A weird smell drifted up to me. It was so odd that I broke off what I was saying. What was that? I sniffed and wrinkled my nose. It was a dry, old smell. Like a house that had been closed up for too long, or somebody's scary old basement. It wasn't a good smell, but it also wasn't so gross that it made me want to gag. It was just wrong. Like it didn't belong out here in the open at night.
Then something caught at the corner of my eyesight. I looked down the long, winding brick wall. Standing there, half turned away from me like she wasn't sure which way she wanted to go, was a girl. The light from the moon, and my new and improved fledgling ability to see well at night, let me see her even though there were no outside lights near this part of the wall. I felt myself tense. Had one of those hateful Dark Daughters followed me? No way did I feel like dealing with any more of their crap tonight.
I must have actually voiced the frustrated groan I thought I had made in my mind, because the girl looked up toward where I was sitting on top of the wall.
I gasped in shock and felt fear skitter through me.
It was Elizabeth! The Elizabeth No Last Name kid who was supposed to be dead. When she saw me her eyes, which were a weird, glowing red, widened and then she made an odd shrieking sound before whirling around and disappearing with inhuman speed into the night.
At the same instant, Nala arched her back and hissed with such ferocity that her little body shook.
"It's okay! It's okay!" I said over and over, trying to calm the cat and me. Both of us were shaking and Nala was still growling low in her throat. "It couldn't have been a ghost. It couldn't have been. It was justjusta weird kid. I probably scared her and she"
"Zoey! Zoey! Is that you?"
I jumped and almost fell off the wall. It was too much for Nala. She gave another tremendous hiss and leaped neatly from my lap to the ground. Completely and utterly freaked out, I grabbed the branch for balance and squinted out into the night.
"Whowho is it?" I called over the pounding of my heart. Then I was blinded by the beams of two flashlights aimed directly at me.
"Of course it's her! Like I couldn't recognize my own best friend's voice? Jeesh, she hasn't been gone that long!"
"Kayla?" I said, trying to shield my eyes from the glare of the flashlights with my hand, which was shaking like crazy.
"Well, I told you we'd find her," a guy's voice said. "You always want to give up too soon."
"Heath?" Maybe I was dreaming.
"Yep! Whoo-hoo! We found ya, baby!" Heath yelled, and even in the awful flashlight glare I could see him hurl himself at the wall and then start to scramble up like a tall, blond, football-playing monkey.
Incredibly relieved it was him and not a boogie monster, I called down to him, "Heath! Be careful. If you fall you're going to break something." Well, unless he landed on his headthen he'd probably be okay.
"Not me!" he said, pulling himself up and over so that he was sitting beside me, straddling the wall. "Hey, Zoey, check it outlook at me; I'm king of the world!" He yelled, throwing out his arms, grinning like a total fool, and breathing alcohol-scented air all over me.
No wonder I'd refused to go out with him.
"Okay, there's no need to forever make fun of my unfortunate ex-infatuation with Leonardo!' I glared at him, feeling more like myself than I had in hours. "Actually, it's kinda like my unfortunate ex-infatuation with you. Only it didn't last as long, and you didn't make a bunch of cheesy but cool movies."
"Hey, you're not still mad about Dustin and Drew are you? Forget them! They're retards." Heath said, giving me his puppy-dog look, which used to be really cute when he was in eighth grade. Too bad the cuteness had stopped working for him about two years ago. "And, anyway, we came all the way over here to bust you out."
"What?" I shook my head and squinted at him. "Wait. Turn those flashlights off. They're killing my eyes."
"If we turn them off we can't see," Heath said.
"Fine. Then turn them away. Uh, point them out there or something," I gestured out away from the school (and me). Heath turned the beam of the one he'd been clutching out into the night, and so did Kayla. I was able to drop my hand, which I was pleased to see had quit shaking, and stop squinting. Heath's eyes widened when he saw my Mark.
"Check it out! It's colored in now. Wow! It's likelikeon TV or something."
Well, it was nice to see that some things never change. Heath was still Heathcute, but not the brightest Crayola in the pack.
