Untamed (19 page)

Stevie Rae gaped at me for a little while, looking seriously shocked. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded choked. “But they can’t know about me.”

“Why not?” I asked calmly.

“Because if they find out about me, they’ll find out about the others.”

“So?”

“That would be bad,” she said.

“Why?”

“Zoey. Like I said before, they’re not normal fledglings.”

“Stevie Rae, what difference does that make?”

She blinked at me. “You don’t understand. They’re not normal, and I’m not normal.”

I looked at her for a long time, considering what I knew—that Stevie Rae had been given back her humanity, and what I half suspected but didn’t want to admit—that even though she had her humanity back, she still had dark places within herself that I couldn’t understand.

I knew I had to make a decision. I either trusted her, or I didn’t. And when it came right down to it, that was really an easy decision to make.

“I know you’re not exactly like you used to be, but I trust you. I believe in your humanity, and I always will.”

Stevie Rae looked like she might cry. “Are you sure?”

“Totally.”

She drew a deep breath. “Okay, then what’s your plan?”

“Well, I haven’t really thought this through, but it seems to me that the vamps and fledglings should know about you and the rest of the others, especially now that another fledgling has died. We don’t know everything we wish we did about you, but we are pretty sure that Neferet somehow created you guys, or at least opened some kind of weird door so you could be created, right?”

“I think so. The truth is, I still worry that the fledglings might be able to be controlled, or at least influenced by her, even though they are different now and she’s been leaving us alone.”

“So doesn’t it make sense that it’s bad that Neferet is the only adult vamp who knows about you guys? Especially if she can still have some kind of control over you? Especially now that there might be a new red fledgling getting ready to wake up?” And then another thought hit me. “Stark had a special gift. He never missed what he aimed at with his bow and arrows. I mean never.”

“She would for sure want to use him,” Stevie Rae said. “Before my Change, she was for sure using the others, or at least trying to.” She shrugged apologetically. “I’m really sorry that I can’t really remember the stuff that happened before I Changed, and the rest of the kids say their memories aren’t so good around then, either. I can only guess at most of this stuff.”

“Well, from what little I saw, it was obvious Neferet was up to no good.”

“Not a big surprise, Z,” she said.

“I know. But that brings us back to other vamps knowing about you guys. If you’re out in the open, it stands to reason that Neferet would have a harder time using you for her own bizarre little take-over-the-world evil plot.”

“Does she have a plot like that?”

“I dunno. Sounds like something she’d have, though.”

“True,” Stevie Rae said.

“So? What do you think?”

She didn’t answer for a while, and I kept my mouth shut and let her think. This was a big deal. As far as either of us knew, Stevie Rae and the red fledglings were something that had never before existed. If Stark didn’t die, if he woke up as a red fledgling, Stevie Rae would be the first of a new kind of vampyre, and being the first of something was a serious responsibility. I definitely knew about that.

“I think you might be right,” she finally said in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper. “But I’m scared. What if the normal vamps think we’re freaks?”

“You’re
not
freaks,” I said with way more conviction than I actually felt. “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you or them.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. Plus, it’s perfect timing. Shekinah is more powerful than Neferet, and there’s a whole buttload of Sons of Erebus warriors around the school.”

“How does that help me?”

“If Neferet loses her mind, they can handle her.”

“Zoey, I don’t want you to use this as an excuse to openly take on Neferet,” Stevie Rae said, looking suddenly kinda pale.

Her words gave me a little jolt of shock. “I’m not!” I said much too loud, and then continued in a lowered voice. “I wouldn’t use you like that.”

“I don’t mean that you set this up on purpose to get at Neferet. I just mean that I don’t think it’s smart for you, or any of us, to come out against her so publicly, and I don’t think it matters all that much that the Sons of Erebus and Shekinah are here. There’s something more going on with Neferet than just her normal craziness. I know it deep inside me. I can’t remember what I know, but she’s dangerous. Really, really dangerous. Something basic has changed about her, and that change is not a good thing.”

“I wish you could remember what all happened to you.”

Stevie Rae grimaced. “I do, too, sometimes. And then sometimes I’m really,
really
glad I can’t. What happened to me wasn’t good, Zoey.”

“I know,” I said solemnly.

We counted cat toys silently for a while, both lost in thoughts of death and darkness. I couldn’t help thinking about how awful it had been when Stevie Rae had died in my arms—and then how nightmarish the aftermath of that had been when she was un-dead and struggling not to let her humanity slip completely away. I looked at her and saw she was chewing her lip nervously as she searched for more purple feathered toys in the box. She looked scared and young and, despite her new powers and responsibilities, way too vulnerable.

“Hey,” I said softly. “It’s gonna be okay. I promise. Nyx has to be all in the middle of this.”

“Which means the Goddess is on our side?”

“Exactly. So tomorrow at midnight we perform the cleansing ritual over by the east wall.” I didn’t need to add that it was a place of power as well as a place of death. “Think you can get on campus and hide nearby until I call earth to the circle?”

“Yeah,” she said reluctantly, clearly not one hundred percent in agreement with me yet. “So if I do come, do you think I should bring the other kids with me?”

“You decide about that. If you think bringing them is best, then I’m all for it.”

“I’ll have to think about it. I’ll have to talk to them.”

“Okay, no problem. I trust your judgment on whether you decide to come and if you decide to bring the fledglings.”

She grinned at me. “It’s really good to hear you say that, Z.”

“I mean it, too.” Then—because even though she’d grinned at me, she still looked so worried and undecided about what to do—I temporarily changed the subject while she thought about it. “Hey, want to know some more of my new-and-improved stress?”

“Definitely.”

“When we’re done here, I have to go back to class, and since my schedule is changed around this semester, I get still get to go to drama class today, which will be taught by the ever-popular, ever-hating-my-guts, newest professor at the House of Night: Erik Night.”

“Uh-oh,” Stevie Rae said.

“Yeah, I’m not exactly expecting an A.”

“There’s one way he might give you an A, though,” she said, grinning mischievously.

“Don’t even start. I’m done with sex. Finished. Through. I’ve totally learned my lesson. Plus, it’s really nasty of you to say I’d trade sex for an A.”

“No, Z. I wasn’t talkin’ ‘bout Erik givin’ you an A for sex. I was talkin’ ‘bout him givin’ you a big ol’ embroidered scarlet
A
for your shirt.”

“Huh?” I said, clueless as usual.

She sighed. “As in
The Scarlet Letter
. The heroine had to wear it on her shirt ‘cause she messed up and slept around. You really need to read more, Zoey.”

“Oh, yeah. And thanks for that lovely analogy. Makes me feel oh-so-better.”

“Don’t get mad.” She threw a feathery cat toy at me. “I was just kiddin’.”

I was still frowning at her when her cell phone rang. Stevie Rae looked at the number and sighed. She glanced quickly over at Sister Mary Angela, whose head was squarely in front of her computer, and then answered. “Hey there, Venus, what’s up?” She sounded purposefully perky. There was a pause while she listened, during which her perkiness faded. “No! I told you I’d be back soon and
then
we’d all get somethin’ to eat.” Another pause—more frowning—and she said, half turning away from me and lowering her voice, “No! I said we’d get some
thing
to eat and not some
one
to eat. Y’all just be good. I’m gonna head back in a little while. Bye-bye.”

Stevie Rae turned back to me with a fake smile plastered on her worried face. “So, what were we sayin’?”

“Stevie Rae, please tell me those kids are not eating people.”

“Of course they aren’t eatin’ people!” Stevie Rae put an appropriate amount of shock in her voice—so much so that we saw Sister Mary Angela’s wimple lift from the computer and she turned a frown in our direction.

We waved and smiled and held up cat toys. She gave us a long look, but pretty soon her face softened into her warm smile, and she turned her attention back to the computer screen.

“Stevie Rae, what is really going on with those kids?” I whispered as I zapped more purple-feathered monstrosities into the inventory.

She shrugged way too nonchalantly. “They’re just kinda hungry. That’s all. You know kids—they’re always hungry.”

“Which means they’re getting dinner from where?”

