“I thought you said Neferet wasn’t behind this.” I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Marx blanched even paler.
“We haven’t seen any sign of Neferet, but she is alive and well in the zombie world,” I said.
“Figures,” he muttered. “If it wasn’t something Neferet did, what happened?”
“My mother showed up and screwed up our spell,” Aphrodite said.
“Actually, I think I messed up our spell,” I said. “It was because Mrs. LaFont was screaming at us, and I shouldn’t have let her get to me, but I did.” I drew a big breath and then told on myself. “My hand slipped. I cut myself. And at the same time I remember thinking that if a zombie apocalypse happened in Tulsa it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if they ate Mrs. LaFont.” Miserable, I stared at Aphrodite. “I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean it. And this is all my fault.”
Aphrodite stared back at me, and then she started laughing. It began as a soft giggle, and grew until she had to lean against Darius, who looked utterly confused and more than a little worried.
“Uh, I’m going to get the ball rolling on warning people,” Marx said, throwing Aphrodite a concerned sidewise glance as he left.
I went to her. She was wiping her eyes. Her laughter had dissipated to soft giggles interspersed with snorts. “Hey. I’m so, so sorry. Truly.”
“Oh, Z. It wasn’t all your fault. I was basically thinking the same thing you were,” she said.
Shaylin cleared her throat and our attention shifted to her. “Um. Me, too.”
“Me, too, what?” Stevie Rae asked as she hurried into the office, holding Rephaim’s hand.
“When Mrs. LaFont showed up at the park I wished she’d drop dead,” Shaylin said.
“Oh, yeah,” Stevie Rae nodded, making her blond curls bounce. “I was wishin’ she’d go away and stop pesterin’ Aphrodite—for good.”
“And I’ll bet if we ask Shaunee, she’ll say she was thinking something about the same,” Aphrodite said. “Don’t stress, Z. My mother has that effect on people. Lots of them have wished she’d die. They just didn’t have the power to make the wish come true. Our circle does.”
Ah, hell … I thought as I pulled Aphrodite into my arms, hugging her fiercely.
17
Damien
On autopilot, Damien made his way from the basement under the Field House to the room that had been assigned to him in the guest wing of the professors’ quarters. He walked slowly, gazing out at the snowy predawn morning, noting that all the students, fledgling or human, seemed to finally have retired to the dorms.
He envied them.
Sometimes he wished he could go back to being one of them. Actually, lately he’d wished it a lot more often than not.
The truth was Damien felt empty and alone. Adam had tried diligently to get him to shake off this terrible melancholy, but all of his attempts—be they romantic and sexy, or, toward the end, angry and confused—had only served to make Damien feel more alone.
It was like there was something wrong with him.
His parents used to say that he thought too much and didn’t go outside and play enough. Well, one good thing about being an adult vampyre—he didn’t have to suffer through his parent’s pathetic attempts to pretend like they wanted him around.
Actually, after he’d been Marked, they had pretty much stopped being his parents. Though they used to send the same sports-themed birthday gifts every year. But this last year, after he made the Change, the gifts stopped. The sporadic calls stopped. The visits—not that there had been many of them to begin with—stopped. Period. It was a relief. Or, at least that’s what he told himself.
He’d reached out. Not long after he’d moved to New York. He’d called. Their phone number had been changed. The email he sent them had bounced back undeliverable. He’d sent them a postcard—a gorgeous shot of the Statue of Liberty—letting them know he’d been transferred to New York, inviting them to visit any time. It had been returned with a handwritten note refusing delivery. That was the last time he’d tried to reach them.
He had friends. A lot of them, actually. At the New York House of Night he’d been welcomed eagerly—as had most of the changes Zoey’s new Council had initiated. Basically, things were going well. Really well.
Except he missed everything about Tulsa. Even the moronic redneck Bubbas and Bubbettes. At least they were Okies, and his redneck morons.
His homesickness was his guilty secret. His new friends were great—smart, well-traveled, interesting, and a lot of fun. There definitely was a lot of fun to be had in the Big Apple.
Yet, still, Damien found himself alone in his very hip condo on the New York House of Night campus pulling up Tulsa’s midtown real estate sites and looking at houses for sale—just so he could see the old neighborhood that surrounded the House of Night. Home. Just so he could see home.
There was definitely something wrong with him.
Damien reached his room and entered the spacious, luxurious suite. He went straight to the kitchenette and began brewing a pot of tea, and while it brewed he held the delicate porcelain teacup in his hand and stared at nothing.
When the electric pot beeped, he jerked and shook himself. He put the tea service on a tray and placed it on the coffee table. Then he easily located his carry-on and suitcase where one of the fledglings had put them on the luggage holders just outside the closet. Inside his carry-on he found the book he’d grabbed at the airport, Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig, and went to the plush velvet settee. While he added almond milk and cubes of sugar to the cup, he lifted the school’s landline and pressed 9 for the administrative office.
“House of Night, Tulsa. This is Shaylin,” she said after one ring.
“It’s Damien.”
“Hi! I heard all about Other Jack trying to bite your neck, and the zombies and such. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m in my guest suite, but with the cell service still out I’m not sure how to find Zoey.”
“Oh, she’s in and out of the office. I can tell her to call you next time she comes in,” Shaylin said.
“That’d be nice. Thank you. She’s planning to send Warriors downtown to trap the other red vampyres, isn’t she?”
“Well, yeah, that seems to be the plan.”
“Would you let her know I’m ready to go with her if she needs me?”
“Absolutely. Hey, are you sure you’re okay. You sound a little—I don’t know—off. No offense.”
“No offense taken. I am off. Probably more than a little—what with Other Jack and everything. But I’ll be fine. Just let her know I’m here if she needs me.”
“Will do. Damien?”
“Yes?”
“Remember we’re all here for you. All of the Nerd Herd. We love you.”
Damien’s head bowed as he fought against tears. “Thank you,” he managed to say faintly before hanging up.