Marked

'Apparently. Oh, and then Kayla, my ex-best friend, made it obvious that she's after Heath!'

Stevie Rae gasped. 'Slut!'

'No kidding. Anyway, I told them to leave and not come back, and then I got upset, which is when Erik found me.'

'Aww! Was he sweet and romantic?'

'Yeah, he was, kinda. And he called me Z.'

'O000h, a nickname is a seriously good sign.'

'That's what I thought.'

'So then he walked you back to the dorm?'

'Yeah, he said that he'd take me to get something to eat, but the only thing that was still open was the rec hall, and I didn't want to go back there.' Ah, crap. I knew right away that I shouldn't have said that much.

'Were the Dark Daughters awful?'

I looked at Stevie Rae with her big deer-like eyes, and knew I couldn't tell her about drinking blood. Not yet. 'Well, you know how Neferet was sexy and beautiful and classy?'

Stevie Rae nodded.

'Aphrodite did basically what Neferet did, but she looked like a ho.'

'I've always thought that she was really nasty,' Stevie Rae said, shaking her head in disgust.

'Tell me about it.' I looked at Stevie Rae and blurted, 'Yesterday, right before Neferet took me here to the dorm I saw Aphrodite trying to give Erik a blow job.'

'No way! Jeesh, she's disgusting. Wait, you said she was trying to do it. What's up with that?'

'He was telling her no and pushing her away. He said he didn't want her anymore.'

Stevie Rae giggled. 'I'll bet that made her lose what little of her mind she has left.'

I remembered how she'd been all over him, even when he was clearly telling her no. 'Actually, I would have felt sorry for her if she hadn't been so…so…' I struggled to put it into words.

'Hag from hell–like?' Stevie Rae offered helpfully.

'Yeah, I guess that's it. She has this attitude, like it's her right to be as mean and nasty as she wants to be, and we should all just bow down and accept her.'

Stevie Rae nodded. 'That's how her friends are, too.'

'Yeah, I met the awful triplets.'

'You mean Warlike, Terrible, and Wasp?'

'Exactly. What were they thinking when they took those horrid names?' I said, popping pretzels in my mouth.

'They were thinking exactly what that entire group of hers thinks—that they are better than everyone else and untouchable because nasty Aphrodite is going to be the next High Priestess.'

I spoke the next words as they whispered through my mind. 'I don't think Nyx will allow that.'

'What do you mean? They are already the 'in' group, and Aphrodite has been leader of the Dark Daughters since her affinity became obvious during her fifth former year.'

'What's her affinity?'

'She gets visions, like of future tragedies,' Stevie Rae scowled.

'Do you think she fakes them?'

'Oh, heck no! She's amazingly accurate. What I think, and Damien and the Twins agree with me, is that she only tells about the visions if she has one when she's around people outside her little group.'

'Wait, are you saying she knows about bad things that are going to happen in time to stop them, but she doesn't do anything about it?'

'Yep. Last week she had a vision during lunch, but the hags closed ranks around her and started leading her out of the dining hall. If Damien hadn't run right into them because he was late and hurrying in to lunch, making them scatter so that he could see that Aphrodite was in the middle of a vision, no one would ever have known. And a whole plane full of people would probably be dead.'

I choked on a pretzel. Between coughs I sputtered, 'A plane full of people! What the hell?'

'Yeah, Damien could tell Aphrodite was having a vision, so he got Neferet. Aphrodite had to tell her the vision, which was seeing a jet crash just after takeoff. Her visions are so clear that she could describe the airport and read the numbers on the tail of the plane. Neferet took that info and contacted the Denver airport. They double-checked the plane and found some problem that they hadn't noticed before, and said that if they hadn't fixed it the plane would have crashed immediately after takeoff. But I know darn well Aphrodite wouldn't have said a word if she hadn't been caught, even though she made up a big lie about her friends leading her from the dining hall because they knew she'd want to be taken to Neferet right away. Total b.s.'

I started to say that I couldn't believe that even Aphrodite and her hags would purposefully allow the death of hundreds of people, but then I remembered the hateful stuff they'd said that night—Human men suck…They should all die—and I realized they hadn't just been talking; they'd been serious.

'So why didn't Aphrodite lie to Neferet? You know, tell her a different airport or switch the numbers of the plane around or something?'

'Vamps are almost impossible to lie to, especially when they ask you a direct question. And, remember, Aphrodite wants to be a High Priestess more than anything. If Neferet believed she was as twisted as she is, it would seriously hurt her future plans.'

'Aphrodite has no business being a High Priestess. She's selfish and hateful, and so are her friends.'

'Yeah, well, Neferet doesn't think so, and she was her mentor.'

I blinked in surprise. 'You've got to be kidding! And she doesn't see through Aphrodite's crap?' That couldn't be right; Neferet is way smarter than that.

Stevie Rae shrugged. 'She acts different around Neferet.'

'But still…'

'And she does have a powerful affinity, which has to mean that Nyx has special plans for her.'

'Or she's a demon from hell, and she gets her power from the dark side. Hello! Has no one seen Star Wars? It was hard to believe Anakin Skywalker would turn, and look what happened there.'

'Uh, Zoey. That's like total fiction.'

'Still, I think it makes a good point.'

'Well, try telling that to Neferet.'

I chewed my sandwich and thought about it. Maybe I should. Neferet did seem way too smart to fall for Aphrodite's games. She probably already knew something was up with the hags. Maybe all she needed was someone to stand up and say something to her.

'So, has anyone ever tried to tell Neferet about Aphrodite?' I asked.

'Not that I know of.'

'Why not?'

Stevie Rae looked uncomfortable. 'Well, I think it seems kinda tattletale-like. Anyway, what would we tell Neferet? That we think Aphrodite might hide her visions, but that the only proof we have is that she's a hateful bitch.' Stevie Rae shook her head. 'No, I can't see that going over very well with Neferet. Plus, if by some miracle she believed us, what would Neferet do? It's not like she's going to kick her out of the school so she can cough herself to death on the streets. She'd still be here with her pack of hags and all those guys who would do anything for her if she snapped her little clawed fingers at them. I guess it's just not worth it.'

Stevie Rae had a point, but I didn't like it. I really, really didn't like it.

Things might be different if a more powerful fledgling took Aphrodite's place as leader of the Dark Daughters.

I jumped guiltily, and covered it by taking a big gulp of pop. What was I thinking? I wasn't power hungry. I didn't want to be a High Priestess or get caught up in a pain-in-the-ass battle with Aphrodite and half the school (the more attractive half, at that). I just wanted to find a place for myself in this new life, a place that felt like home—a place where I fit in and was like the rest of the kids.

Then I remembered the electric jolts I'd felt during the casting of both circles, and how the elements had seemed to sizzle through my body, and also how I had had to force myself to stay in the circle and not join Aphrodite in the casting.

'Stevie Rae, when a circle's being cast, do you feel anything?' I asked abruptly.