Destined (13 page)

For some goofy reason that made him laugh, and he put his arms around me, enfolding me in a giant hug. “Yeah, I’m a guy.
Your
guy. And I want you to remember that beyond all this stuff,” he paused, pulled back far enough so he could gesture at the House of Night and the short bus that waited a little way from where we were now standing, “and my Warrior stuff, and even my Guardian stuff, I love you, Zoey Redbird. And I’ll always be there for you when you need me.”

I stepped back into his arms and breathed a long sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“There she is!” I heard Kramisha’s voice shouting and I sighed, pretty sure I was the “she” she was talking about. I looked up and, sure enough, Kramisha was standing in front of the loaded short bus with Stevie Rae, Aphrodite, Damien, the Twins, Erik, and a red fledgling I didn’t recognize. Keeping Stark’s hand in mine I walked the rest of the way to the bus.

“I’m sorry ’bout your momma. That’s bad,” Kramisha said in greeting.

“Um, th-thanks,” I stuttered, and had just started thinking that I was going to have to come up with a non-awkward way to respond to people who were telling me they were sorry my mom was dead when Kramisha continued with, “Z, I know it ain’t good timin’, but we got us a problem.”

I stifled another sigh. “We, as in me, or we as in you?”

“We think this problem might spill over onto all of us,” Stevie Rae said.

“Great,” I said.

“Zoey, this is Shaylin.” Erik introduced me to the unfamiliar girl, who was studying me like she wished she had me under a microscope. Jeesh, it was a pain to meet new kids.

“Hi, Shaylin,” I said, trying to sound normal while I ignored her stare.

“Purple,” she said.

“I thought Erik said your name was Shaylin,” I said, even though I wanted to shriek
Yes! It’s me! The one with the weird tattoos!

“My name is Shaylin.” She gave me a really warm, really nice smile. “You’re purple.”

“She’s not Purple, she’s Zoey,” Stark said, sounding as confused as I felt.

“You’re also flecks of silver.” Shaylin finished staring at me and then turned her gaze to him. “You’re red and gold and a little black. Huh. That’s weird.”

“Okay, I’m not—”

“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Aphrodite interrupted, pointing at Shaylin. “This new kid’s name
is
Shaylin, and she’s not calling you colors, she’s
seeing
your colors.”

“My colors? I don’t have a clue what that means,” I said, frowning at Aphrodite and then giving Shaylin a big question mark look.

“I don’t really know what it means, either,” Shaylin said. “It just happened to me, right after I was Marked.”

“I think Shaylin has been gifted with something called True Sight,” Damien said. “It’s rare. I think there’s something about it in the
Advanced Fledgling Handbook,
but I only peeked at one of those.” He looked embarrassed and apologetic. “I didn’t really study it.”

“Damien, you’re only a forth former. It wasn’t part of your classwork,” Stevie Rae said.

“Hello, talk about homework obsessed,” Erin muttered.

“Seriously,” Shaunee added.

“Look.” I raised my voice so everyone would gawk at me instead of launching into the bickering I was pretty sure was getting ready to start. “I don’t know what True Sight is, but if it’s a gift, and I’m assuming you mean from Nyx, then why is that a problem?” I said.

“She’s a red fledgling,” Aphrodite said.

“So? There’s a whole short bus full of them,” I said, gesturing behind them.

“Yeah, and each of us had to die and then un-die before we got us these.” Kramisha pointed at the red outline of a crescent moon on her forehead.

I stared at her, then at the new kid, and then my mind caught up with my eyes. I looked at Erik. “You just Marked her in red?”

“No. Yes.” Erik shook his head and looked worried as hell. “I didn’t mean to. I Marked her. Okay, yes, it didn’t go exactly according to plan, but that was because she was blind, and that surprised me.” We all stared at him and he ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. His shoulders slumped. Then he added, “I messed up, and that’s why she’s a red fledgling and can see our colors.”

“You didn’t mess up, Erik.” It looked like Shaylin started to reach out to pat Erik’s arm, but halfway through the motion changed her mind. Her gaze moved to me and she continued, “Before he Marked me I was blind. I’ve been blind since I was a kid. The second he Marked me I could see again, and that’s not a mess up. That’s amazing.”

