"Here ya go! Just throw these on over your jeans and we'll be ready."
The flickering light from the cowboy-boot lamp caught on a streak of silver embroidery that was on the breast of the sweater she was holding out. I got up and took the two shirts, holding the sweater up so I could see the front of it better. The silver embroidery was in the shape of a spiral that glittered around and around in a delicate circle that would rest over my heart.
"It's our sign," Stevie Rae said.
"Our sign?"
"Yeah, each classhere they call them third formers, fourth formers, fifth formers, and sixth formershas their own sign. We're third formers, so our sign is the silver labyrinth of the Goddess Nyx."
"What does it mean?" I asked, more to myself than to her as I traced my finger around the sliver circles.
"It stands for our new beginning as we start walking the Path of Night and learn the ways of the Goddess and the possibilities of our new life."
I looked up at her, surprised that she suddenly sounded so serious. She grinned a little shyly at me and shrugged her shoulders. "It one of the first things you learn in Vampyre Sociology 101. That's the class Neferet teaches, and it sure beats the heck outta the boring classes I was taking at Henrietta High, home of the fighting hens. Ugh. Fighting hens! What kind of a mascot is that?" She shook her head and rolled her eyes while I laughed. "Anyway, I heard Neferet is your mentor, which is really lucky. She hardly takes on any new kids, and besides being High Priestess, she's way the coolest teacher here."
What she didn't say was that I'm not just lucky, I'm "special" with my weird colored-in Mark. Which reminded me
"Stevie Rae, why haven't you asked me about my Mark? I mean, I appreciate you not bombarding me with a hundred questions, but all the way up here everyone who saw me stared at my Mark. Aphrodite mentioned it almost the second we were alone. You haven't even really looked at it. Why?"
Then she did finally look at my forehead before she shrugged and met my eyes again. "You're my roommate. I figured you'd tell me what was up with it when you were ready. One thing growing up in a small town like Henrietta taught me is that it's best to mind your own business if you want someone to stay your friend. Well, we're gonna be rooming together for four years." She paused and in the gap between words sat the big, ugly unsaid truth that we'd be roommates for four years only if both of us survived the Change. Stevie Rae swallowed hard and finished in a rush, "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want us to be friends."
I smiled at her. She looked so young and hopefulso nice and normal and not at all what I imagined a vampyre kid would be. I felt a little stirring of hope. Maybe I could find a way to fit in here. "I want to be friends, too."
"Yea for that!" I swear she looked like a wriggly puppy again. "But come on! Hurrywe don't want to be late."
She gave me a shove toward a door that sat between the two closets before she hurried over to a makeup mirror on her computer desk and started brushing at her short hair. I ducked inside to find a tiny bathroom, and quickly pulled off my BA Tigers T-shirt and put on the cotton blouse and over it the silk knit sweater that was a deep, pretty shade of purple with little black plaid lines going through it. I was just getting ready to go back into the room to grab my backpack so I could try to fix my face and hair with the makeup and stuff I'd brought, when I glanced in the mirror over the sink. My face was still white, but it had lost the scary, unhealthy paleness it had earlier. My hair looked insane, all wild and uncombed, and I could faintly see the slim line of dark stitches just above my left temple. But it was the sapphire-colored Mark that caught my eyes. While I stared at it, entranced by its exotic beauty, the bathroom light caught the silver labyrinth embroidered over my heart. I decided that the two symbols somehow matched, even though they were different shapesdifferent colors
But did I match them? And did I match this strange new world?
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and hoped desperately that whatever we were eating for dinner (oh, please let there not be any blood-drinking involved) wouldn't disagree with my already screwed-up, nervous stomach.
"Oh, no" I whispered to myself, "it would be just my luck to get a raging case of diarrhea."
