by P. C. Cast
“Easier said than done,” I said.
“I don’t see why,” Stevie Rae said. “Just tell them the truth about Neferet being behind Loren and you, and tell them that you couldn’t say anything about me being undead when I was dead because Neferet would . . .” Stevie Rae’s words trailed off as she realized what she was saying.
“Yeah, that’s brilliant. Tell them that Neferet is an evil bitch who’s behind making a bunch of undead dead kids and the first time any of the nerd herd members get within the distance of a thought of Neferet, all shit will break loose. Which means our evil bitch of a High Priestess will not only know what we know, but she’ll probably do something majorly nasty to your little buddies.” Aphrodite paused and tapped her chin. “Hum, on second thought, some of that scenario doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Hey,” Stevie Rae said. “Damien and the Twins and Jack already know something that is going to get them in major trouble with Neferet. They know about me.”
“Ah, hell,” I said.
“Well, shit,” Aphrodite said. “I totally forgot about the ‘Stevie Rae isn’t dead’ detail. Wonder why Neferet hasn’t plucked that out of one of your friends’ wee little brains and freaked about that already?”
“She’s been too busy plotting war,” I said. When Aphrodite and Stevie Rae blinked in confusion at me, I realized that Loren wasn’t the only news they hadn’t heard. “When Neferet was told about Loren’s murder, she declared war against humans. Not an outright war, of course. She wants it to be a nasty, terrorist-style guerrilla war. God, she’s so slimy. I just don’t get why everyone can’t see it.”
“Blood and guts with the humans? Huh. That’s interesting. Guess the buildup of the Sons of Erebus is supposed to be our weapon of mass destruction,” Aphrodite said. “Yum, talk about a silver lining to a shitty situation.”
“How can you be so whatever about this?” Stevie Rae said, exploding off the bed.
“First of all, I really don’t like humans much.” Aphrodite put up a hand to stop Stevie Rae’s tirade. “Okay, yeah, I know. I am a human now. Which makes me say ugh. Second, Zoey’s alive and well, so I’m not particularly worried about this scary little war.”
“What in the hell are you talking about, Aphrodite?” I said.
Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Would you please keep up with me? Hello—it makes perfect sense now. My vision was all about war between humans and vamps and some creepy booger-monster things. Actually, they’re probably what attacked you and could very well be minions of Neferet we don’t know about.” She paused, looking temporarily confused, and then shrugged and continued, “But, whatever. Hopefully we won’t have to find out what they are, because the war only happened after you’d been killed. Tragically and grotesquely, I might add. Anyway, I figure we keep you alive, we keep the war from happening.”
Stevie Rae let out a big, long breath. “You have a point, Aphrodite.” She turned to me. “We gotta keep you alive, Zoey. Not just ’cause we love you more than white bread, but ’cause you have to save the world.”
“Oh, great. I’m supposed to save the world?” All I could think was, And I used to stress about geometry.
Ah, hell.
CHAPTER SIX
“Yep, you have to save the world, Z, but we’ll be right there with you,” Stevie Rae said, plunking herself back down on the bed beside me.
“No, dork. I’m going to be right here with her. You have to get out of here until we figure out what to tell the rest of the nerd herd about you and your hygiene-challenged friends,” Aphrodite said.
Stevie Rae frowned at Aphrodite.
“Huh? Friends?” I said.
“They’ve been through a lot, Aphrodite. And I’ll have you know bathing and decorating isn’t that dang important when you’re dead. Or even undead,” Stevie Rae said. “Plus, you know they’re better now and they’re actually using the stuff you bought them.”
“Okay, you guys are gonna have to back up. What friends are you—?” And then my words broke off as I realized who they must be talking about. “Stevie Rae, do not tell me you’re still hanging out with those gross kids from the tunnels.”
“You don’t understand, Zoey.”
“Translation: Yes, Zoey, I am still hangin’ out with the gross tunnel rejects,” Aphrodite said, mimicking Stevie Rae’s Okie accent.
