by P. C. Cast
“Z? Are you awake?” Shaunee called tentatively from the cracked door.
I motioned for her to come in. “Where’d you guys go?”
“We’ve been up a couple hours. We’ve been watching movies. Wanta come down with us? Erik and Cole, that totally fiiiine friend of his, are gonna come over.” Then she looked around guiltily, as if remembering that Stevie Rae was gone and sorry she’d been acting normal. Something inside me made me speak.
“Shaunee, we have to go on. We have to date and be happy and live our lives. Nothing’s guaranteed, Stevie Rae’s death proved that. We can’t waste the time we’ve been given. When I said I’d make sure she was remembered, I didn’t mean that we were going to be sad forever. It meant I’d remember the happiness she brought to us, and keep her smile close to my heart. Always.”
“Always,” Shaunee agreed.
“If you give me a second I’ll put on some jeans and meet you guys downstairs.”
“ ’Kay,” she said with a grin.
When Shaunee was gone, some of my happy facade faded. I’d meant what I said to her, it was just the acting out of it that was going to be hard. Plus, I was having a hard time shaking the bad dream. I knew it was just a dream, but it still bothered me. It was like I could hear the echoes of Heath’s screams in the oppressive silence of my room. Moving automatically, I got dressed in my most comfortable jeans and a ginormic sweatshirt I’d bought from the school store a couple of weeks ago. Over my heart it had the silver embroidered insignia of Nyx standing with upraised hands cupping a full moon, and somehow it made me feel better. I brushed my hair and sighed at my reflection in the mirror. I looked like poo. So I spackled some concealer on the dark smudges under my eyes, added mascara and my shiny lip gloss that smelled like strawberries. Feeling more ready to face the world, I headed downstairs.
And paused at the end of the staircase. The scene was familiar, yet completely changed. Kids clustered around the flat-screen TVs. There should be talking, and there was, but it was definitely subdued. My group of friends were sitting around the TV we liked best: the Twins in their matching poofy chairs, Damien and Jack (looking very cozy) were sitting on the floor by the love seat, Erik was on the love seat, and I was surprised to see that his fiiiine friend, Cole, had pulled up a chair and was actually sitting between the Twins. I felt my lips twitch up. He was either very brave or very moronic. They were all chattering softly, and definitely not paying attention to The Mummy Returns, which was playing on TV. So, except for two things, it was a perfectly familiar scene. First, they were being way too quiet. Second, Stevie Rae should have been sitting on the love seat with her feet folded under her telling everyone to be quiet so she could hear the movie.
I swallowed back the teary, burning feeling in the back of my throat. I had to go on. We had to go on.
“Hi, guys,” I said, trying to sound normal.
This time there wasn’t an awkward silence at my presence. Instead there was an equally awkward everyone-talking-perkily-all-at-once.
“Hi, Z!”
“Zoey!”
“Hey there, Z!”
I managed not to sigh or roll my eyes as I took my place beside Erik. He put his arm around me and squeezed, which made me feel weirdly better but guilty. Better—because he was totally sweet and hot and I was still a little amazed that he seemed to like me so much. Guilty—well, that could be summed up in one word: Heath.
“Good! Now that Z’s here we can start the marathon,” Erik said.
“You mean the dorkathon,” Shaunee said with a snort.
“If it was the weekend we could call it the geekend,” Erin said.
“Let me guess.” I looked up at Erik. “You brought the DVDs.”
“Yep I did!”
The rest of the group groaned in exaggerated pain.
“Which means we’re watching Star Wars,” I said.
“Again,” his friend Cole muttered.
Shaunee arched one perfectly waxed brow at Cole. “Are you saying that you’re not a big Star Wars fan?”
He smiled at Shaunee, and even from where I was sitting I could see the flirty glimmer in his eyes. “Watching Erik’s long extended director’s cut of Star Wars for the millionth time is not why I came over here. I am a fan, but it’s not of Darth and Chewbacca.”
“Are you saying Princess Leia does it for you?” Shaunee quipped.
“No, I’m more colorful than that,” he said, leaning toward her.
“I’m not here because I’m a fan of Star Wars either,” Jack piped in, giving Damien an adoring look.
Erin giggled. “Well, we know Princess Leia doesn’t do it for you.”
“Thankfully,” Damien said.
“I wish Stevie Rae was here,” Erik said. “She’d be all, Y’all, you’re not bein’ very niiiice.”
Erik’s words made everyone shut up. I glanced at him and saw that his cheeks were getting red, like he hadn’t realized exactly what he’d said till after he said it. I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder.
“You’re right. Stevie Rae would be scolding us like a mamma.”
“And then she’d make everyone some popcorn and tell us to share nice,” Damien said. “Even though she should say share nicely.”
“I liked the way Stevie Rae messed up the English language,” Shaunee said.
“Yeah, she Okie-fied it,” Erin said.
We all smiled at each other, and I felt a small warmth begin in my chest. This is how it started—this is how we would remember Stevie Rae—with smiles and love.
“Uh, can I sit with you guys?”
