by P. C. Cast
“Ah, crap!” I instantly shooed away darkness and whatnot, so that I was solid, visible me again. “Sorry, Stevie Rae. I forgot I’d gone all Bram Stoker.”
She peered over the couch at me, eyes glowing and fangs bared, but she’d stopped hissing.
“Uh, relax. It’s just me.” I lifted the canvas bag and shook it so the blood sloshed nastily. “Your meals on wheels.”
She stood up and narrowed her eyes. “You shouldn’t do that.”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Shouldn’t do what? Bring you blood or turn into mist and darkness.”
Stevie Rae snatched the canvas bag I was dangling in her direction. “Sneak up on me. It could be dangerous.”
I sighed and sat on the couch, trying to ignore the fact that she was already gulping down the first bag of blood. “If you ate me the way my life sucks right now, you’d be doing me a favor.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet. I remember how tough it was to be alive. All filled with dating drama and ohmygoodness, what should I wear to school. Real awful, unlike the stress of being dead and then undead but still feeling mostly dead.” Stevie Rae spoke in the cold, sarcastic voice that was totally different from the way she used to sound, which suddenly annoyed the crap right outta me. Like I didn’t have stress in my life just because I wasn’t dead? Or undead? Or whatever.
“Professor Nolan was killed last night. It looks like some of the People of Faith crucified her and chopped her head off and left her out by the trapdoor on the east wall with a lovely note about not suffering a witch to live. I think that my step-loser might be involved, but I can’t say anything about it because my mom is covering for him, and if I rat him out she’ll probably go to jail forever. I just sucked Heath’s blood and got interrupted by some gang wannabes who I think I might have kinda sorta accidentally killed, and Loren Blake and I have been making out. So, how was your day?”
The old Stevie Rae flickered inside this one’s red eyes. “Ohmygoodness,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“You’ve been making out with Loren Blake?” As usual, Stevie Rae got to the heart of the juiciest gossip. “What was it like?”
I sighed and watched her start on her second bag of blood. “It was amazing. I know this is going to sound totally ridiculous, but I think we might really have something together.”
“Just like Romeo and Juliet,” she said between swallows.
“Uh, Stevie Rae, let’s use a different analogy, shall we? R&J didn’t end so well.”
“I’ll bet he tastes good,” she said.
“Huh?”
“I mean his blood.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Yet,” she said, and reached for another bag o’ blood.
“Speaking of. You’d better slow down on the blood drinking. Neferet called in the Vamp’s Sons of Erebus warriors and it’s pretty hard to sneak out of school right now. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get back here with more tasty bloody goodness.”
A shiver passed through Stevie Rae’s body. She had been looking almost normal, but at my words her expression flattened out and her eyes reddened.
“I can’t stand it much longer.”
She’d spoken in such a low, strained voice that I almost didn’t hear her.
“Is it that big of a deal, Stevie Rae? I mean, can’t you just ration yourself or something?”
“It’s not like that! I can feel it slipping away . . . more and more each day . . . each hour.”
“What’s slipping away?”
“My humanity!” she practically sobbed.
“But, honey,” I scooted over and put my arm around her, ignoring the weird way she smelled and the fact that her body was so rocklike. “You’re better. I’m here now. We’ll figure this out.”
Stevie Rae looked into my eyes. “Right now, I can feel your pulse. I know every time your heart beats. There’s something inside of me that is screaming at me to rip your throat open and drink your blood. And that something is growing stronger.” She pulled away from me, moving to press herself against the end of the couch. “I can put on the old Stevie Rae’s face, but it’s only part of the monster in me. I just do it so that I can hunt you.”
I took a deep breath and refused to look away from her. “Okay, I know some of that is true. But I don’t believe all of it, and I don’t want you to believe all of it either. Your humanity is still there, inside you. Yeah, it might be getting buried, but it’s still there. And that means we’re still best friends. Plus, think about it. You don’t have to hunt me. Hello—I’m right here. Not exactly hiding.”
