Marked

or anything like that.'

Relieved, I unclenched my jaws. Most of the kids were already eating, so the line was short, and as Stevie Rae and I got up to the food I felt my mouth start to water. Spaghetti! I sniffed deeply: with garlic!

'That whole vampyres can't stand garlic thing is total bullshit—pardon my French,' Stevie Rae was saying under her breath to me as we loaded up our plates.

'Okay, what about that whole vampyres have to drink blood thing?' I whispered back.

'Not,' she said softly.

'Not?'

'Not bullshit.'

Great. Wonderful. Fantastic. Just exactly what I wanted to hear—not.

Trying not to think about blood and whatnot I got a glass of tea with Stevie Rae, and then followed her to a table where two other kids were already talking animatedly while they ate. Of course the conversation totally stopped when I joined them, which didn't seem to faze Stevie Rae at all. As I slid into the booth opposite her she made introductions in her Okie twang.

'Hey, y'all. Meet my new roommate, Zoey Redbird. Zoey, this is Erin Bates,' she pointed to the ridiculously pretty blonde sitting on my side of the table. (Well, hell—how many pretty blondes could one school have? Isn't there some kind of limit?) Still in her matter-of-fact Okie voice, she went on, making little air quotes for emphasis. 'Erin is 'the pretty one.' She's also funny and smart and has more shoes than anyone I've ever known.'

Erin pulled her blue eyes away from staring at my Mark long enough to say a quick 'Hi.'

'And this is the token guy in our group, Damien Maslin. But he's gay, so I don't really think he counts as a guy.'

Instead of getting pissed at Stevie Rae, Damien looked serene and unruffled. 'Actually, since I'm gay I think I should count for two guys instead of just one. I mean, in me you get the male point of view and you don't have to worry about me wanting to touch your boobies.'

He had a smooth face that was totally zit free, and dark brown hair and eyes that reminded me of a baby deer. Actually, he was cute. Not in the overly girly way so many teenage guys are when they decide to come out and tell everyone what everyone already knew (well, everyone except their typically clueless and/or in-denial parents). Damien wasn't a swishy girly-guy; he was just a cute kid with a likable smile. He was also noticeably trying not to stare at my Mark, which I appreciated.

'Well, maybe you're right. I hadn't really thought about it like that,' Stevie Rae said through a big bite of garlic bread.

'Just ignore her, Zoey. The rest of us are almost normal,' Damien said. 'And we're desperately glad you finally got here. Stevie Ray's been driving everyone crazy wondering what you'd be like, when you'd get here—'

'If you'd be one of those freaky kids who smell bad and think being a vampyre means seeing who can be the biggest loser,' Erin interrupted.

'Or wondering if you'd be one of them,' Damien said, cutting his eyes at a table to our left.

I followed his gaze and felt a zap of nerves when I recognized who he was talking about. 'You mean Aphrodite?'

'Yeah,' Damien said. 'And her stuck-up flock of sycophants.' Huh? I blinked at him.

Stevie Rae sighed. 'You'll get used to Damien's vocabulary obsession. Thankfully, this isn't a new word so some of us actually know what he's talking about without having to beg him for a translation. Again. Sycophant—a servile flatterer,' she twanged proudly like she was giving an answer in English class.

'Whatever. They make me want to retch,' Erin said without looking up from her spaghetti.

'They?' I asked.

'The Dark Daughters,' Stevie Rae said, and I noticed she automatically lowered her voice.

'Think of them like a sorority,' Damien said.

'Of hags from hell,' Erin said.

'Hey, y'all, I don't think we should prejudice Zoey against them. She might get along okay with them.'

'Fuck that. They're hags from hell,' Erin said.

'Watch that mouth, Er Bear. You have to eat out of it,' Damien said a little primly.

Incredibly relieved that none of them liked Aphrodite, I was just getting ready to ask for more of an explanation when a girl rushed up and, with a big huff, slid herself and her tray into the booth beside Stevie Rae. She was the color of cappuccino (the kind you get from real coffee shops and not the nasty, too-sweet stuff you get from Quick Trip) and all curvy with pouty lips and high cheekbones that made her look like an African princess. She also had some seriously good hair. It was thick and fell in dark, glossy waves around her shoulders. Her eyes were so black they looked like they didn't have any pupils.

'Okay, please! Just please. Did nobody,' she stared pointedly at Erin, 'think to bother to wake me the hell up and tell me that we were going to dinner?'

'I do believe I'm your roommate, not your mamma,' Erin said lazily.

'Do not make me cut that Jessica Simpson look-alike blond hair of yours off in the middle of the night,' the African princess said.

'Actually, the consuetudinary way to phrase that would be 'Do not make me cut that Jessica Simpson look- alike blond hair of yours off in the middle of the day.' Technically day is night for us and so night would be day. Time is reversed here.'

The black girl narrowed her eyes at him. 'Damien, you are getting on my damn last nerve what that vocab shit.'

'Shaunee,' Stevie Rae broke in hastily. 'My roommate finally got here. This is Zoey Redbird. Zoey, this is Erin's roommate, Shaunee Cole.'

'Hi,' I said through a mouthful of spaghetti when Shaunee turned from glaring at Erin to me.

'So, Zoey, what's up with your Mark being colored in? You're still a fledgling, aren't you?' Everyone at the table was shocked silent by Shaunee's question. She looked around. 'What? Do not pretend that every last one of you isn't wondering the same thing.'

'We might be, but we also might be polite enough not to ask,' Stevie Rae said firmly.

'Oh, please. Whatever.' She shrugged off Stevie Rae's protest. 'This is too important for that. Everyone wants to know about her Mark. There's no time to play games when good gossip is involved.' Shaunee turned back to me. 'So, what's up with the weird Mark?'

Might as well face this now. I took a quick drink of tea to clear my throat. All four of them were staring at me, waiting impatiently for my answer.

'Well, I'm still a fledgling. I don't think I'm any different than the rest of you.' Then I blurted something that I'd been considering while everyone else had been talking. I mean, I knew that I was going to have to answer this question eventually. I'm not stupid—confused, maybe, but not stupid—and my gut told me I needed to say something besides the real story about my out-of-body experience with Nyx. 'I don't actually know for sure why my Mark is filled in. It wasn't that way when the Tracker first Marked me. But later that day I had an accident. I fell and hit my head. When I woke up the Mark was like it is now. I've been thinking about it, and all I can come up with is that it must have happened as some kind of reaction to my accident. I was unconscious and I lost a lot of blood. Maybe that did something to speed up the darkening-in process. That's my guess, anyway.'

'Huh,' Shaunee huffed. 'I was hoping it'd be somethin' more interesting. Something good and gossipy.'

'Sorry…,' I muttered.

'Careful, Twin,' Erin said to Shaunee, jerking her head at the Dark Daughters. 'You're starting to sound like you should sit over at that table.'

Shaunee's face twisted. 'I wouldn't be caught undead with those bitches.'

'You're confusing the crap outta Zoey,' Stevie Rae said.

Damien gave a long-suffering sigh. 'I'll explain, proving once again how valuable I am to this group, penis or no penis.'

'I really wish you wouldn't use the P-word,' Stevie Rae said. 'Especially when I'm trying to eat.'

'I like it,' Erin chimed in. 'If everyone called things what they are we'd all be a lot less confused. For instance, you know when I have to go to the bathroom I state the obvious—I have urine that needs to come out of my urethra. Simple. Easy. Clear.'

'Disgusting. Gross. Crude,' Stevie Rae said.