I looked up to see that cute Drew Partain kid standing nervously at the edge of our group. He looked pale and sad, and his eyes were red as if he’d been crying. I remembered how he had looked at Stevie Rae, and felt a stab of sympathy for him.
“Sure!” I said warmly. “Pull up a chair.” Then an inner prompting made me add, “There’s room over there by Erin.”
Erin’s blue eyes widened a little, but she recovered quickly. “Yeah, pull up a chair, Drew. But be warned, we’re watching Star Wars.”
“Cool with me,” Drew said, giving Erin a hesitant smile.
“Short, but cute,” I heard Shaunee whisper to Erin, and I do believe I saw Erin’s cheeks get a little pink.
“Hey, I’m going to make us some popcorn. Plus, I need my—”
“Brown pop!” Damien, the Twins, and Erik said together.
I disentangled myself from Erik’s arm and went to the kitchen, feeling more lighthearted than I had since Stevie Rae began coughing. Everything would be okay. The House of Night was my home. My friends were my family. I’d follow my own advice and take one day at a time—one issue at a time. I’d figure out a way to wade through my boyfriend issues. I’d do my best to avoid Neferet (without being too obvious that I was avoiding her) until I could figure out what was going on with her and the weird nondead Elliott (who was enough to give anyone nightmares—no wonder I’d had such a terrible dream about Stevie Rae and Heath).
I put one bag of extra-butter, super-pop popcorn in each of the four microwaves and grabbed big bowls as they started popping. Maybe I should cast another private circle and ask Nyx for help understanding the gross Elliott issue. My stomach clenched as I realized that I would be minus Stevie Rae. How was I going to deal with replacing her? It made me feel sick, but it had to be done. If not now, for my private ritual, I’d have to find someone before the next Full Moon Ritual. I closed my eyes against the pain of missing Stevie Rae and the reality of going on without her. Please show me what to do, I prayed silently to Nyx.
“Zoey, you need to come into the living room.”
My eyes sprang open as Erik’s voice startled me. The look on his face had my adrenaline surging through my body. “What’s going on?”
“Just come on.” He took my hand and we hurried out of the kitchen. “It’s the news.”
Even though the big living room was full of kids, it had gone completely silent. They were
all staring at our big-screen TV, where Chera Kimiko was looking into the camera and speaking solemnly.
“. . . police are warning the public not to panic, even though this is the third teenager to have disappeared. They are investigating, and assure Fox News that they have several viable leads.
“To repeat this special bulletin, a Broken Arrow teenager, another high school football player, has been reported as missing. His name is Heath Luck.”
My knees no longer held me, and I would have fallen if Erik hadn’t put his arm around my waist and helped me to the love seat. It felt like I couldn’t catch my breath as I listened to Chera continue:
“Heath’s truck was found outside the House of Night, but the High Priestess there, Neferet, assures police that he did not enter the school grounds, and that he has not been seen by anyone there. Of course there is much speculation about these disappearances, especially since the medical examiner’s report states that the cause of death of the other two abducted boys was blood loss from multiple bites and lacerations. And while it is true that vampyres do not bite when they take blood from humans, the lacerations do follow a pattern that is consistent with vampyric feeding. It is important that we remind the public that vampyres have a binding legal agreement with humans to not feed on any human being against his or her will. We’ll have more on this story at ten o’clock, and of course will break as news becomes available . . .”
“Someone get me a bowl, I’m gonna be sick!” I managed to yell over the humming in my head. A bowl was thrust into my hands and I promptly puked my guts into it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Here, Zoey, it’ll help if you swish this around in your mouth.” Blindly I took whatever Erin handed me, relieved when it was just cold water. I spit it into the nasty bowl of puke.
“Ugh, take it away,” I said, suppressing my gag reflex as I got a whiff of puke. I wanted to cover my face with my hands and burst into tears, but I knew that the entire room was looking at me, so I slowly straightened my shoulders and pushed my damp hair back behind my ears. I didn’t have the luxury of dissolving into a panicked heap. My mind was already processing the things I needed to do—had to do. For Heath. He was what was important right now, not me, and not my need for hysteria. “I have to see Neferet,” I said resolutely and stood up, surprised at how steady my knees had become.
“I’ll go with you,” Erik said.
“Thanks, but first I need to brush my teeth and put on some shoes.” (I’d just stuck on a pair of thick socks to come down and watch TV.) I smiled my thanks to Erik. “I’ll run up to my room and be right back.” I could feel the Twins getting ready to follow me. “I’ll be fine. Just give me a sec.” Then I turned and hurried up the stairs.
I didn’t pause at my room, but kept going down the hall, turned right, and stopped before room number 124. I’d raised my fist, but hadn’t knocked when the door opened.
“I thought it would be you.” Aphrodite gave me a cold look, but she stepped to the side. “Come on in.”
I walked in, surprised by the pretty pastel interior of the room. I guess I’d expected it to be dark and scary, like a black widow’s web.
“Do you have any mouthwash? I just puked and I’ve seriously grossed myself out.”
She pointed her chin at the medicine cabinet over the sink. “In there. The glass on the sink is clean.”
