by P. C. Cast
“Good-bye,” I said softly. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“It was my pleasure, my lady,” he said. “Adieu.” He bowed to me, closing his fist over his heart in a respectful vampyre salute from a warrior to his High Priestess, and then he was gone.
In a haze of leftover shock and the lightheadedness Loren’s kisses made me feel, I practically stumbled up the stairs and to my room. I thought about going to see Aphrodite, but I was on the edge of total exhaustion and there was only one thing I had enough energy to do before I passed out. First, I dug into my wastepaper basket and found the two halves of the horrid birthmas card Mom and the step-loser had sent me.
I felt a sick jolt in my stomach as I held the edges together and saw that I’d remembered right. It had been a cross with a note staked to the middle of it. Yes. It did remind me eerily of what had been done to Professor Nolan.
Before I could change my mind, I took out my cell phone, drew a deep breath, and dialed the number. Mom answered on the third ring.
“Hello! It’s a blessed morning!” she said perkily. Clearly she hadn’t checked the caller I.D.
“Mom, it’s me.”
As I expected, her tone instantly changed. “Zoey? What’s happened now?”
I was too tired to play our usual mother-daughter games. “Where was John late last night?”
“What ever do you mean, Zoey?”
“Mom, I don’t have time for this crap. Just tell me. After you two left Utica Square, what did you do?”
“I don’t think I like your tone, young lady.”
I stifled an urge to scream in frustration. “Mom, this is important. Very important. As in life and death.”
“You’re always so dramatic,” she said. Then she gave a nervous little fake laugh. “Your father came home with me, of course. We watched a football game on TV and then we went to bed.”
“What time did he leave for work this morning?”
“What a silly question! He left about an hour and a half ago, as usual. Zoey, what is this about?”
I hesitated. Could I tell her? What had Neferet said about calling the police? Surely what had happened to Professor Nolan would be plastered all over the news later today. But not yet. Not now. And I knew darn well my mother couldn’t be trusted to keep anything quiet.
“Zoey? Are you going to answer me?”
“Just watch the news. You’ll see what it’s about,” I said.
“What have you done?” I realized she didn’t sound worried or upset, only resigned.
“Nothing. It’s not me. You better look closer to home for who did what. And remember, I don’t live at your home anymore.”
Her voice turned brittle. “That’s right. You most certainly do not. I don’t know why you’re even calling here. Didn’t you and your hateful grandmother say you weren’t going to talk to me anymore?”
“Your mother is not hateful,” I said automatically.
“She is to me!” my mother snapped.
“Never mind. You’re right. I shouldn’t have called. Have a good life, Mom.” I said, and hung up on her.
Mom had been right about one thing. I should never have called her. The card was probably just a coincidence anyway. I mean, there are only about a gazillion religious specialty stores in Tulsa and Broken Arrow. They all carry those crappy cards. And they all tend to look the same—either doves and waves washing over footprints in the sand, or crosses and blood and nails. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. Did it?
My head felt as woozy as my stomach felt sick. I needed to think, and I couldn’t think while I was so tired. I’d sleep and then try to figure out what I should do. Instead of throwing the card away, I put the two halves in the top drawer of my desk. Then I yanked off my clothes and pulled on my most comfortable pair of sweats. Nala was already snoring on my pillow. I snuggled next to her, closed my eyes, forced my mind to clear of terrible images and unspeakable questions, and instead concentrated on my cat’s purring until I finally drifted off into an exhausted sleep.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I knew the second Heath got back in town because he interrupted my dream. I had been lying out in the sun (see, clearly a dream) on a big, heart-shaped floatie in the middle of a lake made of Sprite (who knows?), when all of a sudden everything disappeared and Heath’s familiar voice burst into my skull.
“Zo!”
My eyes fluttered open. Nala was staring at me with grumpy green cat eyes.
“Nala? Did you hear something?”
The cat “mee-uf-owed,” sneezed, stood up long enough to pad around and around in a circle several times, then she plopped down and went right back to sleep.
“You’re really no help at all,” I said.
She ignored me.
I looked at the clock and groaned. It was seven o’clock. P.M. Jeesh, I’d slept for about eight hours but my eyelids were like sandpaper. Ugh. What did I have to do today?
Then I remembered Professor Nolan and the conversation with my mom and my stomach clenched.
Should I tell someone about my suspicions? As Loren had said, the People of Faith had already been implicated in the murder by the awful note that was left behind. So, did I really need to say anything about the fact that I wouldn’t be surprised if the step-loser was involved? Mom had made it clear to me that he’d been home all last night, and this morning. At least, that’s what she was saying.
Could she be lying?
A shiver went through my body. Of course she could be. She’d do anything for that disgusting man. She’d already proven that by turning her back on me. But if she was lying, and I told on her, then I’d be responsible for what happened to her. I hated John Heffer, but did I hate him enough to cause my mom to go down with him?
I felt like puking.
“If the step-loser is tied up in the murder, the police will figure it out. If that happens, nothing that comes of it will be my fault.” I said the words out loud, letting my voice calm me. “I’ll wait and see what happens.” I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. She was awful, but she was my mom, and I still remembered when she used to love me.