CHAPTER 9
Okay, the cafeteria was cooloops, I mean "dining hall," as the silver plaque outside the entrance proclaimed. It was nothing at all like SIHS's freezing cold monstrous cafeteria where the acoustics were so bad that even though I sat right next to Kayla I couldn't hear what she was babbling at me half the time. This room was warm and friendly. The walls were made of the same weird mixture of jutting bricks and black rock as the exterior of the building and the room was filled with heavy wooden picnic tables that had matching benches with padded seats and backs. Each table sat about six kids and radiated out from a large, unoccupied table situated at the center of the room that was practically overflowing with fruit and cheese and meat, and a crystal goblet that was filled with something that looked suspiciously like red wine. (Huh? Wine at school? What?) The ceiling was low and the rear wall was made up of windows with a glass door in the center. Heavy burgundy velvet drapes were pulled open so that I could see outside to a beautiful little courtyard with stone benches, winding paths, and ornamental bushes and flowers. In the middle of the courtyard was a marble fountain with water spouting from the top of something that looked an awful lot like a pineapple. It was very pretty, especially lit up by the moonlight and the occasional antique gaslight.
Most of the tables were already filled with eating, talking kids who glanced up with obvious curiosity when Stevie Rae and I entered the room. I took a deep breath and held my head high. Might as well give them a clear view of the Mark they all seemed so obsessed with. Stevie Rae led me to the side of the room that had the typical cafeteria servers handing out food from behind buffet-style glass thingies.
"What's the table in the middle of the room for?" I asked as we walked.
"It's the symbolic offering to the Goddess Nyx. There's always a place set at that table for her. It seems kinda weird at first, but pretty soon it won't seem so weird and it'll feel right to you."
Actually, it didn't seem that weird to me. In a way, it made sense. The Goddess was so alive here. Her Mark was everywhere. Her statue stood proudly in front of her Temple. I was also starting to notice all over the school little pictures and figurines that represented her. Her High Priestess was my mentor and, I had to admit to myself, I already felt connected to Nyx. With an effort, I stopped myself from touching the Mark on my forehead. Instead I grabbed a tray and moved behind Stevie Rae in line.
"Don't worry," she whispered to me. "The food's real good. They don't make you drink blood or eat raw meat or anything like that."
Relieved, I unclenched my jaws. Most of the kids were already eating, so the line was short, and as Stevie Rae and I got up to the food I felt my mouth start to water. Spaghetti! I sniffed deeply: with garlic!
"That whole vampyres can't stand garlic thing is total bullshitpardon my French," Stevie Rae was saying under her breath to me as we loaded up our plates.
"Okay, what about that whole vampyres have to drink blood thing?" I whispered back.
"Not," she said softly.
"Not?"
"Not bullshit."
Great. Wonderful. Fantastic. Just exactly what I wanted to hearnot.
Trying not to think about blood and whatnot I got a glass of tea with Stevie Rae, and then followed her to a table where two other kids were already talking animatedly while they ate. Of course the conversation totally stopped when I joined them, which didn't seem to faze Stevie Rae at all. As I slid into the booth opposite her she made introductions in her Okie twang.
"Hey, y'all. Meet my new roommate, Zoey Redbird. Zoey, this is Erin Bates," she pointed to the ridiculously pretty blonde sitting on my side of the table. (Well, hellhow many pretty blondes could one school have? Isn't there some kind of limit?) Still in her matter-of-fact Okie voice, she went on, making little air quotes for emphasis. "Erin is 'the pretty one.' She's also funny and smart and has more shoes than anyone I've ever known."
Erin pulled her blue eyes away from staring at my Mark long enough to say a quick "Hi."
"And this is the token guy in our group, Damien Maslin. But he's gay, so I don't really think he counts as a guy."
Instead of getting pissed at Stevie Rae, Damien looked serene and unruffled. "Actually, since I'm gay I think I should count for two guys instead of just one. I mean, in me you get the male point of view and you don't have to worry about me wanting to touch your boobies."
He had a smooth face that was totally zit free, and dark brown hair and eyes that reminded me of a baby deer. Actually, he was cute. Not in the overly girly way so many teenage guys are when they decide to come out and tell everyone what everyone already knew (well, everyone except their typically clueless and/or in-denial parents). Damien wasn't a swishy girly-guy; he was just a cute kid with a likable smile. He was also noticeably trying not to stare at my Mark, which I appreciated.
"Well, maybe you're right. I hadn't really thought about it like that," Stevie Rae said through a big bite of garlic bread.
"Just ignore her, Zoey. The rest of us are almost normal," Damien said. "And we're desperately glad you finally got here. Stevie Ray's been driving everyone crazy wondering what you'd be like, when you'd get here"
"If you'd be one of those freaky kids who smell bad and think being a vampyre means seeing who can be the biggest loser," Erin interrupted.
