

"As usual you disappoint us."

"You already said that dad."

Like a striking snake, mom slapped me across the face so hard that you could hear the crack of skin against skin. I pressed my palm against my cheek and bowed my head. I fought against the urge to cry.

"Do not cry. I've told you before, tears mean weakness. At least do this one thing right and don't cry," mom snapped.

I slowly raised my head and took my hand from my cheek. "I didn't mean to disappoint you, mother. I'm really sorry."

"Saying you're sorry doesn't fix anything," she said. "What we need to know is what you're going to do about getting your position back."

"I—I can't do anything about it. I messed up. Neferet caught me. She took the Dark Daughters away from me and gave them to someone else. I think she's even considering transferring me to a different House of Night completely," I hopelessly said.

"We already know that!" mom raised her voice, clipping her words so that they seemed to be made of ice. "We talked to Neferet before we saw you. She was going to transfer you to another school, but we interceded. You will remain at this school. We tried to reason with her about giving your position back after perhaps some period of restruction or detention."

"Oh mother, you didn't?"

"Of course, we did. Did you expect us to just sit by while you destroy your future by becoming a vampire nobody at some nondescript foreign House of Night?"

"More than you already have," dad added.

"But it's not about me being on some kind of high school restriction. I messed up. Big time. That's bad enough but there's a girl whose powers are stronger than mine. Even if Neferet gets over being mad at me, she's not going to give me back the Dark Daughters. The other girl is better than I am. I realized that on Samhain. She deserves to be head of the Dark Daughters. I don't," I admitted, even though I hated to. By the way, Samhain is a special day. We all gather around and cast a special spell for Nyx. It's the day that we practically thank Nyx for what she has given us. It's the opposite of the Sabbath Day Christians hold every year.