I stared down Stevie Rae, my stomach clenching causing me to hold onto riptide tighter than before. She looked terrible, she was extremely pale, thin, and she shared the scent of the others. Yet that wasn't the worst of it, her expression was. Stevie Rae used to have this glint of sunshine always in her eyes, even as she was rejecting the change it was there. Now her eyes were cold and lifeless, her expression cruel and flat. It caused me to get reminded of all those I couldn't save, protect.

"Stevie Rae, what happened to you?" I heard Zoey say her voice breaking.

"I died." Stevie rae said simply her voice twisted, a shadow of what it once was. Her okie twang no longer matched with the soft sweetness she always had.

"Are you a ghost?"

"A ghost?" She sneered. "No, I ain't no damn ghost?"

"So you're alive?"

Stevie Rae curled her lip in response to Zoey's question. "You'd say I'm alive, but I'd say it's not that simple. Then again I'm not as simple as I used to be."

My brain told me she was right, this wasn't as simple as her being alive, but my heart wished it was. I also knew that she wasn't the same Stevie Rae before, yet I had a thread of hope that told me she was still in there, somewhere. I noticed Zoey let her hands down the flame flickering out and she walked to Stevie Rae and wrapped her arms around her. When Zoey stepped back again I swear I noticed a flash of confusion fall over Stevie Rae.

"Don't touch me again." She said to Zoey, stepping away from her.

"Stevie Rae," I said, causing her to look over at me, Zoey kept her eyes on Stevie Rae. "Let's just talk, we need to get Heath home, but me and Zoey can come back, maybe even bring the rest of the herd. We want our friend back." I didn't realize it as I spoke, but my voice broke as I spoke.

"You both don't understand anything, do you?"

"I understand you were brought back from the dead, from being with Nyx, but we can figure this all out, as a team."

"Jussssst kill them!" Elliott called out and a flash of fury washed over me.

"Shut up, Elliott!" All three of us yelled and Stevie Rae shared a look with me and Zoey. It was there I saw that piece of sunshine flash in her eyes as she looked at us.

"You know they can't live now that they've ssseen us."

Then a blond girl stepped forward, she reminded me of Aphrodite. Aphrodite, could this be Venus? But before I could say anything she spoke up. "If you can't do it, I will. I'll take the human male first. I don't mind that his blood has been tainted by imprint. It's still warm and alive." She made her way to get close to Heath and I pointed riptide at her.

"Try and touch him and I will cut your head off." I snapped at her and she reared back.

Stevie Rae turned to her furry in her eyes, "Get back with the others, Venus. You don't strike until I tell you to."

I was writing so I spoke up as a flash of realization washed over Zoey. "Venus, Venus Davis?"

"How do you know me?" She asked me her voice full of venom which I understood.

"I know a lot of stuff, I know that Aphrodite changed her name to Aphrodite because you were her closest friend." As soon as I said Aphrodite a flash of realization went over Venus's eyes. "I also know- well have inferred that after your death Aphrodite tried to fill the whole missing in her life by making fake friends that turned on her as soon as she lost her power."

Venus just dropped back and that's when Heath spoke up. "You know I didn't use to like you man, after the way you spoke to me the first time we met. But you're cool." He said, causing Zoey to make a face and I rolled my eyes.

"Why is that speaking?" Stevie Rae spat.

"He isn't a that. He's Heath. Remember, Stevie Rae? My ex-boyfriend?" Zoey said and Heath scoffed.

"Zo, I am not your ex-boyfriend. I'm your boyfriend." Heath said and I ground.

"Hey tough guy, what's your problem with listening to people when they say something they feel. She doesn't want to date you!" I said finally snapping and he frowned at me.

"Hey, me and Zo, we're Imprinted. That means it's me and her." Heath then smirked at ZOey who then looked really pissed off.

"That was because you forced me to drink from you!" She spat at him which caused him to get wide eyes. "We wouldn't be in this mess if you just decided to accept that I don't want to be your girlfriend!" I guess she saw the hurt in his eyes so she looked directly at him. "I see you as a brother Heath, I've known you sense the third grade, I will always care about you- but I sure as hell don't want to be your girlfriend."

"What'sss Happening. . ." Elliott hissed causing the others to move restlessly, I moved my sword causing every single one of them to stay back. I saw Stevie Rae watching and Zoey got a look of realization. She got a confident look and put her hands on her hips facing Stevie Rae.

"Tell him, tell all of them." She said like a scolding mother.

"Tell them what?" She said narrowing her eyes.

"Tell them what's happening here. You know. I know you do."