"Or wondering if you'd be one of them," Damien said, cutting his eyes at a table to our left.
I followed his gaze and felt a zap of nerves when I recognized who he was talking about. "You mean Aphrodite?"
"Yeah," Damien said. "And her stuck-up flock of sycophants." Huh? I blinked at him.
Stevie Rae sighed. "You'll get used to Damien's vocabulary obsession. Thankfully, this isn't a new word so some of us actually know what he's talking about without having to beg him for a translation. Again. Sycophanta servile flatterer," she twanged proudly like she was giving an answer in English class.
"Whatever. They make me want to retch," Erin said without looking up from her spaghetti.
"They?" I asked.
"The Dark Daughters," Stevie Rae said, and I noticed she automatically lowered her voice.
"Think of them like a sorority," Damien said.
"Of hags from hell," Erin said.
"Hey, y'all, I don't think we should prejudice Zoey against them. She might get along okay with them."
"Fuck that. They're hags from hell," Erin said.
"Watch that mouth, Er Bear. You have to eat out of it," Damien said a little primly.
Incredibly relieved that none of them liked Aphrodite, I was just getting ready to ask for more of an explanation when a girl rushed up and, with a big huff, slid herself and her tray into the booth beside Stevie Rae. She was the color of cappuccino (the kind you get from real coffee shops and not the nasty, too-sweet stuff you get from Quick Trip) and all curvy with pouty lips and high cheekbones that made her look like an African princess. She also had some seriously good hair. It was thick and fell in dark, glossy waves around her shoulders. Her eyes were so black they looked like they didn't have any pupils.
"Okay, please! Just please. Did nobody," she stared pointedly at Erin, "think to bother to wake me the hell up and tell me that we were going to dinner?"
"I do believe I'm your roommate, not your mamma," Erin said lazily.
"Do not make me cut that Jessica Simpson look-alike blond hair of yours off in the middle of the night," the African princess said.
"Actually, the consuetudinary way to phrase that would be 'Do not make me cut that Jessica Simpson look-alike blond hair of yours off in the middle of the day.' Technically day is night for us and so night would be day. Time is reversed here."
The black girl narrowed her eyes at him. "Damien, you are getting on my damn last nerve what that vocab shit."
"Shaunee," Stevie Rae broke in hastily. "My roommate finally got here. This is Zoey Redbird. Zoey, this is Erin's roommate, Shaunee Cole."
"Hi," I said through a mouthful of spaghetti when Shaunee turned from glaring at Erin to me.
"So, Zoey, what's up with your Mark being colored in? You're still a fledgling, aren't you?" Everyone at the table was shocked silent by Shaunee's question. She looked around. "What? Do not pretend that every last one of you isn't wondering the same thing."
"We might be, but we also might be polite enough not to ask," Stevie Rae said firmly.
"Oh, please. Whatever." She shrugged off Stevie Rae's protest. "This is too important for that. Everyone wants to know about her Mark. There's no time to play games when good gossip is involved." Shaunee turned back to me. "So, what's up with the weird Mark?"
Might as well face this now. I took a quick drink of tea to clear my throat. All four of them were staring at me, waiting impatiently for my answer.
"Well, I'm still a fledgling. I don't think I'm any different than the rest of you." Then I blurted something that I'd been considering while everyone else had been talking. I mean, I knew that I was going to have to answer this question eventually. I'm not stupidconfused, maybe, but not stupidand my gut told me I needed to say something besides the real story about my out-of-body experience with Nyx. "I don't actually know for sure why my Mark is filled in. It wasn't that way when the Tracker first Marked me. But later that day I had an accident. I fell and hit my head. When I woke up the Mark was like it is now. I've been thinking about it, and all I can come up with is that it must have happened as some kind of reaction to my accident. I was unconscious and I lost a lot of blood. Maybe that did something to speed up the darkening-in process. That's my guess, anyway."
"Huh," Shaunee huffed. "I was hoping it'd be somethin' more interesting. Something good and gossipy."
"Sorry," I muttered.
