Untamed

situation.'

'How can you be so whatever about this?' Stevie Rae said, exploding off the bed.

'First of all, I really don't like humans much.' Aphrodite put up a hand to stop Stevie Rae's tirade. 'Okay, yeah, I know. I am a human now. Which makes me say ugh. Second, Zoey's alive and well, so I'm not particularly worried about this scary little war.'

'What in the hell are you talking about, Aphrodite?' I said.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. 'Would you please keep up with me? Hello—it makes perfect sense now. My vision was all about war between humans and vamps and some creepy booger-monster things. Actually, they're probably what attacked you and could very well be minions of Neferet we don't know about.' She paused, looking temporarily confused, and then shrugged and continued, 'But, whatever. Hopefully we won't have to find out what they are, because the war only happened after you'd been killed. Tragically and grotesquely, I might add. Anyway, I figure we keep you alive, we keep the war from happening.'

Stevie Rae let out a big, long breath. 'You have a point, Aphrodite.' She turned to me. 'We gotta keep you alive, Zoey. Not just 'cause we love you more than white bread, but 'cause you have to save the world.'

'Oh, great. I'm supposed to save the world?' All I could think was, And I used to stress about geometry.

Ah, hell.

CHAPTER 6

'Yep, you have to save the world, Z, but we'll be right there with you,' Stevie Rae said, plunking herself back down on the bed beside me.

'No, dork. I'm going to be right here with her. You have to get out of here until we figure out what to tell the rest of the nerd herd about you and your hygiene-challenged friends,' Aphrodite said.

Stevie Rae frowned at Aphrodite.

'Huh? Friends?' I said.

'They've been through a lot, Aphrodite. And I'll have you know bathing and decorating isn't that dang important when you're dead. Or even undead,' Stevie Rae said. 'Plus, you know they're better now and they're actually using the stuff you bought them.'

'Okay, you guys are gonna have to back up. What friends are you—?' And then my words broke off as I realized who they must be talking about. 'Stevie Rae, do not tell me you're still hanging out with those gross kids from the tunnels.'

'You don't understand, Zoey.'

'Translation: Yes, Zoey, I am still hangin' out with the gross tunnel rejects,' Aphrodite said, mimicking Stevie Rae's Okie accent.

'Stop it,' I told Aphrodite automatically before turning to Stevie Rae. 'No, I don't understand. So make me understand.'

Stevie Rae drew a deep breath. 'Well, I think that this'—she pointed at her scarlet tattoos—'means that I need to be around the rest of the kids with the red tattoos so I can help them make the Change, too.'

'The rest of those undead kids have red tattoos like yours?'

She shrugged and looked uncomfortable. 'Well, sorta. I'm the only one with a finished tattoo, which I'm guessin' means I've Changed. But the outlines of the blue crescent moon on their foreheads have now all turned to red. They're still fledglings. They're just, well, a different kind of fledgling.'

Wow! I sat there, speechless, trying to take in the ramifications of what Stevie Rae was saying. It was utterly amazing that there was now a whole new type of fledgling, which, of course, meant there was a whole new type of adult vampyre, and for a moment it excited me. What if it also meant that everyone who got Marked would make some type of Change, so no more fledglings would have to die! Or at least not permanently. They'd just turn into red fledglings. Whatever that meant.

Then I remembered how awful those other kids had been. They'd killed teenagers. Horribly. They'd tried to kill Heath. I was the only thing that had saved him. Hell, they would have killed me if I hadn't used my affinity with the five elements to save both of us.

I also remembered the flash of red I'd seen in Stevie Rae's eyes earlier and the meanness that had looked so out of place on her face, but seeing her now, sounding and acting like herself, it was easy to convince myself I'd been wrong—that I'd imagined or exaggerated what I'd seen.

I mentally shook myself and said, 'But Stevie Rae, those other kids were awful.'

Aphrodite snorted. 'They're still awful and living in an awful disgusting place. And, yes, they're still awful rude, too.'

'They're not out of control like they used to be, but they're also not what you'd call normal, either,' Stevie Rae said.

'They're disgusting throwaway kids, that's what they are,' Aphrodite said. 'Like redheaded stepchildren.'

'Yeah, some of them have problems and aren't exactly the most popular kids ever, but so what?'

'I'm just saying that it would be easier to figure out what we're going to do about you if we only had you to deal with.'

'It's not always about what's easiest. I don't care what we have to do, or what I have to do. I'm not gonna let Neferet use those other kids,' Stevie Rae told her firmly.

And what Stevie Rae said clicked. I shivered in horror as my gut told me my terrible new thought was right. 'Oh my god! That's why Neferet did whatever she did to make the dying kids come back as undead dead kids. She wants to use them in the war she's declared against humans.'

'But, Z, kids have been undying for a while now, and Professor Nolan and Loren were only just killed, so Neferet has only just declared the whole guerrilla war thing,' Stevie Rae said.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't. What I was thinking was too awful to speak out loud. I was afraid that the syllables of the words would turn into separate little weapons, and if I put them together, they would join to destroy all of us.

'What is it?' Aphrodite was watching me too closely.

'Nothing.' I shifted the words in my mind so that they became something bearable. 'It's just that this whole thing makes me think that Neferet has been hoping there would be a reason to fight the humans for a long time. I really wouldn't be surprised if she did create the undead dead kids to be her private army. I saw her with Elliott not long after he was supposed to have died. It was disgusting how much control she had over him.' I shivered, remembering only too clearly how Neferet had ordered Elliott around and how he had bowed and scraped in front of her, and then lapped up the offering of her blood in a disgusting and way-too-sexual manner. Watching it had been entirely nasty.

'That's why I have to go back to them,' Stevie Rae said. 'They need me to care about them and show them that they can Change, too. When Neferet finds out about the difference in their Marks, she'll still try to control them and keep them—well, let's just say, not so nice. I think they can be okay again, like I'm okay again.'

'What about the ones who were never okay? Remember the Elliott kid Zoey was just talking about? He was a loser alive and he's a loser undead. He'll still be a loser if he manages to Change into a red whatever.' Aphrodite gave an exaggerated, long-suffering sigh when Stevie Rae glared at her. 'The point I'm trying to make is that they weren't normal to begin with. Maybe there's nothing for you to save about them.'

'Aphrodite, you don't get to pick who's worth saving and who's not. I may have been a pretty normal kid before I died, but I'm not exactly normal now,' Stevie Rae said. 'And I was worth saving!'

'Nyx,' I said, making both of them turn to look at me with question marks on their faces. 'Nyx gets to pick who's worth saving. Not me, not Stevie Rae, and not even you, Aphrodite.'

'Guess I forgot about Nyx,' Aphrodite said, turning her face away from us to hide the pain in her eyes. 'It's not like the Goddess wants much to do with a human kid anyway.'

'That's not true,' I said. 'Nyx's hand is still on you, Aphrodite. The Goddess is majorly at work here. If she didn't care about you, she would have taken away your visions when she took away your Mark.' As I spoke, I got that feeling I often get when I absolutely know I'm saying the right thing. Aphrodite was a pain in the ass, but for