"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?"
I smiled at her. "I remember."
"If you two start holding hands and singing 'Lean on Me,' I'm going to have to excuse myself so I don't start retching," Aphrodite said. "Can you not use some of your mind control on her and get her to stop once and for all?" I asked.
"Nope. I've already tried it. There's something about her brain that I can't get into."
"It's my superior intelligence," Aphrodite said.
"It's more like your superior annoyance," I said. "Go on, Stevie Rae."
"Let's see, what else . . ." She thought for a couple of seconds, then said, "I'm a lot stronger than I used to be."
"Regular adult vamps are strong," I said. Then I remembered she'd had to stop for blood. "So, you still have to have blood?"
"Yep, but if I don't get it, I don't think I'd go all crazy like I did before. I wouldn't like doing without it, but I don't think I'd turn into a bloodsucking monster."
"But she doesn't know for sure," Aphrodite said.
"I hate it when she's right, but she's right," Stevie Rae said. "There's just so much I don't know about what kind of vampyre I've Changed into that it's more than a little scary."
"Don't worry. We have plenty of time to figure all of this out."
Stevie Rae smiled and shrugged. "Well, y'all are gonna have to figure this out on your own 'cause I really do gotta go." Surprising the crap out of me, she started toward the window.
"Hang on. We have lots more talking to do. And what with the big announcement that winter break is over, there are going to be fledglings and vamps everywhere again, not to mention there're the Sons of Erebus and the whole war-against-the-humans thing to deal with if I try to leave campus to see you, so I don't know when I'll be able to see you." I was beginning to feel a little short of breath about the multiple issues we had going on.
"Don't worry, Z. I still got that phone you gave me. Just call, and I can sneak back in here anytime."
"You mean anytime there's no sunlight," Aphrodite said, helping me open the window for Stevie Rae.
"Yeah, that's what I mean." Stevie Rae looked at Aphrodite. "You know you can come with me if you don't want to stay here and pretend."
I blinked at my BFF in surprise. It wasn't like she could stand Aphrodite, but here she was, offering her a place to stay, and using a nice tone of voice about it, too, which was exactly like the Stevie Rae I knew and loved--and I felt like crap that somewhere in the back of my mind I'd imagined her acting undead and inhuman again.
"Really, you can come with me," Stevie Rae repeated, and when Aphrodite didn't say anything, she added something that seemed really odd to me. "I know what it's like to pretend. You wouldn't have to do that in the tunnels."
I expected Aphrodite to sneer at her and make a crack about the red fledglings and bad hygiene, but what she actually said surprised me even more than Stevie Rae's offer.
"I have to stay here and pretend I'm still a fledgling. I'm not going to leave Zoey alone, and I don't trust the gay boy and the Dorkamese Twins to do the buddy thing right now. But thanks, Stevie Rae."
I smiled at Aphrodite. "See, you can be nice when you try." "I'm not being nice. I'm being practical. A world filled with war isn't attractive. You know, what with all that sweaty running and fighting and killing each other. It's just not conducive to good hair or well-maintained nails."
"Aphrodite," I said wearily, "being nice is not a bad thing."
"So says the Queen of Notnormal Land," Aphrodite quipped.
"Which means she's queen of you, Vision Girl," Stevie Rae said. Then she gave me a quick hug. "Bye, Z. I'll see you soon. Promise."
I hugged her back, loving that she felt and smelled and sounded like her old self again. "Okay, but I wish you didn't have to go."
"It'll be fine. You'll see. This'll all work out." Then she crawled out the window. I watched her start to climb down the sheer side of the dorm. She looked creepily buglike until her body rippled and practically disappeared. Actually, had I not known she was there, I would never have seen her at all.
"It's like she's one of those lizards that can change the color of their bodies to match their surroundings," Aphrodite said.
"Chameleons," I said. "That's what they're called."
"Are you sure? Gecko sounds more Stevie Rae?ish to me."
I frowned at her. "I'm sure. Stop being such a smart aleck and help me close the window."
With the window closed and the drapes drawn again, I sighed and shook my head. More to myself than to her, I said, "So what are we going to do?"
Aphrodite started to paw through the chic little Coach purse she wore like decoration over her shoulder. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to use this ridiculous eyeliner pencil to draw my Mark back. Can you believe I found this shade at Target?" She shuddered. "Like, which of the fashion-challenged would even wear it? Anyway, I'm going to fix this thing, then I'm going to go to the stupid meeting Neferet called."