“I think you might be in danger from me,” she whispered.
I smiled. “I’m tougher than you think, Stevie Rae.” Moving slowly so I didn’t startle her, I reached out and put my hand over hers. “Draw on the power of earth. I believe you’re different than the rest of the, uh—” I paused, trying to figure out what to call them.
“Gross undead dead kids?” Stevie Rae supplied.
“Yeah. You’re different from the rest of the gross undead dead kids because of your affinity with the earth. Draw on that and it will help you fight whatever is going on inside you.”
“Darkness . . . it’s all darkness inside me,” she said.
“It’s not all darkness. The earth is in there, too.”
“Okay . . . okay . . . ,” she panted. “The earth. I’ll remember. I’ll really try.”
“You can beat this, Stevie Rae. We can beat this.”
“Help me,” she said, suddenly squeezing my hand so hard I almost cried out. “Please, Zoey, help me.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Soon. It has to be soon.”
“It will be. I promise,” I repeated, not having a clue how I was going to keep my promise.
“What are you going to do?” Stevie Rae asked, eyes desperately locked with mine.
I blurted the only thing that came into my brain. “I’m going to cast a circle and ask for Nyx’s help.”
Stevie Rae blinked. “That’s it?”
“Well, our circle is powerful and Nyx is a goddess. What more do we need?” I sounded way surer than I felt.
“You want me to represent earth again?” Her voice quivered.
“No. Yes.” I paused guiltily, wondering what I was supposed to do about Aphrodite. It had been clear when she manifested earth that she was supposed to join our circle. But would it freak Stevie Rae out to see her place filled by someone she definitely considered an enemy? Plus, no one except Aphrodite knew about Stevie Rae, which is how I needed to keep it until I was ready for Neferet to know I knew about her. Issues. I definitely had issues. “Uh, I’m not sure. Let me think about it, okay?”
Stevie Rae’s expression shifted again. Now she looked broken, utterly defeated. “You don’t want me to be part of your circle anymore.”
“It’s not that! It’s just that you’re the one who needs to be healed, so it might be best if you’re in the center of the circle with me instead of standing in your normal place.” I sighed and shook my head. “I need to do some more research.”
“Do it fast, okay?”
“I will. And you have to promise me that you’ll go easy on the blood and stay here and focus on your connection with earth,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll try.”
I squeezed her hand and then pried mine from her grip. “I’m sorry, but I gotta go. Neferet is having a special ritual for Professor Nolan, and then I have to do the Full Moon Ritual thing.” And I was going to have to hit the library again and come up with some kind of ritual that might help Stevie Rae. And I didn’t have a clue what to do about Loren. And Erik was probably going to be mad at me for taking off. And I hadn’t broken up with Heath. Jeesh, my head hurt. Again.
“It’s been a month.”
“Huh?” I was standing, and already distracted with thinking about all the ands I had to deal with.
“I died during the last full moon, and that was one month ago.”
That
got all of my attention. “That’s right. It has been a month. I wonder . . .”
“If that might mean something? If tonight might be the right time to try to fix whatever happened with me?”
I almost flinched at the sound of her hope-filled voice. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Should I try to get on campus tonight?”
“No! The place is crawling with warriors. They’d grab you for sure.”
“Maybe they should,” she said slowly. “Maybe everyone should know about me.”
I rubbed my head, trying to understand what my gut was telling me. It’d been shouting to keep Stevie Rae a secret for so long that I couldn’t tell if I was still supposed to keep her hidden, or whether what I was feeling were just echoes and confusion (and probably some desperation and depression thrown in there, too).
“I don’t know about that. I—I need a little more time, okay?”
Stevie Rae’s shoulders slumped. “Okay. But I don’t think there’s enough of me left to last another month.”
“I know. I’ll hurry,” I said inanely. I bent and hugged her quickly. “Bye. Don’t worry. I’ll be back soon. Promise.”
“If you figure it out, just text me or something and I’ll come. Okay?”