“Ah! I knew I felt a new fledgling!” At the sound of Neferet’s voice we all jumped like she’d Tasered us. She was hurrying toward us, her long green velvet gown sweeping the ground and making it appear as if she was gliding instead of walking (which was super creepy). “Merry meet, I am Neferet, your High Priestess.” She turned her attention briefly to Erik, and I could see displeasure flash in her eyes. “Professor Night, you should not have brought the child here.” Neferet reached Shaylin and made a graceful, apologetic gesture to her. “Young fledgling, the Tracker should have instructed you to come to the female dormitory where you will join the rest of the—” She broke off when she finally saw Shaylin’s Mark.

“Yeah,” I said, unable to keep my mouth shut any longer. “She’s red. Which means she
is
in the right place.”

“And I’m her High Priestess. Not you,” Stevie Rae finished for me.

“Oh! You’re … oh, I don’t feel well!” Shaylin was staring at Neferet when she suddenly collapsed. Erik caught her before she conked her head on the ground, managing to look scared and hero-like at the same time. (Seriously, he’s an excellent actor.)

“She’s been through a lot,” Aphrodite said, stepping up to stand toe to toe with Neferet. “She needs to go home. To the depot. With us. Now.”

I held my breath as Neferet’s eyes narrowed and her gaze flicked around at each kid in our group. All vampyres are intuitive, but Neferet is more than that. She can read minds. Well, most fledglings’ minds—or at least the surface of their thoughts. I sent a quick, silent prayer up to the Goddess:
Please let each of them think about everything and anything except the fact that this new kid may have True Sight—whatever that is
.

Suddenly Neferet’s suspicious expression changed. She laughed. She actually laughed. I had no idea how it was possible, but her laugh sounded horrible and mean and sarcastic. How could laughter be so awful?

“She was blind. That’s why she’s been Marked red. She’s broken. She just didn’t have to die to get that way. Well, at least not yet she hasn’t died.”

Kramisha was standing beside me, so I saw her little jerk of fear. So did Neferet. The pretend High Priestess smiled at our Poet Laureate. “What is it? Did you actually believe that red outline guaranteed you the Change?” She cocked her head to the side, reminding me of a reptile. “Yes, I can sense your shock and fear. You hadn’t thought of that. Your body can still reject the Change.”

“You don’t know that for sure.” Stevie Rae stepped closer to Kramisha.

“Don’t I?” Again, Neferet’s laugh was mean and awful. She jerked her chin at Shaylin, who was still passed out in Erik’s arms. “That one feels odd to me.” She shifted her gaze to Aphrodite. I saw Aphrodite put her fists on her waist, as if bracing herself for a physical blow. “A little like you feel, and you’re not even a fledgling anymore.”

“No, I’m not. But I am happy with what I am. How about you, Neferet?”

Instead of an answer, Neferet said, “Take the new fledgling with you. You’re right about one thing, Aphrodite. Her home is with you and the rest of the misfits, not here. What in the name of all the gods will Nyx come up with next?”

And then, laughing, she turned her back dismissively on us and slithered away.

When she was out of hearing range I let out a long breath. “Good job, all of you, in not thinking about the True Sight thing.”

“She scares me,” Kramisha said in a voice that sounded very, very young.

Stevie Rae put her arm around Kramisha. “It’s okay to be scared of her. That’ll just make us fight harder against her.”

“Or run faster,” Erik said grimly.

“Some of us aren’t running away,” Stevie Rae said.

“Are you sure?” Shaylin said.

“Hey, are you back with us?” Erik asked.

“Actually, I never went anywhere. Um. You can put me down now. Please.”

“Oh, right. Yeah.” Erik gently put her down. He kept a hand on her arm, as if to be sure she wasn’t going to wobble and fall, but she stood there looking pretty darn steady.

“So, you faked a faint. Why?” Aphrodite asked the question before I could.

“Well, it wasn’t hard.” Shaylin looked at Kramisha. “I agree with you. She scares me.” Then she continued. “I acted like I passed out because it was either that or run screaming away from her.” She shared a look with Erik. “Yeah, I agree with you, too.” Then she shrugged a shoulder. “But she said she’s a High Priestess. I don’t know much about vampyres, but everyone knows High Priestesses are in charge. Running screaming away from one my first day as a fledgling didn’t seem like a good option.”

“So you figured you’d play opossum,” Stevie Rae said.

“Play what?”

“That’s a bumpkin way of saying that you pretended to be out of it so Neferet would leave you alone,” Aphrodite said.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I did,” Shaylin said.

“Not a bad plan,” Stark said. “Meeting Neferet and being Marked all in one day sucks for you.”

