Zoey made a noise that sounded like she might have been choking. Stark couldn’t look at her. He was too busy trying not to bust out laughing. Aurox was totally wasted! And he’d just said vampyre pussy—out loud. Man, Zoey was gonna shit kittens! The whole thing was awesome.
“Aurox, how many of those have you had?” Stark pointed at the almost full red solo cup.
Aurox squinted at the cup. Stark watched him count on his fingers. “One, two, three, four. This is four, and I didn’t spill it, even though I jumped on and off the wall. Stark, beer is good!”
“My head is going to explode,” Zoey said.
“No! No! No!” Aurox assured her, sloshing beer all around them. “Nothing bad will happen. Stark will make the human boys forget.”
Suddenly, Stark didn’t think Aurox was so funny. “Hang on—what human boys?”
“The ones with the keg who’re looking for vampyre pussy,” Aurox said, totally matter-of-factly.
“What in the hell is going on!” Zoey shouted.
“Jeesh, Zo, take a chill pill,” Aurox said. “Me and Stark can handle it.”
For just that instant Aurox sounded so much like Heath that Stark watched Zoey’s face pale. Her hand went to the Seer Stone around her neck and she fingered it nervously.
“Zoey.” Stark spoke softly, trying to radiate calm to her. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever’s going on, Aurox is right. He and I can handle it.”
Zoey met his gaze and nodded, not saying anything. Stark turned back to Aurox. Damn, it was so fucking weird! The kid looked nothing like Heath. He usually sounded and acted nothing like Heath. And yet here was Heath’s spirit, all bathed in beer, shining through Aurox so brightly it almost blinded them.
“Give me that.” Stark took the beer from Aurox and tossed it onto the sandy floor of the field house. Aurox watched it spill as if Stark had wasted water in the desert. “Now, tell me exactly what’s going on.”
“I drank beer with them. It was good, and they were nice, but they shouldn’t be here. I didn’t want to scare them and make them tell other humans about,” he paused, and did his exaggerated whisper again, “you know, my bull. So, I told them to wait and I came to get you so that you could make them go away and forget.”
“There are human boys here somewhere?” Zoey asked.
Aurox’s face scrunched up as he frowned at her. “Not here. Outside—out there.” He pointed in the general direction of the door to the field house behind them.
“Outside the field house!” she almost yelled.
“Zo, sometimes I think you don’t listen so good,” Aurox said. Still frowning at her, he continued speaking slowly, as if trying to get her to understand a foreign language. “Two boys. Outside the wall. With the keg. And cups. They. Want. Hot. Vampyre. Chicks.”
“Okay, I think I get it.” Stark grabbed Aurox’s arm and started to drag him toward the door and away from Z before she went for his throat, although that would have been funny as hell. “You found two kids, with beer, trying to get over the wall, right?”
“See, you listen better.” Aurox patted him on the back, almost knocking Stark over. “But they’re just looking through the hole for vampyre pussy, not trying to get over the wall.”
“If you say pussy one more time I’m going to smack the crap out of you,” Zoey said, coming after them.
“You can’t come!” Aurox stumbled to a stop. “You have legs and tits!”
“Oh. My. Goddess. I’m going to kill him!”
Stark stepped between the two of them. He faced Zoey. She’d gone from pale to bright red in zero-point-nothing seconds. “Z, I think this is something that a Warrior needs to handle.”
Behind him, Aurox belched, sending a wave of beer air wafting over them.
Zoey narrowed her eyes and pointed at Aurox. “You have never been able to drink!” Then she spun around and stomped back to the basement entrance, slamming the door behind her.
“She seems mad. Should we bring her a beer?” Aurox said.
Stark covered his laugh with a cough. “Ur, no. Z doesn’t like beer.”
“Doesn’t like beer? She should. It would make her head feel bubbly and happy.”
Stark didn’t bother to cover his laugh a second time. “I wish it worked that way with her, but it doesn’t.”
“Because she has legs and tits?”
Stark knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t stop himself. “I’m not sure. Maybe you should ask her next time you see her.”