"Hey! What about me? I'm here too, ya know!" Kayla called. "Someone help me get up there, but be careful. Let me put my new purse down. Oh, and I better take off these shoes. Zoey, you would not believe the sale you missed yesterday at Bakers. All of their summer shoes totally on closeout. I mean, serious closeout. Seventy percent off. I got five pairs for."
"Help her up," I told Heath. "Now. It's the only way she'll stop talking."
Yep. Some things just didn't change.
Heath scooted around till he was on his belly, and then leaned down to offer his hands to Kayla. Giggling, she grabbed them and let him haul her up on top of the wall with us. And it was while she was giggling and he was hauling that I saw itthe unmistakable way Kayla grinned and giggled and blushed at Heath. I knew it as well as I knew I would never be a mathematician. Kayla liked Heath. Okay, not liked. She liked Heath.
Suddenly Heath's guilty comment about messing around on me at the party I'd missed made perfect sense.
"So how's Jared?" I asked abruptly, totally stopping K-babble's giggles.
"Okay, I guess," she said without meeting my eyes.
"You guess?"
She moved her shoulders and I saw that under her very cute leather jacket she was wearing the tiny little cream lace cami we used to call the Boob Shirt, because not only did it show a lot of cleavage, but it was the color of skin, so it looked like it was showing even more than it actually was.
"I dunno. We haven't really talked much the past couple days or so."
She still wouldn't look at me, but she did glance at Heath, who looked cluelessbut that was really his only look. So my best friend was going after my boyfriend. Now that pissed me off, and for a second I wished it wasn't such a nice warm night. I wished it was cold and Kayla would freeze her over-developed boobies right off.
From the north the wind whipped around us suddenly, viciously, bringing an almost frightening chill.
Trying not to look obvious, Kayla pulled her jacket closed and giggled again, this time nervously instead of flirtatiously, and I got another big whiff of beer, and something else. Something that had been so recently imprinted into my senses that I was surprised I hadn't smelled it right away.
"Kayla you've been drinking and smoking?"
She shivered and blinked at me like a very slow rabbit. "Just a couple. Beers, I mean. And, well, um, Heath had one little bitty joint and I was really, really scared to come here, so I just had a couple tiny hits off it."
"She needed some fortification," Heath said, but he's never been good with words over two syllables, so it sounded like fort-fi-ka-shun.
"Since when have you started smoking pot?" I asked Heath.
He grinned. "It's no big deal, Zo. I just have a joint once in a while. They're safer than cigarettes."
I really hated it when he called me Zo.
"Heath," I tried to sound patient. "They are not safer than cigarettes, and even if they are that's not saying much. Cigarettes are disgusting and they kill you. And, seriously, the biggest losers at school smoke pot. Besides the fact that you really can not afford to kill any more brain cells." I almost added "or sperms," but I didn't want to go there. Heath would definitely get the wrong idea if I made a reference to his man parts.
"Nu uh," Kayla said.
"What Kayla?"
She was still clutching her jacket against the chill. Her eyes had changed from pitiful rabbit to sly, tail-twitchy cat. I recognized the change. She did it constantly with people she didn't consider part of her girlfriend group. It used to drive me crazy and I would yell at her and tell her she shouldn't be so mean. Now she was turning that crap on me?
"I said nu uh because not just losers smokeat least not just once in a while. You know those two really hot running backs who play for Union, Chris Ford and Brad Higeons? I saw them at Katie's party the other night. They smoke."
"Hey, they're not that hot," Heath said.
Kayla ignored him and kept talking. "And Morgan smokes sometimes."
"Morgan, as in Morgie who's a Tigette?" Yes, I was pissed at K, but good gossip is good gossip.
"Yeah. She also just got her tongue and her"K broke off and mouthed the word "clit""pierced. Can you imagine how much that must have hurt?"
"What? What did she get pierced?" Heath said.
"Nothing," K and I said together, for a moment sounding eerily like the best friends we used to be.
"Kayla, you're not staying on subject. Again. The Union football players have always been drug-happy. Hello! Please recall their steroid use, which is why it took sixteen years for us to beat them."
"Go, Tigers! Yeah, we kicked Union's ass!" Heath said. I rolled my eyes at him.
