“When’s the last time you talked to your brother?” Shaunee asked.
“The day I was Marked. I have a sister, too. Her name’s Barbara, but I like to call her Barbie. She’s a freshman at OSU—majoring in beer, cheerleading, and hot guys. Kevin is a sophomore this year at Broken Arrow. He’s doing okay, but his teachers say his grades aren’t great.”
No one said anything. I sighed again. “What? Just because we don’t talk doesn’t mean I don’t check up on them. Since Mom died I wanted to be sure they were okay. They are. The step-loser adopted Kevin. He didn’t adopt Barbie, but she’s over eighteen, so whatever.”
“You didn’t call them or anything?” Shaunee asked—not unkindly.
“I didn’t know what to say. And the step-loser is a problem. He hated me. Well, hates me. I’m sure it’s a present-tense thing. I didn’t want any of that to rub off on them, plus Barbie has never wanted much to do with me. She was always perfect. She looked way more like Mom than Kev and me.” I paused, thinking about what I really meant. We all had the same bio-dad, but Barbie looked super white—she was even blond without too much help from her colorist at Ihloff Salon. Kevin and I looked like Grandma. We were brown—brown hair, brown eyes, brownish skin. I shrugged. “I thought I was helping them by staying away. And most fledglings and vamps break from their human families. If not when they’re Marked, when they Change.” I squinted out at the uber-bright snowy morning, trying to catch a glimpse of something—anything—that might be Other Kevin.
“Hey, I’m not judging,” Shaunee said. “My family totally has nothing to do with me. When I got Marked they basically dumped me.”
“Mine, too,” Stark said. “Z, we didn’t mean to come down on you. We’re just trying to help.”
“I know, I know. I was just so shocked. Am just so shocked. I mean—Kevin. My annoying little brother who is totally into video games and smells like a teenage boy.”
“Eww,” Shaunee said.
“Yeah, he was that little brother. But now he’s a killer red vampyre who can spread a zombie plague throughout Tulsa. I just … I just … I just have no words.”
“We’ll help, Z. Your Nerd Herd is all in one place again. We’ll handle this. You’ll handle this,” Stark said.
I had no clue why his vote of confidence made my stomach hurt.
“This is a lot of snow. I’m glad you put chains on these tires,” Shaunee said as she expertly steered us out of a nasty slide.
“Hey, you are good at snow driving,” I said.
“Yep. I learned in Connecticut. Twenty inches of snow in a winter is considered mild.”
“Slow down!” I said. “I think I saw something over there by the Brady Theater.”
Shaunee braked and made a left turn the wrong way down a one-way street which was, thankfully, deserted. The Escalade barely crawled as we circled around the Brady Theater block.
“No, it was just that banner from Mexicali Grill flapping all weird in the wind,” I said. “Maybe we should go inside the Brady, though, just in case.”
“No,” Stark said firmly. “Zoey, I’m your Warrior. You need to listen to me. It is not safe for the three of us to go into the Brady. Call Marx. Tell him you think you saw something. He’ll be here with backup to check it out.”
“You’re right. I know you’re right. It’s just so bizarre. It’s Kevin.”
“Yes. And Damien thought Other Jack was just Jack. If we hadn’t been looking out for him, what would have happened?” Stark said.
“Other Jack would have eaten him,” I said miserably. “Okay, I’m calling Marx. Keep driving, Shaunee. Circle around by the west edge of the railroad tracks. There are some overpasses there. They could be hiding under them.”
“Okie dokie,” Shaunee said.
I reached for the portable radio Marx had given us because the damn cell towers were still down—and my cell phone scared the crap out of me by exploding in vibrations and my “Eye of the Tiger” ringtone. I snatched it out of the side pocket of my coat.
“Hello.”
“Zoey—Marx. The fledglings are awake.”
“What? You mean fledglings at the House of Night?” Marx had agreed to escort the bus filled with the unconscious red fledglings to school, which is—sadly—where they had to be taken since the depot was still a crime zone, meaning the tunnels were off-limits.
“No. The ones in the bus. We’re not at the school yet. What the hell’s going on?” Marx said.
I looked at the face of my phone. It was 8:25 a.m. “I have no idea, but we’ll meet you at the House of Night. Be sure you keep those fledglings covered and pull into the entrance by the Field House—the one that’s covered. Cell service is obviously back, so I’ll call the school and be sure they know you’re coming in with red fledglings. Oh, and I might have seen something by the Brady Theater. Could you send some cops to check it out?”
“Will do.” He hung up without another word.
“Shaunee, we need to—”
“Already heading back,” she said. “Hang on.”
“What was that about?” Stark asked.
“The red fledglings are awake,” I said as I scrolled through my recent calls to find Lenobia’s number, but before I could punch it, my phone rang again. The caller ID said aphrodite. I stifled a sigh and answered. “Aphrodite, I don’t have time for this right now.”
“I’m sorry I was an awful bitch,” she said.
“Oh. That’s okay. Apology accepted.”
“No, it’s not okay, but I’m working on it. And you need to get back here.”
“You sound sober.”
“That’s because I am sober. And there’s something you need to see. Well, you need to know about it, too, but seeing it’s important. Or at least I think it is. It really is beautiful, though I don’t know why I’d expect anything less—what with Nyx doing it and all.”
“You’re babbling. Are you sure you’re sober?”
“Positive.”
“Okay, I’m on my way back. But Marx and a big TPD mobile prison van thing they call a bus is going to beat me there. It’s supposed to be filled with passed-out red fledglings from the other world, but—”
“But they’re awake,” she said.
“How did you know that?”
“Come home and see for yourself. I’ll tuck the fledglings in. Bye.”
“Bye,” I said, staring at the phone.
“Now what?” Stark asked.
“Aphrodite is sober. And she apologized to me for being a bitch.”
“Are you sure you weren’t talking to Other Aphrodite?” Shaunee said.
“I didn’t see any other Aphrodite come through the fountain thing,” I said.
“Well, neither did I, but apologizing for being a bitch doesn’t sound like our Aphrodite.”
“And yet she just did. She also knew the fledglings were awake. She said I need to see something. Or know about something. Or both, I guess. She’s confusing me. Hell, this entire day is confusing me.”
“Let’s get home,” Stark said, and Shaunee floored it.
24
Heff