Marked

  “Yes,” I said. “I remember it.”

  “Is there running water inside the school grounds?”

  “I don’t know, Grandma.”

  “Well, if there isn’t then get something to use as a smudge stick. Sage and lavender mixed together are best, but you can even use fresh pine if you have no other choice. Do you know what to do, Zoeybird?”

  “Smudge myself, starting at my feet and working my way up my body, front and back,” I recited, as if I was a small child again and Grandma was drilling me in the ways of our people. “And then face the east and speak the purification prayer.”

  “Good, you do remember. Ask for the Goddess’s help, Zoey. I believe that she will hear you. Can you do this before sunrise tomorrow?”

  “I think so.”

  “I will perform the prayer, too, and add a grandmother’s voice to ask the Goddess to guide you.”

  And suddenly I felt better. Grandma was never wrong about these sorts of things. If she believed it would be okay, then it really would be okay.

  “I’ll speak the purification prayer before dawn. I promise.”

  “Good, Little Bird. Now this old woman had better let you go. You are in the middle of a school day right now, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I’m on my way to Drama class. And, Grandma, you’ll never be old.”

  “Not as long as I can hear your young voice, Little Bird. I love you, U-we-tsi a-ge-hu-tsa.”

  “I love you, too, Grandma.”

  Talking to Grandma had lifted a terrible weight from my heart. I was still scared and freaked out about the future, and I wasn’t wild about the thought of bringing down Aphrodite. Not to mention that I really didn’t have a clue how to go about it. But I did have a plan. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a “plan,” but at least it was something to do. I’d complete the purification prayer, and then . . . well . . . then I’d figure out what to do after that.

  Yeah, that would work. Or at least that’s what I kept telling myself through my morning classes. By lunch I’d decided on the place for my ritual—under the tree by the wall where I’d found Nala. I thought about it while I made my way through the salad bar behind the Twins. Trees, especially oaks, were sacred to the Cherokee people, so that seemed to be a good choice. Plus, it was secluded and easy to get to. Sure, Heath and Kayla had found me over there, but I wasn’t planning on sitting on top of the wall again, and I couldn’t imagine Heath showing up at dawn two days in a row, whether he had been Imprinted or not. I mean, this was the guy who slept till two in the afternoon in the summer, every day. It took two alarm clocks and his mother shrieking at him to get him up for school. The kid was not going to be up at pre-dawn again. It would probably take him months to recover from yesterday. No, actually, he’d probably snuck out of the house and met K (sneaking out had always been easy for her, her parents were totally clueless), and they’d been up all night. Which meant that he’d missed school and would be playing sick and sleeping in for the next two days. Anyway, I wasn’t worried about him showing up.

  “Don’t you think baby corns are scary? There’s just something wrong about their midget bodies.”

  I jumped and almost dropped the ladle of ranch dressing into the vat of white liquid, and looked up into Erik’s laughing blue eyes.

  “Oh, hi,” I said. “You scared me.”

  “Z, I think I’m making a habit of sneaking up on you.”

  I giggled nervously, very aware that the Twins were watching every move we made.

  “You look like you’ve recovered from yesterday.”

  “Yeah, no problem. I’m fine. And this time I’m not lying.”

  “And I heard you joined the Dark Daughters.”

  Shaunee and Erin sucked air together. I was careful not to look at them.

  “Yep.”

  “That’s cool. That group needs some new blood.”

  “You say ‘that group’ like you don’t belong to it. Aren’t you a Dark Son?”

  “Yeah, but it’s not the same as being a Dark Daughter. We’re just ornamental. Kinda the opposite of how it is in the human world. All the guys know that we’re just there to look good and keep Aphrodite amused.”

  I looked up at him, reading something else in his eyes. “And is that what you’re still doing, amusing Aphrodite?”

  “As I said last night, not anymore, which is one reason I don’t really consider myself a member of the group. I’m sure they’d officially kick me out if it wasn’t for that little acting thing I do.”

  “You mean ‘little’ as in Broadway and LA already being interested in you.”