Aurox nodded, looking as serious as a drunk could look. “I will.”
“That should be fun. But until then, show me where these humans are, and while we’re going there, start back at the beginning and tell me exactly what happened before and after you were introduced to the red Solo cup.”
Zoey
Aurox was Heath. Annoying, stupid, beer-soaked Heath. Vampyre pussy—who the hell even says something like that? I knew the answer to that ridiculous question: drunk teenage boys.
“Well, they look snug as fleas on an old dog,” Stevie Rae said, cutting into my internal dialogue and pulling my attention, thankfully, away from drunk Aurox/Heath and the fact that neither he nor Stark had returned to the basement yet.
“How long until dawn?” I asked her.
“Little less than an hour,” Rephaim said.
“Hey, is Stark back yet?” Aphrodite asked as she, Darius, and Shaylin joined us.
“No. Not yet,” I said. “But Aurox was pretty messed up. He may be awhile.” Kramisha had told everyone about Aurox being drunk. I’d said that Stark was sobering him up, which I assumed he was doing after he messed with the minds of the kids who had gotten Aurox drunk. But I hadn’t mentioned that part to anyone. They’d had enough stress for one day—hell, for one year—and I hadn’t wanted to freak anyone out for no reason. And Stark was usually right—he could handle almost anything, so I was letting him handle it.
Of course I was going to want to hear every single tiny detail when he got his butt back to me. I also had a few choice words ready for Aurox/Heath, after he sobered up. Moron.
“I gotta agree with Kramisha. Aurox drinkin’ is probably not a good thing,” Stevie Rae was saying.
“Typical boy behavior,” Aphrodite muttered.
“Well, Heath was a drinker. Remember when he showed up drunk at that—” Stevie Rae began, but broke off when Aphrodite elbowed her. “Oh, uh. Right.” Then she very obviously changed the subject. “Hey, y’all did a really good job down here!” She hugged Rephaim and smiled at Darius.
“Yeah,” I chimed in, glad she’d changed the subject. “Everything looks really good—cozy and nice.” Stark, Darius, and Rephaim had done most of the hard work—then Stevie Rae’s red fledglings had quickly and quietly carried sleeping bags and pillows and such down to the basement after the funeral (and while Dallas and his friends had retreated to Goddess only knew where).
“Thank you.” Rephaim grinned.
“It did turn out well,” Darius said, nodding in appreciation.
“It’s like a big slumber party!” Stevie Rae said.
“Which is exactly why Darius and I are not staying,” Aphrodite said. “Actually,” she made a big show of yawning, “I do believe I am ready for bed. What about you, handsome?”
“Your wish is my command, my beauty,” Darius said, kissing her.
“It is probably a good idea for all of us who are still staying in the dorm to head to our rooms—obviously,” I said.
“Has anyone seen Dallas and his idiot friends?” Aphrodite asked.
“No, but they have to be on campus somewhere,” I said.
“I say we should just be happy that they haven’t been hangin’ ’round here,” Stevie Rae said. “Maybe Dallas went back to his room ’cause he’s feelin’ sad about Erin. She was his girlfriend.”
“Last time I saw him he was feeling mad, not sad,” Aphrodite said.
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“After the funeral I caught him watching Stevie Rae and Rephaim,” Aphrodite said.
“His colors are bad,” Shaylin said. “Swirls of anger. I agree with Aphrodite. He’s mad, not sad. I hate to say this, but if he and his awful friends are hiding out in his room it’s not because they’re trying to make him feel better. I would bet he’s going to want revenge and not healing.”
“Then he needs to go after Neferet. If anyone’s to blame for Erin’s death, it’s her,” I said.
“His colors say he doesn’t think like that,” Shaylin said. “He’s mad. Period. And he’s going to want to strike out at someone who’s in front of his face.”
“We need to watch him,” Aphrodite added. “Especially you, Shaylin. If you see his colors doing some unusually crazy swirly shit, be sure you let one of our Warriors know—fast. And then find Thanatos or Z.”