WolfGoddess77

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.

…is there a typo here? Was one of Damien’s lines supposed to be said by someone else? Because if not…he’s just as stupid as Zoey is. I mean, look at that. He’s like a Slowpoke; hit him over the head with something and it takes him a while to actually feel the pain. Except in this case, it’s tell him something, and it takes a while for it to sink in.

"Leave her alone," Stevie Rae said, instantly coming to my defense.

Zoey, call off your little attack dog. She’s not scary, she’s just pathetic.

 

"She's reconnoitering.”

"Reconnoitering, hell! If she joined the Dark Daughters she's engaging the enemy full on," Damien said.

Speshul Snowflake: 182

Because I’m getting a distinct sense of awe from that. You can’t tell me he’s not amazed by Zoey’s braveness. Even though she’s been nothing but a coward up until this point.

"Well, she joined," Shaunee said.

"We heard her," Erin said.

Indeed, we did. Move it along, please.

"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’re going to sit there like a slug and wait for the solution to fall right into your lap.

"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.

That's actual footage of Zoey and Stevie Rae.

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

No, you don’t. You just admitted that you didn’t have one last chapter!

"Good. Tell us and we'll brainstorm," said Stevie Rae.

Everyone looked expectantly at me. I sighed.

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"Well. Um…,”I started hesitantly, afraid I was sounding like a moron,

TOO LATE!

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.”

Zoey’s single brain cell is too fragile for her to risk trying to come up with an idea on her own. She needs all of her plans to be created by someone else so she doesn’t have to strain herself.

The silence at the table seemed to last forever.

Why? Are you guys having trouble understanding this concept or something?

Then Damien finally said, "Asking for Nyx's help isn't a bad idea.”

As if any of you ever think anything Zoey does is a bad idea. That would mean you aren’t worshiping her, and YOU BETTER WORSHIP HER, DAMMIT!

"Are you Cherokee?" Shaunee asked.

"You look Cherokee," Erin said.

"Hello! Her last name is Redbird. She's Cherokee," Stevie Rae said with finality.

That doesn’t mean jack-shit! You live in a place where you can change your name to whatever you want it to be! Name choice does not equal heritage here!

"Well, that's good," Shaunee said, but she looked doubtful.

…what? It’s good that she’s Cherokee? Why? It won’t make any difference. As I said, Nyx is a vampire goddess. Nothing else should matter.

"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 wish she would tell me what to do about horrid Zoey.

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.”

Which you wouldn’t even know about if Stevie Rae hadn’t told you! Some champion of justice you are! And I love Zoey’s moral compass here. She doesn’t just know something is wrong; some outside force has to tell her. Your self-righteousness just goes right down the toilet when you can’t figure out these things on your own.

"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.

Stop that. Just say ‘fuck’ like a normal person.

"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.”

Zoey’s distrust of her so-called ‘friends’ is just getting ridiculous. I’m not saying that you have to tell your friends everything, but picking and choosing who you tell what can only lead to trouble. And don’t tell me that wasn’t an extremely manipulative and calculated move on Stevie Rae’s part. She totally did that on purpose.

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.

Speshul Snowflake: 184

There’s no reason for Stevie Rae to be smug about this. It’s not like she had anything to do with it. Or is she smug because Zoey told her about it first?

"So, you still think she can't take down Aphrodite?" Stevie Rae said.

Well…yeah. First of all, she just said she thinks she can feel the elements. She doesn’t know for sure. If she can’t feel them, then she’s gone even farther than back to square one, because Aphrodite has been a vampire longer than she has, and actually has a power. As far as we’re aware right now, Zoey doesn’t. Secondly, Aphrodite has many more people on her side than Zoey does, and who knows what powers they might have. Thirdly, even if she can feel the elements, so what? Feeling them doesn’t mean you can actually do anything with them. Yes, we’ve already seen her unconsciously use wind, but bear with me. Zoey doesn’t have a single advantage here.

The only thing she has that could possibly be called an advantage is that she has Nyx’s favor, and even then, that doesn’t count, because using Nyx to overthrow Aphrodite is an abuse of her own power, as it would be if Neferet did anything to Aphrodite. No matter how you look at it, someone is abusing their power to do this, which is ostensibly the reason why Zoey believes Aphrodite should be removed in the first place.

Does anyone want to take a crack at explaining why we’re supposed to be on Zoey’s side with this? I’m serious; why are we not supposed to believe that Zoey is a hypocritical whore?