  “That’s what I mean.” He grinned at me. “It’s not real, you know. Acting is all pretend. It’s not what I really am.” He bent down to whisper in my ear. “Really, I’m a dork.”

  “Oh, please. Does that line work for you?”

  He exaggerated a look of being offended. “Line? No, Z. That’s no line, and I can prove it.”

  “Sure you can.”

  “I can. Come to the movies with me tonight. We’ll watch my favorite DVDs of all time.”

  “How does that prove anything?”

  “It’s Star Wars, the original ones. I know all the lines for all the parts.” He leaned closer and whispered again. “I can even do Chewbacca’s parts.”

  I laughed. “You’re right. You are a dork.”

  “Told you.”

  We’d come to the end of the salad bar and he walked with me over to the table where Damien, Stevie Rae, and the Twins were already seated. And, no, they weren’t making any attempt to hide the fact that they were all totally gawking at the two of us.

  “So, will you go . . . with me . . . tonight?”

  I could hear the four of them holding their breaths. Literally.

  “I’d like to, but I can’t tonight. I—uh—I already have plans.”

  “Oh. Okay. Well . . . next time. See ya.” He nodded at the table and walked away.

  I sat down. They were all staring at me. “What?” I said.

  “You have lost every last bit of your mind,” Shaunee said.

  “My exact thoughts, Twin,” Erin said.

  “I hope you have a really good reason for blowing him off,” Stevie Rae said. “It was obvious you hurt his feelings.”

  “Think he’d let me comfort him?” Damien asked, still gazing dreamily after Erik.

  “Give it up,” Erin said.

  “He doesn’t play for your team,” Shaunee said.

  “Shush!” Stevie Rae said. She turned to look me straight in the eyes. “Why did you tell him no? What could be more important than a date with him?”

  “Getting rid of Aphrodite,” I said simply.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “She has a point,” Damien said.

  “She joined the Dark Daughters,” Shaunee said.

  “What!” Damien squeaked, his voice going up about twenty octaves.

  “Leave her alone,” Stevie Rae said, instantly coming to my defense. “She’s reconnoitering.”

  “Reconnoitering, hell! If she joined the Dark Daughters she’s engaging the enemy full on,” Damien said.

  “Well, she joined,” Shaunee said.

  “We heard her,” Erin said.

  “Hello! I’m still right here,” I said.

  “So what are you going to do?” Damien asked me.

  “I don’t really know,” I said.

  “You better get a plan and get one quick or those hags are gonna have you for lunch,” Erin said.

  “Yep,” Shaunee said, biting viciously into her salad for effect.

  “Hey! She doesn’t have to figure this out on her own. She has us.” Stevie Rae crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the Twins.

  I smiled my thanks to Stevie Rae. “Well, I kinda have an idea.”

  “Good. Tell us and we’ll brainstorm,” said Stevie Rae.

  Everyone looked expectantly at me. I sighed. “Well. Um . . . ,” I started hesitantly, afraid I was sounding like a moron, and then
I decided I might as well tell them what had been on my mind since I talked to Grandma, so I finished in a rush. “I thought I’d perform an ancient purification prayer based on Cherokee ritual and ask Nyx to help me come up with a plan.”

  The silence at the table seemed to last forever. Then Damien finally said, “Asking for Nyx’s help isn’t a bad idea.”

  “Are you Cherokee?” Shaunee asked.

  “You look Cherokee,” Erin said.

  “Hello! Her last name is Redbird. She’s Cherokee,” Stevie Rae said with finality.

  “Well, that’s good,” Shaunee said, but she looked doubtful.

  “I just think that Nyx might actually hear me and—maybe—give me some kind of clue as to what I should do about horrid Aphrodite.” I looked at each of my friends. “Something inside me says it’s just wrong to let her get away with all the crap she’s getting away with.”

  “Let me tell them!” Stevie Rae suddenly said. “They won’t tell anyone. Really. And it’d help if they knew.”

  “What the F?” Erin said.