“What did you see?” My question seemed to take everyone except Shaylin by surprise. She met my gaze and held it steadily as she answered me. “Right before I went blind I was at Nam Hi, that big Vietnamese grocery store on Twenty-first and Garnett, with my mom. They had whole fish for sale in a giant bin of ice. They scared me so bad I remember all I could do was stand there and stare at their milky, dead eyes and their horrible slit open bellies.”

“Neferet’s dead fish belly color?” Stevie Rae asked.

“No. Neferet’s color is the same color as dead fish eyes. That’s her only color.”

“That can’t be good,” Kramisha said.

“What can’t be good?” Darius asked as he joined our group, taking Aphrodite’s hand. She leaned into him and said, “Darius, stud Warrior, meet Shaylin, newly Marked red fledgling who didn’t die to be red and who has True Sight. She just ‘saw’”—Aphrodite air quoted—“Neferet and apparently her true color is like dead fish eyes.”

Darius didn’t miss a beat. He just gave the new kid a little bow and said, “Merry meet, Shaylin,” which either showed the Warrior had impressive control or was just more proof that our lives had become totally bat-poop crazy.

“We need to learn more about True Sight,” Damien said. “It’s sixth former and beyond level information. Do you know anything about it?” he asked Darius.

“Not a lot. I focused mostly on knives, not vampyre sociology,” Darius said.

“Well, I have the stupid advanced handbook,” Aphrodite said. When we gave her a group gawk she frowned. “What? I was a sixth former before
this
happened.” She pointed at her unMarked forehead. “Sadly, I had to rejoin my old schedule today.” When we all kept staring without speaking she rolled her eyes. “Oh, for shit’s sake, I have homework, that’s all. The book’s in my extremely attractive Anahata Joy Katkin bag in the retard bus.”

“Aphrodite, stop sayin’ retard!” Stevie Rae shouted at her. “I swear you need to check out www.r-word.com. Maybe you’d learn that some people get their feelin’s hurt by the r-word.”

Aphrodite blinked several times and then scrunched her forehead. “A Web site? Seriously.”

“Yes, Aphrodite. Like I have tried to tell you a bazillion times, using the r-word is demeaning and just plain mean.”

Aphrodite sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a rant: “What about having a site for the c-word—as in cunt, which demeans
half of the world
? Or, wait, no. Let’s keep it the r-word site only make the r-word rape, which does more than just hurt upper middle class mommies’ feelings. Or—”

“Seriously.” I stepped between them. “We get it. Can we go back to Shaylin and the True Sight issue?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Aphrodite said, flipping back her hair.

“Aphrodite’s mean, Z, but she makes a good point,” Erin said.

I glared at Shaunee who only nodded enthusiastically, but didn’t chime in. My head felt like it was going to explode. “Ah, hell,” I said, throwing up my hands in frustration. “I can’t remember what we were saying before the retard part.”

“Information about True Sight is on the bus,” Rephaim said, surprising all of us. He smiled shyly. “I didn’t really understand much of the rest of the conversation. I also got that Aphrodite is mean, but I already knew that.”

Beside me Stark turned a bark of laughter into a cough.

I sighed.

“Okay, let’s get on the bus and get back to the depot. Aphrodite and Damien, meet me in the kitchen with the advanced handbook.” I paused and glanced at Stevie Rae, who was still holding Rephaim’s hand. “You wanna join us after, um, you know, the sun rises and such?”

“Z, you don’t have to tippie-toe around it. Yes, Rephaim’s gonna change into a bird when the sun comes up, and I’d like to be with him ’til then.” She glanced up at Rephaim who was smiling down at her like it was his birthday and she was some super amazing present he’d just opened.

“Seriously?” I heard Shaylin ask Erik.

“Yeah. It’s a long story,” Erik said.

“No wonder his color’s so weird,” she said.

I was curious about Rephaim’s color, but I knew now was not the time to ask her a bunch of questions, so instead I just said, “Kramisha, would you please figure out where Shaylin will be staying?”

“I ain’t sharin’ my room,” Kramisha said. Then she gave Shaylin an apologetic look. “Sorry. I don’t mean no offense.”

“That’s fine. I’ve had to have people around me ever since I went blind. I’d rather have my own room, too.”

Kramisha smiled. “That’s right. I like me an independent woman, and I’ll help you find a room of your own.”

“Deal,” Shaylin said.

“Er.” Erik cleared his throat to get our attention. I thought he looked nervous and unusually unsure of himself. “How about I follow the bus in my car, and Shaylin comes with me? I can fill her in on some of the stuff like Rephaim and the whole red fledgling thing in general on the way.”