Betrayed (18 page)

I was overwhelmed by her thoughtfulness, and couldn't help but compare it to the cold, unconcerned way my mom treated me. Hell, the truth was my mom didn't actually care enough to treat me like anything anymore. I'd only seen her that one time in a whole month, and after the stupid scene her loser husband had caused with Neferet, it looked like I wouldn't be seeing her again soon. Like I cared? No. Not when I had good friends and a mentor like Neferet to be there for me.

“I really appreciate this, Neferet,” I said, swallowing hard around the lump of emotion that had built in my throat.

“It's my pleasure and the least I can do for my fledgling's first Full Moon Ritual as leader of the Dark Daughters.” She gave me a quick hug, and then left the room, nodding kindly to the kids who spoke to her and saluted her respectfully.

“Wow,” Jack said. “She's really amazing.”

“She sure is,” I said. Then I grinned at my friends (and the new kid). “So, ready to get to work now? We have lots of stuff to clear out of here.” I saw poor Jack looking totally clueless. “Damien, you better give Jack a quick catch-up lesson in vamp rituals so he doesn't feel so lost.” I started to walk back toward the kitchen (again), and heard Damien start his little professor act, beginning with the facts about the Full Moon Ritual.

“Uh, Zoey, can we help you?”

I glanced over my shoulder. Drew Partain, a short, athletic kid I recognized because he and I were in the same fencing class (he's an incredible fencer—as good as Damien, and that's saying something), was standing with a group of guys near the wall of black-shrouded windows. He smiled at me, but I noticed he kept checking out Stevie Rae. “There's a lot of stuff to be pulled around. I know because the guys and I used to help Aphrodite get the room ready.”

“Huh,” I heard Shaunee say under her breath. Before Erin could add to the sarcastic sound, I said, “Yeah, we could use your help.” And then I tested them. “Except my ritual is going to be different. Damien can show you what I mean.” I waited for the disdainful looks and the sarcasm that the jocklike guys tended to throw at Damien and the few other openly gay kids at the school, but Drew just shrugged and said, “Cool with me. Just tell us what to do.” He grinned and winked at Stevie Rae, who giggled and blushed.

“Damien, they're all yours,” I said.

“I'm sure hell is freezing over somewhere,” Damien whispered, barely moving his lips. Then, in his regular voice he said, “Well, the first thing Zoey didn't like is that it looks like a morgue in here with all of the arcade machines pushed to the walls and covered with that black fabric. So let's see if we can move most of them into the kitchen and the hall.” Drew's group started to work alongside Damien and the new kid, and Damien returned to his mini-lesson.

“We'll get the candles and pull the table out here,” I told the guys, and motioned for the Twins and Stevie Rae to follow me.

“Damien has died and gone straight to gay boy heaven,” Shaunee said as soon as we were out of earshot.

“Hey, it's about time those kids stopped acting like ignorant rednecks and behaved like they have some sense,” I said.

“She doesn't mean that, even though we agree with you,” Erin said. “She means little Mr. Jack the cute-gay-new-kid Twist.”

“Now why in the world would you think he's gay?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Stevie Rae, I swear you have got to broaden your horizons, girl,” Shaunee said.

“Okay, I'm lost, too. Why do you think Jack's gay?” I asked.

Shaunee and Erin shared a long-suffering look, then Erin explained. “Jack Twist is yummy Jake Gyllenhaal's totally gay cowboy character from
Brokeback Mountain
.”

“And just please! Anyone who chooses that name and who looks all geeky cute like that is totally, completely playing for Damien's team.”

“Huh,” I said.

“Well, I'll be,” Stevie Rae said. “You know, I never did see that movie. It didn't come to the Cinema 8 in Henrietta.”

“You don't say?” Shaunee said.

“Please. I'm so shocked,” Erin said.

“Well, Stevie Rae. I do believe it's time for a DVD showing of that excellent flick,” Shaunee said.

“Do guys kiss in it?”

“Deliciously,” Shaunee and Erin said together.

I tried, but failed miserably not to laugh at the look on Stevie Rae's face.

