Awakened

not until afterward.” She tossed the dress at me. “Now put this on and hurry up. The Twins and Darius are bringing Damien up here so we can all walk out to the pyre together—a show of nerd herd solidarity and all, which I believe is a good decision,” she added quickly when Stevie Rae sucked in air and opened her mouth to interrupt. “Oh, and hi. It’s good to see you and your hypochondriac boyfriend back in the real world.”
    “Fine. I’ll wear this.” I ducked into our bathroom, then popped my head out and met Aphrodite cool blue eyes. “Oh, and Stark is my Guardian and Warrior first, my boyfriend second. And he is darn sure not a hypochondriac. You know that. You saw what happened to him.”
    “Huh,” Aphrodite scoffed under her breath.
    I ignored the rude sound but kept the door open so I could still talk to them while I got dressed. When I saw the seer stone I paused, and decided to let it hang down beneath the top of the dress—no way did I feel like answering questions about Skye and Sgiach tonight. I combed my hair quickly and said, “Hey, do you guys think Neferet’s letting me light the pyre because she expects me to mess it up?” Hell, I expected to mess it up, why wouldn’t she?
    “Well, I think her plan’s much more nefarious than you fumbling around with some words ’cause you’re bawling, ’cause you actually cared ’bout Jack,” Stevie Rae said.
    “Nef what?” said Shaunee as she, too, walked right into my room without so much as a howdy do.
    “Arious who?” chimed in Erin. “What’s she doing, Twin? Tryin’ to pick up the Damien vocab slack?”
    “Totally sounds like it, Twin,” Shaunee replied.
    “I like words, and you two can go suck a lemon,” Stevie Rae said.
    Aphrodite started to laugh and then covered it with a cough when I left the bathroom and glared at all of them. “We’re getting ready to go to a funeral. I think we should show a little more respect for Jack, being as he was our friend and all.”
    The Twins instantly looked contrite. They came over to me and each gave me a hug, mumbling hi s and glad you’re back s.
    “Z has a point about bein’ more serious, and not just ’cause it’s Jack’s funeral and that’s real terrible. We all know there’s no way Neferet has suddenly decided to do the right thing and respect Zoey and her powers,” Stevie Rae said.
    “We need to be on our guard,” I agreed. “Stay close to me. Be ready. If I have to cast a protective circle, I don’t imagine I’ll have much time to do it.”
    “Why don’t you cast one to begin with?” Aphrodite said.
    “I was gonna, but I looked up stuff about a vampyre funeral, and the High Priestess usually doesn’t cast one. It’s her job, well, uh, I mean my job tonight, to stand as respectful witness to the loss of a fellow vampyre, and to help send the vampyre’s spirit to Nyx’s Otherworld. There’s no circle casting involved in that, just prayers to Nyx and such.”
    “You should be good at that, Z, since you just got back from the Otherworld,” Stevie Rae said.
    “I just hope I do Jack proud.” I felt the tears start to sting my eyes and I blinked hard, forcing them back. The last thing any of my friends needed was for me to be a bawling, snotting mess tonight.
    “So none of you have any idea what Neferet’s up to?” I asked them.
    There was a bunch of head shaking, and Aphrodite said, “All I can think is that she’s going to somehow try to humiliate you, but I don’t see how that can happen if you stay calm and strong and focus on why we’re all here tonight.”
    “For Jack,” Shaunee said.
    “To say bye to him,” Erin said, her voice shaking a little.
    “Well, that’s nice and all,” Stevie Rae said, and we looked at her. “But I think funerals, no matter what they’re like, are mostly for the people left behind, like Damien.”
    “That’s a really good point, Stevie Rae.” I smiled at her in gratitude. “I’ll remember that.”
    Stevie Rae cleared her voice. “I know because I saw my mama today, and she was kinda holdin’ a mini funeral for me. It was her way of tryin’ to find closure.”
    I had a moment of intense shock while the Twins exploded with “Ohmygoddess, how awful!”
    “She came here?” Aphrodite asked. I was surprised at how kind her voice sounded.
    Stevie Rae nodded. “She was out by the front gate leavin’ me a funeral wreath, but really what she was doin’ was what Damien is gonna try to do tonight: