"Where the hell is Zoey?" Damien exclaimed in a hushed tone.
"I don't know" Shaunee replied.
"Ditto twin, she was supposed to be here like 15 minutes ago." Erin continued.
"Ok, I've tried her cell, and Aphrodite's, no answer." Jack announced joining the group.
"What are we gonna do? We can't do this without either of them." Shaunee stated.
"Alright, here's what we're gonna do, you two stall and Jack and I'll go to the dorms and see if we can find them." Damien said his voice laced with anger and frustration.
Making a quick discrete exit from the rec hall, before running across the campus to the girl's dorms.
"I can't believe, Zoey would just skip out the Dark Daughters, she must have her reasons." Jack said as Damien threw open the door of the girls dorms.
"Yeah well, we probably can't be trusted with that kind of information. Let's just find them and get back to the meeting." Damian sighed; as the pair of them flew up the stairs to Zoey's room, where he knocked and threw her door wide open at the same time.
"Oh my… Zoey!" Damien exclaimed.
"What are you doing?" Exclaimed and fuming Aphrodite.
"Zoey…is she… is she ok?" Jack asked on the verge of tears.
"Does it look like it?!" Aphrodite screamed.
"Go get the twins" Damien told Jack, not taking his eyes off Zoey. "What can I do to help?" He asked as Jack ran down the stairs.
"You can stay out of my way" Aphrodite replied sternly, glaring at Damien.
"Erin… Shaunee…" Jack panted as he reached the rec hall.
"Jack what is it?" Erin asked concerned.
"Is it Damien?" Shaunee added.
"No" Jack replied breathlessly, shaking his head. "It's Zoey!" he finished as he turned and began making his way back to Zoey's room, the twins following closely behind them.
"Jack slow down" Shaunee exclaimed.
"Tell us what's going on. What's happened to Zoey?" Erin yelled.
"I don't know… she's… she's in a bad way." Jack replied over his shoulder as he ripped open the door and ran up the stairs, all three unaware that they were being followed and overheard.
"OH MY…" the twins began, as they opened Zoey's door.
"SHHH!!!" Aphrodite hissed, "I've just got her to sleep." She whispered in an angry tone.
"What happened to her?" Erin asked.
"I don't know Aphrodite won't talk to me." Damien replied quietly.
"Give me a reason why I should talk too any of you?" Aphrodite fumed.
"Because she's our friend." Damien hissed in reply.
"That's rich considering the four of you have been ignoring her for nearly two months." "At least you have the decency to look ashamed of yourselves." Aphrodite spat finally looking at the group huddle in the doorway. And why the hell are you here? Come to kick the girl when she's already down. That seems to be your favourite sport these days." She seethed, noticing the addition to the group.
"Why haven't you taken her to the infirmary?" Erik asked pushing through the group as he made his way to the bed, "She needs to be healed."
"Taking her there will do more harm than good."
"I don't see how this could be any worse." Erik replied kneeling down next to the bed.
"Yeah well, you don't wait to see the full picture anymore do you." Aphrodite spat.
"What happened?" Erik replied glaring at Aphrodite.
"She was attacked by a Raven Mocker, don't ask" Aphrodite said as everyone began to ask what a Raven Mocker was. "They weren't supposed to be full bodied yet. I mean they've taunting her for weeks and all she got were red marks that faded in minutes. But this one I don't know… she fought him off for as long as she could but… I guess she lost too much blood and… it flew off when it saw me coming." She explained, her worry quickly replacing here anger, as she looked down at Zoey.
Zoey's right hand was bandaged to pass her elbow, as was the top of her arm. She had a dressing tapped to her neck that ran from below her right cheek down to her chest. Another dressing ran down from her collar bone and across her heart, while her left fore arm was also bandaged, and a dressing covered the right side of her forehead. But what was causing the most worry was the fact that blood was beginning to show through on all the dressings and bandages.
"You have to take her to Neferet." Erik pleaded, locking eyes with Aphrodite.
"I can't" She replied, giving Erik a meaningful look. Zoey had told her that Erik had overheard her conversation with Neferet, and Aphrodite prayed that Erik would understand that staying here was best for Zoey. To her relief Erik sighed and nodded his head in defeat, causing the room to fall into silence as everyone settled themselves in to watch over Zoey.
A sudden tapping at the window broke the silence, making everyone jump, before Aphrodite suddenly jumped up and opened the window.
"I came as soon as I got your message." An Okie twang filled the room as Stevie Rae climbed through the window, "how is she?"
"Not good" Aphrodite replied in a small voice.
"Stevie Rae!" Damien exclaimed as Stevie Rae made her way into the room, glaring as she took in its occupants, particularly the one at Zoey's bedside.
"How bad?" Stevie Rae asked ignoring the group, and sitting on the end of Zoey's bed.
"Bad. She was alone when it attacked her." Stevie Rae's head snapped up at Aphrodite's reply, causing Aphrodite to nod at her silent question.