“Stop it,” I told Aphrodite automatically before turning to Stevie Rae. “No, I don’t understand. So make me understand.”
Stevie Rae drew a deep breath. “Well, I think that this”—she pointed at her scarlet tattoos—“means that I need to be around the rest of the kids with the red tattoos so I can help them make the Change, too.”
“The rest of those undead kids have red tattoos like yours?”
She shrugged and looked uncomfortable. “Well, sorta. I’m the only one with a finished tattoo, which I’m guessin’ means I’ve Changed. But the outlines of the blue crescent moon on their foreheads have now all turned to red. They’re still fledglings. They’re just, well, a different kind of fledgling.”
Wow! I sat there, speechless, trying to take in the ramifications of what Stevie Rae was saying. It was utterly amazing that there was now a whole new type of fledgling, which, of course, meant there was a whole new type of adult vampyre, and for a moment it excited me. What if it also meant that everyone who got Marked would make some type of Change, so no more fledglings would have to die! Or at least not permanently. They’d just turn into red fledglings. Whatever that meant.
Then I remembered how awful those other kids had been. They’d killed teenagers. Horribly. They’d tried to kill Heath. I was the only thing that had saved him. Hell, they would have killed me if I hadn’t used my affinity with the five elements to save both of us.
I also remembered the flash of red I’d seen in Stevie Rae’s eyes earlier and the meanness that had looked so out of place on her face, but seeing her now, sounding and acting like herself, it was easy to convince myself I’d been wrong—that I’d imagined or exaggerated what I’d seen.
I mentally shook myself and said, “But Stevie Rae, those other kids were awful.”
Aphrodite snorted. “They’re still awful and living in an awful disgusting place. And, yes, they’re still awful rude, too.”
“They’re not out of control like they used to be, but they’re also not what you’d call normal, either,” Stevie Rae said.
“They’re disgusting throwaway kids, that’s what they are,” Aphrodite said. “Like redheaded stepchildren.”
“Yeah, some of them have problems and aren’t exactly the most popular kids ever, but so what?”
“I’m just saying that it would be easier to figure out what we’re going to do about you if we only had you to deal with.”
“It’s not always about what’s easiest. I don’t care what we have to do, or what I have to do. I’m not gonna let Neferet use those other kids,” Stevie Rae told her firmly.
And what Stevie Rae said clicked. I shivered in horror as my gut told me my terrible new thought was right. “Oh my god! That’s why Neferet did whatever she did to make the dying kids come back as undead dead kids. She wants to use them in the war she’s declared against humans.”
“But, Z, kids have been undying for a while now, and Professor Nolan and Loren were only just killed, so Neferet has only just declared the whole guerrilla war thing,” Stevie Rae said.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. What I was thinking was too awful to speak out loud. I was afraid that the syllables of the words would turn into separate little weapons, and if I put them together, they would join to destroy all of us.
“What is it?” Aphrodite was watching me too closely.
“Nothing.” I shifted the words in my mind so that they became something bearable. “It’s just that this whole thing makes me think that Neferet has been hoping there would be a reason to fight the humans for a long time. I really wouldn’t be surprised if she did create the undead dead kids to be her private
army. I saw her with Elliott not long after he was supposed to have died. It was disgusting how much control she had over him.” I shivered, remembering only too clearly how Neferet had ordered Elliott around and how he had bowed and scraped in front of her, and then lapped up the offering of her blood in a disgusting and way-too-sexual manner. Watching it had been entirely nasty.
“That’s why I have to go back to them,” Stevie Rae said. “They need me to care about them and show them that they can Change, too. When Neferet finds out about the difference in their Marks, she’ll still try to control them and keep them—well, let’s just say, not so nice. I think they can be okay again, like I’m okay again.”
“What about the ones who were never okay? Remember the Elliott kid Zoey was just talking about? He was a loser alive and he’s a loser undead. He’ll still be a loser if he manages to Change into a red whatever.” Aphrodite gave an exaggerated, long-suffering sigh when Stevie Rae glared at her. “The point I’m trying to make is that they weren’t normal to begin with. Maybe there’s nothing for you to save about them.”