We were almost finished setting up the room when someone flipped on the nightly news on the big-screen TV we did have to leave in the main room. The five of us shared quick looks—what they were calling “the bomb hoax by Nature's Jihad” was the lead story. Even though I knew my call couldn't be traced, and I'd watched Damien “accidentally” drop and then totally step on and smash his disposable phone, I only breathed marginally easier when Chera Kimiko repeated that so far the police had no leads about the identity of the terrorist group.

In a related Arkansas River story Fox News reported that this evening Samuel Johnson, captain of a river transport barge, had a heart attack while piloting the barge. It was a “lucky coincidence” for him that river traffic had been halted and that police and paramedics were so close by. His life had been saved, and there had been no damage done to any other barges or bridges.

“That was it!” Damien said. “He had a heart attack and ran the barge into the bridge.”

I nodded numbly. “And that proves that Aphrodite's vision was true.”

“Not that that's good news,” Stevie Rae said.

“I think it is,” I said. “As long as Aphrodite lets us know about her visions, at least we can take them seriously.”

Damien shook his head. “There has to be a reason Neferet believes Nyx has withdrawn her gift from Aphrodite. It's too bad we can't tell her about this, then maybe she'd explain what's going on, or maybe even change her mind about Aphrodite.”

“No, I gave my word I wouldn't say anything.”

“If Aphrodite was really changing from hag to nonhag, she'd go to Neferet herself,” Shaunee said.

“Maybe you should talk to her about that,” Erin said.

Stevie Rae made a rude noise.

I rolled my eyes at Stevie Rae, but she didn't notice because Drew had grinned his way up to us and she was too busy blushing to pay attention to me.

“How's it look, Zoey?” he asked without taking his eyes from Stevie Rae.

Like you've got a thing for my roommate,
is what I wanted to say, but I thought he was kinda cute and Stevie Rae's blush clearly said she thought so, too, so I decided against mortifying her.

“Looks good,” I said.

“Doesn't look too bad from here, either,” Shaunee said, giving Drew a look up and down.

“Ditto, Twin,” Erin said, waggling her eyebrows at Drew.

The boy didn't notice either of the Twins. Seems all he noticed was Stevie Rae.

“I'm starving,” he said.

“Me, too,” Stevie Rae said.

“So, how about getting something to eat?” Drew asked her.

“Okay,” Stevie Rae said quickly, and then she seemed to remember we were all standing there watching her, and her face got even pinker. “Gosh, it is dinnertime. We better all go get something.” With a nervous little gesture, she ran her fingers through her short curls and called across the room to Damien, who was thoroughly engrossed in a conversation with Jack. (From what I had overheard they were both into the same kind of books and were debating which of the Harry Potters was really the best. Clearly, they were dorkishly alike.) “Damien, we're gonna go eat. Are you and Jack hungry?”

Jack and Damien exchanged a look, and then Damien called back, “Yeah, we're coming.”

“Okeydokey,” Stevie Rae said, still grinning at Drew. “I guess we're all hungry.”

Shaunee sighed, and started for the door. “Just please. The young love hormones in this room are enough to give me a headache.”

“I feel like I'm stuck in a
Lifetime
movie. Wait for me, Twin,” Erin said.

“Why are the Twins so cynical about love?” I asked Damien as he and Jack crossed the room to join us.

“They're not. They're just mad that the last few guys they've gone out with have bored them,” Damien said.

As a group, we went outside into the magic of a snowy November evening. The flakes had changed and were smaller, but they were still coming down steadily, making the House of Night look even more mysterious and castlelike than usual.

“Yeah, the Twins are hard on guys. It's like they double-time them,” Stevie Rae said. I noticed she was walking really close to Drew and that occasionally their arms brushed together.

I heard a bunch of muttered agreement noises from the guys who had been helping us drag furniture around the rec room. And I imagined it would be intimidating for any guy (vamp or human) to try to date one of the Twins.

“Do you remember when Thor asked Erin out?” said one of Drew's friends, whose name I think was Keith.

“Yeah, she called him a lemur. You know, like the moronic lemurs in that Disney movie,” Stevie Rae said, laughing.

“And Walter went out with Shaunee a total of two and a half dates. Then, right in the middle of Starbucks, she called him a Pentium 3 processor,” Damien said.

