Zoey
I stared after Aurox for a long time.
What the hell?
I blew my nose again, shook my head, and looked at the wet, wadded mess of Kleenex in my hand. What game had Neferet's creature been playing? Had she purposefully sent him out here after me to offer me a Kleenex and mess with my already totally messed-up head?
No, that couldn't be right. Neferet didn't know that Aurox giving me a Kleenex would remind me of Heath. No one would know that except Heath.
Well, and Stark.
So it had to just be a weird coincidence. Sure, Aurox was some kind of creature of Neferet's, but that didn't mean he was immune to the effects of girl tears. He was a guy-at least I was pretty sure he was a guy. And anyway, he might not be one hundred percent one of Neferet's mindless minions. He might be an okay guy-or at least he might be kinda okay when he wasn't changing into a killing machine that looked like a bull. Hell, Stevie Rae had found a good Raven Mocker. Who knows what-
And then I realized what I was doing. I was Kalona-ing him. I was seeing goodness where there was none.
"Oh, hell no! I am soooo not going there," I chastised myself aloud.
"Not going where, Z?" Stark walked into the courtyard, a box of Kleenex in his hand. "Hey, looks like you were snot prepared for a change," he said, gesturing to my wadded mess of a tissue.
"Uh, I'll take another one. Thanks," I said, plucking a couple of tissues from the box and wiping my face again.
"So, where are you not going?" He sat down beside me on the bench. His shoulder brushed mine and I leaned into him.
"I'm just reminding myself not to let the crazy stuff that goes on around here make me crazy-or at least crazier."
"You're not crazy, Z. You're going through some hard things, but you're gonna be fine," he said.
"I hope you're right," I muttered and then another, even more depressing thought struck me. "Um, did you tell the rest of the guys not to treat me all weird because of my mom?"
"I didn't have to tell them. They're your friends, Z. They're gonna treat you like they care about you, not weirdly," Stark said.
"I know, I know I just..." My voice trailed off. I didn't know how to sift through and put into words the pain and guilt and terrible alone feeling not having a mom had left with me.
"Hey." Stark stopped and looked down at me. "You're not alone."
"Are you listening to my thoughts? You know I don't like it when-"
He took my shoulders in his hands and gave me a little shake. "It doesn't take an Oath Bound Warrior's link to know you're feeling all by yourself. I don't know any other kid whose mom is dead, do you?"
"No. Just me." I bit my lip to keep from bawling. Again.
"See, it's not tough to figure you out." He kissed me then. Not with a hot, open mouth, I-want-in-your-panties kiss. Stark's kiss was soft and sweet and reassuring. When his lips left mine he smiled into my eyes. "But, like I said before, you're gonna come through all of this just fine and not crazy because you're smart and strong and beautiful and basically covered with awesomesauce." I giggled unexpectedly. "Awesomesauce? Did you seriously just say that?"
"Hell yes I just said it! You are awesome, Z."
"But awesome sauce?" I giggled again, and felt my stomach begin to unclench. "That's the dorkiest thing I think I've ever heard you say." He clutched his chest like I'd just stabbed him. "Z, that hurts. I was trying to be romantic."
"Well, at least you tried," I said. "Please tell me you didn't make that word up all by yourself."
"Nah." He gave me his cute, cocky grin. "I heard a bunch of third former girls say I was covered with it when they were watching me shoot my arrows in the arena last hour."
"Real ly?" I raised a brow and gave him the stank eye. "Third former girls?"
The cocky part of his grin faded. "I meant to say unattractive third former girls."
"I'm sure that's exactly what you meant to say."
His eyes sparkled. "Jealous?"
I snorted and lied. "No!"
"You don't have to be jealous. Ever. Because you're not just covered with awesomesauce. You're what awesomesauce is made of."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep."
"Promise?"
"Yep."
I leaned against him. "Okay, I believe you, dork." I rested my head on his shoulder and he put his arm around me. "Can we go home now?"
"Absolutely. Your short yellow limo is loaded and waiting for you." He stood up and pulled me to my feet. Hand in hand we walked toward the parking lot. I snuck a sideways glance at him. He looked pleased with himself (and totally hot). Obviously his dorky word game had been part of his plot to pull me out of the pit of depression I'd felt myself falling into.
Stark would have felt it, too, and not because he was "listening" inappropriately to my thoughts-because he was my Guardian and my Warrior and much, much more.