  “Okay, now you have no choice,” Shaunee said, pointing at Stevie Rae with her fork. “She knew if she said that we would pester the crap outta you till you told us whatever it is she’s talking about.”

  I frowned at Stevie Rae, who shrugged her shoulders sheepishly and said, “Sorry.”

  Reluctantly, I lowered my voice and leaned forward. “Promise you won’t tell anyone.”

  “Promise,” they said.

  “I think I can feel the five elements when a circle is cast.”

  Silence. They just stared. Three of them shocked, Stevie Rae smug.

  “So, you still think she can’t take down Aphrodite?” Stevie Rae said.

  “I knew there was more to your Mark than falling down and hitting your head!” Shaunee said.

  “Wow,” Erin said. “Talk about good gossip.”

  “No one can know!” I said quickly.

  “Please,” Shaunee said. “We’re just sayin’ that someday this is gonna be great gossip.”

  “We know how to wait for great gossip,” Erin said.

  Damien ignored both of them. “I don’t think there’s a record of any High Priestess who has had an affinity with all five elements.” Damien’s voice got more excited as he spoke. “Do you know what that means?” He didn’t give me a chance to respond. “It means you could potentially be the most puissant High Priestess the vampyres have ever known.”

  “Huh?” I said. Puissant?

  “Strong—powerful,” he said impatiently. “You might actually be able to take out Aphrodite!”

  “Now, that’s some seriously good news,” Erin said, as Shaunee nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

  “So when and where are we doing the purification thingie?” Stevie Rae said.

  “We?” I said.

  “You’re not in this alone, Zoey,” she said.

  I opened my mouth to protest—I mean, I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do. I didn’t want to get my friends mixed up in something that might be—actually, would probably be—a total mess. But Damien didn’t give me time to tell them no.

  “You need us,” he said simply. “Even the most puissant High Priestess needs her circle.”

  “Well, I hadn’t really thought about casting a circle. I was just gonna do a kind of purification prayer thing.”

  “Can’t you cast a circle and then pray the prayer and ask for Nyx’s help?” Stevie Rae asked.

  “Seems logical,” Shaunee said.

  “Plus, if you really do have an affinity for the five elements, I’ll bet we’ll be able to sense it when you cast your own circle. Right, Damien?” Stevie Rae said. Everyone looked at the gay scholar of our group.

  “Sounds like good logic to me,” he said.

  I was still going to argue, even though everything inside of me felt relieved and happy and grateful that my friends would be there with me, that they wouldn’t let me face all of this uncertainty alone.

  Value them; they are pearls of great price.

  The familiar voice floated through my mind, and I realized that I shouldn’t question the new instinct within me that seemed to have been born when Nyx kissed my forehead and permanently changed my Mark and my life.

  “Okay, I’m going to need a smudge stick.” They looked at me blankly, and I went on to explain. “It’s for the purification part of the ritual because I don’t have any running water handy. Or do I?”

  “You mean like a stream or a river or something like that?” Stevie Rae asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, there’s a little stream that runs through the courtyard outside the dining hall and disappears somewhere under the school,” Damien said.

  “That’s no good; it’s too public. We’ll need to use the smudge stick. What works best is dried lavender and sage mixed together, but if I have to I can use pine.”

  “I can get the sage and lavender,” Damien said. “They have that kind of stuff in the school supplies store for the fifth and sixth former’s Spells and Rituals class. I’ll just say I’m helping out an upperclassman by picking some up for him. What else do you need?”

  “Well, in the purification ritual Grandma always thanked the seven sacred directions the Cherokee people honor: north, south, east, west, sun, earth, and self. But I think I want to make the prayer more specific to Nyx.” I chewed my lip, thinking.

  “I think that’s smart,” Shaunee said.

  “Yeah,” Erin added. “I mean, Nyx isn’t allied with the sun. She’s Night.”

  “I think you should follow your gut,” Stevie Rae said.

  “Trusting herself is one of the first things a High Priestess learns to do,” Damien said.

  “Okay, then I’ll also need a candle for each of the five elements,” I decided.