"I meant, What are we going to do about all this life-and-death stuff that's going on?"
"I don't fucking know! I don't want this." She pointed at her fake Mark. "I don't want any of this. I just want to be what I was before you showed up here and all hell broke loose. I want to be popular and powerful and dating the hottest guy in school. Now I'm none of those things, and I'm a human who has scary visions and I don't know what to do about any of it."
I didn't say anything for a second, thinking about the fact that I had been the cause of Aphrodite's losing her popularity, her power, and her boyfriend. When I did finally speak, I surprised myself by saying exactly what was on my mind.
"You must hate me."
She stared a long time at me. "I did," she said slowly. "But now it's mostly myself I hate."
"Don't," I said.
"And why the hell shouldn't I hate myself? Everyone else hates me." Her words sounded sharp and mean, but her eyes were filled with tears.
"Remember the hateful thing you said to me not too long ago when you thought I was perfect?"
A small smile tilted up her lips. "You'll have to remind me. I've said lots of hateful things to you." "Well, this particular time you said something about the fact that power changes people and that it makes them mess up."
"Oh, yeah. It's coming back to me now. I said power changes people, but I was talking about the people around you."
"Well, you were right about them and me, and I understand that now. I also understand a lot of the stupid things you've done." I smiled and added, "Not all of the stupid things you've done, but a lot of them. Because now I've done my share of stupid things, and I kinda think I'm not done doing stupid things--as depressing as that is."
"Depressing, but true," she said. "Oh, and by the way, while we're talking about power changing people, you need to remember that when you're dealing with Stevie Rae."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said. She's changed."
"You're gonna have to do better than that," I said, getting a sick feeling in my stomach.
"Don't pretend like you didn't notice anything weird about her," Aphrodite said.
"She's been through a lot," I justified.
"My point exactly. She's been through a lot, and it's changed her."
"You've never liked Stevie Rae, so I don't expect you to suddenly start getting along with her, but I'm not going to listen to you talk crap about her--especially after she just offered to let you come with her so that you don't have to stay here and pretend to be something you're not." I was working myself up into getting really pissed, and I couldn't tell if that was because what Aphrodite was saying was hateful and wrong, or because what she was saying was a scary truth I didn't want to face.
"Did you ever think that maybe she wanted me to go with her because Stevie Rae doesn't want me to spend any time with you?"
"That's stupid. Why would she care? She's my best friend, not my boyfriend."
"Because she knows I've seen through her little act and that I'll tell you the real deal about her. The truth is that she's not what she used to be. I don't know exactly what she is now, and I don't think she knows either, but she's definitely not good ol' white- bread Stevie Rae anymore."
"I know she's not exactly like she used to be!" I snapped. "How could she be? She died, Aphrodite! In my arms. Remember? And I'm a good enough friend that I'm not going to turn my back on her just because going through something life-changing actually changed her."
Aphrodite stood there and stared at me a long time without saying anything--so long that my stomach started to hurt again. Finally she lifted one shoulder. "Fine. Believe what you want to believe. I hope you're right."
"I'm right, and I don't want to talk about it again," I said, feeling weirdly shaky.
"Fine," she repeated. "I'm done talking about it."
"Good. So finish drawing in your Mark and let's go to the meeting."
"Together?"
"Yep."
"You're not caring that people know we don't hate each other?" she said. "Well, I look at it like this: People, especially my friends, will be thinking a whole lot of not-so-nice stuff about the possibility that you and I have suddenly become friends."
Aphrodite's eyes widened. "Which will keep their wee little brains from thinking about Stevie Rae."
"My friends do not have wee brains."
"Whatever."
"But, yes, Damien and the Twins will be busy thinking pissed-off thoughts about you, which will definitely keep their minds busy if Neferet happens to be listening in," I said.
"Sounds like the beginnings of a plan," she said.
"Sadly, it's all I have of a plan."
"Well, at least you're consistent about not knowing what the hell you're doing."
"So good of you to look on the bright side of things."
"Anything I can do to help," Aphrodite said.
When she'd put the finishing touches on her fake Mark, we headed toward the door. Just before I opened it, I glanced sideways at her. "Oh, and I don't hate you, either," I said. "Actually, you're kinda growing on me."
Aphrodite gave me one of her best sneers and said, "See, that's what I mean about you being consistent about not knowing what the hell you're doing."
I was laughing when I pulled open the door and ran smack into Damien, Jack, and the Twins.