P.C. Cast - Awakened

“And she’s really coming home?” Damien repeated the question he’d started with.

“Yes,” Aphrodite and Stevie Rae said together.

“Okay. Good. Yeah. It’ll be better when Zoey’s here,” Damien said, still hugging Duchess, with Cameron pressed close to his side.

“Hey, Duchess and Cammy look like they could use some dinner,” Aphrodite said. Stevie Rae was surprised to see her reach out and, tentatively, pat the big dog’s head. “I don’t see any dog food in here, and all Cammy has is that wretched dry stuff. Quite frankly Maleficent won’t even look at anything that doesn’t appear to be fresh catch. How about I have Darius help me bring some food up for them? Unless you’d rather be alone. If so, I can take Cammy and Duchess with me and feed them for you.”

Damien’s eyes got all big and round. “No! Don’t take them. I want them to stay here with me.”

“Okay, okay, no problem. Darius can get Duchess’s dog food,” Stevie Rae spoke up, wondering what the heck Aphrodite was thinking. No way did Damien need to be without those two animals.

“Duch’s food and stuff is in Jack’s room,” Damien said, ending on a little sob.

“Would you like us to bring all her stuff in here for you?” Stevie Rae asked, taking Damien’s hand.

“Yes,” he whispered. Then his body jerked and his face blanched even whiter than it had been. “And don’t let them throw away Jack’s stuff! I have to see it! I have to go through it!”

“I’m already ahead of you on that. No way was I letting those vamps get their claws into Jack’s cool collections. I delegated the responsibility of boxing up his stuff and sneaking it out to the Twins,” Aprodite said, looking smug.

Damien, clearly forgetting for just an instant that his world was filled with tragedy, almost smiled. “ You got the Twins to do something?”

“Damn right,” Aphrodite said.

“What’d it cost you?” Stevie Rae asked.

Aphrodite scowled. “Two shirts from Hale Bob’s new collection.”

“But I didn’t think his spring stuff was out yet,” Damien said.

“ A: Hello— gay that you know that, and b: collections are always out early if you’re filthy rich and your mom ‘knows’ someone,” she said, air-quoting the word.

“Who’s Hale Bob?” Stevie Rae asked.

“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Aphrodite said. “Just come with me. You can help me carry the dog accoutrements.”

“And by that you mean I’m carryin’ them, right?”

“Right.” Aphrodite bent and, like she did it every day, kissed Damien on the top of his head. “I’ll be right back with the dog and cat crap. Oh, want me to bring Maleficent? She—”

“No!” Damien and Stevie Rae said together with twin tones of horror.

Aphrodite lifted her chin indignantly. “It’s so typical that no one understands that magnificent creature except me.”

“See you soon,” Stevie Rae told Damien, and kissed him on the cheek.

Out in the hall Stevie Rae frowned at Aphrodite. “Seriously, even you couldn’t have thought taking those animals away from him would be a good idea.”

Aphrodite rolled her eyes and flipped her hair back. “Of course not, moron. I knew it would horrify him and start to snap him out of his non-thinking-super-depressed state, which it did. Darius and I will bring animal food back for the dog and cat zoo up there and, just coincidentally, we’ll stop by the dining hall and get some to-go stuff for our dinner, bring enough for him, and Damien is too much of a lady to kick us out or make us eat by ourselves. Et voilà! Damien has something in his stomach before he has to go through the whole funeral pyre horribleness.”

“Neferet is up to something really, really bad,” Stevie Rae said.

“Count on it,” Aphrodite said.

“Well, at least it’s gonna happen in front of everybody, so she can’t, like, kill her.”

Aphrodite raised her brow disdainfully at Stevie Rae. “In front of everybody Neferet broke loose Kalona, killed Shekinah, and tried to order Stark, who cannot miss what the hell he shoots at, to fire an arrow at you once and at Z another time. Seriously, bumpkin, get a clue.”

“Well, there were extenuatin’ circumstances with me, and Neferet didn’t order Stark to shoot Z in front of the whole school, just in front of us and a bunch of nuns. Of course now she’s saying Kalona made her do it for both things. Plus, it’s still our word against hers. No one listens to teenagers, or nuns, for that matter.”

“Do you doubt for one single instant that Neferet can make whatever she does tonight look like she’s as innocent as an infant?” Aphrodite paused to grimace. “Goddess, I can’t stand babies—ugh, all that puking and eating and pooping and stuff. Plus, they stretch out your—”

“Really?” Stevie Rae interrupted her tirade. “I’m not talkin’ ’bout girl parts and babies with you.”

“I was just using an analogy, stupid. Basically, we’re in for some shit in just a few hours. So get Z ready while I try to prop up Damien so he won’t dissolve into a puddle of tears and snot and angst tonight.”

“You know, you can’t pretend to be all ‘I don’t care about Damien’ with me after I saw you kiss him on the top of his head. ”

“Which I will deny for the rest of my very long and attractive life,” Aphrodite said.

“Aphrodite, is you ever gonna get un-obsessed with your own self?”

Stevie Rae and Aphrodite came to a sudden stop when Kramisha stood up from the shadows at the edge of the porch of the girl’s dorm.

“I’m gonna have to get my eyes checked. I can’t see crap until it’s right in front of me,” Stevie Rae said.

“It’s not you,” Aphrodite said in a deadpan voice. “It’s Kramisha. She’s black. Shadows are black—hence the reason we didn’t see her.”

Kramisha stood up and looked down her nose at Aphrodite. “No, you did not just—”

“Oh, please, save it.” Aphrodite breezed past her to the door of the dorm. “Prejudice, oppression, the Man, blah, blah, yawn, blah. I’m the biggest minority here, so don’t even try to pull that on me.”

Kramisha blinked twice and looked as stunned as Stevie Rae felt.

“Uh, Aphrodite,” Stevie Rae said. “You look like Barbie. How in the heck can you be a minority?”

Aphrodite pointed to her forehead, which was completely blank and unMarked. “ Human in a school full of fledglings and vamps equals mi-nor-i-ty.” She opened the door and twitched into the building.

“That girl ain’t no human,” Kramisha said. “I’d say she more like a mad dog, but I don’t want to offend no dogs.”

Stevie Rae let out a long-suffering sigh. “I know. You’re right. She’s really not nice, even when she’s bein’ nice. For her. If that makes any sense.”

“It don’t, but you ain’t been makin’ a whole lot of sense in general lately, Stevie Rae,” Kramisha said.

“You know what? I do not need this right now and I do not know what you mean and at this second I do not care. I’ll see you later, Kramisha.” Stevie Rae started to walk by her, but Kramisha stepped firmly in her way. She smoothed back the outside flip edge of her yellow bob wig and said, “You got no call to have that hateful tone of voice with me.”

“My tone’s not hateful. My tone’s annoyed and tired.”

“Nope. It be hateful and you know it. You shouldn’t lie much. You ain’t very good at it.”

“Fine. I won’t lie much.” Stevie Rae cleared her throat, gave herself a little shake like a cat caught in a springtime shower, planted a big, fake grin on her face, and started again in a super bright tone of voice. “Hey there, girlfriend, nice to see ya, but I gotta be goin’ now!”