Zoey looked annoyed at the question. “Yeah, she seems fine. Well, she’s sad and all, but that’s normal. She’s staying with the pyre until after the sun rises. I guess Dallas came by and made some kind of stupid scene, which is totally like him, but Shaunee handled it.”
“You didn’t think you needed to stay with her?”
“Shaunee? At the pyre?” Zoey frowned at him.
“Yeah. You are her High Priestess.”
“Well, technically, as long as we’re stuck here at the House of Night, Thanatos is her High Priestess, not me. And Shaunee said she told Thanatos she wanted to stay by the pyre by herself. Thanatos respected her wishes—I figured I should, too. Do you have a problem with that?”
Stark cupped water in his hands, rinsing soap out of his face while he tried to figure out how to talk to Z. She’d been so damn touchy since the whole thing on the balcony had happened showing that Aurox was Heath and Heath was Aurox. It made him feel like he was living with a porcupine!
“No,” he finally said. “No problem with it at all. Z, I wasn’t trying to fight with you. I just wanted to know about Shaunee.”
“Erin’s funeral’s over. Shaunee’s fine. That’s about it. I want to know what really happened with Aurox and those human boys. I couldn’t tell what the hell Heath was talking about.”
Stark’s stomach tightened. “You mean Aurox.”
“Yeah, Aurox.” Zoey frowned. “That’s what I said. So, what’s going on?”
Stark was too tired to argue with her, so he ignored her Freudian slip, even though it made his heart hurt. “Two guys somehow found a hole in the school’s wall—not very far from here, actually. They were drinking and looking for hot vampyres.” That’s about it.” He repeated her words, pulled his shirt off, and started to brush his teeth.
“Stark, seriously? You’re leaving out massive details.”
He shrugged, and spoke through the toothbrush, hoping she’d get the clue and stop with the interrogation. “No big deal. I used my red vamp superpowers to make them believe I was a cop and that they got lucky. I didn’t haul them to jail, charge them with public intoxication, and call their parents. And they think the House of Night is on my patrol, so I’ll be looking for them every night from here on out, which means they won’t be back.”
“Well, that’s good.”
She didn’t say anything else for as long as it took him to finish brushing his teeth and get in bed, but he knew from the way she was chewing her lip and scrunching her forehead that she had lots more to say. Plus, he could feel her tension. He could always feel her tension. He realized he should rub her shoulders and try to get her to relax, but he couldn’t quite get past the reason for her tension.
Aurox was Heath. Zoey loved Heath.
And that hurt Stark’s feelings and made him feel like shit.
So, he lay down next to her and blew out the little flicking gas lamp, wishing with everything inside him that Zoey would curl up on his shoulder and put her arms around him and tell him he didn’t need to worry about her wanting to be with Aurox or Heath or anyone except him.
Instead, from the darkness, Zoey said, “Why was he out there?”
Stark sighed. “He was running around the school wall. I didn’t really get why, and he was too wasted to explain it to me.”
“Running shuts off his mind,” Zoey said.
“How do you know?”
There was a short silence, and he could almost hear her thinking, then she said, “It’s what Heath used to do when he had a problem. He’d run himself exhausted and it would shut off his mind.”
“Oh,” Stark said, feeling shittier by the moment.
“Where is he now?” she asked.
“In the basement passed out,” Stark said.
“I didn’t think he slept.”
“He may not, but I can promise you he passes out.”
“Did you turn him on his side so he won’t choke if he pukes?”
“No, but feel free to go tuck him in yourself if you’re so damn worried about him.”
“Stark, I was just—”
“I know what you were just. I know the whole thing, Zoey. That’s the problem.”
“You don’t need to get mad at me,” she said.
“I’m not mad. I’m tired. The sun’s coming up and I gotta sleep. Good night.” Stark rolled on his side. His back to her, he curled in on himself, wishing that she’d put her arms around him and pull him to her and tell him everything was going to be okay—that they’d figure this thing out together.
