Marked

'No, not really.'

'Good. Meet Persephone,' Lenobia nodded her head at the mare beside her. 'You've just cleaned her stall.'

The mare came into the stall and walked straight up to me, sticking her muzzle in my face and blowing gently, which tickled and made me giggle. I rubbed her nose and automatically kissed the warm velvet of her muzzle.

'Hi there, Persephone, you pretty girl.'

Lenobia nodded in approval as the mare and I got to know each other.

'There are only about five minutes left before the bell rings for school to end, so it is not necessary that you stay as part of today's class, but if you'd like, I believe you have earned the privilege of brushing Persephone.'

Surprised, I looked up from patting the horse's neck. 'No problem, I'll stay,' I heard myself saying.

'Excellent. You can return the brush to the tack room when you've finished. I'll see you tomorrow, Zoey.' Lenobia handed me the brush, patted the mare, and left us alone in the stall.

Persephone stuck her head in the metal rack that held fresh hay, and got to work chewing, while I got to work brushing. I'd forgotten how relaxing it was to groom a horse. Bunny had died of a sudden and very scary heart attack two years ago, and Grandma had been too upset to get another horse. She'd said that 'the rabbit' (which is what she used to call him) couldn't be replaced. So it had been two years since I'd been around a horse, but it came back to me instantly—all of it. The smells, the warm, soothing sound of a horse eating, and the gentle shoosh the curry brush made as it slid over the mare's slick coat.

At the edge of my attention I vaguely heard Lenobia's voice, sharp and angry, as she totally chewed out a student I guessed was the annoying redheaded kid. I peeked over Persephone's shoulder and took a quick look down the stall line. Sure enough, the redheaded kid was slouched in front of his stall. Lenobia stood beside him, hands on her hips. Even from the side view I could see she was mad as hell. Was it that kid's mission to piss off every teacher here? And his mentor was Dragon? Okay, the guy looked nice, until he picked up a sword—uh, I mean foil —then he shifted from nice guy to deadly-dangerous-vampyre-warrior-guy.

'That redheaded slug kid must have a death wish,' I told Persephone as I returned to her grooming. The mare twitched an ear back at me and blew through her nose. 'Yep, I knew you'd agree. Wanta hear my theory about how my generation could single-handedly wipe out slugs and loser kids from America?' She seemed receptive, so I launched into my Don't Procreate with Losers speech.…

'Zoey! There you are!'

'Ohmygod! Stevie Rae! You scared the poo out of me!' I patted and reassured Persephone, who had shied when I'd squealed. 'What in the world are ya doin'?'

I waggled the curry brush in her direction. 'What does it look like I'm doing, Stevie Rae, getting a pedicure?'

'Stop messing around. The Full Moon Ritual is gonna start in like two minutes?'

'Ah, hell!' I gave Persephone one more pat and hurried out of the stall to the tack room.

'You forgot all about it, didn't you?' Stevie Rae said, holding my hand to help me balance while I kicked my feet out of the rubber boots and put my cute little ballet slippers back on.

'No,' I lied.

Then I realized that I'd also forgotten all about the Dark Daughters' ritual afterward.

'Ah, hell!'

CHAPTER 15

About halfway to Nyx's Temple I realized that Stevie Rae was being unusually quiet. I glanced sideways at her. Was she also looking pale? I got a creepy walk-over-your-grave feeling.

'Stevie Rae, is something wrong?'

'Yeah, well, it's sad and kinda scary.'

'What is? The Full Moon Ritual?' My stomach started to hurt.

'No, you'll like that—or at least you'll like this one.' I knew she meant, versus the Dark Daughters' ritual I had to go to afterward, but I didn't want to talk about that. Stevie Rae's next words made the whole issue of the Dark Daughters seem like a small, secondary problem. 'A girl died last hour.'

'What? How?'

'How they all die. She didn't make the Change, and her body just…' Stevie Rae paused, shuddering. 'It happened near the end of Tae Kwan Do class. She'd been coughing, like she was short of breath at the beginning of our warm-up exercises. I didn't think anything of it. Or maybe I did, but I put it out of my mind.'

Stevie Rae gave me a small, sad smile and she looked ashamed of herself.

'Is there any way to save a kid? After, you know, they start—' I broke off and made a vague, uncomfortable gesture.

'No. There's no way you can be saved if your body starts to reject the Change.'

'Then don't feel bad about not wanting to think about the girl who was coughing. There's nothing you could have done anyway.'

'I know. I just…it was awful. And Elizabeth was so nice.'

I felt a sharp jolt somewhere in the middle of my body. 'Elizabeth No Last Name? She's the girl who died?'

Stevie Rae nodded, blinking hard and obviously trying not to cry.

'That's horrible,' I said, my voice so weak it was almost a whisper. I remembered how considerate she'd been about my Mark, and how she'd noticed Erik looking at me. 'But I just saw her in Drama class. She was fine.'

'That's how it happens. One second the kid sitting next to you looks perfectly normal. The next…' Stevie Rae shivered again.

'And everything's going to go on like normal? Even though someone at the school just died?' I remembered that last year, when a group of sophomores from SIHS had been in a car accident one weekend and two of them had been killed, extra counselors had been called in to school on Monday and all the athletic events had been cancelled for that week.

'Everything goes on like normal. We're supposed to get used to the idea that it might happen to anyone. You'll see. Everyone will act like nothing happened, especially upperclassmen. It's just third formers and good friends of Elizabeth, like her roommate, who will show any reaction at all. The third formers—that's us—are supposed to act right and get over it. Elizabeth's roommate and best friends will probably keep to themselves for a couple days, but then they'll be expected to get it together.' She lowered her voice, 'Truthfully, I don't think the vamps think of any of us as real until we actually Change.'

I thought about this. Neferet didn't seem to treat me like I was temporary—she'd even said that it was an excellent sign that my Mark was colored in already, not that I was as confident as she seemed to be about my future. But I absolutely was not going to say anything that might sound as if Neferet was giving me special treatment. I didn't want to be 'the weird one.' I just wanted to be Stevie Rae's friend and fit in with my new group.

'That's really awful,' was all I said.

'Yeah, but at least if it happens, it happens fast.'

Part of me wanted to know the details, and part of me was too scared even to ask the question.

Thankfully, Shaunee interrupted before I could make myself ask what I was really too freaked out to want to know.

'Just please with the taking so long,' Shaunee called from the front steps of the temple. 'Erin and Damien are already inside saving a place in the circle for us, but you know that once the ritual starts they won't let anyone else in. Hurry up!'

We rushed up the steps, and with Shaunee leading us, hurried into the temple. Sweet, smoky incense engulfed me as I entered the dark arched foyer of Nyx's Temple. Automatically, I hesitated. Stevie Rae and Shaunee turned to me.