I squeezed his hand. "Thanks."
He glanced at me, smiled, then lifted my hand to his lips. "No problem. Just wait 'till you hear the word I'm thinking up to describe your boobs. This time it'll be totally made up. I don't need the help of any unattractive third formers for this."
"No. Just no."
"But you might need more cheering up."
"Nope. I'm a-okay. Boob talk is so not necessary."
"Well, remember that I'm here if you need me," he said, grinning again. "Ready, willing, and able."
"That's a comfort. Thanks."
"All part of my Guardian job description," he said.
I lifted both of my brows this time. "Did you actually get a job description?"
"Kinda. Seoras said, 'Take care o' yur queen or I'll be finishin' the wee scratchin' I started on yu,'" he said, sounding freakishly like the ancient Scottish Guardian.
"Wee?" I shuddered, remembering the bloody knife wounds that had been slashed all across his chest. How could I ever forget? Even if they weren't still fresh pink scars, despite the healing power of my elements and my blood. "Wee is definitely not how I'd describe them."
"Ach, well, lassie. It wasna much more than pussy scratches."
I felt my eyes go wide, and then I punched him on his arm. "Pussy!"
He rubbed his arm, and in his regular voice said, "Z, it means cat in Scotland. Really."
"You." I scowled at him. "Are a guy."
For some goofy reason that made him laugh, and he put his arms around me, enfolding me in a giant hug. "Yeah, I'm a guy. Your guy. And I want you to remember that beyond all this stuff," he paused, pulled back far enough so he could gesture at the House of Night and the short bus that waited a little way from where we were now standing, "and my Warrior stuff, and even my Guardian stuff, I love you, Zoey Redbird. And I'll always be there for you when you need me."
I stepped back into his arms and breathed a long sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"There she is!" I heard Kramisha's voice shouting and I sighed, pretty sure I was the "she" she was talking about. I looked up and, sure enough, Kramisha was standing in front of the loaded short bus with Stevie Rae, Aphrodite, Damien, the Twins, Erik, and a red fledgling I didn't recognize.
Keeping Stark's hand in mine I walked the rest of the way to the bus.
"I'm sorry 'bout your momma. That's bad," Kramisha said in greeting.
"Um, th-thanks," I stuttered, and had just started thinking that I was going to have to come up with a non-awkward way to respond to people who were telling me they were sorry my mom was dead when Kramisha continued with, "Z, I know it ain't good timin', but we got us a problem." I stifled another sigh. "We, as in me, or we as in you?"
"We think this problem might spil over onto all of us," Stevie Rae said.
"Great," I said.
"Zoey, this is Shaylin." Erik introduced me to the unfamiliar girl, who was studying me like she wished she had me under a microscope. Jeesh, it was a pain to meet new kids.
"Hi, Shaylin," I said, trying to sound normal while I ignored her stare.
"Purple," she said.
"I thought Erik said your name was Shaylin," I said, even though I wanted to shriek Yes! It's me! The one with the weird tattoos!
"My name is Shaylin." She gave me a really warm, really nice smile. "You're purple."
"She's not Purple, she's Zoey," Stark said, sounding as confused as I felt.
"You're also flecks of silver." Shaylin finished staring at me and then turned her gaze to him. "You're red and gold and a little black. Huh. That's weird."
"Okay, I'm not-"
"Oh, for shit's sake," Aphrodite interrupted, pointing at Shaylin. "This new kid's name is Shaylin, and she's not calling you colors, she's seeing your colors."
"My colors? I don't have a clue what that means," I said, frowning at Aphrodite and then giving Shaylin a big question mark look.
"I don't really know what it means, either," Shaylin said. "It just happened to me, right after I was Marked."
"I think Shaylin has been gifted with something called True Sight," Damien said. "It's rare. I think there's something about it in the Advanced Fledgling Handbook, but I only peeked at one of those." He looked embarrassed and apologetic. "I didn't really study it."
"Damien, you're only a forth former. It wasn't part of your classwork," Stevie Rae said.
"hello, talk about homework obsessed," Erin muttered.
"Seriously," Shaunee added.
"Look." I raised my voice so everyone would gawk at me instead of launching into the bickering I was pretty sure was getting ready to start. "I don't know what True Sight is, but if it's a gift, and I'm assuming you mean from Nyx, then why is that a problem?" I said.
