Marked

with an eerie silver watercolor, and reminding me suddenly of Aphrodite and her ritual.
    "Any chance Aphrodite will cancel the Samhain ritual tonight?"
    "No way. The Dark Daughters' rituals are never cancelled.”
    "Well, hell," I said. Then I glanced at Stevie Rae. "He was their refrigerator.”
    She gave me a startled look. "Elliott?”
    "Yeah, it was really gross, and he acted all drugged and weird. He must have been starting to reject the Change even then." There was an uncomfortable silence, and then I added, "I didn't want to say anything to you before, especially after you told me about…well…you know. Are you sure Aphrodite won't cancel tonight? I mean, what with Elizabeth and now Elliott.”
    "It won't matter. And the Dark Daughters don't care about the kid they use as a refrigerator. They'll just get someone else.”
    She hesitated. "Zoey, I've been thinking. Maybe you shouldn't go tonight. I heard what Aphrodite said to you yesterday. She's going to make sure no one accepts you. She'll be really, really mean.”
    "I'll be okay, Stevie Rae.”
    "No, I have a bad feeling about it. You don't have a plan yet, do you?”
    "Well, no. I'm still in the reconnoitering stage I said, trying to lighten up the conversation.
    "Reconnoiter later. Today's been too awful. Everyone's upset. I think you should wait.”
    "I can't just not show up, especially after what Aphrodite said to me yesterday. She'll think she told me and now she can intimidate me.”
    Stevie Rae took a deep breath. "Well, then I think you should take me with you.” I started to shake my head but she kept right on talking. "You're a Dark Daughter now. Technically, you can invite people to the rituals. So invite me. I'll go and watch your back.”
    I thought about drinking blood and liking it so much that it was obvious, even to Warlike and Terrible. And I tried, and failed, not to think about the scent of blood―Heath's and Erik's and even Elliott's. Stevie Rae would find out someday how blood affected me, but it wouldn't be tonight. Actually, if I could help it, it wouldn't be anytime soon. I didn't want to chance losing her or the Twins or Damien―and I was afraid I would. Yes, they knew I was "special,” and they accepted me because that uniqueness meant High Priestess to them, and that was good. My bloodlust was not so good. Would they accept it as easily?
    "No way, Stevie Rae.”
    "But, Zoey, you shouldn't go into that hag pack alone."
    "I won't be alone. Erik will be there.”
    "Yeah, but he used to be Aphrodite's boyfriend. Who knows how good he'll be at standing up to her if she gets real hateful with you.”
    "Honey, I can stand up for myself.”
    "I know, but―" She broke off and gave me a funny look. "Z, are you vibrating?”
    "Huh? Am I what?" And then I heard it, too, and started laughing. "It's my cell phone. I stuck it in my purse after it charged up last night." I pulled it out of my purse, glancing at the time on the face dial. "It's past midnight, who the heck…" Flipping the phone open I was shocked to see that I had fifteen new text messages and five missed calls. "Jeesh, someone's been calling and calling, and I didn't even notice.” I checked the text messages first, and felt my stomach start to clench as I read them.
    Zo call me I stl luv u
    Zo call me plz
    Got 2 see u
    U & Me
    Will u call?
    I wnt 2 talk 2 u Zo!
    Call me bak
    I didn't need to read any more of them. They were all basically the same. "Ah, crap. They're all from Heath.”
    "Your ex?”
    I sighed. "Yeah.”
    "What does he want?”
    "Apparently, me." Reluctantly, I keyed in the code to access my voice messages, and Heath's cute, dopey voice shocked me with how loud and animated he sounded.
    "Zo! Call me. Like, I know it's late, but…wait. It's not late to you, but it's late to me. But that's okay 'cause I don't care. I just want you to call me. Okay. So. Bye. Call me.”
    I groaned and deleted it. The next one sounded even more manic.
    "Zoey! Okay. You need to call me. Really. And don't be mad. Hey, I don't even like Kayla. She's lame. I still love you, Zo, only you. So call me. I don't care when. I'll just wake up.”
    "Man oh man," Stevie Rae said, easily overhearing Heath's gushing. "The boy's obsessed. No wonder you dumped him.”
    "Yeah," I mumbled, quickly deleting the second message. The third was much like the first two, only more desperate. I turned the volume down and tapped my foot impatiently while I went through all five messages, not listening