Untamed

'How does that help me?'

'If Neferet loses her mind, they can handle her.'

'Zoey, I don't want you to use this as an excuse to openly take on Neferet,' Stevie Rae said, looking suddenly kinda pale.

Her words gave me a little jolt of shock. 'I'm not!' I said much too loud, and then continued in a lowered voice. 'I wouldn't use you like that.'

'I don't mean that you set this up on purpose to get at Neferet. I just mean that I don't think it's smart for you, or any of us, to come out against her so publicly, and I don't think it matters all that much that the Sons of Erebus and Shekinah are here. There's something more going on with Neferet than just her normal craziness. I know it deep inside me. I can't remember what I know, but she's dangerous. Really, really dangerous. Something basic has changed about her, and that change is not a good thing.'

'I wish you could remember what all happened to you.'

Stevie Rae grimaced. 'I do, too, sometimes. And then sometimes I'm really, really glad I can't. What happened to me wasn't good, Zoey.'

'I know,' I said solemnly.

We counted cat toys silently for a while, both lost in thoughts of death and darkness. I couldn't help thinking about how awful it had been when Stevie Rae had died in my arms—and then how nightmarish the aftermath of that had been when she was un-dead and struggling not to let her humanity slip completely away. I looked at her and saw she was chewing her lip nervously as she searched for more purple feathered toys in the box. She looked scared and young and, despite her new powers and responsibilities, way too vulnerable.

'Hey,' I said softly. 'It's gonna be okay. I promise. Nyx has to be all in the middle of this.'

'Which means the Goddess is on our side?'

'Exactly. So tomorrow at midnight we perform the cleansing ritual over by the east wall.' I didn't need to add that it was a place of power as well as a place of death. 'Think you can get on campus and hide nearby until I call earth to the circle?'

'Yeah,' she said reluctantly, clearly not one hundred percent in agreement with me yet. 'So if I do come, do you think I should bring the other kids with me?'

'You decide about that. If you think bringing them is best, then I'm all for it.'

'I'll have to think about it. I'll have to talk to them.'

'Okay, no problem. I trust your judgment on whether you decide to come and if you decide to bring the fledglings.'

She grinned at me. 'It's really good to hear you say that, Z.'

'I mean it, too.' Then—because even though she'd grinned at me, she still looked so worried and undecided about what to do—I temporarily changed the subject while she thought about it. 'Hey, want to know some more of my new-and-improved stress?'

'Definitely.'

'When we're done here, I have to go back to class, and since my schedule is changed around this semester, I get still get to go to drama class today, which will be taught by the ever-popular, ever-hating-my-guts, newest professor at the House of Night: Erik Night.'

'Uh-oh,' Stevie Rae said.

'Yeah, I'm not exactly expecting an A.'

'There's one way he might give you an A, though,' she said, grinning mischievously.

'Don't even start. I'm done with sex. Finished. Through. I've totally learned my lesson. Plus, it's really nasty of you to say I'd trade sex for an A.'

'No, Z. I wasn't talkin' 'bout Erik givin' you an A for sex. I was talkin' 'bout him givin' you a big ol' embroidered scarlet A for your shirt.'

'Huh?' I said, clueless as usual.

She sighed. 'As in The Scarlet Letter. The heroine had to wear it on her shirt 'cause she messed up and slept around. You really need to read more, Zoey.'

'Oh, yeah. And thanks for that lovely analogy. Makes me feel oh-so-better.'

'Don't get mad.' She threw a feathery cat toy at me. 'I was just kiddin'.'

I was still frowning at her when her cell phone rang. Stevie Rae looked at the number and sighed. She glanced quickly over at Sister Mary Angela, whose head was squarely in front of her computer, and then answered. 'Hey there, Venus, what's up?' She sounded purposefully perky. There was a pause while she listened, during which her perkiness faded. 'No! I told you I'd be back soon and then we'd all get somethin' to eat.' Another pause—more frowning—and she said, half turning away from me and lowering her voice, 'No! I said we'd get something to eat and not someone to eat. Y'all just be good. I'm gonna head back in a little while. Bye-bye.'

Stevie Rae turned back to me with a fake smile plastered on her worried face. 'So, what were we sayin'?'

'Stevie Rae, please tell me those kids are not eating people.'

CHAPTER 17

'Of course they aren't eatin' people!' Stevie Rae put an appropriate amount of shock in her voice—so much so that we saw Sister Mary Angela's wimple lift from the computer and she turned a frown in our direction.

We waved and smiled and held up cat toys. She gave us a long look, but pretty soon her face softened into her warm smile, and she turned her attention back to the computer screen.

'Stevie Rae, what is really going on with those kids?' I whispered as I zapped more purple-feathered monstrosities into the inventory.

She shrugged way too nonchalantly. 'They're just kinda hungry. That's all. You know kids—they're always hungry.'

'Which means they're getting dinner from where?'

'Pizza delivery guys mostly,' she said.

'They're eating pizza delivery guys?' I whispered frantically.

'No! We call on a cell and give the address of one of the downtown buildings close to the depot and the entrance to our tunnels. Mostly we say we're workin' overtime at the PAC or that we live in the Tribune Lofts, and then we wait for the pizza guy to deliver.' She hesitated.

'And?' I prompted impatiently.

'And then we meet the delivery guy on his way into the build­ing and take the pizzas and I make him forget he saw us and then he goes on about his business and we eat the pizza not the guy,' she said all in one long rush.

'You're stealing pizzas?'

'Well, yeah, but it's better than eating the delivery guys, isn't it?'

'Uh, yeah,' I said, rolling my eyes at her. 'And you're also stealing blood from the downtown blood bank?'

'Again, better than eating the delivery guys,' she said.

'See, these are just more reasons why we have to out you.'

' 'Cause we're stealing pizzas and blood? Do we really have to tell the vamps? I mean, I think we'll have enough issues to deal with without bringing up those little minor indiscretions.'

'No, not 'cause you're stealing, 'cause you guys don't have money or any way to legally,' I said, giving her a hard look, 'take care of yourselves.'

'Makes me wish Aphrodite would come back with me. She has major money and more than one gold card,' Stevie Rae muttered.

'Then you'd have to put up with her,' I said.

Stevie Rae frowned. 'I really wish I could mess with the inside of her head like I do the pizza guys. I'd give her a big dose of 'be nice,' and we'd all live happily ever after.'