Stevie Rae's face contorted, and the words she spoke like they were being forced from her throat. "Humanity! They're showing their humanity." The rest of the creatures cringed back like they were being sprayed with acid.

"Weakness! It's why we're stronger than they are." Venus said, curling her lip. "It's a weakness we don't have anymore."

"Bullshit." I said which caused them all to look at me.

"She's right," Stevie Rae said looking at me. "When we died, so did our humanity."

"That might be true." I said, causing Zoey to look at me like I betrayed her. "But humanity isn't a weakness, and I don't think you completely lost yours yet." I finished speaking directly at Stevie Rae.

"You don't know everything- or anything about this Percy." Stevie Rae said and Zoey looked at her.

"We don't need to know everything or anything about this, we know you and we both know our Goddess, that's all I need to know." Zoey said her voice full of emotion.

"She's not my Goddess anymore."

"That's not true. Nyx doesn't turn away from her children, no matter what happens to them or no matter how bad they screw up." I said and Stevie Rae looked back at me.

"She is not my Goddess!" Stevie Rae protested and Zoey shook her head.

"Oh really! Like your mamma's not your mamma anymore?" Zoey asked and I knew she hit a nerve. Stevie Rea had jerked like she was in pain.

"I don't have a mamma. I'm not a human anymore."

"Big f-ing deal. Technically, I'm not a human anymore, and even before I was marked I was only half-human. Hell the only one of us who is still a full human is Heath."

Heath chuckled a bit and Stevie Rae got a look of frustration. "Enough!" Stevie Rae's voice echoed throughout the tunnels and I gripped riptide putting myself in front of Heath. "I'm done with this." She faced the others and turned her back on us. "They've seen us. They know too much. They have to die. Kill them." She walked away yet I somehow still had that little thread of hope. It was fraid, but it was still there.

Heath got into a fighting stance even though he was behind me and I superseded a growl as I myself got ready to fight these creatures with my sword- I felt like I was in the battle of manhattan fighting against people who were only just hurt, they thought what they were doing was right. It hurt me inside. I heard Zoey call to fire and the room was lit perfectly. Me and Zoey stood in front of Heath, one of the creatures who I didn't recognize nudged for Heath and I swung riptide cutting their face as they got too close.

"Stop it!" Zoey yelled at them all. "Back off and leave him alone. We are going to walk out of here. Now. If you try to stop us, I'm going to kill you, and I have a feeling that this time you're going to die for good." I noticed how Zoey motioned to her fire and riptide. I saw a glimmer of determination and hope in Zoey's eyes. I then smirked but as soon as we were going to try and walk off one of the creatures lunged and I moved to protect Zoey and Heath. With one swing her body fell to the ground and her head fell a few inches from it. Zoey was a bit delayed and fire moved and started to burn the body.

Zoey called to the wind and rain to wash away the stench of the burning body. Zoey then pointed to the body and stared the others down. "That's what we'll do to anyone else who tries to stop us." We then quickly backed away from them and started out of the tunnels. I looked over at Zoey who looked like she was exhausted and her flame was flickering only in her right hand. If that went out Heath wouldn't really be able to see.

"We should hurry, guy." Heath said and he moved closer to both of us. "I know you both are really powerful, but there are a lot of them- more than what were back there. I don't know how many you can handle." he then looked at Zoey. "Not to mention, you look like shit, not to mean or anything."

Zoey just nodded but then looked behind her. "Yeah, I have an idea." She put her hands to either side of the narrow tunnel and faced where we had just been. "Stay behind me." She said and took in a deep breath. "Earth! I call to you!" She lifted her arms and started to breath steadily. "Close!" The Earth did as she commanded as she moved her arms down. There were a bunch of pissed off growls from the other side. Zoey sighed then staggered back a bit, heath caught her and we all sat down. She looked super weak and I let out a sigh.

"Z-bird, you're going to hate this, but you need to drink some of Heath's blood to get your strength back." I said and both of them looked at me.

"Are you insane?" She said her voice low. "You don't know how much blood he's lost!"

"It's okay, Zo." Heath said looking back at Zoey. "He's right, I can feel it. If you feed from me you won't be so weak." He then gave her a soft smile. "I want you to." He then moved her up to where there was a slash on his cheek, she instinctively started to feed from the wound. Heath closed his eyes and I watched to make sure I could help her stop if it needed to happen, Heath let out a soft moan and I felt like I was going to be sick. I was about to get up to look around when a broken voice echoed out of the tunnels.

"Kill me!" Stevie Rae yelled to us, causing Zoey to stop feeding and stand up and face her. I stood up next to Zoey looking at Stevie Rae, her face twisted in despair standing a few yards from us. "Kill me." She repeated in a sob.

