Revealed

Aurox’s momentum had him stumbling inside, staggering across the sand and into the hallway that led to the door to the basement and somehow bumping up against Kramisha.
    “Damn, Aurox! ’Scuse yourself,” she snapped at him.
    “I didn’t mean—I couldn’t get the door—well, sorry,” he finally managed. He saw that she, and the group of fledgling behind her, were staring at his beer. He followed their gazes, looking down at an almost full cup. When he looked up it was to grin at her and slur, “I didn’t sssspill any!”
    “You’s shitfaced,” Kramisha told him. Then she turned toward the open door to the basement and shouted, “Z! Your boy’s out here makin’ an ass of hisself!”
    “Noooo! Not, Zo, I need—” Aurox tried to whisper to her, but Kramisha waved a hand in front of her face, screwed up her nose, and backed away from him.
    “Shewww!”
    “Kramisha?” Zoey was coming up from the basement. Aurox was relieved to see Stark right behind her.
    “
That
smells nasty.” Kramisha pointed at Aurox. “He been drinkin’. A lot. I ain’t entirely sure what he is, but I’m sure gettin’ shitfaced can’t be good for him.” The other fledglings were still staring at Aurox, and she motioned for them to follow her. “Let’s get settled. And leave Z to her own business.”
    Watching them go, Aurox said, “I’m not a
that.
”
    Zoey and Stark walked up to him. Zoey sniffed and looked from his almost full cup to his face. Her big, pretty eyes got bigger, but not really prettier. “Holy crap! You’re drunk!”

CHAPTER TWELVE
Stark
    “Drunk?” Aurox said. He looked confused and, well, drunk. “Drunk,” the kid repeated. Then he nodded with exaggerated seriousness. “Yes. Drunk.”
    Zoey opened her mouth, no doubt to ask Aurox what the hell was going on, but he ignored her, stepped into Stark’s personal space, and in a gush of beer breath spoke way louder than the whisper he’d been trying for, “Stark, you come with me. You have to pretend to be vampyre-specialist-donor vampyre and make them forget vampyre pussy.”
    Zoey made a noise that sounded like she might have been choking. Stark couldn’t look at her. He was too busy trying not to bust out laughing. Aurox was totally wasted! And he’d just said vampyre pussy—out loud. Man, Zoey was gonna shit kittens! The whole thing was awesome.
    “Aurox, how many of those have you had?” Stark pointed at the almost full red solo cup.
    Aurox squinted at the cup. Stark watched him count on his fingers. “One, two, three, four. This is four, and I didn’t spill it, even though I jumped on
and
off the wall. Stark, beer is good!”
    “My head is going to explode,” Zoey said.
    “No! No! No!” Aurox assured her, sloshing beer all around them. “Nothing bad will happen. Stark will make the human boys forget.”
    Suddenly, Stark didn’t think Aurox was so funny. “Hang on—what human boys?”
    “The ones with the keg who’re looking for vampyre pussy,” Aurox said, totally matter-of-factly.
    “What in the hell is going on!” Zoey shouted.
    “Jeesh, Zo, take a chill pill,” Aurox said. “Me and Stark can handle it.”
    For just that instant Aurox sounded so much like Heath that Stark watched Zoey’s face pale. Her hand went to the Seer Stone around her neck and she fingered it nervously.
    “Zoey.” Stark spoke softly, trying to radiate calm to her. “It’s going to be okay. Whatever’s going on,
Aurox
is right. He and I can handle it.”
    Zoey met his gaze and nodded, not saying anything. Stark turned back to Aurox. Damn, it was so fucking weird! The kid looked
nothing
like Heath. He usually sounded and acted
nothing
like Heath. And yet here was Heath’s spirit, all bathed in beer, shining through Aurox so brightly it almost blinded them.
    “Give me that.” Stark took the beer from Aurox and tossed it onto the sandy floor of the field house. Aurox watched it spill as if Stark had wasted water in the desert. “Now, tell me exactly what’s going on.”
    “I drank beer with them. It was good, and they were nice, but they shouldn’t be here. I didn’t want to scare them and make them tell other humans about,” he paused, and did his exaggerated whisper again, “
you know, my bull.
So, I told them to wait and I came to get you so that you could make them go away and forget.”
    “There are human boys here somewhere?” Zoey asked.
    Aurox’s face scrunched up as he frowned at her.