"And Morgan has clearly begun losing her mind, which is why she's piercing her" I glanced at Heath and reconsidered. "Her body and smoking. Tell me someone normal who's smoking." K thought for a second. "Me!"
I sighed. "Look, I just don't think it's smart."
"Well, you don't always know everything." The hateful glint was back in her eyes.
I looked from her to Heath, and then back to her again. "Clearly, you're right. I don't know everything."
Her mean look turned startled and then flattened out to mean again, and I suddenly couldn't help comparing her to Stevie Rae, who, even though I'd only known for a couple days, I was absolutely, totally sure would not ever go after my boyfriend, whether he was an almostex or not. I also didn't think she would run away from me and treat me like I was a monster when I needed her the most.
"I think you should leave," I said to Kayla.
"Fine," she said.
"It's probably not a good idea for you to come back again, either."
She shrugged one shoulder so that her jacket fell open and I could see the thin strap of the cami slip down her shoulder, making it clear she wasn't wearing a bra.
"Whatever," she said.
"Help her get down, Heath."
Heath was generally pretty good at following simple directions, so he hoisted Kayla down. She grabbed the flashlight and looked back up at us.
"Hurry up, Heath. I'm getting really cold." Then she spun around and started marching off toward the road.
"Well," Heath said a little awkwardly. "It did get cold all of a sudden."
"Yeah, it can quit now," I said absently, and didn't pay much attention when the wind suddenly stopped.
"Hey, uh, Zo. I really did come to bust you out."
"No."
"Huh?" Heath said.
"Heath, look at my forehead."
"Yeah, you have that half moon thing. And it's colored in, which is weird because it wasn't colored in before."
"Well, it is now. Okay, Heath, focus. I've been Marked. That means that my body is going through the Change to become a vampyre."
Heath's eyes went from my Mark and traveled down my body. I saw them hesitate at my boobs and then my legs, which made me realize that they were showing all naked almost up to my crotch because my skirt had hiked up when I climbed on top of the wall.
"Zo, whatever's happening to your body is cool with me. You look seriously hot. You've always been beautiful, but now you look like a real goddess." He smiled at me and touched my cheek gently, reminding me why I've liked him so much for such a long time. Despite his faults, Heath could be really sweet, and he always made me feel completely beautiful.
"Heath," I said softly. "I'm sorry, but things have changed."
"Not with me they haven't." Taking me completely by surprise he leaned forward, slid a hand up over my knee and kissed me.
I jerked back and grabbed his wrist. "Stop it Heath! I'm trying to talk to you."
"How about you talk, and I kiss?" he whispered.
I started to tell him no again.
Then I felt it.
His pulse under my fingers.
It was beating hard and fast. I swear I could hear it, too. And as he leaned into me to kiss me again I could see the vein that ran along his neck. It moved, beating strong as the blood pumped through his body. BloodHis lips touched mine and I remembered the taste of the blood in the goblet. That blood had been cold and mixed with wine, and from a weak, loser kid who was a nothing. Heath's blood would be hot and richsweetsweeter than Elliott the Refrigerator.
"Ow! Damn, Zoey. You scratched me!" He jerked his wrist from my hand. "Shit, Zo, you made me bleed. If you didn't want me to kiss you, all you had to do was say so."
He lifted his bleeding wrist to his mouth and sucked at the drop of blood that was glistening there. Then he raised his eyes to meet mine, and he froze. He had blood on his lips. I could smell itit was like the wine, only better, worlds better. The scent of it wrapped around me and made the hair on my arms rise.
I wanted to taste it. I wanted to taste it more than anything I'd ever wanted in my life.
"I want" I heard myself whisper in a voice I didn't know. "Yes," Heath answered like he was in a trance. "Yes whatever you want. I'll do whatever you want."
This time I leaned into him and touched my tongue to his lip, taking the drop of blood into my mouth where it explodedheat, sensation, and a rush of pleasure I'd never known.
"More," I rasped.
Like he'd lost the ability to speak and could only nod, Heath lifted his wrist to me. It was barely bleeding, and when I licked the tiny scarlet line Heath moaned. The touch of my tongue seemed to do something to the scratch, because instantly it started dripping blood, fasterfasterMy hands were shaking as I raised his wrist to my mouth and pressed my lips against his warm skin. I shivered and moaned in pleasure and
"Oh my God! What are you doing to him!" Kayla's voice was a scream that pierced through the scarlet fog in my brain. I dropped Heath's wrist as though it had burned me.