“Aphrodite, you don’t get to pick who’s worth saving and who’s not. I may have been a pretty normal kid before I died, but I’m not exactly normal now,” Stevie Rae said. “And I was worth saving!”
“Nyx,” I said, making both of them turn to look at me with question marks on their faces. “Nyx gets to pick who’s worth saving. Not me, not Stevie Rae, and not even you, Aphrodite.”
“Guess I forgot about Nyx,” Aphrodite said, turning her face away from us to hide the pain in her eyes. “It’s not like the Goddess wants much to do with a human kid anyway.”
“That’s not true,” I said. “Nyx’s hand is still on you, Aphrodite. The Goddess is majorly at work here. If she didn’t care about you, she would have taken away your visions when she took away your Mark.” As I spoke, I got that feeling I often get when I absolutely know I’m saying the right thing. Aphrodite was a pain in the ass, but for some reason, she was important to our Goddess.
Aphrodite’s eyes met mine. “Are you guessing about that, or do you know?”
“I know.” I continued to meet her eyes steadily.
“Promise?” she said.
“Promise.”
“Well, that’s nice and all, Aphrodite,” Stevie Rae said, “but you should keep in mind that you’re not exactly normal, either.”
“But I am attractive, properly bathed, and I do not scuttle around in really yucky old tunnels snarling and snapping my teeth at visitors.”
“Which brings up another point. Why were you down in the tunnels?” I asked Aphrodite.
She rolled her eyes. “Because Miss K 95.5 FM over there just had to cowboy up and follow me.”
“Well, you freaked when your Mark disappeared, and unlike some people, I’m not a witch with a capital B. Plus, it might have kinda been my fault you lost your Mark and it was the right thing to do to make sure you were okay,” said Stevie Rae.
“You bit me, dork,” Aphrodite said. “Of course it was your fault.”
“I already said sorry ’bout that.”
“Uh, guys, could we please stay on the subject?”
“Fine. I went down to the stupid tunnels because your stupid BFF was going to burn the hell up if we got caught out in the daylight.”
“But how come you stayed away for two days?”
Aphrodite looked uncomfortable. “It took me a couple days to decide if I should come back at all. Besides that, I had to help Stevie Rae buy some stuff for the tunnels and the freaks down there. Even I couldn’t just leave and let them be all”—she paused and shuddered delicately for effect—“all eeeew.”
“We’re really not used to having visitors yet,” Stevie Rae said.
“You mean except for the people your friends like to eat?” Aphrodite said.
“Stevie Rae, you really can’t let those kids eat people. Not even street people,” I added.
“I know. That’s another reason I need to get back to them.”
“You need to bring Merry Maids and a good interior decorating team with you,” Aphrodite muttered. “I’d offer you the services of my parents’ help, but your buds might eat them, and as my mom would say, good illegals are really hard to find.”
“I’m not gonna let the kids eat people anymore, and I’m working on getting the tunnels in order,” Stevie Rae said defensively.
I remembered way too well how creepy those dark, dirty tunnels were. “Stevie Rae, isn’t there someplace else we could figure out for you and your, uh, red fledglings to stay?”
“No!” she said quickly, and then smiled an apology at me. “See, the thing is that being underground feels right to me, and to them. We need to be inside the earth.” She cut her eyes over at Aphrodite, who was wrinkling her nose at Stevie Rae and making an eew face. “Yes, I know that’s not normal, but I told you I’m not normal!”
“Uh, Stevie Rae,” I said. “I’m in total agreement with you about the whole nothing wrong with being not normal thing. I mean, look at me.” I flailed my hand about at my many tattoos, which were decidedly not normal. “I’m Queen of Notnormal Land, but maybe you should explain what you mean by not normal.”
“This should be good,” Aphrodite said.
“Okay, well, I don’t really know everything about myself yet. I’ve only been un-undead and Changed for a few days, but I do have some abilities I don’t think normal adult vamps have.”
“Like . . . ,” I prompted when she just sat there chewing her lip.