“Okay.” I turned at the door. “I love you, Stevie Rae. Don’t forget that. We’re still best friends.”
She didn’t say anything, but nodded, looking bleak. I called night and mist and magic to me and hurried out into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Naturally, I got caught sneaking back on campus. I’d already floated back over the wall. (Yes, I literally floated, which was too cool for words.) I was making my way back to the dorm with what I considered excellent speed and stealth when I practically ran into them—a group of vamps and upperclassmen ringed by at least a dozen of the warrior mountains (I did see the Twins and Damien in the group, so Aphrodite had been right, Neferet was including my Prefect Council). I froze, stepped back into the shadow of a big oak, and held my breath, hoping that my newfound cool power of invisibility (or maybe mist-ability was a better way of describing it) would let me remain unseen. Unfortunately, as I watched, Neferet paused, which caused the entire dang group to pause. She cocked her head and I swear she sniffed the breeze like a bloodhound. Then her eyes went to my tree—my hidey place—and seemed to bore into me. And just like that I lost concentration. My skin shivered and I knew I was completely visible again.
“Oh, Zoey! There you are. I was just asking your friends”—she paused long enough to give the Twins, Damien, and (eek!) Erik one of her amazing one-hundred-twenty-five-watt smiles—“where you could have gotten off to.” She dimmed the smile and exchanged it for a perfect look of motherly concern. “Now is not the time to wander about by yourself.”
“Sorry. I, uh, I needed . . .” I trailed off, majorly aware that all eyes were on me.
“She needed to be alone before the rituals,” Shaunee said, stepping up to put an arm through mine.
“Yeah, she always needs to be alone before rituals. It’s a Zoey thing,” Erin said, moving to my other side and taking my other arm.
“Yep, we call it Z.A.T.—Zoey Alone Time,” Damien said, joining the three of us.
“It’s kinda annoying, but what can you do?” Erik said, moving around behind me to rest his warm hands on my shoulders. “That’s our Z.”
I had to struggle not to burst into tears. My friends were the best. Of course, Neferet probably knew they were lying, but they’d done it in a way that made it look like I was probably only up to little teenage mischief (i.e., sneaking out to break up with a boyfriend) versus big, scary mischief (i.e., hiding my undead dead best friend).
“Well, I want you to be sure you limit your alone time in the near future,” Neferet told me in a mildly chastising tone.
“I will. Sorry,” I mumbled.
“And now, on to the ritual.” Regally, Neferet strode out from the group, causing the warriors to scramble to keep up with her and leaving me and my little cluster of friends in the figurative dust.
Of course, we followed her. What else could we do?
“So, did you get the dirty done?” Shaunee whispered.
“Huh?” I blinked in shock at her. How did she know I’d been ho-ishly grinding against Heath. Did it show? God, I was going to die if it showed!
Erin rolled her eyes. “Heath. Breakup. You with him,” she whispered.
“Oh, that. Well, I, uh—”
“I was worried about you today.” Erik had moved up and neatly nudged Shaunee from her place beside me. I expected the Twins to hiss and spit at him, but instead they waggled their brows at us and fell back to walk with Damien. I heard Shaunee murmur, “So damn fiiiiine.” Jeesh, they could face Neferet, but Erik’s hotness totally did them in.
“Sorry,” I said hastily, feeling guilty about how nice it felt when he took my hand. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I just had, well, stuff.”
Erik grinned and laced his fingers through mine. “I hope you got rid of him—I mean, that particular stuff this time.”
I sent daggerlike looks over my shoulder at the Twins, who tried to look innocent. “Traitors!” I muttered.
“Don’t be pissed at them. I used my unfair advantage and bribed them with their weakness.”
“Shoes?”
“Something they like better, at least for a moment in time. T. J. and Cole.”
“That was very sly of you,” I said.
“And not very tough to manage. T. J. and Cole think the Twins are dead sexy,” Erik said, using an excellent Scottish accent and proving, again, what an old movie dork he was (hello—Austin Powers).