I washed out my mouth, taking the opportunity to try to collect my thoughts. When I was done I turned to face her. Deciding not to waste time on bullshit, I got straight to the point. “How can you tell if a vision is real or just a dream?”
She sat down on one of the beds and shook back her long, perfect blond hair. “It’s a feeling in your gut. Visions are never easy or comfortable or fucking flower-draped like they are in the movies. Visions suck. At least real ones do. Basically, if it makes you feel like shit, it’s probably real and not just a dream.” Her blue eyes looked me over carefully. “So, you’ve been having visions?”
“I thought I had a dream last night, a nightmare actually. Today I think it was a vision.”
Aphrodite’s lips turned up only slightly. “Well, that sucks for you.”
I changed the subject. “What’s going on with Neferet?”
Aphrodite’s face went carefully blank. “What do you mean?”
“I think you know exactly what I mean. Something’s off about her. I want to know what.”
“You’re her fledgling. Her favorite. Her new golden girl. Do you think I’m actually going to say shit to you? I may be blond, but I’m definitely not stupid.”
“If that’s the way you really feel, why did you warn me against taking the medicine she gave me?”
Aphrodite looked away. “My first roommate died six months after she got here. I took the medicine. It—it affected me. For a long time.”
“What do you mean? How did it affect you?”
“It made me feel funny, detached. And it stopped my visions. Not permanently, just for a couple of weeks. And then it was hard for me to even remember what she looked like.” Aphrodite paused. “Venus. Her name was Venus Davis.” Her eyes met mine again. “She was the reason I chose Aphrodite as my new name. We were best friends and we thought it was cool.” Her eyes were filled with sadness. “I’ve made myself remember Venus, and I figured you’d want to remember Stevie Rae.”
“I do. I will. Thanks.”
“You should go. It won’t be good for either of us if anyone knows you’ve been here talking to me,” Aphrodite said.
I realized that she was probably right, and turned for the door. Her voice stopped me.
“She makes you think she’s good, but she’s not. Everything that’s light isn’t good, and everything that’s darkness isn’t always bad.”
Darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good. The words that Nyx had said to me the day I was Marked were mirrored in Aphrodite’s warning.
“In other words, be careful around Neferet and don’t trust her,” I said.
“Yeah, but I never said that.”
“Said what? We’re not even having this conversation.” I shut the door behind me and hurried to my room where I washed my face and brushed my teeth, pulled on some shoes, and then returned to the living room.
“Ready?” Erik asked.
“We’ll come, too,” Damien said, motioning to include the Twins, Jack, and Drew.
I started to tell them no, but I couldn’t make the word come out. The truth was that I was glad they were here, glad they obviously felt the need to join forces around me and protect me. I’d worried for a really long time that my extra powers and my weird Goddess-chosen Mark would brand me such a freak that I wouldn’t fit in, wouldn’t have any friends. But the opposite seemed to be happening.
“Okay, let’s go.” We headed for the door. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to say to Neferet. All I knew was that I couldn’t continue to keep my mouth shut, and that I had a terrible feeling my “dream” had really been a vision, and that there was more to the “spirits” I’d been seeing than ghosts. Most of all, I was afraid they’d taken Heath. What that said about what Stevie Rae had become chilled me to my core, but it didn’t change the fact that Heath was missing, and that I think I knew who had taken him (if not what).
We hadn’t quite made it to the door when it opened and Neferet glided into the room on a tide of snow-scented air. She was followed by Detective Marx and Detective Martin. They had blue down jackets on that were zipped to their chins. Their hats were covered with snow and their noses were red. Neferet, as usual, looked perfectly poised, perfectly groomed, perfectly in control.
“Ah, Zoey, good. This saves me from having to look for you. The two detectives have some rather bad news, and they’d also like to speak with you for a moment.”
I didn’t spare a glance for Neferet, and I could feel her stiffening as I responded directly to the detectives. “I already heard on the news that Heath’s missing. If there’s any w
ay I can help, I will.”
“Could we use the library again?” Detective Marx asked.
“Of course,” Neferet said smoothly.
I started to follow Neferet and the detectives from the room, but paused to look back at Erik.
“We’ll be here,” he said.
“All of us,” Damien said.
I nodded. Feeling better, I went to the library. I’d hardly entered the room when Detective Martin started questioning me.
“Zoey, can you account for your whereabouts between six thirty and eight thirty this morning?”
I nodded. “I was upstairs in my room. Around that time I was talking on the phone to my grandma, and then Heath and I text messaged each other back and forth a few times.” I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out my cell phone. “I haven’t even deleted the messages. You can see them if you want.”
“You don’t have to give him your phone, Zoey,” Neferet said.
I made myself smile at her. “That’s okay. I don’t mind.”
Detective Martin took my phone and started going through the text message files, copying onto a little pad the messages.
“Did you see Heath this morning?” Detective Marx asked.
“No. He asked if he could come see me, but I told him no.”
“This says that you were planning on seeing him Friday,” Detective Martin said.
I could feel Neferet’s sharp eyes on me. I drew a deep breath. The only way I could do this would be to stick as close to the truth as I was able.
“Yeah, I was going to go out with him after the game Friday.”