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

Speshul Snowflake: 185

"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.”

Is that all you airheads think about? It’s like they’ve completely forgotten all about their problem with Aphrodite; let’s gossip about Zoey’s awesomeness!

Speshul Snowflake: 186

"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.”

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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.”

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"Huh?" I said. Puissant?

I think it would be more fitting if you took the ‘u’ out and just called her a pissant.

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

Speshul Snowflake: 189

"Now, that's some seriously good news," Erin said, as Shaunee nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

It just occurred to me, if they hate Aphrodite so much, why have they not attempted to overthrow her before this? Ignoring all of the reasons I just listed up there, I want to know why. They’ve clearly wanted her gone for a while now, and if they searched around, I bet they could find some others who agree with them. Why were they all just apparently satisfied with sitting on their asses waiting for Zoey to descend from on high and grace them with a solution?

"So when and where are we doing the purification thingy?" 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.”

“Whose ass are we going to kiss if you’re not there?”

Speshul Snowflake: 190

Why are you suddenly calling her a High Priestess? She isn’t! She’s a three-day-old fledgling! She’s not qualified to do any of this!

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

Zoey, you…you’re a special kind of stupid, aren’t you? He wasn’t talking about a literal circle. He was talking about a circle as in a group of friends—

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

Or…not. Okay. Literal circle. Let’s go with that. Why not?

"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.

Speshul Snowflake: 191

Everyone looked at the gay scholar of our group.

DAMIEN’S GAY, GUYS! DID YOU GET THAT? HE’S GAY! GAY GAY GAY GAY!

"Sounds like good logic to me," he said.

No, that doesn’t sound like good logic. It doesn’t make any sense at all! How does her having an affinity for the elements somehow mean you would be able to suddenly feel them? I’m pretty sure affinities don’t work like that.

Except we all know that’s exactly how it’s going to work, because PCK says so, despite us knowing better.

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.

THEN WHY WOULD YOU KEEP ARGUING?! Are you trying to pretend to be selfless or something, and insisting that this heavy responsibility is yours alone to bear? Or do you just like being contrary, even when you have no good reason to do so?

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.

Speshul Snowflake: 192

Nyx the Puppet-Master is back at work, and Zoey is so stupid she doesn’t realize that she’s being played.

"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.

No, sweetcheeks, she’s going to do this in the shower.

"Yeah.”

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

Plot twist: it’s not a stream, it’s an open sewer.

"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?”

Now we see the real reason why they’re here. It’s not for moral support or anything like that. It’s so Zoey doesn’t have to lift a finger to do any of this herself. Her little minions will do all the hard work, while she just kicks back and barks orders at them.

"Well, in the purification ritual Grandma always thanked the seven sacred directions the Cherokee people honor: north, south, east, west, sun, earth, and self.

I wasn’t aware sun, earth, and self were directions, but okay.

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.

I think you’re a boot-licking little toadie. Pull your head out of Zoey’s ass, will you?

"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.

ZOEY IS NOT A HIGH PRIESTESS, GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!

A few minutes later, after reassembling herself…

I love how this insinuates that High Priestesses (I keep wanting to type ‘High Prices’. What’s up with that?) are the only ones who should have self-confidence and trust in themselves. Everyone else can just fuck right off, I guess.

And why are we discussing Zoey being a High Priestess as if it’s already a done deal? Why isn’t Zoey protesting this? I thought she didn’t want to take Aphrodite’s place. Again, it just backs up my belief that Zoey actually loves this, and she’s just arguing so everyone can reassure her that of course she’s qualified, and of course she can do this.

"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.

Not that it would stop you, even if it was a bad idea. Besides, it’s your little peons doing the stealing, so they’re the ones that’ll take the heat if they get caught. I bet you would happily throw them under the bus, too.

"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.

I know what you’re doing. You’re switching to present tense again. Knock it off.

"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.

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Because of course everyone is so obsessed with Zoey and what she’s doing that they would stalk her all across campus to spy on her.

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.”

Is that supposed to be funny? Because it’s not.

"That doesn't take much pretending," Shaunee said.

Erin snorted.

"Okay, we'll bring the stuff," Damien said.

WHY?! Why are you doing all of the work for Zoey? This is her ritual, she should be doing herself! And I don’t care if they supposedly know the school better than she does; she can ask for directions! It just makes her look lazy, and like she can’t be bothered to do all the menial things that the commoners can do for her.