“T. J. and Cole called the Twins dead sexy in that awful accent?”
He squeezed my hand playfully. “My accent isn’t awful.”
“You’re right. It’s not.” I smiled up into his clear blue eyes and wondered how I could have gotten myself into a position where I was double cheating on him.
“How are you today, Zoey?”
I knew through our joined hands Erik could feel the shock that went through my body at the sound of Loren’s voice.
“I’m fine. Thanks,” I said.
“You slept well last night? I wondered how you’d managed after I left you at the dorm.” Loren gave Erik what was obviously a patronizing, I’m-way-older-than-you smile and explained, “Zoey had quite a shock yesterday.”
“Yeah, I know.” Erik’s clipped the words out. I could feel the tension between them and wondered a little frantically if anyone else had noticed. When I heard Shaunee’s whispered, “Damn, girl!” and Erin’s “Um-hum!” I had to force myself not to groan. Clearly everyone else (translation: the Twins) noticed.
By then we’d caught up to the group of adults that were now standing around what I realized was the trapdoor in the east wall. Ignoring the potentially explosive boyfriend situation I’d put myself right smack in the middle of, I said, “Hey! Why are we stopped here?”
“Neferet is offering prayers for Professor Nolan’s spirit, as well as invoking a protective spell around the school grounds,” Loren said. His voice sounded way too friendly and his gaze felt way too warm as our eyes met and locked. God, he was utterly gorgeous. I remembered how his lips had felt against mine and . . .
And then I realized what he’d just said.
“But isn’t her blood and stuff still . . .” I trailed off helplessly, making a vague gesture out at the grassy area on the other side of the wall, the horrible grassy area that had been drenched with Professor Nolan’s blood just yesterday.
“No, don’t worry. Neferet has had it cleansed,” Loren said gently.
For a second I thought he was going to touch me right there in front of everyone. I even felt Erik tense, like he expected it, too, then Neferet’s solemn but powerful voice broke through our little drama, calling everyone’s attention to her.
“We are going to move through the trapdoor to the site of the atrocity. Make a crescent aro
und the statue of our beloved Goddess, which I placed in the exact spot Professor Nolan’s ravaged body was discovered. I ask that you concentrate your hearts and minds on sending positive energy to our fallen sister as her spirit flies free to the wondrous realm of Nyx. Fledglings,” her gaze swooped over us, “I want you each to take your position by the candle which represents your element.” Neferet’s eyes were kind, her voice gentle. “I know it is unusual to use fledglings in an adult ritual, but never before has a House of Night been gifted with so many extraordinary young people at one time, and today I believe it is only right that I tap into your affinities to add power to what we ask of Nyx.” I could practically feel Damien and the Twins vibrating with excitement. “Can you do this for me, for us, fledglings?”
Damien and the Twins nodded like crazed bobble-heads. Neferet’s green eyes moved to me. I nodded once. The High Priestess smiled, and I wondered if anyone else could see past her beautiful exterior to the cold, calculating person within.
Looking pleased with herself, Neferet turned and ducked through the open trapdoor followed closely by the rest of us. I’d readied myself for something terrible, or at the very least for something bloody, but Loren had been right. The area that had been so gruesome just yesterday had been completely cleansed of any nastiness, and I wondered briefly how the Tulsa cops had gathered their evidence, and then shook myself. Surely Neferet had waited for them to do their job before she’d cleaned everything. Hadn’t she?
In the spot where Professor Nolan’s body had been there was now a beautiful statue of Nyx that looked like it had been carved from a single slab of onyx. Her hands were upraised, and within them she held a thick green candle symbolizing earth. Without speaking, the vamps formed a semicircle around the statue. Damien and the Twins moved to stand behind the oversized candles that represented each of their elements. I didn’t really want to, but I took my place by the purple candle that symbolized spirit. I could see the warriors had spread out and were surrounding us. With their backs to our group they stared out into the night, bristling with alertness.