"Careful, Twin," Erin said to Shaunee, jerking her head at the Dark Daughters. "You're starting to sound like you should sit over at that table."
Shaunee's face twisted. "I wouldn't be caught undead with those bitches."
"You're confusing the crap outta Zoey," Stevie Rae said.
Damien gave a long-suffering sigh. "I'll explain, proving once again how valuable I am to this group, penis or no penis."
"I really wish you wouldn't use the P-word," Stevie Rae said. "Especially when I'm trying to eat."
"I like it," Erin chimed in. "If everyone called things what they are we'd all be a lot less confused. For instance, you know when I have to go to the bathroom I state the obviousI have urine that needs to come out of my urethra. Simple. Easy. Clear."
"Disgusting. Gross. Crude," Stevie Rae said.
"I'm with you, Twin," Shaunee said. "I mean, if we talked plainly about things like urination and menstruation and such, life would be much simpler."
"Okay. Enough with the menstruation talk while we're eating spaghetti." Damien held up a hand like he could physically stop the conversation. "I may be gay, but there's only so much even I can handle." He leaned toward me and launched into his explanation. "First, Shaunee and Erin call each other Twin because even though they are clearly not relatedErin being an extremely white girl from Tulsa, and Shaunee being of Jamaican descent and a lovely mocha color from Connecticut"
"Thank you for appreciating my blackness," Shaunee said.
"Don't mention it," Damien said, and then continued smoothly with his explanation. "Even though they aren't related by blood they are freakishly alike."
"It's like they were separated at birth or something," Stevie Rae said.
At the same moment Erin and Shaunee grinned at each other and shrugged. It was then that I noticed they were wearing the same outfitdark jeans jackets with beautiful golden wings embroidered on the breast pockets, black T-shirts, and low-riding black slacks. They even had on the same earringshuge gold hoops.
"We have the same shoe size," Erin said, sticking out her foot so we could see that she was wearing pointy-toed black leather stiletto boots.
"And what's a little melanin difference when a truly soul-deep love of shoes is involved?" Lifting up her foot Shaunee showed off another great pair of bootsonly these were smooth black leather with sharp silver buckles across the ankles.
"Next!" Damien cut in, rolling his eyes. "The Dark Daughters. The short version is that they're a group made up of mostly upperclassmen who say that they are in charge of school spirit and such."
"No, the short version is that they're hags from hell," Shaunee said.
"That's exactly what I said, Twin," Erin laughed.
"You two aren't helping," Damien told them. "Now, where was I?"
"School spirit and such," I prompted.
"That's right. Yeah, they're supposed to be this great, pro-school, pro-vamp organization. Also, it is assumed that their leader is being groomed to be a High Priestess, so she's supposed to be the heart, mind, and spirit of the schoolas well as a future leader in vamp society, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah. Think National Merit Scholar in charge of the Honor Society mixed with cheerleaders and band fags."
"Hey, isn't it disrespectful to your gayness to call them band fags?" Stevie Rae asked.
"I'm using the word as a term of endearment," Damien said. "And football playersdon't forget there are Dark Sons, too," Erin said.
"Uh-huh, Twin. It is truly a crime and a shame that such seriously hot young lads get sucked in"
"And she does mean that literally," said Erin with a naughty grin.
"By hags from hell," concluded Shaunee.
"Hello! Like I would forget the boys? I just keep getting interrupted."
The three girls gave him apologetic smiles. Stevie Rae pantomimed zipping her lips shut and throwing away the key. Erin and Shaunee mouthed "dork" at her, but they stayed quiet so Damien could finish.
I noticed that they'd played with the word "sucked," making me think that the little scene I'd witnessed hadn't been too unusual.
"But what the Dark Daughters really are is a group of stuck-up bitches who get off on lording power over everyone else. They want everyone to follow them, to conform to their freaky ideas of what it means to become a vamp. Most of all, they hate humans, and if you don't feel the same they don't want shit to do with you."
"Except to give you a hard time," Stevie Rae added. I could tell from her expression that she must have firsthand knowledge about the "hard time" part, and I remembered how pale and scared she'd looked when Aphrodite had shown me to our room. I made a mental note to remember to ask her later about what had happened.
"Don't let them scare you, though," Damien said. "Just watch your back around them and"
"Hello, Zoey. Nice to see you again so soon."