“Like the kinda ‘becomin’ part of the stones’ thing I did to crawl up the side of the dorm. But I might be able to do that because of my earth affinity.”
I nodded my head, considering. “It does make sense. I’ve found out that I can call the elements to me and I can more or less disappear as I become mist and wind and whatnot.”
Stevie Rae brightened. “Oh, yeah! I remember you were all practically invisible that one time.”
“Yep. So maybe having that ability really isn’t that abnormal. Maybe all vamps with affinities for an element can do something like that.”
“Shit, it just figures! You two get all the cool abilities. I get the pain-in-the-ass visions,” Aphrodite said.
“That could be ’cause you’re a pain in the ass,” Stevie Rae said.
“What else?” I said before they could start bickering again.
“I’ll burn up if I get out in the sun.”
“Still? Are you completely sure?” I already knew the sun was a problem with her from when she had been an undead dead kid.
“She’s sure,” Aphrodite said. “Remember, that’s why we had to go down in those nasty tunnels in the first place. The sun was coming up. We were downtown. Stevie Rae freaked out.”
“I knew somethin’ bad would happen if I stayed aboveground,” Stevie Rae said. “So I didn’t actually freak—I just was real worried.”
“Yeah, well, you and I will just have to agree to disagree about your mood swings. I say you totally freaked after your arm got some sunshine on it. Check it out, Z.” Aphrodite pointed at Stevie Rae’s right arm.
Stevie Rae reluctantly held out her arm and pushed up the sleeve of her blouse. I could see a splotch of red skin across the top of her forearm and elbow, like she’d gotten a bad sunburn.
“That doesn’t look so awful. A little sunscreen, dark shades, and a trucker cap and you’ll be fine,” I said.
“Uh, no,” Aphrodite spoke up again. “You should have seen it before she drank the blood. Her arm was seriously unattractive and crispy critter. Drinking the blood made it go from third-degree nastiness to mildly annoying sunburn, but who knows how well that would work if her whole body had been fried.”
“Stevie Rae, honey, let me be clear that I’m not judging, but you didn’t eat a street person or anything like that after you caught on fire, did you?”
Stevie Rae shook her head back and forth so hard, her curls whipped around crazily. “Nuh-uh. On the way to the tunnels
, I took the tiniest little detour and borrowed some blood from the downtown Red Cross blood bank.”
“Borrow means ‘give back when you’re done,’ ” Aphrodite said. “And unless you’re going to be the first bulimic vampyre, I don’t think you’ll be giving back the blood.” She gave Stevie Rae a smug look. “So, actually, you stole it. Which brings us to your BFF’s other new ability. This one I witnessed. More than once, actually. And, yes, it was disturbing. She is freakishly good at controlling the minds of humans. Please note that the key part of what I just said is found in the root word, freak.”
“Are you done?” Stevie Rae asked her.
“Probably not, but you may proceed,” Aphrodite said.
Stevie Rae frowned at her, then continued to explain to me. “Aphrodite’s right. It’s like I can reach into a human’s mind and do things.”
“Things?” I asked.
Stevie Rae shrugged. “Things like make them come to me, or forget they saw me. I’m not sure what else. I could sorta do it before I’d Changed, but nothing like what I can do now, and I’m really not comfortable with mind control. It just seems so, I dunno, mean.”
Aphrodite snorted.
“Okay, what else? Do you still have to be invited into someone’s house to enter?” And then I answered my own question. “Wait, that must have changed, because I didn’t actually invite you in here, and here you are. Not that I wouldn’t have invited you in. I definitely would have,” I added quickly.
“I dunno about that one. I walked right into the Red Cross place.”
“You mean you walked right in after you mind-controlled that little lab tech to unlock the door for you,” Aphrodite said.
Stevie Rae blushed. “I didn’t hurt her or anything, and she won’t remember any of it.”
“But she didn’t invite you in?” I asked.
“No, but the Red Cross building is a public place, and it feels different to me. Oh, and I don’t think you’d have to invite me in here, Z. I used to live here, remember?”
