Untamed

I looked into Duchess's brown eyes. For a moment I got trapped there, and I swear I saw pain and loss and a deep, limitless kindness.

'Okay, we'll just use his initials,' I said, relieved because maybe if I just used Stark's initials, I wouldn't think about that it was really him we were discussing, and then I wouldn't remember how much we'd connected right before he died.

'So, instead of trying to snatch, uh, J.S.'s body and hiding it in Z's closet or wherever, I, of course, had a much better idea.' Aphrodite paused to be sure she had everyone's attention. 'I got a nanny cam.'

'Oh, cool!' Jack said. 'I saw that on Dr. Phil the other day. God, it was just awful. Some horrid and, may I say, fat, poorly dressed nanny was caught by one of them shaking the crap out of some poor little kid.'

'Then you know about them?' Aphrodite said.

'Yep,' he said.

'Good. You need to sneak down to the morgue. Install the camera, and then bring the remote monitor back to Zoey. Think you can handle that?' Aphrodite said.

Jack blanched. 'The morgue? As in where they keep dead bodies?'

'Don't think of it like that,' I said quickly. 'J.S. might just be sleeping, only without the breathing part.'

'Oh,' Jack said, looking totally unconvinced.

'Can you do it?' I asked, unbelievably relieved that I knew nothing about electronics and this couldn't be my job.

'Yes. I can do it. I promise,' Jack said resolutely, hooking an arm around Duchess's neck.

'Good, then that problem is dealt with.' At least until he woke up, if he woke up, but I was hoping I had a couple of days before I had to deal with all the ramifications of that. Actually, it was hard for me to think about Stark at all, so I hastily changed the subject. 'We need to get back to the prophecy. I'm really worried that the line that says 'through the hand of the dead' is talking about Stevie Rae.'

'I still don't think Stevie Rae would be involved in raising this fallen angel,' Damien said.

'But there are more of those other new kind of vampyres, right?' Jack said.

'Well, not really more of the vamps,' I explained. 'Stevie Rae is the only one who has completely gone through the Change. But there are quite a few fledglings.'

'It makes more sense that it would be one of them,' Damien said.

'Yeah, Stevie Rae is not gonna get mixed up with a bad guy,' Erin said.

'Nope, not a chance,' Shaunee agreed.

Aphrodite just looked at me. She and I didn't say anything.

'But Zoey said the other kids are, well, gross,' Jack said.

'They are,' Aphrodite said. 'They're like'—she paused, and then her eyes lit up—'they're like blue collar workers. Eesh.'

'Aphrodite, there is nothing wrong with blue collar workers,' I said, completely exasperated.

'Huh? I hear your words, but you're making no sense.'

I rolled my eyes. 'Okay, the truth is that in actuality, the red fledglings might be disgusting only in Aphrodite's weird world. I haven't seen any of them since Stevie Rae Changed, and she's told me that they're under control and have their humanity back, so I'm going to try to withhold judgment.'

'Well, whether they're really gross or just being class-stereotyped by Gossip Girl, I think we need to keep an eye on them,' Damien said. 'We need to know what they're doing. Who they're talking to. What they're thinking. If we know all of that, we'll also know if this demon guy is trying to contact one of them and use him for his nefarious means.'

'Nef—what?' Shaunee said.

'Arious—who?' Erin said.

'It means 'wicked in the extreme,' ' Jack whispered to the Twins.

'Well, then it's a good thing that Stevie Rae and her red fledglings are coming to the ritual tomorrow,' I announced.

My friends gaped at me.

I looked at Aphrodite. She sighed. 'I don't have an earth affinity anymore,' she admitted. Then she reached up and with the back of her hand wiped it across her forehead, smearing the fake sapphire crescent tattoo she'd drawn there. 'I'm not a fledgling anymore. I'm human again.'

'Well, she's not exactly a normal human,' I added. 'She still has visions, as is obvious by the prophecy she just copied for us. She's also still really important to Nyx.' I smiled at Aphrodite. 'I heard the Goddess say so.'

'Okay, that's majorly freaky!' Jack said.

'It's totally queer,' Shaunee said.

'And she doesn't mean that in the gay sense,' Erin input.

'So, like Stevie Rae and the red fledglings, Aphrodite is something that's never been before,' Damien said thoughtfully.

'Looks like it,' I said.

'Things are changing,' Damien said slowly. 'The world order is shifting into something new.'

A cold shiver passed through me. 'Is that good or bad?'

'I don't think we can know yet,' he said. 'But I think we will know pretty soon.'

'It's scary,' Jack said.

I looked at my friends. They all seemed frightened and unsure, and I knew this would not do. We had to be strong. We had to stick together and believe in each other.

'I don't think it's scary.' When I started saying it, it was a big fat lie. But the more I spoke, the more I began to believe. 'Change can be weird, or even queer.' I grinned at Damien and Jack, and they smiled hesitatingly back at me. 'But change has to happen for things to grow—for us to grow. Hey, if it wasn't for this change, Stevie Rae would be dead. I remember that when I start feeling overwhelmed by all of this. Plus'—I looked at each of them—'we have each other. And change isn't so bad when you're not in it alone.'

Their looks of growing confidence made me think that I might, someday, become a halfway decent High Priestess.

'So what's the Plan?' Damien asked.

'Well, you and Jack have to install the nanny cam in the morgue. Think you can do that without getting caught?' I said.

'I think we might be able to create a diversion,' Jack said slowly, looking from Duchess to Maleficent, who had spent the entire 'meeting' growling ominously at the dog from the bathroom. 'If we can count on Aphrodite's help.'

'Fine. But if my cat eats that dog, I don't want to hear a word about it, even if S-t-a-r- k wakes up and gets testy about why his Lab's muzzle has been torn to shreds.'

'Uh, try to make it just a diversion, not a bloodbath,' I said.

'Deal,' Damien and Jack said together.

'I'm going to go find Shekinah and tell her that my grandma is coming to visit, and that I need her to stay in a guest room,' I said.

'And we're gonna stay the hell away from Neferet,' Erin said.

'Ditto,' Shaunee said. 'And that should be ditto for all of us except Z and Aphrodite.'

I was opening my mouth to agree with her when Aphrodite's loud, 'No!' shocked all of us.

'What do you mean no? We have to stay away from Neferet. If she starts listening in to our minds, she'll know we all know about Stevie Rae and the other kids. And if she's really the Queen of the Tsi Sgili, she'll be warned that we know about her, the Raven Mockers, and even Kalona,' Damien said, sounding totally exasperated.

'Wait a second. Tell me why you think they shouldn't avoid Neferet,' I asked Aphrodite.

'Simple. If the nerd herd avoids her, Neferet is going to for sure start listening in to their thoughts. She'll listen long and hard and deep. But what if Damien and Jack and the Dorkamese Twins act like their normal, clueless selves? What if they don't avoid her, but if they even maybe seek her out and say hi to her, ask her questions about homework, and make up complaints about the food being too healthy?'

'We really wouldn't have to make that up,' Jack said.