"Get away from him!" Kayla was shrieking. "Leave him alone!" Heath didn't move.
"Go," I told him. "Go and don't ever come back."
"No," he said, looking and sounding oddly sober.
"Yes. Get out of here."
"Let him go!" Kayla yelled.
"Kayla, if you don't shut up I'll fly down there and suck every last bit of blood from your stupid cheating cow body!" I spit the words at her.
She squealed and took off. I turned back to Heath, who was still staring at me.
"Now you need to go, too."
"I'm not scared of you, Zo."
"Heath, I'm scared of me enough for both of us."
"But I don't mind what you did. I love you, Zoey. More now than I ever have."
"Stop it!" I didn't mean to yell, but I caused him to flinch at the power that had filled my words. I swallowed hard and calmed my voice. "Just go. Please." Then, searching for some way to make him leave I added, "Kayla's probably going to get the cops right now. Neither of us needs that."
"Okay, I'll go. But I won't stay away." He kissed me hard and quick. I felt a white-hot stab of pleasure when I tasted the blood that was still on our lips. Then he slid down the wall and disappeared into the darkness until all I could see of him was the little dot of light from his flashlight, and then, finally, not even that.
I wouldn't let myself think. Not yet. Moving methodically, like a robot, I used the branch to steady myself as I climbed down. My knees were shaking so badly that I was able to walk only the couple of feet to the tree where I sank down on the ground, pressing my back against the security of its ancient bark. Nala materialized, hopping into my lap as if she'd been my cat for years instead of minutes, and as my sobs started she crawled from my lap to my chest to press her warm face against my wet cheek.
After what seemed like a long time my sobs turned to hiccups and I wished I hadn't run out of the rec hall without my purse. I could really use a Kleenex.
"Here. You look like you need this."
Nala complained as I jumped in surprise at the voice, and blinked up through my tears to see someone handing me a tissue. "Ththanks," I said, taking it and wiping my nose.
"No problem," Erik Night said.
CHAPTER 18
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Totally. Fine." I lied.
"You don't look fine," Erik said. "Mind if I sit down?"
"No, go ahead," I said listlessly. I knew my nose was bright red. I'd definitely been snotting on myself when he walked up, and I had the sneaking suspicion he'd witnessed at least part of the nightmare between Heath and me. The night was just getting worse and worse. I glanced at him and decided, What the hell, I might as well continue the trend. "In case you didn't realize it, it was me who saw that little scene between you and Aphrodite in the hall yesterday."
He didn't even hesitate. "I know, and I wish you hadn't. I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me."
"And what idea would that be?"
"That there's more going on between Aphrodite and me than there really is."
"Not my business," I said.
He shrugged. "I just want you to know that she and I are not going out anymore."
I almost said that it sure looked like Aphrodite wasn't aware of that, but then I thought about what had just happened between Heath and me, and with a sense of surprise I realized that maybe I shouldn't judge Erik too harshly.
"Okay. You guys aren't going out," I said.
He sat quietly beside me for a little while, and when he spoke again I thought he sounded almost angry. "Aphrodite didn't tell you about the blood in the wine."
He hadn't said it like a question, but I answered anyway. "Nope."
He shook his head and I saw his jaw tighten. "She told me she was going to. She said she'd let you know while you were changing your clothes so that if you weren't okay with it you could skip drinking from the goblet."
"She lied."
"Not a big surprise," he said.
"Ya think?" I could feel my own anger building inside me. "This whole thing has just been wrong. I get pressured into going to the Dark Daughters' ritual where I'm tricked into drinking blood. Then I meet up with my almost-ex-boyfriend who just happens to be one hundred percent human, and no-damn-body bothered to explain to me that the tiniest speck of his blood would turn me intointoa monster." I bit my lip and held on to my anger so I wouldn't start crying again. I also decided I wouldn't say anything about thinking I saw Elizabeth's ghostthat was too much weird to admit for one night.