"No." Zoey said, shaking her head and taking a step forward. But Stevie Rae backed away from her, holding her hands up as if she was trying to protect her. "Come back to the house of night with us, we can figure out how this happened. It'll be okay, I promise. All that matters is that you're alive."

Stevie Rae was shaking her head and I thought I heard sobbing. "I'm not really alive, and I can't go back there."

"Of course you're alive. You're walking and talking."

"I'm not me anymore. I did die, and part of me- the best part of me- is still dead, just like the rest of them." She said and motioned to the cave in.

"You're not like them." I said firmly and she started to speak but I cut her off. "You are different. You still have some of your humanity. If you didn't have any humanity you wouldn't have let the other take us, you would have killed us with them." She stared at me shocked and I stepped forward to be right next to Zoey. "You are struggling with what you have become because of that humanity you still possess, if you truly were a monster, you wouldn't be begging for us to kill you, you would be taking advantage of the fact we care deeply about you and you would have killed us without even talking to us."

Stevie Rae looked like she didn't know what to say so Zoey spoke to her, "How did this happen? How did you become like this?"

Stevie Rae shook her head, "I don't know, I only know who did it."

"Neferet?" I asked and Stevie Rae nodded.

"You were right about your suspicions, so was Dragon." Stevie Rae then looked frightened. "Get out of here! Fast! She is coming! There is probably still time for you to get away. She'll kill you if she sees you, all of you. You know too much. She may kill you anyway, but it'll be harder for her to do if you get back to the House of Night."

I nodded and looked at her, "We are not giving up on you," I said and she went to protest. "Use your element. You still have a strong connection with the earth, I can sense it. So use your element to stay strong. We'll come back for you, and we'll, we all will figure this out. Together. I promise." I then turned to the others and capped riptide putting it in my pocket. "Let's go, and hurry."

As we made our way out of the tunnels I heard a small whisper come from Stevie Rae, a plea. "Please don't forget me. . ."

We ran as fast as we could, Heath making the pace so we wouldn't lose him. I felt a huge adrenaline rush as we ran, I didn't want to know what Neferet would do if she found us. My instinct told us it wasn't good, but I kept marching on. Once we made it to the ladder Zoey had to rest aside the tunnel. She fished her cell phone out and held a card in her hand. She then climbed up the ladder and dialed the number on the card. I went to speak but she made us stay quiet.

"Detective Marx, this is Zoey Redbird. I only have a second to talk, then I have to go. I've found Heath Luck. We're in the basement of the Tulsa Depot, and we need help." She said and I smiled. Smart girl. She hung up the phone when we heard a noise from above. We all stayed quiet and I had to hold Heath back from going to check it out.

"I think it's just a bird," He said to me, pulling his arm away from me. "I'm going to check it out." Zoey looked like she wanted to argue but just shook her head, she looked really tired. Heath then looked down at us, "It's just a pigeon and something tells me you guys don't want to be in the creepy basement." I helped Zoey up as Heath helped us out of the basement. "It's like a tomb."

I chuckled as we three got out and started to walk to the iron door. There was the distant wait of a police siren. The tension I hadn't realized I had started to relax, but then I heard a voice I really didn't want to hear.

"I should have known you both would be here."

We three all turned to see Neferet and then Zoey did something that made me extremely proud of her. "Oh Neferet! I'm so glad to see you!" She was putting on an act and I saw the glint of realization in Heath's eyes which caused us both to put on a 'I'm scared but I'm a guy so' expression. Zoey then started to sob into the High Priestess's arms. "How did you find us? Did Detective Marx call you?"

There was indecision in Neferferet's eyes as she smoothly disentangled herself from my arms. "Detective Marx?"

"Yeah." Zoey sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve and beamed relief and trust to Neferet. "That's him coming right now." The sounds of sirens were really close, and we all could hear that it had been joined by at least two other cars. "Thank you for finding me! It was so terrible. I thought that this crazy street person was going to kill all of us." She then moved in between us and grabbed our hands. Heath was frozen in shock and I decided that it was probably for the best.

I heard car doors slam and heavy feet march towards us in the snow. I saw something flash across Neferet's eyes, I then lowered my voice and whispered. "Close your eyes, as soon as she starts to speak." I murmured.

Neferet looked around then moved towards us, "Percy, Zoey, Heath. . ." She said and I felt wrong as I heard her move close to us keeping my eyes shut. She grabbed our shoulders and I grit my teeth Zoey gripping tight onto my hands. "You will remember nothing!" Her words echoed but I was only filled with pain as we three fell to the ground and I fell into the darkness.