"She's a red fledgling," Aphrodite said.
"So? There's a whole short bus full of them," I said, gesturing behind them.
"Yeah, and each of us had to die and then un-die before we got us these." Kramisha pointed at the red outline of a crescent moon on her forehead.
I stared at her, then at the new kid, and then my mind caught up with my eyes. I looked at Erik. "You just Marked her in red?"
"No. Yes." Erik shook his head and looked worried as hell. "I didn't mean to. I Marked her. Okay, yes, it didn't go exactly according to plan, but that was because she was blind, and that surprised me." We all stared at him and he ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. His shoulders slumped. Then he added, "I messed up, and that's why she's a red fledgling and can see our colors."
"You didn't mess up, Erik." It looked like Shaylin started to reach out to pat Erik's arm, but halfway through the motion changed her mind. Her gaze moved to me and she continued, "Before he Marked me I was blind. I've been blind since I was a kid. The second he Marked me I could see again, and that's not a mess up. That's amazing."
"Ah! I knew I felt a new fledgling!" At the sound of Neferet's voice we all jumped like she'd Tasered us. She was hurrying toward us, her long green velvet gown sweeping the ground and making it appear as if she was gliding instead of walking (which was super creepy). "Merry meet, I am Neferet, your High Priestess." She turned her attention briefly to Erik, and I could see displeasure flash in her eyes. "Professor Night, you should not have brought the child here." Neferet reached Shaylin and made a graceful, apologetic gesture to her. "Young fledgling, the Tracker should have instructed you to come to the female dormitory where you will join the rest of the-" She broke off when she finally saw Shaylin's Mark.
"Yeah," I said, unable to keep my mouth shut any longer. "She's red. Which means she is in the right place."
"And I'm her High Priestess. Not you," Stevie Rae finished for me.
"Oh! You're ... oh, I don't feel well!" Shaylin was staring at Neferet when she suddenly collapsed. Erik caught her before she conked her head on the ground, managing to look scared and hero-like at the same time. (Seriously, he's an excellent actor.)
"She's been through a lot," Aphrodite said, stepping up to stand toe to toe with Neferet. "She needs to go home. To the depot. With us. Now." I held my breath as Neferet's eyes narrowed and her gaze flicked around at each kid in our group. All vampyres are intuitive, but Neferet is more than that. She can read minds. Well, most fledglings' minds-or at least the surface of their thoughts. I sent a quick, silent prayer up to the Goddess: Please let each of them think about everything and anything except the fact that this new kid may have True Sight-whatever that is.
Suddenly Neferet's suspicious expression changed. She laughed. She actually laughed. I had no idea how it was possible, but her laugh sounded horrible and mean and sarcastic. How could laughter be so awful?
"She was blind. That's why she's been Marked red. She's broken. She just didn't have to die to get that way. Well, at least not yet she hasn't died."
Kramisha was standing beside me, so I saw her little jerk of fear. So did Neferet. The pretend High Priestess smiled at our Poet Laureate. "What is it? Did you actually believe that red outline guaranteed you the Change?" She cocked her head to the side, reminding me of a reptile. "Yes, I can sense your shock and fear. You hadn't thought of that. Your body can still reject the Change."
"You don't know that for sure." Stevie Rae stepped closer to Kramisha.
"Don't I?" Again, Neferet's laugh was mean and awful. She jerked her chin at Shaylin, who was still passed out in Erik's arms. "That one feels odd to me." She shifted her gaze to Aphrodite. I saw Aphrodite put her fists on her waist, as if bracing herself for a physical blow. "A little like you feel, and you're not even a fledgling anymore."
"No, I'm not. But I am happy with what I am. How about you, Neferet?"
Instead of an answer, Neferet said, "Take the new fledgling with you. You're right about one thing, Aphrodite. Her home is with you and the rest of the misfits, not here. What in the name of all the gods will Nyx come up with next?" And then, laughing, she turned her back dismissively on us and slithered away.
When she was out of hearing range I let out a long breath. "Good job, all of you, in not thinking about the True Sight thing."
"She scares me," Kramisha said in a voice that sounded very, very young.
Stevie Rae put her arm around Kramisha. "It's okay to be scared of her. That'll just make us fight harder against her."
"Or run faster," Erik said grimly.