"No one explained it to you because it's something that shouldn't have started to effect you until you were a sixth former," he said quietly.
"Huh?" I was back to being dazzlingly articulate.
"Bloodlust doesn't usually begin until you're a sixth former and you're almost completely Changed. Once in a while you'll hear about a fifth former who has to deal with it early, but that doesn't happen very often."
"Waitwhat are you saying?" My mind felt like bees were buzzing around in it.
"You start having classes about bloodlust and other things mature vamps have to deal with during your fifth form, and then, in your final year, that's mostly what school focuses onthat and whatever you've decided to major in."
"But I'm a third formerbarely I mean, I've only been Marked a few days."
"Your Mark is different; you're different," he said.
"I don't want to be different!" I realized I was shouting and got my voice under control. "I just want to figure out how to get through this like everybody else."
"Too late, Z," he said.
"So what now?"
"I think you'd better talk to your mentor. It's Neferet, isn't it?"
"Yeah," I said miserably.
"Hey, cheer up. Neferet's great. She hardly ever takes on fledglings to mentor anymore, so she must really believe in you."
"I know, I know. It's just that this makes me feel" How did I feel about talking to Neferet about what had happened tonight? Embarrassed. Like I was twelve years old again and I had to tell our male gym teacher that I'd started my period and had to go to the locker room to change my shorts. I peeked sideways at Erik. There he sat, gorgeous and attentive and perfect. Hell. I couldn't tell him that. So instead I blurted, "Stupid. It makes me feel stupid." Which wasn't actually a lie, but mostly what it made me feel, besides embarrassed and stupid, was scared. I didn't want this thing that made it impossible for me to fit in.
"Don't feel stupid. You're actually way ahead of the rest of us."
"So," I hesitated, then took a deep breath and barreled on, "did you like the way the blood in the goblet tasted tonight?"
"Well, here's the deal with that: My first Full Moon Ritual with the Dark Daughters was at the end of my third former year. Except for the 'refrigerator' that night, I was the only third former therejust like you tonight." He gave a small, humorless laugh. "They only invited me because I'd finaled in the Shakespeare soliloquy contest and was being flown to London for the competition the next day." He glanced at me and looked a little embarrassed. "No one from this House of Night had ever made it to London. It was a big deal." He shook his head self-mockingly. "Actually, I thought I was a big deal. So the Dark Daughters invited me to join them, and I did. I knew about the blood. I was given the opportunity to turn it down. I didn't."
"But did you like it?"
This time his laugh was real. "I gagged and puked my guts up. It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever tasted."
I groaned. My head dropped forward and I put my face in my hands. "You're not helping me."
"Because you thought it was good?"
"Better than good," I said, my face still in my hands. "You say it was the most disgusting thing you'd ever tasted? I thought it was the most delicious. Well, the most delicious until I" I stopped, realizing what I had been about to say.
"Until you tasted fresh blood?" he asked gently.
I nodded my head, afraid to speak.
He tugged at my hands, making me unbury my face. Then he put his finger under my chin and forced me to look straight at him. "Don't be embarrassed or ashamed. It's normal."
"Loving the taste of blood is not normal. Not for me."
"Yes, it is. All vampyres have to deal with their lust for blood," he said.
"I am not a vampyre!"
"Maybe you're notyet. But you're also definitely not the average fledgling, and there's nothing wrong with that. You're special, Zoey, and special can be amazing."
Slowly, he took his finger from my chin and, as he had earlier that night, he traced the shape of a pentagram softly over my darkened Mark. I liked the way his finger felt against my skin-warm and a little rough. I also liked that being near him didn't set off all the weird reactions I'd had to being close to Heath. I mean, I couldn't hear Erik's blood beating or see the pulse in his neck jumping. Not that I'd mind if he kissed me.
Hell! Was I becoming a vampyre slut? What was next? Would no male of any species (which might even include Damien) be safe around me? Maybe I should avoid all guys until I figured out what was going on with me and knew I could control myself.
Then I remembered that I had been trying to avoid everyone, which is why I was out here in the first place.
"What are you doing out here, Erik?"
"I followed you," he said simply.