"Oh no…Zoey no, come on you got to fight this." Stevie Rae cried, looking back at Zoey.
"That's the problem; she hasn't got any fight left." Aphrodite replied sadly.
"What do you mean?" Erik asked.
"I mean it's hard to fight to stay alive, when you've got nothing left to live for." Aphrodite snapped her anger quickly returning as she glared at five remaining occupants of the room, all of them hanging their heads.
"So I guess this means the end of the world." Stevie Rae whispered glumly, the silence causing everyone to hear.
"Yeah, looks that way" Aphrodite sighed, her eyes falling on Zoey's unconscious form lying in the bed.
"What do you mean 'end of the world' don't you think that's a little…" Shaunee began.
"Dramatic" Erin finished.
"No actually it's not, it's the literal truth." Stevie Rae snapped.
"Without Zoey, there's no-one that's going to be able to stop the whole heap of end of the world bad shit that's coming our way." Aphrodite continued in the same angry tone. "Zoey is the only one who can stop it."
"So y'all better bend over and kiss your asses goodbye, because lets face it that's the only thing you care about saving." Stevie Rae added.
"Hey that's not fair" Damien exclaimed, "She's the one who decided she couldn't trust us, she's the on who kept all these secrets from us."
"It's not our fault she's a lying slut." Erik commented darkly.
"Alright, you and me outside, we gotta talk" Aphrodite exclaimed dragging Erik from his chair and pushing him out the door, "Ok I'll deal with him you deal with them." She said to Stevie Rae as she closed the door behind herself, as Stevie Rae turned to face her four friends.
"Ok guys look," Stevie Rae began, "do you honestly think Zoey secrets like me from you without a good reason."
"What?" Damien responded.
"Look I know what she isn't telling you, and I'm telling you now she's got a good reason for not telling you."
"Oh yeah and what's that?" Erin asked sarcastically.
"Your life" Stevie Rae snapped, "the reason she is keeping you in the dark is because knowing what she does could get you killed, and she knows that. She knows that you would never tell anyone, but that doesn't really count the when the bad guy can read minds." She finished softly.
"I feel horrible." Jack said quietly.
"We should have known there was a reason she didn't tell us." Shaunee added.
"True twin, very true." Erin replied.
"We should have let her explain." Damien said looking at Zoey.
MEANWHILE – outside.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Aphrodite exclaimed, a fierce expression crossing her face.
"Sorry I just can't seem to forget the fact that she was off fucking Loren Blake behind my back." Erik hissed angrily.
"Alright listen carefully, because I'm only gonna explain this once." Aphrodite began.
"Explain what?" Erik interrupted.
"Ok first of all she wasn't fucking him; she fucked him, once, so drop the plural. And second do you even know what happened? No, well let me clue you in. She was upset, she was a mess, she thought you were dying and that brought back the whole Stevie Rae dying in her arms thing. Loren found her at her lowest, when she the most vulnerable, and used her blood lust against her, causing her to imprint. Do you know what happens to a fledgling that's imprinted with a vampire? Let me tell you. The vampire has the power to take control of the fledgling take away their free will, make them forget about everything." Aphrodite explained.
"What?" Erik asked shocked.
"Why do you think it's so taboo? Loren took away Zoey's free will, so Neferet could isolate her, make her completely alone. Guess what it worked, it worked so well that Zoey is now dying because of it. So you think you can stop it with your degrading remarks, we've got enough to worry about without your malicious self." Aphrodite snapped, as she walked back into the room. "All done?"
"Yep. You?" Stevie Rae replied.
"Yep." Aphrodite answered glaring at Erik as he made his way back into the room guiltily.
The uncomfortable silence that fell across the room was suddenly broken as Zoey whimpered in pain, making Erik, Aphrodite and Stevie Rae suddenly rushed her bedside.
"What is it? What's wrong with her?" Erik asked panicked.
"Relax! She's ok. She just moved in her sleep, that's gonna hurt anyone with her injuries. I think I'm gonna need to change these dressings though." Aphrodite replied. "Stevie Rae are you going…"
"I'm not sure, I better get going anyway, sunrise is in about an hour and I got to get back. Will you let me know?"
"Of course" Aphrodite replied as Stevie Rae Climbed out the window, and she began removing Zoey's dressings and bandages, revealing the full extent of Zoey's injuries to the group. "Ok Erik I'm going to need your help with the next one."
"Next one? Wasn't that the last one?" Erik asked.
"No, there's one more." Aphrodite replied pulling back Zoey's quilt and pulling up her vest top to reveal her heavily bandaged torso. "Right Erik I need you to lift her up, be very careful." She finished cutting open the bandages to reveal a huge gash that stretched diagonally across Zoey's stomach, going from under her left breast to her right hip.
Erik carefully lifted Zoey's head and shoulders off the bed as Aphrodite quickly pulled the old dressing from under Zoey, and set about re-dressing her wound.