I didn't have any trouble recognizing her voice this time. I decided it was like honey-slick and too darn sweet. Everyone at the table jumped, including me. She was wearing a sweater like mine, except that over her heart was embroidered the silver silhouette of three goddesslike women, one of them holding what looked like a pair of scissors. She had on a very short pleated black skirt, black tights that had silver sparkles in them, and knee-high black boots. Two girls were standing behind her, dressed in much the same way. One was black, with impossibly long hair (must be a really good weave), and the other was yet another blonde (who, on closer inspection of her brows, was probably, I decided, as much a natural blonde as I am).
"Hello, Aphrodite," I said when everyone else seemed too shocked to speak.
"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said insincerely. "You're not. We were just discussing the trash that needs to be taken out tonight," Erin said with a big, fake smile.
"Well, you would certainly know about that," she said with a sneer, and then purposefully turned her back on Erin, who was curling her fists and looking as if she might leap over the table at Aphrodite. "Zoey, I should have said something to you earlier, but I guess it just slipped my mind. I want to issue an invitation for you to join the Dark Daughters in our own private Full Moon Ritual tomorrow night. I know it's unusual for someone who hasn't been here long to take part in a ritual so soon, but your Mark has clearly shown that you're, well, different than the average fledgling." She looked down her perfect nose at Stevie Rae. "I've already mentioned it to Neferet, and she agrees that it would be good for you to join us. I'll give you the details later, when you're not so busy withuh trash." She gave the rest of the table her tight-lipped, sarcastic smile, flipped her long hair, and she and her entourage flitted off.
"Hag bitches from hell," Shaunee and Erin said together.
CHAPTER 10
"I keep thinking that hubris is eventually going to bring Aphrodite down," Damien said.
"Hubris," Stevie Rae explained, "having godlike arrogance."
"I actually know that one," I said, still staring after Aphrodite and her mob. "We just finished reading Medea in English class. It's what brought Jason down."
"I'd love to knock the hubris right out of her bobble head," Erin said.
"I'll hold her for you, Twin," Shaunee said.
"No! Y'all know we've talked about this before. The penalty for fighting is bad. Really bad. It's not worth it."
I watched Erin and Shaunee pale at the same time and wanted to ask what could be so bad, but Stevie Rae went on talking, this time to me.
"Just be careful, Zoey. The Dark Daughters, and especially Aphrodite, can seem almost okay at times, and that's when they're most dangerous."
I shook my head. "Oh, nu uh. I'm not going to their full moon thing."
"I think you have to," Damien said softly.
"Neferet okayed it." Stevie Rae said as Erin and Shaunee nodded in agreement. "That means she'll expect you to go. You can't tell your mentor no."
"Especially when your mentor is Neferet, High Priestess of Nyx," Damien said.
"Can't I just say that I'm not ready forforwhatever it is they want me to do, and ask Neferet if I can beI dunno, what would you call itexcused from their full moon thingy this time?"
"Well, you could, but then Neferet would tell the Dark Daughters and they'd think that you're scared of them."
I thought about the major crap that had already passed between Aphrodite and me in such a short time. "Uh, Stevie Rae, I might already be scared of them."
"Don't ever let them know." Stevie Rae looked down at her plate, trying to hide her embarrassment. "That's worse than standing up to them."
"Honey," Damien said, patting Stevie Rae's hand, "stop beating yourself up about that."
Stevie Rae gave Damien a sweet, thank-you smile. Then she said to me, "Just go. Be strong and go. They won't do anything too awful at the ritual. It's here on campus; they wouldn't dare."
"Yeah, they do all their bad bullshit away from here, where it's harder for the vamps to catch them," Shaunee said. "Around here they pretend to be all sickeningly sweet so no one knows what they're really like."
"No one except us," Erin said, sweeping out her hand so that she included not just our little group, but everyone else in the room, too.
"I don't know, y'all, maybe Zoey will actually get along with some of them okay," Stevie Rae said without any touch of sarcasm or jealousy.
I shook my head. "Nope. I won't get along with them. I don't like their kindthe kind of people who try to control others and make them look bad just to feel better about themselves. And I don't want to go to their Full Moon Ritual!" I said firmly, thinking about my stepfather and his buddies, and how ironic it was that they seemed to have so much in common with a group of teenagers who called themselves the daughters of a goddess.
