Chosen

before she spoke I knew that whatever Neferet had broken in her when she'd caused her to become the walking, talking dead, had been healed.
    "I killed her! I—I tried to stop! She wouldn't let me go, and I couldn't pull away! Oh, Zoey, I'm so sorry!" she sobbed.
    I stumbled to her, Loren's words ringing in my head, You should keep in mind that you're invoking powerful magic, and there's always a cost associated with that. "It wasn't your fault, Stevie Rae." I told her. "You didn't—"
    "Her face!" Damien's voice came from just behind me. "Look at her Mark."
    I blinked, not really understanding, and then I gasped. I'd been so busy looking into her eyes, so busy seeing the old Stevie Rae, that I hadn't noticed the obvious. The crescent moon that rested in the middle of her forehead had been filled in. A beautiful pattern of tattoos made of swirling flowers with long, graceful stems all twined together framed her eyes and stretched down her cheekbones.
    But the tattoos weren't vampyre sapphire. They were the brilliant scarlet of new blood.
    "What are y'all lookin' at?" Stevie Rae said.
    "H-here," Erin fumbled with her ever-present purse and pulled out a makeup mirror, handing it to Stevie Rae. "Ohmygood ness !" Stevie Rae drawled. "What does it mean?"
    "It means you're healed. You've Changed. But what you've Changed into is a new kind of vampyre," Aphrodite said, struggling to sit up.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

    "Holy shit!" Shaunee squeaked and stumbled back, clutching onto Erin's arm to keep from falling over.
    "You were dead!" Erin said.
    "I don't think I was," Aphrodite said, rubbing her forehead with one hand and gingerly touching the bite mark on her neck with the other. "Ouch! Dammit, I hurt all over."
    "I'm really really sorry, Aphrodite," Stevie Rae said. "I mean, I don't like you, but I sure wouldn't bite you. Or at least not now I wouldn't."
    "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Aphrodite said. "Don't worry about it. It was all part of Nyx's plan, as painful and inconvenient as that might be." She winced again at the pain in her neck. "God, does anyone have a Band-Aid?"
    "I have some tissue in here somewhere. Hang on and I'll see if I can find it," Erin said, digging through her purse again.
    "Try to find a clean one for her, Twin. Aphrodite has enough stress to deal with without a nasty infection."
    "Gee, that's so damn nice of you two," Aphrodite said. She glanced up at the Twins with a half smile on her face, and I got my first good look at her.
    My stomach dropped down somewhere around my ankles.
    "It's gone!" I gasped.
    "Oh shit! Zoey's right," Damien said, staring at Aphrodite.
    "What?" Aphrodite said. "What's gone?"
    "Ah-oh," Shaunee said.
    "Yep, it is gone," Erin said as she handed Aphrodite some tissue.
    "What in the hell are you guys babbling about now?" Aphrodite said.
    "Here. Use this." Stevie Rae passed the mirror to her. "Look at your face."
    Aphrodite sighed, clearly irritated. "Okay, I know I look like complete shit. Hello! Stevie Rae just bit me. Here's a news flash: Not even I can look perfect all the time, especially when—" As soon as she focused on the mirror and got a look at the reflection of her face, Aphrodite's words ended like someone had pushed her STOP TALKING button. With a trembling hand she reached up to touch the spot in the middle of her forehead where Nyx's Mark had been. "It's gone." Her voice was a hoarse whisper. "How can it be gone?"
    "I've never, ever heard of anything like this happening. Not in any book—not anywhere," Damien said. "Once you're Marked you can't just get un-Marked."
    "It's how Stevie Rae was healed." Aphrodite sounded dazed, and she kept touching the empty spot in the middle of her forehead. "Nyx took it from me and gave it to Stevie Rae." A horrible shudder passed through Aphrodite's body. "And now I'm nothing but a human again." She scrambled to her feet, dropping the mirror. "I have to leave. I don't belong here anymore." She started backing woodenly toward the open trapdoor, eyes wide and glassy.
    "Wait, Aphrodite," I said, starting after her. "Maybe you're not human again. Maybe this is something weird that will go away in a day or two, and your Mark will come back."
    "No! My Mark is gone. I know it. Just—just leave me alone!" She ran through the door sobbing.
    The instant Aphrodite passed through the perimeter of the school wall the air rippled and there was a distinctive cracking noise like something big had been dropped and broken.
    Stevie Rae grabbed my