Instead he heard her say a soft, “’Night.” He felt the bed shift as she rolled away from him.
Stark had never been so glad to give himself over to the pull of the sun and the dreamless sleep dawn brought with it.
Stevie Rae
It was always so dang hard to say bye to Rephaim. Stevie Rae rolled over, alone in her bed. She was exhausted—the sun had risen a few minutes ago, and every moment she fought the need to sleep it drained her. But she was really having a hard time shutting off her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about how much she wished that Rephaim was there with her. She didn’t mean to be ungrateful, but after Erin’s funeral, Thanatos breaking with the High Council, Nicole swearing allegiance to her (her!), not to mention Neferet being who-the-heck-ever-knows-where, she would’ve really, really liked to snuggle up in Rephaim’s arms and feel safe and loved.
Instead she’d said bye to him outside a little bit before sunrise and then come up to the room she was sharing with Shaunee. Stevie Rae had taken the bed nearest the big picture window, even though that wasn’t the smartest choice. Their room faced east and got full sunshine in the morning. If they didn’t have blackout drapes she’d be like bacon frying in a skillet.
But they did have blackout drapes—big, thick dark ones. They were so heavy and so firmly tied together that even though Stevie Rae left the window open all day long while she slept, the strongest breeze didn’t cause them to move. That was a good thing, because she would always leave her window open. What if Rephaim needed to come to her? What if he got in some kind of trouble when he was a raven and needed a safe place to hide? She wanted to believe that something of the boy she loved remained deep within him, even when he was a beast.
That’s why she wished he’d let her stay and watch him change into a raven. She’d thought a lot about it, and she might try to touch him—to tame him. “After all,” she’d told him the day after the Goddess had forgiven Rephaim and gifted him with the form of a human boy during the hours between sunset and sunrise, “I tamed a beast once before. Maybe I can do it again!” She’d expected Rephaim to smile and laugh, like he usually did—he seemed so happy around her. But he hadn’t. He’d gotten all serious and taken her hands in his and said, “When I was a Raven Mocker I had some humanity within me. You have to remember I am different now. When I’m a boy, like now, I’m completely human. When I’m a raven, I’m nothing but a beast. I don’t know you. I don’t know me. I know only the sky and the need to ride the wind.”
That had scared her. And she’d told him so. She didn’t hide stuff from Rephaim—they were too close for that.
“But you always come back to me. Doesn’t that mean something of you is still inside the raven?”
He’d looked sad, but he’d told her the truth like they’d promised. “When I am a raven I am a beast. I don’t know love. I don’t know you. Please don’t make it into something it’s not.”
“But you come back to me!”
“Stevie Rae.” He’d cupped her face in his hands. “I think that’s just because of Nyx’s magick.”
“Like she put a GPS in you so you could find me?”
“GPS?”
“Modern magick that helps you find your way home.”
He’d grinned. “Yes! Nyx put a GPS inside me so I can find you.”
Stevie Rae kicked off her blanket and looked at Shaunee’s empty bed. She should try to stay awake and be sure Shaunee was okay. It would be terrible to lose her best friend, and even though Erin and Shaunee had been having problems, that didn’t change the fact that up until just a few weeks ago, they had been inseparable for the entire time they’d been at the House of Night. There was a big difference between fighting with your BFF and having your BFF die.
Stevie Rae’s mind automatically went back to the night Erin had coughed up her life’s blood and died. Zoey had been with her every second. It’d helped. Shaunee being there for Erin had to have helped her, too. And now Shaunee was doing the right thing—she was watching over her friend’s pyre until after dawn.
Stevie Rae rolled over and stared at the blackout curtain, trying to keep her eyes open—trying to fight the energy drain that happened naturally to red fledglings and vampyres when the sun was in the sky. It wasn’t impossible for her to stay conscious during the day. It was just hard. Really hard. Her eyelids fluttered. Maybe she’d rest for just a little while. She’d hear Shaunee come in and wake up again and check on her…