I gave him a totally clueless look.

“Z, we're up to Pentium 5 processors now.”

“Oh.”

“Erin still calls him Slowest McSlowenstein whenever she sees him,” Stevie Rae said.

“Clearly it's going to take a couple of really special guys to date the Twins,” I said.

“I think there's someone for everyone,” Jack said suddenly. We all turned to him and he blushed. Before any of the kids could snicker at him I spoke up, “I agree with Jack.”
But figuring out which someone is the one for you is the hard part
, I added silently to myself.

“Totally!” Stevie Rae said with her usual perky optimism.

“Absolutely,” Damien said, winking at me. I grinned back at him.

“Hey!” Shaunee stepped out from behind a tree. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Your nonexistent love life!” Damien called cheerfully.

“Really?” she said.

“Really,” Damien said.

“How about you talk about how cold and wet you are instead?” Shaunee said.

Damien frowned. “Huh? I'm not.”

Erin popped out from around the other side of the tree, snowball in hand. “You will be!” she yelled, throwing it and hitting Damien smack in the middle of his chest.

Of course the snowball war was on. Kids squealed and ran for cover while they scooped up handfuls of new snow and took aim at Shaunee and Erin. I started to back away.

“I told you snow was great!” Stevie Rae said.

“Well, let's just hope for a blizzard then,” Damien yelled, taking aim at Erin. “Lots of wind and snow. Totally the best for snowball fights!” He let fly, but Erin was too quick and jumped for cover just in time to miss being plastered right in the head.

“Where are you going, Z?” Stevie Rae called from behind an ornamental shrub. I noticed Drew was right beside her, firing cover shots at Shaunee.

“To the media center—have to work on the words for the ritual tomorrow, so I'll grab something to eat back at the dorm when I get done.” I kept backing away more and more quickly. “Hate to miss all the fun, but . . .” and I retreated inside the closest door, slamming it behind me just in time for it to catch the
plop plop plop
of three snowballs against its ancient wood.

I hadn't just been making an excuse to get out of the snowball war. I actually had been planning to ditch dinner and spend a few hours in the media center. Tomorrow I'd have to cast a circle and lead a ritual that might be as ancient as the moon itself.

I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

Okay, sure. I'd cast one circle with my friends a month ago as a little experiment to see if I really had an affinity for the elements, or if I'd been delusional. Until I felt the power of wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit rush through me and my friends witnessed it, too, I would have bet on the side of delusional. Not that I'm totally cynical or anything, but please. Just please (as the Twins would say). Being able to tap into the power of the five elements was pretty bizarre. I mean, my life wasn't an X-Men movie (although I'd definitely like to spend some quality time with Wolverine).

The media center was predictably empty; it was, after all, Saturday night. Only total dorks spent Saturday night in the media center. Yes, I knew all too well what that made me. I'd already decided where to start my research. I pulled up the card catalogue on the computer and searched for old spell and ritual books, ignoring any that had recent publication dates. I was particularly drawn to one titled
Mystical Rites of the Crystal Moon
by Fiona. I vaguely recognized her name as one of the Vamp Poet Laureates from the early 1800s (there was a cool picture of her in our dorm). I scribbled down the Dewey Decimal Number for the book and found it up on an obscure shelf, dusty and lonely. I thought it was an excellent sign that it was one of those old leather-bound tomes. I wanted foundation and tradition so that under my leadership the Dark Daughters would know something more than Aphrodite's way too modern (and ho-ish) influence.

I opened my notebook and got out my favorite pen, which made me think about what Loren had said about preferring to write his poetry by hand rather than on a computer . . . and made me think about Loren touching my face . . . and my back . . . and the connection that had sizzled between us. I smiled and felt my cheeks get warm, and then realized I was sitting there grinning and blushing like a retard about a guy who was too old for me,
and
a vampyre. Both things made me really nervous (as well they should). I mean, he was totally gorgeous, but he was twenty-something. A real adult who knew all the vampyre secrets about bloodlust and, well, lust in general. Which, unfortunately, only made him more delicious, especially after my brief but very nasty bloodsucking make-out scene with Heath.