Marked

with Stevie Rae, right?'

I nodded.

'Yeah, I thought about finding her and sending her out here to you, but I didn't know if you'd want her to know about…' He paused and made a vague gesture back in the direction of the rec hall.

'No! I—I don't want her to know.' I stumbled over the words, I said them so fast.

'That's what I thought. So, that's why you're stuck with me.' He smiled and then looked kinda uncomfortable. 'I really didn't mean to listen in between you and Heath. Sorry about that.'

I focused on petting Nala. So, he'd watched Heath kiss me, and then saw the whole blood thing. God, how embarrassing…Then a thought struck me and I glanced up at him, smiling ironically. 'I guess that makes us even. I didn't mean to listen in between you and Aphrodite, either.'

He smiled back at me. 'We're even. I like that.'

His smile made my stomach do funny things. 'I wouldn't really have flown down and sucked Kayla's blood,' I managed to say.

He laughed. (He had a really nice laugh.) 'I know that. Vampyres can't fly.'

'It freaked her out, though,' I said.

'From what I saw, she deserved it.' He waited a beat and then said, 'Can I ask you something? It's kinda personal.'

'Hey, you've seen me drink blood from a cup and like it, puke, kiss a guy, lick his blood like I'm a puppy, and then bawl my eyes out. And I've seen you turn down a blow job. I think I can manage to answer a kinda personal question.'

'Was he really in a trance? He looked like it and he sounded like it.'

I squirmed uncomfortably and Nala complained at me till I petted her quiet.

'It seemed like he was,' I finally managed to say. 'I don't know if it was a trance or not—and I totally didn't mean to put him under my power or anything freaky like that—but he did change. I dunno. He'd been smoking and drinking. He might have just been high.' I heard Heath's voice again, rising from my memory like a cloying mist: Yes…whatever you want…I'll do whatever you want. And I saw that intense look he'd given me. Hell, I hadn't even known Heath the Jock was capable of that kind of intensity (at least off the football field). I knew for sure he couldn't spell the word (intensity, not football).

'Had he been like that the whole time, or just after you…um…started to—'

'Not the whole time. Why?'

'Well, that rules out two things that could have been making him act weird. One—if he was just high then he would have been like that the whole time. Two—he might have been acting like that because you're really pretty, and that alone could make a guy feel like he's in a trance around you.'

His words made something flutter low in my stomach again—something that no guy had made me feel before. Not Heath the Jock, or Jordon the Sloth, or Jonathan the Stupid Band Kid (my dating history isn't long, but it's colorful).

'Really?' I said like a moron.

'Really.' He smiled very unmoronically.

How could this guy like me? I'm a blood-drinking dork.

'But that wasn't it either, because he should have noticed how hot you look even before you kissed him, and what you're saying is that he didn't seem entranced until after blood came into the picture.'

(Entranced—hee hee—he actually said entranced.) I was too busy grinning stupidly at his use of complex vocab to think before I answered him. 'Actually, it happened when I started to hear his blood.'

'Say again?'

Ah, crap. I hadn't meant to say that. I cleared my throat. 'Heath started to change when I heard the blood pounding through his veins.'

'Only adult vamps can hear that.' He paused and then, with a quick smile added, 'And Heath sounds like the name of a gay soap opera star.'

'Close. He's BA's star quarterback.'

Erik nodded and looked amused.

'Uh, by the way, I like what you changed your name to. Night is a cool last name,' I said, trying to hold up my end of the conversation and say something even slightly insightful.

His smile widened. 'I didn't change it. Erik Night is the name I was born with.'

'Oh, well. I like it.' Why didn't someone just shoot me?

'Thanks.'

He glanced at his watch and I could see that it was almost six thirty—in the A.M., which still seemed freaky.

'It'll be getting light soon,' he said.

Guessing that this was our cue for us to go our separate ways, I started to gather my feet under me and get a better hold on Nala so I could stand up, and I felt Erik's hand under my elbow, steadying me. He helped me up and then just stood there, so close that Nala's tail was brushing against his black sweater.

'I'd ask if you wanted to get something to eat, but the only place serving food right now is the rec hall, and I don't think you want to go back there.'

'No, definitely not. But I'm not hungry anyway.' Which, I realized as soon as I said it, was a big lie. At the mention of food I was suddenly starving.

'Well, do you mind if I walk you back to your dorm?' he asked.

'Nope,' I said, trying to be nonchalant.

Stevie Rae, Damien, and the Twins would totally die if they saw me with Erik.

We didn't say anything as we started walking, but it wasn't an awkward, uncomfortable silence. Actually, it was nice. Once in a while our arms would brush against each other and I thought about how tall and cute he was and how much I'd like him to hold my hand.

'Oh,' he said after a while, 'I didn't finish answering your question before. The first time I tasted blood at one of the Dark Daughters' rituals I hated it, but it got better and better each time. I can't say I think it's delicious, but it's grown on me. And I definitely like the way it makes me feel.'

I looked sharply at him. 'Dizzy and kinda weak-kneed? Like you're drunk, only you're not.'

'Yeah. Hey, did you know it's impossible for a vamp to get drunk?' I shook my head. 'It's something about what the Change does to our metabolism. It's even tough for fledglings to get wasted.'

'So drinking blood is the way vamps get wasted?'

He shrugged. 'I suppose. Anyway, drinking human blood is forbidden for fledglings.'

'Well then why hasn't anyone clued the teachers in on what Aphrodite's up to?'

'She's not drinking human blood.'

'Uh, Erik, I was there. Blood was definitely in the wine and it came from that Elliott kid.' I shuddered. 'And what a gross choice he was, too.'

'But he's not human,' Erik said.

'Wait—it's forbidden to drink human blood,' I said slowly. (Oh, hell! That's what I'd just done.) 'But it's okay to drink another fledgling's blood?'

'Only if it's consensual.'

'That makes no sense.'

'Sure it does. It's normal for our bloodlust to develop as our bodies Change, so we need an outlet. Fledglings heal quickly, so there's no real chance of someone getting hurt. And there aren't any aftereffects, like when a vamp feeds off a living human.'

What he was saying was banging through my head like the annoying, too-loud music that blared in Wet Seal, and I grasped the first thing I could think clearly about. 'Living human?' I squeaked. 'Tell me you don't mean versus feeding off a corpse.' I was feeling a little nauseous again.

He laughed. 'No, I mean versus drinking blood harvested from the vamps' blood donors.'

'Never heard of such a thing.'

'Most humans haven't. You won't learn about it until you're a fifth former.'

Then some more of what he'd said broke through the confusion that was my mind. 'What did you mean by aftereffects?'