well…” I chewed my lip for a second and then tried again. “I saw you with him and you were all, um—”
“Oh, for crap’s sake! You can just say it without melting. You saw me go down on him.”
“Uh, yeah,” I said awkwardly.
“That’s not a question either.”
“Fine! Here’s the question: You were broken up with him because he was a possessive jerk, but you were still trying to be with him, so much so that you were even doing
Watching her reflection in the mirror, I saw her cheeks turn bright pink. Aphrodite flipped back her hair. She cleared her throat. Then she met my gaze in the mirror. “It wasn’t about wanting Erik. It was about wanting control.”
“Huh?” I said through the bubbles of Crest.
“Things had started to change with me at school even before you showed up.”
I spit and rinsed. “What things?”
“I knew something was up with Neferet. It bothered me, and that was weird.”
I wiped my mouth and went over to my bed, using kicking off my shoes, pulling off my clothes, putting on the soft, warm cotton nightgown, and climbing in bed as an excuse to stay quiet while I tried to figure out how to put into words the stuff babbling through my mind. But without me saying anything, Aphrodite continued, “You know I used to keep my visions from Neferet, don’t you?”
I nodded. “And humans died because of it.”
“Yeah, you’re right. They did. And Neferet didn’t care. I could tell. That was when I started to feel weird. That’s also when my life started to fall apart. I didn’t want it to. I wanted to stay the bitch in charge, who would someday be High Priestess and, preferably, rule the world. Then I could tell my mother to go straight to hell—and maybe even be so powerful that I could scare her like she deserves to be scared.” Aphrodite blew out a long breath. “It didn’t work out that way.”
“Instead you listened to Nyx,” I said softly.
“Well, first I tried like hell to stay queen of my bitchy kingdom, and being with the hottest guy at school, even if he was a possessive asshat, was part of that.”
“It makes sense, I guess,” I said.
Aphrodite hesitated then added, “It makes me sick to remember it.”
“You mean doing
Her lips curled up and she shook her head, laughing a little. “Goddess, you’re such a prude! No, doing
“Well, recently you’ve pretty much cleaned up any poo you put on Nyx’s path. And I am
Aphrodite snorted.
“You’re really unattractive when you do that,” I said.
“I’m never
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“Good. My turn. Have you been able to talk to Stevie Rae? Alone?”
“Uh-uh, not yet.”
“But you’re going to?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Soon?”
“What do you know?”
Aphrodite said, “She’s definitely hiding things from you.”
“Things like red fledglings? Like you told me before?” Aphrodite didn’t answer, which completely made my stomach clench. “Well?” I prompted. “What?”
“It feels like there’s more going on with Stevie Rae than just hiding some random red fledglings from you.”
I didn’t want to believe Aphrodite, but my gut said she was telling the truth, as did my common sense. Aphrodite’s Imprint with Stevie Rae gave her a connection to my BFF no one else had. So Aphrodite knew things about her. Plus, no matter how much I wished otherwise, I realized things weren’t right with Stevie Rae. “You can’t tell me anything more specific?”
Aphrodite shook her head. “No. She’s really shut down.”
“Shut down? What does that mean?”
“Well, you know how your bumpkin BFF usually is, like our own transparently perky version of a countrified goodwill ambassador for ‘Hey there, y’all! Check out how nice and sweet and white bread I am! Yuck! Yuck!’”
Aphrodite’s exaggerated Okie accent mimicked Stevie Rae’s voice a little too well, and I frowned severely at her when I said, “Yes, I know she’s usually honest and open, if that’s what you meant to say.”
“Yeah, well, she’s not being honest and open anymore. Take it from me—and Goddess knows I wish you could take this damn Imprint from me—she’s hiding a very big something that feels way more important than a few fledglings.”
“Crap,” I said.
“Yep,” she said. “But, hey, there’s not shit you can do about it right now, so get some sleep. Our world will still need saving tomorrow.”
“Great,” I said.
“Oh, speaking of—How’s your boyfriend?”
“Which one?” I asked glumly.
“Mr. Pain in the Ass Arrows.”
I shrugged. “Better, I think.”
“You didn’t let him chomp on you, did you?”
I sighed. “No.”
“Darius was right about that, you know? As annoying as it might be for some of us, and as unqualified as you appear, you are
“Which makes me feel ever so much better.”
“Hey, no problem. Look, what I’m saying is you need to be one hundred percent, and not drained like an extra-dry martini during brunch at my mom’s country club.”
“Your mom really drinks martinis at brunch?”
“Of course she does.” Aphrodite shook her head and looked utterly disgusted. “Try not to be so naïve. Anyway, just don’t do something stupid because you’re feeling all
“Give it a rest, would ya? I won’t do anything stupid!” I leaned over and blew out the fat pillar candle that was on the end table between our beds.
The darkness of the room was comforting, and when neither of us had said anything for a little while I felt myself beginning to drift off, until Aphrodite’s voice snapped me back to über-aware.
“Are we going back to the House of Night tomorrow?”
“I think we have to,” I said slowly. “No matter what, the House of Night is our home, and the fledglings and vampyres there are our people. We have to go back to them.”
“Well, you better get some sleep. Tomorrow you’re going to land right in the middle of what one of my mom’s ex-military assistants would call a huge cluster fuck,” Aphrodite said in her best happily sarcastic tone.
As usual, Aphrodite was as right as she was annoying.
CHAPTER 12