"Some of us aren't running away," Stevie Rae said.
"Are you sure?" Shaylin said.
"Hey, are you back with us?" Erik asked.
"Actually, I never went anywhere. Um. You can put me down now. Please."
"Oh, right. Yeah." Erik gently put her down. He kept a hand on her arm, as if to be sure she wasn't going to wobble and fall, but she stood there looking pretty darn steady.
"So, you faked a faint. Why?" Aphrodite asked the question before I could.
"Well, it wasn't hard." Shaylin looked at Kramisha. "I agree with you. She scares me." Then she continued. "I acted like I passed out because it was either that or run screaming away from her." She shared a look with Erik. "Yeah, I agree with you, too." Then she shrugged a shoulder. "But she said she's a High Priestess. I don't know much about vampyres, but everyone knows High Priestesses are in charge. Running screaming away from one my first day as a fledgling didn't seem like a good option."
"So you figured you'd play opossum," Stevie Rae said.
"Play what?"
"That's a bumpkin way of saying that you pretended to be out of it so Neferet would leave you alone," Aphrodite said.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I did," Shaylin said.
"Not a bad plan," Stark said. "Meeting Neferet and being Marked all in one day sucks for you."
"What did you see?" My question seemed to take everyone except Shaylin by surprise. She met my gaze and held it steadily as she answered me. "Right before I went blind I was at Nam Hi, that big Vietnamese grocery store on Twenty-first and Garnett, with my mom. They had whole fish for sale in a giant bin of ice. They scared me so bad I remember all I could do was stand there and stare at their milky, dead eyes and their horrible slit open bell ies."
"Neferet's dead fish belly color?" Stevie Rae asked.
"No. Neferet's color is the same color as dead fish eyes. That's her only color."
"That can't be good," Kramisha said.
"What can't be good?" Darius asked as he joined our group, taking Aphrodite's hand. She leaned into him and said, "Darius, stud Warrior, meet Shaylin, newly Marked red fledgling who didn't die to be red and who has True Sight. She just 'saw'"-Aphrodite air quoted-"Neferet and apparently her true color is like dead fish eyes."
Darius didn't miss a beat. He just gave the new kid a little bow and said, "Merry meet, Shaylin," which either showed the Warrior had impressive control or was just more proof that our lives had become totally bat-poop crazy.
"We need to learn more about True Sight," Damien said. "It's sixth former and beyond level information. Do you know anything about it?" he asked Darius.
"Not a lot. I focused mostly on knives, not vampyre sociology," Darius said.
"Well, I have the stupid advanced handbook," Aphrodite said. When we gave her a group gawk she frowned. "What? I was a sixth former before this happened." She pointed at her unMarked forehead. "Sadly, I had to rejoin my old schedule today." When we all kept staring without speaking she rolled her eyes. "Oh, for shit's sake, I have homework, that's all. The book's in my extremely attractive Anahata Joy Katkin bag in the retard bus."
"Aphrodite, stop sayin' retard!" Stevie Rae shouted at her. "I swear you need to check out www.r-word.com. Maybe you'd learn that some people get their feelin's hurt by the r-word."
Aphrodite blinked several times and then scrunched her forehead. "A Web site? Seriously."
"Yes, Aphrodite. Like I have tried to tell you a bazil ion times, using the r-word is demeaning and just plain mean." Aphrodite sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a rant: "What about having a site for the c-word-as in cunt, which demeans half of the world?
Or, wait, no. Let's keep it the r-word site only make the r-word rape, which does more than just hurt upper middle class mommies' feelings. Or-"
"Seriously." I stepped between them. "We get it. Can we go back to Shaylin and the True Sight issue?"
"Yeah, whatever," Aphrodite said, flipping back her hair.
"Aphrodite's mean, Z, but she makes a good point," Erin said.
I glared at Shaunee who only nodded enthusiastically, but didn't chime in. My head felt like it was going to explode. "Ah, hell," I said, throwing up my hands in frustration. "I can't remember what we were saying before the retard part."
"Information about True Sight is on the bus," Rephaim said, surprising all of us. He smiled shyly. "I didn't really understand much of the rest of the conversation. I also got that Aphrodite is mean, but I already knew that."
Beside me Stark turned a bark of laughter into a cough.
I sighed.
