Marked

The first book in the House of Night series is set in a world much like our own, except that vampyres have always existed alongside humans. When certain teenagers undergo a physiological change triggered by hormones and a strand of otherwise dormant DNA, a vampyre Tracker Marks them with a crescent moon outline on their foreheads, designating them as fledglings who must attend a vampyre boarding school or die as their bodies reject the transformation.

Zoey Montgomery is a sixteen-year-old student at South Intermediate High School in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. One afternoon, a vampyre Tracker appears at her locker, speaks ceremonial words, and Marks her. Zoey collapses in pain as a crescent moon outline appears on her forehead. Her best friend Kayla physically cringes away, and Zoey understands she now faces two possible futures: complete the Change at the House of Night school in Tulsa, or have her body reject the Change and die.

In the parking lot, Zoey's almost-boyfriend Heath, the school's quarterback, sees her Mark and loudly announces it. When his hand gets scraped, Zoey is overwhelmed by the scent of his blood, experiencing an unfamiliar craving that terrifies her. She drives home hoping for comfort from her mother, Linda, but Linda's husband, John Heffer, an Elder of the People of Faith, a conservative religious group, dismisses the Marking as a consequence of bad behavior and plans to have church Elders pray over Zoey rather than let her leave. Zoey confronts her mother about years of neglect since the remarriage, then escapes through her bedroom window and drives to her Grandma Redbird's lavender farm.

Climbing the bluffs near the farm, Zoey's symptoms worsen. She perceives Cherokee ancestral spirits, panics, and trips, hitting her head. Her spirit separates from her body and follows a trail of blood into an underground cave, where she encounters a beautiful woman who tells Zoey to call her Nyx, the vampyre Goddess. Nyx declares Zoey special, a blend of ancient Cherokee Wise Woman blood and modern understanding, and names her to serve as the Goddess's eyes and ears in a world where good and evil struggle for balance. Nyx kisses Zoey's forehead, and Zoey loses consciousness.

She awakens in the House of Night infirmary. Grandma Redbird found her unconscious and drove her to the school. Using her grandmother's compact mirror, Zoey discovers her crescent moon Mark has filled in completely with sapphire blue, something unprecedented for a fledgling. Neferet, the school's High Priestess, introduces herself as Zoey's mentor. She possesses Goddess-given affinities for cats and healing. A gut instinct tells Zoey not to reveal her vision of Nyx, so she claims memory loss. Neferet pledges Zoey's safety to Grandma Redbird, and Zoey officially takes the surname Redbird.

As Neferet walks Zoey through the campus, she explains that classes run from 8 P.M. to 3 A.M. When Neferet is called away, Zoey stumbles upon a disturbing scene in a shadowed alcove: a blonde girl slashing a teenage boy's thigh with her fingernail and licking his blood. Zoey's mouth waters at the sight, and the boy's eyes lock with hers before she runs.

Zoey meets her roommate, Stevie Rae Johnson, a friendly girl from Henrietta, Oklahoma, after a tense introduction by Aphrodite, a pretty blonde who leads the Dark Daughters, the school's elite student organization. Once alone, Aphrodite warns Zoey that she controls the social hierarchy. Zoey recognizes Aphrodite's laugh as belonging to the girl from the hallway. At dinner, Stevie Rae introduces Zoey to Damien Maslin, a smart, openly gay boy; Erin Bates from Tulsa; and Shaunee Cole, a girl of Jamaican descent from Connecticut whom everyone calls Erin's "Twin" because of their identical tastes. They explain that the Dark Daughters are nominally dedicated to leadership but operate as bullies, with Aphrodite being groomed as a future High Priestess due to her affinity for prophetic visions. Aphrodite invites Zoey to the Dark Daughters' private Full Moon Ritual, and Zoey's friends confirm she cannot refuse.

Zoey begins classes. The House of Night organizes students into "formers," year levels similar to traditional grades. In Drama class, Erik Night, a charismatic fifth former, performs a scene from Othello and locks eyes with Zoey. She realizes he is the boy from the hallway and learns he and Aphrodite broke up months ago. That same day, a fledgling named Elizabeth dies, the first sign that the Change can be fatal. At the school-wide Full Moon Ritual, Neferet casts a circle by invoking the five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. As each element is called, Zoey experiences vivid physical sensations no one else seems to feel. She silently wishes to belong.