"I'd go with you if I couldany of us wouldbut unless you're one of the Dark Daughters you can only get in if you're invited," Stevie Rae said sadly.
"That's okay. just deal with it." Suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore. I was just very, very tired, and I really wanted to change the subject. "So explain to me about the different symbols you wear here. You told me about oursNyx's spiral. Damien has a spiral, too, so that must mean he's aI paused to remember what Stevie Rae had called freshmen, "a third former. But Erin and Shaunee have wings, and Aphrodite had something else."
"You mean besides that cob stuck straight up her skinny anus?" Erin muttered.
"She means the three Fates," Damien interjected, beating Shaunee to whatever she was going to add. "The three Fates are children of Nyx. The sixth formers all wear the emblem of the Fates, with Atropos holding scissors to symbolize the end of school."
"And for some of us, the end of life," Erin added gloomily.
That shut everyone up. When I couldn't stand the uncomfortable silence anymore I cleared my throat and said, "So what about Erin and Shaunee's wings?"
"The wings of Eros, who is the child of Nyx's seed"
"The love god," Shaunee said, adding a seated gyration of her hips.
Damien frowned at her and kept talking. "The golden wings of Eros are the fourth formers' symbol."
"'Cause we're the love class," Erin sang, raising her arms over her head and shimmying her hips.
"Actually, it's because we're supposed to be reminded of Nyx's capacity to love, and the wings symbolize our continuous movement forward."
"What's the symbol for fifth formers?" I asked.
"Nyx's golden chariot pulling a trail of stars," Damien said.
"I think it's the prettiest of the four symbols," Stevie Rae said. "Those stars sparkle like crazy."
"The chariot shows that we continue on Nyx's journey. The stars represent the magic of the two years that have already passed."
"Damien, you are a good little student," Erin said.
"I told you we should have gotten him to help us study for the human mythology test," Shaunee said.
"I thought I told you we needed his help, and"
"Anyway," Damien shouted over their bickering, "that's about all there is to the four symbols of the classes. Easy-peasy, really," he looked pointedly at the now silent Twins. "That is, if you pay attention in class instead of writing notes and staring at guys you think are cute."
"You're really prudey, Damien," Shaunee said.
"Especially for a gay boy." Erin added.
"Erin, your hair's looking kinda frizzy today. Not to be mean or anything, but maybe you should think about switching products. You can't be too careful about those kinds of things. The next thing you know you'll be getting split ends."
Erin's blue eyes got huge and her hand went automatically to her hair.
"Oh, no no no. I do not believe you just said that, Damien. You know how crazy she is about her hair." Shaunee started to puff up like a mocha-colored blowfish.
Damien, meanwhile, just smiled and returned to his spaghettithe perfect picture of innocence.
"Uh, y'all," Stevie Rae said quickly, standing up and pulling me with her by the elbow. "Zoey looks beat. Y'all remember what it was like when you first got here. We're going to go back to our room. I have to study for that vamp sociology test, so I probably won't see you until tomorrow."
"Okay, see ya," Damien said. "Zoey, it was really nice to meet you."
"Yeah, welcome to Hell High." Erin and Shaunee said together before Stevie Rae pulled me out of the room.
"Thanks. I really am tired," I told Stevie Rae as we backtracked through a hall that I was happy to recognize as the one that would lead to the main entrance to the central school building. We paused while a sleek, silver-gray cat chased a smaller, harassed-looking tabby across the hall in front of us.
"Beelzebub! Leave Cammy alone! Damien is going to rip your fur out!"
Stevie Rae made a grab for the gray cat and missed, but he did stop chasing the tabby and instead streaked back down the hall the way we had just come. Stevie Rae was frowning after him.
"Shaunee and Erin need to teach that cat of theirs some manners; he's always up to something." She glanced at me as we left the building and walked out into the soft, pre-dawn darkness. "That cute little Cameron is Damien's cat. Beelzebub belongs to Erin and Shaunee; he chose both of themtogether. Yep. It's as strange as it sounds, but after a little while you'll be like the rest of us and start thinking that they must really be twins."