Marked

too far away from me. She looked up at me, with red glowing eyes, and I swear it was Elizabeth.”
    "No way! Were you totally freaked?”
    "Totally. The second she saw me she gave this horrible shriek and then ran off.”
    "I would have been scared shitless.”
    "I was, only I hardly had time to think about it when Heath and Kayla showed up.”
    "What do you mean? How could they be here?”
    "No, not here, they were outside the wall. They must have heard me trying to settle Nala down after she completely freaked at Elizabeth's ghost, because they came running up.”
    "Nala saw her, too?”
    I nodded.
    Stevie Rae shivered. "Then she must have really been there."
    "Are you sure she's dead?" My voice was almost a whisper. "There couldn't have been some mistake made and she's still alive but wandering around the school?" It sounded ridiculous, but not much more ridiculous than me seeing an actual ghost.
    Stevie Rae swallowed hard. "She's dead. I saw her die. Everyone in class did.”
    She looked like she was going to cry and the whole subject was creeping me out, so I shifted to a less scary topic. "Well, I could be wrong. Maybe it was just some kid with weird eyes who looked like her. It was dark, and then Heath and Kayla were suddenly there.”
    "What was that all about?”
    "Heath said they came to 'bust me out’," I rolled my eyes. "Can you imagine?”
    "Are they stupid?”
    "Apparently. Oh, and then Kayla, my ex-best friend, made it obvious that she's after Heath!”
    Stevie Rae gasped. "Slut!”
    "No kidding. Anyway, I told them to leave and not come back, and then I got upset, which is when Erik found me.”
    "Aww! Was he sweet and romantic?”
    "Yeah, he was, kinda. And he called me Z.”
    "O000h, a nickname is a seriously good sign.”
    "That's what I thought.”
    "So then he walked you back to the dorm?”
    "Yeah, he said that he'd take me to get something to eat, but the only thing that was still open was the rec hall, and I didn't want to go back there." Ah, crap. I knew right away that I shouldn't have said that much.
    "Were the Dark Daughters awful?”
    I looked at Stevie Rae with her big deer-like eyes, and knew I couldn't tell her about drinking blood. Not yet. "Well, you know how Neferet was sexy and beautiful and classy?”
    Stevie Rae nodded.
    "Aphrodite did basically what Neferet did, but she looked like a ho.”
    "I've always thought that she was really nasty," Stevie Rae said, shaking her head in disgust.
    "Tell me about it." I looked at Stevie Rae and blurted, "Yesterday, right before Neferet took me here to the dorm I saw Aphrodite trying to give Erik a blow job.”
    "No way! Jeesh, she's disgusting. Wait, you said she was trying to do it. What's up with that?”
    "He was telling her no and pushing her away. He said he didn't want her anymore.”
    Stevie Rae giggled. "I'll bet that made her lose what little of her mind she has left.”
    I remembered how she'd been all over him, even when he was clearly telling her no. "Actually, I would have felt sorry for her if she hadn't been so…so…" I struggled to put it into words.
    "Hag from hell–like?" Stevie Rae offered helpfully.
    "Yeah, I guess that's it. She has this attitude, like it's her right to be as mean and nasty as she wants to be, and we should all just bow down and accept her.”
    Stevie Rae nodded. "That's how her friends are, too."
    "Yeah, I met the awful triplets.”
    "You mean Warlike, Terrible, and Wasp?”
    "Exactly. What were they thinking when they took those horrid names?" I said, popping pretzels in my mouth.
    "They were thinking exactly what that entire group of hers thinks―that they are better than everyone else and untouchable because nasty Aphrodite is going to be the next High Priestess.”
    I spoke the next words as they whispered through my mind. "I don't think Nyx will allow that.”
    "What do you mean? They are already the 'in' group, and Aphrodite has been leader of the Dark Daughters since her affinity became obvious during her fifth former year.”
    "What's her affinity?”
    "She gets visions, like of future tragedies," Stevie Rae scowled.
    "Do you think she fakes them?”
    "Oh, heck no! She's amazingly accurate. What I think, and Damien and the Twins agree with me, is that she only tells about the visions if she has one when she's around people outside her little group.”
    "Wait, are you saying she knows about bad things that are going to happen in time to stop them, but she doesn't do anything about