At the Dark Daughters' private ritual, Aphrodite deliberately fails to warn Zoey that the ritual wine contains fledgling blood. Zoey drinks deeply and finds the taste delicious. Only afterward do Aphrodite's friends reveal the contents. Zoey realizes the enticing scent she has detected since being Marked has always been blood. She flees and vomits. Recovering by a large oak tree, she rescues a small orange tabby she names Nala. Atop the school wall, she spots a figure with glowing red eyes and recognizes Elizabeth, who is supposedly dead. The figure shrieks and vanishes. Then Heath and Kayla appear outside the wall. When Zoey accidentally scratches Heath's wrist, the scent triggers bloodlust, and she licks the wound. Heath enters a trance, murmuring he will do anything she wants, before Kayla's screams break the spell and Zoey forces both to leave.

Erik appears, having followed from the rec hall. He explains that bloodlust normally develops years later in the Change, making Zoey's reaction unusual. He also explains Imprinting: When a vampyre drinks directly from a living human, a bond can form that causes the human to become obsessively infatuated, which is why fledglings are forbidden from drinking human blood. Stevie Rae later reveals Aphrodite once lured her to a ritual to use her as a blood donor. Zoey visits Neferet and confesses the bloodlust and the encounter with Heath. Neferet instructs her to avoid all contact with Heath, gives her an advanced textbook, and shares her own painful history of childhood abuse. Grandma Redbird, reached by phone, responds without judgment and instructs Zoey to perform a Cherokee purification prayer using a smudge stick of sage and lavender.

Zoey surprises Aphrodite by enthusiastically accepting Dark Daughters membership. When Aphrodite later confronts Zoey about pursuing Erik, Zoey catches Aphrodite's clawing hand with surprising strength and flings her backward, demonstrating new physical power. Zoey's friends insist on joining the purification prayer. That evening, Zoey assigns each friend an element and invokes them in sequence. Each element physically manifests, and when she calls spirit, all four converge on her while a glowing silver ribbon of light connects her friends around the circle. Each friend reports feeling the element they represented, confirming Zoey possesses an unprecedented affinity for all five elements.

Elliott, the fledgling coerced into being the Dark Daughters' blood donor, dies violently in class as his body rejects the Change. Zoey is horrified to realize the delicious scent she noticed was his lifeblood. She then finds Aphrodite experiencing a fragmented vision about death and things "not natural." Aphrodite fixes her gaze on Zoey and whispers, "You... you know," then screams. Zoey's phone reveals obsessive messages from Heath, suggesting the Imprint has taken hold. That night, she encounters Elliott near the school wall, impossibly solid, with glowing red eyes, confirming that dead fledglings are returning as something unnatural.

Aphrodite leads the Dark Daughters to the Philbrook Museum for the Samhain ritual, a celebration honoring ancestors. She casts a circle and burns sweet grass to summon ancestral spirits but dangerously omits burning sage first to purify the space. Stevie Rae sits at the central table, having volunteered as the blood donor to learn the location and alert the others. Heath, drunk, crashes the ritual. Aphrodite refuses to contain the spirits, and her followers abandon their positions, breaking the circle. The spirits escape and attack Heath. Damien, Stevie Rae, Shaunee, and Erin take up the abandoned positions, and Zoey casts a new circle. She commands the elements in Nyx's name, and a shining green mist erupts from her hands, drawing the spirits back inside the boundary. She orders them to take the spilled sacrifice and depart. They dissolve.

As the circle closes, sapphire tattoos spread across Zoey's face, neck, and back, markings unprecedented for a fledgling. Neferet steps from the shadows, heals Erik, erases Heath's memory, and strips Aphrodite of her leadership. She presents the silver-and-garnet leadership necklace to Zoey, naming her the new Leader of the Dark Daughters and Sons and High Priestess in training. Aphrodite intercepts Zoey one final time, warning that the night's events are "only beginning" and that they are all "puppets." Zoey connects Aphrodite's vision to her encounters with the undead fledglings and realizes Aphrodite knows something she has yet to reveal. Stevie Rae reassures Zoey that whatever comes, they will face it together, and Zoey walks home surrounded by her friends, with the mysteries of the ghostly fledglings and Aphrodite's warnings unresolved.