“Pizza delivery guys mostly,” she said.

“They’re eating pizza delivery guys?” I whispered frantically.

“No! We call on a cell and give the address of one of the downtown buildings close to the depot and the entrance to our tunnels. Mostly we say we’re workin’ overtime at the PAC or that we live in the Tribune Lofts, and then we wait for the pizza guy to deliver.” She hesitated.

“And?” I prompted impatiently.

“And then we meet the delivery guy on his way into the building and take the pizzas and I make him forget he saw us and then he goes on about his business and we eat the pizza not the guy,” she said all in one long rush.

“You’re stealing pizzas?”

“Well, yeah, but it’s better than eating the delivery guys, isn’t it?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes at her. “And you’re also stealing blood from the downtown blood bank?”

“Again, better than eating the delivery guys,” she said.

“See, these are just more reasons why we have to out you.”

“ ‘Cause we’re stealing pizzas and blood? Do we really have to tell the vamps? I mean, I think we’ll have enough issues to deal with without bringing up those little minor indiscretions.”

“No, not ‘cause you’re stealing, ‘cause you guys don’t have money or any way to
legally,
“ I said, giving her a hard look, “take care of yourselves.”

“Makes me wish Aphrodite would come back with me. She has major money and more than one gold card,” Stevie Rae muttered.

“Then you’d have to put up with her,” I said.

Stevie Rae frowned. “I really wish I could mess with the inside of her head like I do the pizza guys. I’d give her a big dose of ‘be nice,’ and we’d all live happily ever after.”

“Stevie Rae, you really can’t keep living in those tunnels.”

“I like the tunnels,” she said stubbornly.

“They’re nasty and damp and dirty,” I said.

“They’re better now than they were last time you saw them, and they’d be
lots
better if they were fixed up a little more.”

I stared at her.

“Okay, maybe more than a little.”

“Whatever. My point is, you need the money and the power and the protection of the school behind you.”

Stevie Rae met my eyes steadily, and all of a sudden she looked way older and more mature than I’d ever seen her look before. “The money and the power and the protection of the school didn’t help Professor Nolan or Loren Blake or even that Stark kid.”

I didn’t know what to say. She was right, but I still felt deep in my gut that people—specifically vampyre people—needed to know she and the red fledglings existed. I sighed. “Okay, I know it’s not a one hundred percent good plan, but I honestly believe everyone needs to know about you guys.”

“Honestly, as in Nyx is giving you one of those
you need to do it
feelings?”

“Yep,” I said.

Her sigh was much deeper and filled with more worry and stress than mine. (Jeesh, who knew
that
could happen?) “All right, then. I’ll be there tomorrow. I’m countin’ on you to make this all turn out okay, Zoey.”

“I will.” Silently I sent a short prayer up to Nyx:
I’m counting on you like she’s counting on me . . .

Stevie Rae and I had finished the seemingly unending cat-toy inventory about the time I glanced up at the clock and realized we were going to be late getting back to school if we didn’t hurry like crazy. And of course, Stevie Rae had to get back to her group of fledglings before they committed more than petty pizza theft. So we said a quick bye, and I repeated that I’d see her the next day for her outing. She looked a little pale, but gave me a hug and promised to be there. Then I stuck my head in Sister Mary Angela’s office.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” I wasn’t sure exactly what to call a nun when one was being ultra-respectful and needed to get her attention while she was definitely engrossed in what looked like instant messaging on her laptop.

The
ma’am
seemed to work just fine, because she looked up at me with her warm smile. “All done with the inventory, Zoey?”

“Yes, and we have to get back to school.”

Sister Mary Angela glanced up at the clock, and her eyes widened in surprise. “My goodness! I had no idea it was so late. And I forget that your days are rather upside down.”

I nodded. “It must seem like we keep weird hours to you.”

“I’ll just think of you as nocturnal—much like our lovely felines. You know they prefer the night, too. Which reminds me, how would you like it if we extend our hours on Saturday nights so that can be your volunteer day?”

“That sounds great. I’ll run it by our priestess to make sure, though, and call you. Oh, and do you want me to go ahead with the flea market idea?”