So I wasn’t going to do anything except try and put my mom and the step-loser out of my mind. Period. I mean it.
While I was attempting to continue to convince myself I’d made the right choice, I remembered what else was going on today. The Dark Daughters’ Full Moon Ritual. My heart sank into my clenching stomach. Normally, I’d be excited and a little nervous. Today I was just stressed. On top of everything else, having Aphrodite join our circle wasn’t going to be a popular move. Whatever. My friends were just going to have to deal with it. I sighed. My life seriously sucked. Plus, I was probably depressed. Didn’t depressed people sleep for, like, ever? I closed my bristly eyes, giving in to my self-diagnosis and was almost asleep when “Zoey baby!” screamed through my mind just as my alarm started bleating. Alarm? It was the weekend. I hadn’t set my alarm.
My cell phone was chiming with the little noise it made when I had a text message. Groggily, I flipped open the phone. Instead of finding one text message I found four.
Zo! Im bak!
Zoey I have to see u
Still luv you Zo
Zo? Call me.
“Heath.” I sighed and sat back on my bed. “Crap. This just keeps getting worse and worse.” What in the hell was I going to do about him?
He and I had Imprinted more than a month ago. He’d also been snatched by Stevie Rae’s gross undead-dead kids’ gang and almost killed. I’d played like I was the calvary (or at the very least Storm from X-Men) and rescued him, but before we could get totally away Neferet had showed up and zapped our memories. Because of my gifts from Nyx, I’d regained my memories. I didn’t have a clue if Heath remembered anything at all.
Okay, clearly he remembered that we Imprinted. Or that we’re still dating. Although we really weren’t. I sighed again. How did I feel about Heath? He’d been my on-again, off-again boyfriend since I was in third gr
ade and he was a fourth-grader. Truthfully, we’d mostly been on-again until he decided to have a deep and meaningful relationship with Budweiser. I so don’t want my young lad to be a drunk, so I dumped him, even though he hadn’t really seemed to understand he’d been dumped. Not even my being Marked and moving to the House of Night had made him understand we were through.
I guess my sucking his blood and making out with him probably hadn’t helped him realize we were supposed to be broken up, either.
Jeesh, I was turning into such a ho.
For about the zillionth time I wished I had someone I could talk to about all of my boy issues. Actually, counting Loren I should call them my boy-man issues. I rubbed my forehead and then tried to smooth my hair back into place.
Okay, I really needed to make a decision and get some of myself straightened out.
1. I liked Heath. I might actually love him. And the bloodlust thing with him was majorly hot, even though I’m not supposed to be drinking his blood. Did I want to break up with him? No. Should I break up with him? Definitely.
2. I liked Erik. I liked him a lot. He’s smart and funny and an honestly nice guy. His being the cutest, most popular fledgling at school didn’t hurt, either. And, like he’d reminded me more than once, he and I had a lot in common. Did I want to break up with him? No. Should I break up with him? Well, only if I kept cheating on him with guy number one and man number three.
3. I liked Loren. He existed in a whole other universe than Erik and Heath. He. Was. A. Man. An adult vampyre, with all the power and wealth and position that came along with it. He knew stuff that I was only beginning to guess at. He made me feel like no one had ever made me feel before; he made me feel like a real woman. Did I want to break up with him? No. Should I break up with him. Not just yes, but hell yes.
So it was obvious what I should do. I needed to break up with Heath (for real this time), keep dating Erik, and (like I had some sense) never, ever be alone with Loren Blake again.
Plus, with all the other crap going on in my life—as in my undead best friend, trying to deal with Aphrodite, who all my friends can’t stand, and the horror that had happened with Professor Nolan—I really didn’t have the time or energy it took for dating drama.
Not to mention the fact that I’m really not used to feeling ho-ish. It wasn’t a feeling I particularly liked. (Although the lifestyle did seem to come with good jewelry.)
So I made a decision, and this time it was one that called for action. Immediate action. I flipped open my phone and text messaged Heath.
We need to talk
His reply was almost instant. I could practically see his cute grin.
Yes! 2day?
I chewed my lip while I thought about it. Before I made my decision I pushed the thick curtain aside and peeked out the window. The day had stayed cloudy and cold. Good. That meant there would be less chance of people hanging around outside, especially since it was already dark. I was just trying to figure out where we should meet when my phone chimed again.
I can come 2 u
NO
I texted back quickly. The last thing I needed was for cute, clueless, and totally Imprinted Heath to show up at the House of Night. But where could I meet him? Getting away probably wouldn’t be easy, what with one of our professors having been killed. My phone chimed. I sighed.
Where?
Crap. Where? Then it hit me and I knew the perfect place. I smiled and texted Heath back.
Starbucks in 1 hr
OK!
Now all I had to do was figure out how to really break up with Heath. Or at least figure out a way I could keep him at a distance until the Imprint between us faded. If it faded. Surely it would fade.
