Awakened

clear, but before he could say anything Neferet’s voice came from behind Stevie Rae, though she had no way heard the vamp enter the room.

“Stevie Rae, Damien is in a very fragile emotional state right now. He should not have to be concerned about such trivialities as feeding a dog or acting like a common butler and going to the airport to collect a fledgling.”

Neferet swept past her. Full of motherly concern, she bent over Damien. Stevie Rae automatically stood up and backed several feel away. She could have sworn that something in the shadows that lapped around the hem of Neferet’s long, silky dress had begun to slither toward her.

In a similar reaction, Duchess moved off Damien’s lap and curled up morosely at the end of his bed, joining his still sleeping cat, all the while keeping her unblinking gaze trained on Damien.

“Since when is picking a friend up from the airport the butler’s job? And believe me—I know what’s what with a butler’s job.”

Stevie Rae glanced over at the doorway where Aphrodite seemed to have just materialized.

Well, slap me and call me a baby—am I so out of it I can’t hear nothing anymore? Stevie Rae thought.

“Aphrodite, I have something to say to you that applies to everyone in this room,” Neferet said, sounding regal and super-in-charge.

Aphrodite put a hand on her slim hip, and said, “Yeah? What?”

“I have decided that Jack’s funeral should be in the manner of a fully Changed vampyre. His funeral pyre will be lit tonight, as soon as Zoey arrives at the House of Night.”

“You’re waitin’ for Zoey? Why?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Because she was Jack’s good friend, of course. But more important, because of the confusion that reigned here when I was under Kalona’s influence, Zoey served as Jack’s High Priestess. That unfortunate time is, thankfully, behind us, but it is only right that Zoey light Jack’s pyre.”

Stevie Rae thought how terrible it was that Neferet’s beautiful emerald eyes could look so perfectly guileless, even when she was weaving a web of deceit and lies. She wanted so badly to scream at the Tsi Sgili that she knew her secret; Kalona was here and she was controlling him, and not the other way around. She’d never been under his influence. Neferet had known from the start exactly who and what Kalona was, and what she was doing now was lying her butt off.

But Stevie Rae’s own terrible secret stopped the words in her throat. She heard Aphrodite draw in a breath, like she was getting ready to launch into a major ass-chewing, but at that moment Damien drew everyone’s attention to him when he put his head in his hands and began to sob, saying brokenly, “I-I just c-can’t understand how he can be gone.”

Stevie Rae pushed around Neferet and pulled Damien into her arms. She was happy to see Aphrodite stride over to the other side of the bed and rest her hand on Damien’s heaving shoulder. Both girls gave Neferet narrow- eyed looks of distrust and dislike.

Neferet’s face remained sad but impassive, like she knew Damien’s grief but she let it wash around her and not into her. “Damien, I’ll leave you to the comfort of your friends. Zoey’s plane lands at Tulsa International at 9:58 tonight. I’ve set the funeral pyre for midnight exactly, as that is an auspicious time. I shall see all of you then.” Neferet left the room, closing the door behind her with an almost inaudible click.

“Fucking lying bitch,” Aphrodite said under her breath. “Why is she playing nice?”

“She’s seriously up to somethin’,” Stevie Rae said while Damien cried into her shoulder.

“I can’t do this.” Damien suddenly pulled back and away from both of them. He shook his head back and forth, back and forth. The heaving sobs had stopped, but tears continued to leak down his cheeks. Duchess crawled up to him and lay across his lap, with her nose pointed up near his cheek. Cammy curled up tightly against his side. Damien wrapped one arm around the big blond dog, and another around his cat. “I can’t say goodbye to Jack and deal with Neferet’s drama.” He looked from Stevie Rae to Aphrodite. “I understand why Zoey’s soul shattered.”

“No no no no.” Aphrodite bent over and put her finger in Damien’s face. “I am not dealing with that stress again. Jack being dead is bad. Really bad. But you gotta keep yourself together.”

“For us,” Stevie Rae added in a much softer tone, giving Aphrodite a be nice! look. “You gotta keep yourself together for your friends. We almost lost Zoey. We lost Jack and Heath. We can’t lose you, too.”

“I can’t fight her anymore,” Damien said. “I don’t have any heart left.”

“It’s still there,” Stevie Rae said softly. “It’s just broken.”

“It’ll fix,” Aphrodite added, not unkindly.

Damien’s eyes were bright with tears when he looked at her. “How do you know? Your heart’s never been broken.” He turned his gaze to Stevie Rae. “Neither has yours.” As Damien continued to speak, the tears fell faster and faster down his cheeks. “Don’t let your hearts be broken. It hurts too much.”

Stevie Rae swallowed hard. She couldn’t tell him—she couldn’t tell any of them, but the more she cared about Rephaim, the more her heart broke every single day.

“Zoey’s going to make it, and she lost her Heath,” Aphrodite said. “If she can do it, you can do it, too, Damien.”

“And she’s really coming home?” Damien repeated the question he’d started with.

“Yes,” Aphrodite and Stevie Rae said together.

“Okay. Good. Yeah. It’ll be better when Zoey’s here,” Damien said, still hugging Duchess, with Cameron pressed close to his side.

“Hey, Duchess and Cammy look like they could use some dinner,” Aphrodite said. Stevie Rae was surprised to see her reach out and, tentatively, pat the big dog’s head. “I don’t see any dog food in here, and all Cammy has is that wretched dry stuff. Quite frankly Maleficent won’t even look at anything that doesn’t appear to be fresh catch. How about I have Darius help me bring some food up for them? Unless you’d rather be alone. If so, I can take Cammy and Duchess with me and feed them for you.”

Damien’s eyes got all big and round. “No! Don’t take them. I want them to stay here with me.”

“Okay, okay, no problem. Darius can get Duchess’s dog food,” Stevie Rae spoke up, wondering what the heck Aphrodite was thinking. No way did Damien need to be without those two animals.

“Duch’s food and stuff is in Jack’s room,” Damien said, ending on a little sob.

“Would you like us to bring all her stuff in here for you?” Stevie Rae asked, taking Damien’s hand.

“Yes,” he whispered. Then his body jerked and his face blanched even whiter than it had been. “And don’t let them throw away Jack’s stuff! I have to see it! I have to go through it!”

“I’m already ahead of you on that. No way was I letting those vamps get their claws into Jack’s cool collections. I delegated the responsibility of boxing up his stuff and sneaking it out to the Twins,” Aprodite said, looking smug.

Damien, clearly forgetting for just an instant that his world was filled with tragedy, almost smiled. “You got the Twins to do something?”

“Damn right,” Aphrodite said.

“What’d it cost you?” Stevie Rae asked.

Aphrodite scowled. “Two shirts from Hale Bob’s new collection.”

“But I didn’t think his spring stuff was out yet,” Damien said.

“A: Hello—gay that you know that, and b: collections are always out early if you’re filthy rich and your mom ‘knows’ someone,” she said, air-quoting the word.

“Who’s Hale Bob?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Aphrodite said. “Just come with me. You can help me carry the dog accoutrements.”

“And by that you mean I’m carryin’ them, right?”

“Right.” Aphrodite bent and, like she did it every day, kissed Damien on the top of his head. “I’ll be right back with the dog and cat crap. Oh, want me to bring Maleficent? She—”

“No!” Damien and Stevie Rae said together with twin tones of horror.

Aphrodite lifted her chin indignantly. “It’s so typical that no one understands that magnificent creature except me.”