"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.

Ow. Just…ow. That hurt.

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.

Oh, shut up with your fake humility. If they’re not talking about you, then you aren’t happy. Don’t even try.

I was chewing and trying to remember all the words to the purification prayer when Nala hopped up on the bench beside me.

Why are animals allowed in the dining hall? I hope everyone likes eating cat hair! Seriously, that is ridiculously unsanitary.

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.

Okay, it’s slightly more acceptable for them to give her a nickname, since they’ve had more than a single conversation with her, and are ostensibly her friends, but he still creeps me out, and all four of them calling her that at the same time (apparently individualized goodbyes are for losers) is a bit freaky. I can just picture all of them saying it in unison like some kind of hive mind.

Spanish class zoomed by: a whole lesson on learning how to say that we like things or don't like things. Prof. Garmy was cracking me up. She said it would change our lives. Me gusta gatos. (I like cats.) Me gusta it 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.)

…there’s a vagina joke in there somewhere just begging to get out.

Those were Prof. 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.

You Judgemental Bastards: 180

No me gusta el bitch-o Zoey. Look at that, I can do it, too.

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.

Let me reiterate again. If it takes you an hour to clean one single stall, you’re doing it wrong.

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.

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Because there’s no mention that anyone else is ready to start riding, so I’m just going to assume that Zoey is the only one.

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.

Or you could just wait until tomorrow to do it.

"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? I mean, yeah, spiders don’t usually make a lot of noise, but that’s not what I would have said if someone snuck up on me. Or maybe it’s because a lot of people think spiders are gross and comparing Aphrodite to spiders means she’s gross, too.

"What's wrong?" she purred. "Guilty conscience?”

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

Okay, Zoey actually has a reasonable point here. But I’m not giving her any credit after everything she’s already done.

"So you're not guilty?”

"Aphrodite, I don't know what you're talking about."

See…here’s the thing. On television, whenever someone is called out for doing something, they always, always use this phrase, almost without exception. Sometimes it’s done in a funny manner, which can work, because neither party buys what they’re saying, but when you’re trying to feign innocence, don’t ever use this phrase. It’s practically an admission of guilt.

"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.”

Aphrodite, you are too good for this series. Why are you so awesome?

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.

You Judgemental Bastards: 181

Huh. I wondered (briefly) if the Twins realized how accurate their nickname for her was.

Naw, Zoey, they put a bunch of names in a hat and pulled one out at random. My god, you are stupid!

"No matter what bullshit you've heard he's still mine. He'll always be mine.”

My eyes widened and I felt a wash of relief so intense it made me laugh.

Oh, well done. You just gave yourself away.

She was talking about Erik, not about the purification prayer! "Wow, you sound like Erik's mom. Does he know you're checking up on him?”

Actually, if anything, she sounds more like you when you got all possessive of Heath after finding out that Kayla liked him.

"Did I look like Erik's mom when you watched me suck his dick in the hall?”

So she did know. Whatever. I suppose it was inevitable that we would have this conversation. "No, you didn't look like Erik's mom. You looked like what you are—desperate—while you pathetically tried to throw yourself at a guy who was clearly telling you he didn't want you anymore.”

I…don’t know how I feel about this. Normally, I would give it a point, but the fact is that what Aphrodite did to him was wrong.

However, I do find it rather hilarious that she’s defending Erik now when just last chapter, she was getting all sulky and accusing him of still being with Aphrodite.

"Fucking bitch! Nobody talks to me like that!”

She raised her hand and, clawlike, moved to slash at my face. Then it seemed that the world stopped, leaving the two of us in a little bubble of slow-motion. I caught her wrist, stopping her easily—too easily. It was like she was a small, sick child who had struck out in anger, but was really too weak to do any harm. I held her there for a moment, meeting her hateful eyes.

But this… This just makes me extremely uncomfortable. It reminds me so goddamn much of Bella Swan post-vampirism, when she’s constantly bragging about how powerful she is and how easy it is to break things and potentially hurt people.

"Don't ever try to hit me again. I'm not one of the kids you can bully. Get this, and get this now. I am not scared of you." Then I flung her wrist away from me, and was totally shocked to see her stagger back several feet.

Rubbing her wrist, she glared at me. "Don't bother showing up tomorrow. Consider yourself uninvited and no longer a Dark Daughter.”

"Really?" I felt unbelievably calm. I knew I held the trump card on this and I pulled it.