I made my way blurrily to the bathroom and washed my face with cold water, trying to shock some awake into me. Not feeling like answering a barrage of questions about where I was headed, I tossed into my purse the jar of concealer that fledglings were required to wear whenever they went off school grounds to mingle with the local populace (which kinda made us sound like scientists doing field studies while they tried to blend in with the alien population). I suppose I really hadn’t needed to look out the window to see what the weather was like. My long dark hair was being extra crazy today, which could only mean rain and humidity. On purpose I picked out very unsexy clothes, deciding on a black tank top, my dorky Borg Invasion 4D hoodie, and my most comfortable pair of jeans. Keeping in mind that I needed to detour through the kitchen and grab a can of brown pop—fully leaded with sugar and caffeine—I opened my door to see Aphrodite standing there with her hand raised to knock.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey.” She looked furtively up and down the empty hall.
“Come on in.” I stepped aside and shut the door behind us. “I gotta hurry, though. I’m meeting someone off campus.”
“That’s part of why I’m here. They’re not letting anyone off campus.”
“They?”
“The vamps and their warriors.”
“The warriors are here already?”
Aphrodite nodded. “A bunch of the Sons of Erebus. They’re damn nice to look at—I mean truly, seriously hot—but they’re definitely going to be cramping our style.”
And then I realized what she was saying. “Ah, crap. Stevie Rae.”
“She’ll be out of blood by tomorrow. That is, if she’s not already. She was really pigging down those blood bags,” Aphrodite said with a little curl of her lip.
“I’ll call her and tell her to make them last, but we’re going to have to get more to her. Soon. Crap!” I said again. “I really need to not put off this, uh, appointment.”
“So Heath’s back in town?”
I frowned at her. “Maybe.”
“Oh, please. Your face is totally easy to read.” Then she lifted one of her perfectly plucked blond brows. “Bet Erik doesn’t know about this appointment.”
Keeping in mind that Aphrodite was Erik’s ex-girlfriend, and no matter how friendly she and I appeared to be getting I knew she would jump at the chance to latch back onto Erik, I shrugged nonchalantly. “Erik will know as soon as I get back. I happen to be going to break up with Heath. As if that’s any of your business.”
“I hear breaking an Imprint bond is next to impossible,” she said.
“That’s an Imprint with an adult vamp. It’s different for fledglings.” At least I hoped it was. “Plus, still not your business.”
“Okay. No problem. If it’s not my business that you need to get off campus, then there’s no reason for me to tell you how to sneak out of here.”
“Aphrodite. I do not have time for games.”
“Fine,” she started to turn to go and I stepped in front of her. “You’re being a bitch. Again,” I said.
“And you’re almost cussing. Again,” she said.
I crossed my arms and tapped my foot.
Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Okay, whatever. You can sneak out if you go to the part of the school wall closest to the stables—the section that’s near the edge of the little pasture. There’s a grove at the end of it and a tree there was split by lightning a couple years ago. It’s leaning against the wall. The split makes it easy to climb. Jumping from the top of the wall isn’t really that big a deal.”
“How do you get back on campus? Is there a tree on the other side, too?”
She gave me an evil smile. “No, but someone just happened to conveniently leave a rope tied to the branch. Climbing back over the wall isn’t hard, but it’s hell on your manicure.”
“Okay. I got it. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get some more blood from the kitchen.” I was speaking to myself more to Aphrodite. “I have just enough time to meet Heath, run by and see Stevie Rae, and get back here for the ritual.”
“You have less time than that. Neferet is having a Full Moon Ritual of her own and she wants everyone to be there,” Aphrodite said.
“Dang it! I thought Neferet wasn’t performing a school-wide ritu
al this month because of winter break.”
“Winter break has been officially called off. All vamps and fledglings have been ordered to return to campus immediately. And dang it isn’t actually a word.”
I ignored her commentary on my non-cuss cuss words. “Break is called off because of what happened to Professor Nolan?”
Aphrodite nodded. “It was really horrible, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you puke?”
I shrugged uncomfortably. “I think I was too freaked to puke.”
“I wish I had been,” Aphrodite said.
I glanced at my watch. It was almost eight. I was going to have to rush to get out of here and get back in time. “I gotta go.” I was already feeling sick about having to figure out a way to sneak blood out of what was probably a busy kitchen.
“Here.” Aphrodite handed me the canvas bag she’d been carrying over her shoulder. “Take this to Stevie Rae.”
The bag was full of pouches of blood. I blinked in surprise. “How did you get these?”
“I couldn’t sleep, and I figured the vamps would call in major backup after what happened to Professor Nolan, which means the kitchen was going to be busy again. So I thought I better make a quick trip to clean out the supply of blood before we couldn’t get to it anymore. I kept it in the mini-fridge in my room.”
“You have a mini-fridge.” Dang. I’d really like to have a mini-fridge.
She gave me a very Aphrodite-like sneer while she looked down her nose at me. “It’s one of the privileges of being an upperclassman.”
“Well, thanks. It was really nice of you to get this for Stevie Rae.”
Her sneer deepened. “Look, I wasn’t being nice. I just didn’t want Stevie Rae foaming at the mouth and eating my parents’ help. As Mother says, dependable illegals are really hard to find.”