Betrayed

a group of guys near the wall of black-shrouded windows. He smiled at me, but I noticed he kept checking out Stevie Rae. 'There's a lot of stuff to be pulled around. I know because the guys and I used to help Aphrodite get the room ready.'

'Huh,' I heard Shaunee say under her breath. Before Erin could add to the sarcastic sound, I said, 'Yeah, we could use your help.' And then I tested them. 'Except my ritual is going to be different. Damien can show you what I mean.' I waited for the disdainful looks and the sarcasm that the jocklike guys tended to throw at Damien and the few other openly gay kids at the school, but Drew just shrugged and said, 'Cool with me. Just tell us what to do.' He grinned and winked at Stevie Rae, who giggled and blushed.

'Damien, they're all yours,' I said.

'I'm sure hell is freezing over somewhere,' Damien whispered, barely moving his lips. Then, in his regular voice he said, 'Well, the first thing Zoey didn't like is that it looks like a morgue in here with all of the arcade machines pushed to the walls and covered with that black fabric. So let's see if we can move most of them into the kitchen and the hall.' Drew's group started to work alongside Damien and the new kid, and Damien returned to his mini-lesson.

'We'll get the candles and pull the table out here,' I told the guys, and motioned for the Twins and Stevie Rae to follow me.

'Damien has died and gone straight to gay boy heaven,' Shaunee said as soon as we were out of earshot.

'Hey, it's about time those kids stopped acting like ignorant rednecks and behaved like they have some sense,' I said.

'She doesn't mean that, even though we agree with you,' Erin said. 'She means little Mr. Jack the cute-gay- new-kid Twist.'

'Now why in the world would you think he's gay?' Stevie Rae asked.

'Stevie Rae, I swear you have got to broaden your horizons, girl,' Shaunee said.

'Okay, I'm lost, too. Why do you think Jack's gay?' I asked.

Shaunee and Erin shared a long-suffering look, then Erin ex­plained. 'Jack Twist is yummy Jake Gyllenhaal's totally gay cow­boy character from Brokeback Mountain.'

'And just please! Anyone who chooses that name and who looks all geeky cute like that is totally, completely playing for Damien's team.'

'Huh,' I said.

'Well, I'll be,' Stevie Rae said. 'You know, I never did see that movie. It didn't come to the Cinema 8 in Henrietta.'

'You don't say?' Shaunee said.

'Please. I'm so shocked,' Erin said.

'Well, Stevie Rae. I do believe it's time for a DVD showing of that excellent flick,' Shaunee said.

'Do guys kiss in it?'

'Deliciously,' Shaunee and Erin said together.

I tried, but failed miserably not to laugh at the look on Stevie Rae's face.

CHAPTER 15

We were almost finished setting up the room when someone flipped on the nightly news on the big-screen TV we did have to leave in the main room. The five of us shared quick looks—what they were calling 'the bomb hoax by Nature's Jihad' was the lead story. Even though I knew my call couldn't be traced, and I'd watched Damien 'accidentally' drop and then totally step on and smash his disposable phone, I only breathed marginally easier when Chera Kimiko repeated that so far the police had no leads about the identity of the terrorist group.

In a related Arkansas River story Fox News reported that this evening Samuel Johnson, captain of a river transport barge, had a heart attack while piloting the barge. It was a 'lucky coincidence' for him that river traffic had been halted and that police and paramedics were so close by. His life had been saved, and there had been no damage done to any other barges or bridges.

'That was it!' Damien said. 'He had a heart attack and ran the barge into the bridge.'

I nodded numbly. 'And that proves that Aphrodite's vision was true.'

'Not that that's good news,' Stevie Rae said.

'I think it is,' I said. 'As long as Aphrodite lets us know about her visions, at least we can take them seriously.'

Damien shook his head. 'There has to be a reason Neferet be­lieves Nyx has withdrawn her gift from Aphrodite. It's too bad we can't tell her about this, then maybe she'd explain what's going on, or maybe even change her mind about Aphrodite.'

'No, I gave my word I wouldn't say anything.'

'If Aphrodite was really changing from hag to nonhag, she'd go to Neferet herself,' Shaunee said.

'Maybe you should talk to her about that,' Erin said. Stevie Rae made a rude noise.

I rolled my eyes at Stevie Rae, but she didn't notice because Drew had grinned his way up to us and she was too busy blush­ing to pay attention to me.

'How's it look, Zoey?' he asked without taking his eyes from Stevie Rae.

Like you've got a thing for my roommate, is what I wanted to say, but I thought he was kinda cute and Stevie Rae's blush clearly said she thought so, too, so I decided against mortifying her. 'Looks good,' I said.

'Doesn't look too bad from here, either,' Shaunee said, giving Drew a look up and down.

'Ditto, Twin,' Erin said, waggling her eyebrows at Drew.

The boy didn't notice either of the Twins. Seems all he noticed was Stevie Rae.

'I'm starving,' he said.

'Me, too,' Stevie Rae said.

'So, how about getting something to eat?' Drew asked her.

'Okay,' Stevie Rae said quickly, and then she seemed to re­member we were all standing there watching her, and her face got even pinker. 'Gosh, it is dinnertime. We better all go get some­thing.' With a nervous little gesture, she ran her fingers through her short curls and called across the room to Damien, who was thoroughly engrossed in a conversation with Jack. (From what I had overheard they were both into the same kind of books and were debating which of the Harry Potters was really the best. Clearly, they were dorkishly alike.) 'Damien, we're gonna go eat. Are you and Jack hungry?'

Jack and Damien exchanged a look, and then Damien called back, 'Yeah, we're coming.'

'Okeydokey,' Stevie Rae said, still grinning at Drew. 'I guess we're all hungry.'

Shaunee sighed, and started for the door. 'Just please. The young love hormones in this room are enough to give me a headache.'

'I feel like I'm stuck in a Lifetime movie. Wait for me, Twin,' Erin said.

'Why are the Twins so cynical about love?' I asked Damien as he and Jack crossed the room to join us.

'They're not. They're just mad that the last few guys they've gone out with have bored them,' Damien said.

As a group, we went outside into the magic of a snowy Novem­ber evening. The flakes had changed and were smaller, but they were still coming down steadily, making the House of Night look even more mysterious and castlelike than usual.

'Yeah, the Twins are hard on guys. It's like they double-time them,' Stevie Rae said. I noticed she was walking really close to Drew and that occasionally their arms brushed together.

I heard a bunch of muttered agreement noises from the guys who had been helping us drag furniture around the rec room. And I imagined it would be intimidating for any guy (vamp or human) to try to date one of the Twins.

'Do you remember when Thor asked Erin out?' said one of Drew's friends, whose name I think was Keith.

'Yeah, she called him a lemur. You know, like the moronic lemurs in that Disney movie,' Stevie Rae said,