"Okay, let's get on the bus and get back to the depot. Aphrodite and Damien, meet me in the kitchen with the advanced handbook." I paused and glanced at Stevie Rae, who was still holding Rephaim's hand. "You wanna join us after, um, you know, the sun rises and such?"
"Z, you don't have to tippie-toe around it. Yes, Rephaim's gonna change into a bird when the sun comes up, and I'd like to be with him 'till then." She glanced up at Rephaim who was smiling down at her like it was his birthday and she was some super amazing present he'd just opened.
"Seriously?" I heard Shaylin ask Erik.
"Yeah. It's a long story," Erik said.
"No wonder his color's so weird," she said.
I was curious about Rephaim's color, but I knew now was not the time to ask her a bunch of questions, so instead I just said, "Kramisha, would you please figure out where Shaylin will be staying?"
"I ain't sharin' my room," Kramisha said. Then she gave Shaylin an apologetic look. "Sorry. I don't mean no offense."
"That's fine. I've had to have people around me ever since I went blind. I'd rather have my own room, too." Kramisha smiled. "That's right. I like me an independent woman, and I'll help you find a room of your own."
"Deal," Shaylin said.
"Er." Erik cleared his throat to get our attention. I thought he looked nervous and unusually unsure of himself. "How about I follow the bus in my car, and Shaylin comes with me? I can fill her in on some of the stuff like Rephaim and the whole red fledgling thing in general on the way."
"Trackers are just supposed to track and Mark," Aphrodite said.
"Yeah, and fledglings are supposed to be Marked with a blue crescent, and then Change or die," he countered.
"I think it's okay that Erik follows us," Stevie Rae said, which surprised me because I knew she wasn't exactly an Erik fan. "What do you think, Z?" I shrugged. "Okay with me."
Erik gave a little nod and then he and Shaylin headed for his car in the parking lot.
"Are we ready to go?" Darius asked.
"I guess, or at least we will be as soon as our ever-so-friendly driver gets here," I said.
Darius smiled. "That would be me. "I told Christophe I'd handle the drive back and forth to the depot from here on." I couldn't resist a look at Aphrodite. Her face was frozen and her eyes looked huge.
"Hey, Aphrodiky is going out with a bus driver!" Shaunee said.
It looked like Erin had some smart-ass comment she was going to add, but Aphrodite closed the space between her and the Twins. "Darius isn't a bus driver. He's a Son of Erebus Warrior. He can kill you, but he's honorable and good so he won't. I, on the other hand, am not honorable or a Warrior. I will kill you, or at the very least mess you up so bad you won't make the next Miss Jackson's trunk sale." The Twins sucked air and I quickly said, "All righty then, let's all go back to the depot. Looks like we have some studying to do." I grabbed Aphrodite's wrist and practically dragged her to the bus. She jerked away from me, but was still following when I started to climb the stairs. Then an orange ball of fur hurled herself into my arms. "Nala!" I yelped, almost dropping her in surprise. "Oh, baby girl! I've missed you so much." I petted her and kissed her and laughed when she sneezed on me and then started to grumble in her old lady voice, "mee-uf-owing" even while she was purring like crazy.
While I was cuddling Nala there was a terrible screeching sound from the bowels of the bus, and suddenly Aphrodite was pushing past me yelling, "Maleficent! Mommy's here!" It seemed to rain white fur. The kids on the bus jerked legs and arms out of the way as the ugliest, most smoosh-faced, huge, hateful cat in the universe padded down the aisle hissing and yowling. Aphrodite stooped, picked her up, and began telling her how beautiful and wonderful and smart she was.
"That cat ain't right," Kramisha said, peeking over my shoulder. "But Aphrodite ain't right, either, so I guess it works out just fine." Her gaze went from Maleficent to Nala, who was still grumbling at me. "Actually, a whole bunch of these cats ain't normal."
"Whole bunch?" I looked up over Nala's furry orange head and, as I suspected, the yellow mini-limo was full of red fledglings and cats. "When did this happen?"
"They was here when we got here," Kramisha said. "Like I said-they ain't normal."
"Huh, well. I suppose this means the depot really is our new home," I said, feeling for the first time that it could be true.
"Z, home is where you are," Stark said, reaching over me and scratching Nala on her head.
I smiled at him and felt warm inside-almost warm enough to make me forget about moonstone-colored eyes and the fact that people around me kept dying ...