Manipulative bitch.

"So you want to explain to my mentor, High Priestess Neferet, the vamp whose idea it was for me to join the Dark Daughters in the first place, that you kicked me out because you're jealous that your ex-boyfriend likes me?”

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Even when she’s threatening someone, she has to go out of her way to remind them how special she is for having the High Priestess as a mentor.

I also know what she was going for with this threat, but to me, it just sounds like she’s going to tattle on Aphrodite. Very mature, Zoey.

Her face paled.

"Oh, and you may be very sure that I'll be totally, completely upset when Neferet asks me about it." I sniffed and sobbed a little like I was fake crying.

MANIPULATIVE FUCKING WHORE-BITCH!

"Do you know what it's like to be a part of something and have no one else in the group want you there?" she snarled between her clenched teeth.

I felt my stomach clench and had to force myself not to let her see she'd struck a nerve. Yes, I knew exactly what it was like to be a part of something—a supposed family—and have it feel like no one else wanted me there, but Aphrodite wasn't going to know it.

Zoey, did it ever occur to you that if you weren’t such a horrible person, your family might have wanted you around more? And I’m not talking about her mother and stepfather; they actually were very cruel people. I’m talking about her siblings. We haven’t seen her interact with them at all, and because we know her to be an unreliable narrator, it’s completely possible that they were actually quite lovely people. For all we know, if she had made even a little bit of effort to be pleasant to them, they could have been very close and presented a strong front against her mother and stepfather. Things wouldn’t have had to be so terrible for Zoey if she had just tried.

I’m not saying for sure that’s what would have happened, but we also don’t know that it wouldn’t. This could be—at least partially—a situation of Zoey’s own making.

Instead I smiled, and in my sweetest voice I said, "Why, whatever do you mean, Aphrodite? Erik is part of the Dark Sons and just today at lunch he told me how happy he was that I'd joined the Dark Daughters.”

"Come to the ritual. Pretend you're part of the Dark Daughters. But you'd better remember something. They're my Dark Daughters. You're the outsider; the one who is not wanted. And remember this, too. Erik Night and I have a bond that you'll never understand. He's not my ex anything. You didn't stay to see the end of our little game in the hall. He was then and he is now exactly what I want him to be. Mine." Then she tossed her very big, very blond hair and stalked away.

Because if you’re blonde, you must be evil. Sorry, folks, that’s just how it is. Better practice your cackling and mustache-twirling, because you’re EVIL!

About two breaths later Stevie Rae stuck her head out from behind an old oak that was not far from the sidewalk and said, "Is she gone?”

Fucking coward.

"Thankfully." I shook my head at Stevie Rae. "What are you doing back there?”

"Are you kidding? I'm hiding. She scares the bejezzus outta me.

It’s ‘bejesus’. How hard is that to spell?

I was coming to meet you and saw the two of you arguing. Man, she actually tried to hit you!”

"Aphrodite has some serious anger-management issues." Stevie Rae laughed.

Says the girl who threw her back several steps. Pots and kettles, man.

"Uh, Stevie Rae, you can come out from behind there now." Still laughing, Stevie Rae practically skipped over to me and linked her arm with mine. "You really stood up to her!”

“Bend over, let me kiss your ass! Or at least stick your leg out and let me hump it! Please, please, please?”

"I really did.”

"She really, really hates your guts.”

"She really, really does.”

What a coincidence. I hate your guts, too.

"You know what that means?" Stevie Rae said.

"Yep. I don't have any choice now. I'm going to have to take her down.”

I still don’t get your reasoning here. You still have no proof that she’s abusing her powers, and you have no explanation other than “well, we don’t like each other.”

"Yep.”

But I knew that I'd had no choice even before Aphrodite tried to scratch my eyes out.

Dramatic, much?

I hadn't had any choice since Nyx had placed her Mark on me.

You hadn’t even known Aphrodite existed when that happened! Also…

Speshul Snowflake: 196

As Stevie Rae and I walked together in the gaslight-illuminated richness of the night, the Goddess's words repeated over and over through my mind: You are old beyond your years, Zoeybird.

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Bullshit, she is! She says things like ‘hee hee’ and laughs at the idea of breasts! If that is considered ‘old beyond your years’, I would hate to see what Nyx considers young and immature!

Believe in yourself and you will find a way. But remember, darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.

 

Speshul Snowflake: 197
Name Drop: 67
You Judgemental Bastards: 181