Why? "
"I figured I knew what Aphrodite had pulled in there and I thought you might need a friend. You're rooming with Stevie Rae, right?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, I thought about finding her and sending her out here to you, but I didn't know if you'd want her to know about" He paused and made a vague gesture back in the direction of the rec hall.
"No! II don't want her to know." I stumbled over the words, I said them so fast.
"That's what I thought. So, that's why you're stuck with me." He smiled and then looked kinda uncomfortable. "I really didn't mean to listen in between you and Heath. Sorry about that."
I focused on petting Nala. So, he'd watched Heath kiss me, and then saw the whole blood thing. God, how embarrassingThen a thought struck me and I glanced up at him, smiling ironically. "I guess that makes us even. I didn't mean to listen in between you and Aphrodite, either."
He smiled back at me. "We're even. I like that."
His smile made my stomach do funny things. "I wouldn't really have flown down and sucked Kayla's blood," I managed to say.
He laughed. (He had a really nice laugh.) "I know that. Vampyres can't fly."
"It freaked her out, though," I said.
"From what I saw, she deserved it." He waited a beat and then said, "Can I ask you something? It's kinda personal."
"Hey, you've seen me drink blood from a cup and like it, puke, kiss a guy, lick his blood like I'm a puppy, and then bawl my eyes out. And I've seen you turn down a blow job. I think I can manage to answer a kinda personal question."
"Was he really in a trance? He looked like it and he sounded like it."
I squirmed uncomfortably and Nala complained at me till I petted her quiet.
"It seemed like he was," I finally managed to say. "I don't know if it was a trance or notand I totally didn't mean to put him under my power or anything freaky like thatbut he did change. I dunno. He'd been smoking and drinking. He might have just been high." I heard Heath's voice again, rising from my memory like a cloying mist: Yeswhatever you wantI'll do whatever you want. And I saw that intense look he'd given me. Hell, I hadn't even known Heath the Jock was capable of that kind of intensity (at least off the football field). I knew for sure he couldn't spell the word (intensity, not football).
"Had he been like that the whole time, or just after youumstarted to"
"Not the whole time. Why?"
"Well, that rules out two things that could have been making him act weird. Oneif he was just high then he would have been like that the whole time. Twohe might have been acting like that because you're really pretty, and that alone could make a guy feel like he's in a trance around you."
His words made something flutter low in my stomach againsomething that no guy had made me feel before. Not Heath the Jock, or Jordon the Sloth, or Jonathan the Stupid Band Kid (my dating history isn't long, but it's colorful).
"Really?" I said like a moron.
"Really." He smiled very unmoronically.
How could this guy like me? I'm a blood-drinking dork.
"But that wasn't it either, because he should have noticed how hot you look even before you kissed him, and what you're saying is that he didn't seem entranced until after blood came into the picture."
(Entrancedhee heehe actually said entranced.) I was too busy grinning stupidly at his use of complex vocab to think before I answered him. "Actually, it happened when I started to hear his blood."
"Say again?"
Ah, crap. I hadn't meant to say that. I cleared my throat. "Heath started to change when I heard the blood pounding through his veins."
"Only adult vamps can hear that." He paused and then, with a quick smile added, "And Heath sounds like the name of a gay soap opera star."
"Close. He's BA's star quarterback."
Erik nodded and looked amused.
"Uh, by the way, I like what you changed your name to. Night is a cool last name," I said, trying to hold up my end of the conversation and say something even slightly insightful.
His smile widened. "I didn't change it. Erik Night is the name I was born with."
"Oh, well. I like it." Why didn't someone just shoot me?
"Thanks."
He glanced at his watch and I could see that it was almost six thirtyin the A.M., which still seemed freaky.
"It'll be getting light soon," he said.
Guessing that this was our cue for us to go our separate ways, I started to gather my feet under me and get a better hold on Nala so I could stand up, and I felt Erik's hand under my elbow, steadying me. He helped me up and then just stood there, so close that Nala's tail was brushing against his black sweater.
"I'd ask if you wanted to get something to eat, but the only place serving food right now is the rec hall, and I don't think you want to go back there."
"No, definitely not. But I'm not hungry anyway." Which, I realized as soon as I said it, was a big lie. At the mention of food I was suddenly starving.