Untamed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast

Rejected by both her boyfriends and her former friends, Zoey walks alone at the House of Night. but when Aphrodite tells her that unless her friends take her back, she will soon be killed, will they listen to the girl that they all hated beforehand?

Now, Aphrodite is the one who is upset when she finds out that she hasn't come through her ordeal with Stevie Ray unscathed. She's lost her earth affinity, and she's also become Unmarked. She's no more than an ordinary human, but keeps that to herself by drawing a crescent moon mark on her forehead with makeup. And with Neferet saying that Aphrodite's lost powers are a result of Nyx's rejection of her, Aphrodite is really starting to believe it.

So Zoey summons the spirit of Nyx to reassure Aphrodite, and Nyx reveals that her Earth Affinity abilities were only temporary- she was only given them until they could be returned to their rightful holder. And she lost her mark because her humanity resurged when she was willing to lose her life to bring back Zoey's closest friend from the Undead. But Nyx still loves her, and Aphrodite is still her child- which brings the former bitch to tears of joy.

In no time, Aphrodite has convinced Zoey's friends to take her back, and Zoey tells them everything she kept back from them to protect them. If Neferet is declaring war on the humans, they'll need to know.

Meanwhile, the school gets an unexpected visitor- the ancient High Priestess Shekinah, who is older, wiser, and more powerful than Neferet. She stops the war with the humans merely by declaring it so, and tells Neferet to let the humans find the culprits in the Vampire killings. She also takes Zoey under her wing and takes over Neferet's role as her mentor. Meanwhile, the Sons of Erebus, the male vampire guardians Neferet has summoned to protect the school, will stay. And new teachers will be coming to replace the ones the school has lost.

The biggest surprise for Zoey is that Eric Night will be returning as the School's drama teacher- at the request of Shekinah. But Zoey gets little joy out of it, knowing that he now hates her- and she still has him as a teacher. However, Shekinah thinks Zoey's idea of working with the Cat Rescue people is wonderful, and gives Zoey the go-ahead to begin.

During all this, Zoey discovers that Aphrodite has had another vision, and written a poem in her Grandma Redbird's handwriting. Zoey immediately calls her Grandmother, and discovers that the poem refers to a fallen God from Cherokee myth called Kalona, imprisoned under the earth in its embrace- the one place he cannot escape. But already his children, known as the Raven Mockers, are roaming free, awaiting his rise. Can Zoey's grandmother give her the help she needs?

At school, Zoey and Aphrodite go to work at the Cat Rescue with the nuns who run the place. While Zoey finds the Nuns very accepting of her faith in Nyx and the magic powers she wields, Aphrodite finally finds a cat of her own, a massive Persian named Maleficent. But Zoey is troubled by another newcomer to school, a Master Bowman named Stark who has the power to hit whatever he is aiming at, no matter where he points his arrow.

He doesn't want to use his bow, because he killed his mentor by accident with his power, not realizing he had it. And he promises to use it on Zoey's behalf when she demonstrates her power to protect herself with his magic. But his death soon after his promise makes her sad and angry, because she knows that Neferet will somehow resurrect him and use him in her undead vampire army.

Meanwhile, Eric shows how angry he is at her by using her to improvise a scene from Othello- the one where Othello strangles Desdemona. Of course, it soon becomes less about Othello and Desdemona than about Eric and Zoey. and afterwards, Zoey tells him what he really saw, and that she considers it the biggest mistake of her life. Eric leaves, leaving Zoey both sad and angry.

Grandma Redbird comes to stay with Zoey for a while, and helps her take on one of the Raven Mockers. Meanwhile, Shekinah thinks that Zoey and the Other Dark Daughters should do a ritual before the New Year to cleanse the evil and dark influences from the school. But when Grandma Redbird is injured in an accident that Zoey knows was nothing of the sort, Zoey nearly goes to pieces. She can't lose her Grandma!

But Kalona is waiting, and as Zoey plans using the ritual to introduce the red-marked vampires- a new race of vampires- to the school, Neferet and Shekinah, and show everyone that her best friend is still alive, Neferet has her own plans for the ritual. Can Zoey and all her friends survive the resurrection of Kalona and fight against him to survive?

Another excellent, excellent book. The tension keeps ramping up in every volume of this series. Now, we know that Neferet is up to something bad, but thought it was the war against the humans. Denied that, she has gone back to something worse- and she's no longer listening to Nyx or what the Goddess wants. As the Goddess points out when she appears to Zoey and Aphrodite, she doesn't take back the gifts she gives to people and so she can't do that to Neferet. She gave everyone free will, so Neferet can only be stopped by other vampires- like Zoey.

We get the clue early on that not only has Neferet stopped listening to the Goddess, but she started listening to someone else. That someone, it turns out, is Kalona. But here is something I think that will come back to bite Neferet real hard on the ass, because Kalona- while he may desire human women like a junkie desires their next fix, also despises women for the same reason- because he can't say no to them. And I don't think that Neferet is going to be immune to him hating her as much as he wants to bed her.

I think that the minute he gets tired of her, he'll dump her on the ash-heap, and it's going to be far, far too late for her to change her mind about having him around at that point. Definitely a case of "Be careful what you wish for..." And did I mention this book is awesome with a side of awesome sauce and a garnish of completely awesome? At this point, this series is my favorite of all time, and I can't recommend it enough. Things are looking quite bleak for Zoey and her friends at the end of the book, but I have no doubt they will deal with it somehow.