  “Easy-peasy,” Shaunee said.

  “Yeah, the temple is never locked and there are zillions of circle candles in there.”

  “Is it okay to take them?” Stealing from Nyx’s Temple definitely did not feel like a good idea.

  “It’s fine as long as we bring them back,” Damien said. “What else?”

  “That’s it.” I think. Hell, I wasn’t sure. It’s not like I actually knew what I was doing.

  “When and where?” Damien asked.

  “After dinner. Let’s say five o’clock. And we can’t go together. The last thing we need is for Aphrodite or any of the other Dark Daughters to think we’re having some kind of meeting and get curious about us. So let’s meet at a huge oak tree by the eastern wall.” I smiled crookedly at them. “It’s easy to find if you pretend that you’ve just run out of one of the Dark Daughter’s rituals in the rec hall, and you want to get the hell away from the hags.”

  “That doesn’t take much pretending,” Shaunee said.

  Erin snorted.

  “Okay, we’ll bring the stuff,” Damien said.

  “Yeah, we’ll bring the stuff; you bring the puissantness,” Shaunee said, giving Damien a smartass look.

  “That is not the correct form of that word. You know, you really should do more reading. Maybe your vocabulary would improve,” Damien said.

  “Your mom needs to read more,” Shaunee said, and then she and Erin dissolved in giggles at the really bad “your mom” joke.

  I, for one, was glad that they shifted the subject away from me and I could eat my salad and think in relative privacy while they bickered back and forth. I was chewing and trying to remember all the words to the purification prayer when Nala hopped up on the bench beside me. She looked at me with her big eyes and then leaned into me and started to purr like a jet engine. I don’t know why, but she made me feel better. And when the bell rang and we all hurried off to class, each of my four friends smiled at me, gave me a secret wink, and said, “Later, Z.” They made me feel better, too, even though their easy adoption of Erik’s nickname for me gave my heart a twinge.

  Spanish class zoomed by: a whole lesson on learning how to say that we lik
e things or don’t like things. Profe Garmy was cracking me up. She said it would change our lives. Me gusta gatos. (I like cats.) Me gusta ir de compras. (I like shopping.) No me gusta cocinar. (I don’t like to cook.) No me gusta lavantar el gato. (I don’t like to wash the cat.) Those were Profe Garmy’s favorites, and we spent the hour coming up with our own favorites.

  I tried not to scribble things like me gusta Erik . . . and no me gusta el hag-o Aphrodite. Okay, so I’m sure el hag-o is not how you say “hag” in Spanish, but still. Anyway, class was fun and I actually understood what we were saying. Equestrian class didn’t quite zoom by. Mucking stalls was good for thinking—I went over and over the purification prayer—but the hour definitely seemed to take an hour. This time Stevie Rae didn’t have to come get me. I was way too anxious to lose track of time. As the bell rang I was quickly putting up the curry combs, happy that Lenobia had let me groom Persephone again, and preoccupied because she had also told me that starting next week she thought I might actually begin riding her. I hurried out of the stables, wishing that the hour wasn’t so late back in the “real” world. I’d have loved to call Grandma and tell her how well I was doing with the horses.

  “I know what’s going on.”

  I swear I almost choked. “God, Aphrodite! Could you make a sound or something! What are you, part spider? You scared the hell outta me.”

  “What’s wrong?” she purred. “Guilty conscience?”

  “Uh, when you sneak up behind people, you scare them. Guilt has nothing to do with it.”

  “So you’re not guilty?”

  “Aphrodite, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I know what you’re planning for tonight.”

  “And yet I still don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ah, crap! How could she have found out?

  “Everyone thinks you’re so damn cute and so damn innocent and they’re so damn impressed by that freakish Mark of yours. Everyone but me.” She turned to face me, and we stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Her blue eyes narrowed and her face twisted until it was scarily haggish. Huh. I wondered (briefly) if the Twins realized how accurate their nickname for her was. “No matter what bullshit you’ve heard he’s still mine. He’ll always be mine.”