Awakened

disastrous, Dark Daughters’ Ritual. Back then he’d been sweet and thoughtful and had made me feel like maybe I could really handle the craziness that happened at this school.

I owed him a favor in return.

I squeezed Damien’s hand and brought him and my whole group to a halt. “Honey,” I said to Damien, “I want you to go with Stark and everyone else to the pyre. There’s something I have to do real quick. Plus, from everything I can find to read on vamp funerals and such, you—’cause Jack really was your Consort—need to spend time meditating before the pyre is lit.” At least I hoped that was what Damien needed to do.

As if she’d materialized in response to my words, a vampyre stepped out of the shadows, coming from the direction of the funeral pyre. “You are absolutely correct, Zoey Redbird,” she said.

I, along with all of my friends, gave her big question-mark looks.

“Oh, I should introduce myself.” She offered me her forearm in the traditional vampyre greeting. “I am Beverly—” She paused, cleared her throat, and started again. “I am Professor Missal. The new Spells and Rituals instructor.”

“Oh, uh, nice to meet you.” I returned her greeting by grasping her forearm. Yeah, she had a full vamp tattoo—a pretty pattern that reminded me of musical notes—but I swear she looked younger than Stevie Rae. “Um, Professor Missal, would you lead Damien and the rest of the kids to the pyre? There’s something I need to do here.”

“Of course. Everything will be ready for you.” She turned to Damien and said gently, “Please follow me.”

Damien said a faint okay, but he looked super glassy eyed. Still, he began following the new professor. Stark hung back. His eyes shifted to the shadows and the bench on which Erik sat. Then they returned to me.

“Please,” I said. “I need to talk to him. Trust me, ’kay?”

His face relaxed. “No problem, mo bann ri.” Before he started after Damien, he added softly in his excellent Scottish accent, “It’s waitin’ for you I’ll be when yur finished.”

“Thank you.” I tried to tell him with my eyes how much I loved and appreciated his loyalty and his trust.

He smiled and moved off with the rest of the group. Well, except for Aphrodite. And Darius, who hovered about like her shadow.

“What?” I said.

“Like we can leave you alone?” Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Seriously. How clueless are you? Neferet managed to cut off Jack’s head without actually being there. Darius and I aren’t leaving you alone to comfort Erik the Douche.”

I looked at Darius, but he shook his head and said, “Sorry, Zoey, Aphrodite has a point.”

“Could you at least stay back here out of earshot?” I asked in exasperation.

“Like we want to hear Erik’s crybaby crap? No problem. Just hurry up. No one needs to be kept waiting for a douche bag,” Aphrodite said.

I didn’t even bother to sigh as I walked away from them, making a path to Erik. Okay, seriously. The guy didn’t even know I was there. I was standing in front of him. His face was in his hands and he was crying. Really crying. Knowing what an excellent actor he was, I cleared my throat and got ready to be semi-sarcastic, or at the very least passive-aggressive.

When he looked up at me everything changed. His eyes were puffy and red. Tears soaked his cheeks. Snot even ran out of his nose. He blinked a couple of times, like he was having a hard time focusing on me. “Oh, uh, Zoey,” he said, and made an effort at pulling himself together. He sat up straighter, and wiped his snotty nose on the back of his sleeve. “Um, hey. You’re back.”

“Yeah, I landed a little while ago. I’m going to light Jack’s pyre. Wanna come with me?”

A sob erupted from deep within him. Erik bowed his head and began to weep.

It was totally awful.

I so didn’t know what to do.

And I swear I heard Aphrodite snorting off in the distance.

“Hey.” I sat next to him and awkwardly patted his shoulder. “I know it’s terrible. You guys were really good friends.”

Erik nodded his head. I could see he was making an effort to get himself under control, so I sat there and babbled while he sniffed and wiped his face on his sleeve (eesh).

“It really sucks. Jack was too darn nice and sweet and young and everything to have something like this happen to him. We’re all gonna miss him so much.”

“Neferet did this.” He spoke quietly, and I saw him glancing around like he was scared of being overheard. “I don’t know how. I don’t fucking even know why, but she did it.”

“Yeah,” I said.

Our eyes met.

“Are you going to do something about it?” he said.

My gaze didn’t falter one little bit. “Absolutely everything in my power.”

He almost smiled. “Well, that’s good enough for me.” He wiped his face again and ran a hand through his hair. “I was leaving.”

“Huh?” I said brilliantly.

“Yeah, going. Leaving the Tulsa House of Night for L.A. They want me there—in Hollywood. I was supposed to be the next Brad Pitt.”

“Was?” I asked, totally confused. “What’s stopping you?”

Slowly, Erik raised his right hand and held it, palm out, toward me. I blinked several times, not really understanding what I was seeing.

“Yeah, it’s what you think,” he said.

“It’s Nyx’s Labyrinth.” Of course I recognized the raised sapphire-colored tattoo that filled his palm, but it was like my mind was having a hard time catching up with my eyes, and I wasn’t getting it until Aphrodite’s voice came from behind me. “Oh, for shit’s sake! Erik’s a Tracker.”

Erik’s eyes shifted from me to Aphrodite. “Happy now? Go ahead and laugh. You know this means I can’t leave the Tulsa House of Night for four years—that I have to stay here and follow a damn essence and be the asshole who is there when every kid for the next four years is Marked and finds out he might or might not die, but for sure has to change his life forever.”

There was a moment of silence and then Aphrodite said, “Is that what’s bothering you? That you’re the new Tracker and it’s a tough job, or is what’s really bothering you that you have to put off Hollywood for four years and in that time there’s sure to be ‘the next Brad Pitt’?”

I whirled around and faced her. “He was Jack’s roommate! Do you remember what it’s like to lose a roommate?” I saw her expression shift and soften, but I just shook my head. “No. You and Darius go on. I’ll follow you.” When Aphrodite still hesitated I spoke directly to her Warrior. “As your High Priestess I’m commanding you. I want to be alone with Erik. Take Aphrodite and meet me at Jack’s pyre.”

Darius didn’t hesitate for another second. He bowed solemnly to me, then he took Aphrodite by the elbow and literally pulled her away. I sighed deeply and sat down next to Erik on the bench.

“Sorry about that. Aphrodite means well, but like Stevie Rae would say, she’s not very nice sometimes.”

Erik snorted. “You don’t need to tell me that. She and I dated, remember?”

“I remember,” I said quietly. Then added, “You and I dated, too.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I thought I loved you.”

“I thought I loved you, too.”

He looked at me. “Were we wrong?”

I looked back at him. Really looked back at him. Goddess, he was hot in a seriously Superman/Clark Kent kind of way. Tall and dark and blue eyed and muscly. But there was more to him than that. Yeah, he was controlling and arrogant, but somewhere inside him I knew there was a really, really good guy. I just wasn’t the right girl for that guy.

“Yeah, we were wrong, but that’s okay. Recently I’ve been reminded that it’s okay not to be perfect, especially if you learn from your mess-ups. So how about we learn from ours? I think we could make better friends anyway.”

His gorgeous lips turned up. “I think you might be right.”