“Three and a half inch stiletto boots are not sensible footwear for winter,” I said, leading them to the tack room and the riding clothes hanging neatly there among the other tack.
“Fashion-impaired geek,” Aphrodite muttered.
“Agreeing,” Shaunee said.
“For once,” Erin added.
I grabbed three bridles and shook my head at my friends. “Just change your clothes. There are riding boots in that closet. Avail yourselves of their use.”
“Avail?” I heard Shaunee say as I marched out of the tack room.
“Girlfriend has been hanging around Queen Damien too much,” Erin said.
I slammed the door.
I wasn’t sure what other two horses Lenobia would choose to go with us, but I knew Persephone would be carrying me, so I hurried toward her stall. Darius had moved over to one of the high stable windows and was busy stacking hay bales on top of each other. Obviously he was going to give us a weather and Raven Mocker check.
“Uh, Z, may I have one little word with you?” Damien said.
“Sure, come on in.” I went back to Persephone’s stall, grabbed the currycomb, and started giving the mare a quick wipedown.
Damien stayed in the doorway. “Here’s the thing—I don’t really ride.”
“Well, that’s not a problem. I’ll do the hard part. You just sit behind me and hold on.”
“What if I fall off? I’m sure she’s a perfectly nice animal.” He sent a little hello wave to Persephone, who was still happily chewing her hay and not paying any attention to Damien. “But she’s also big. Really very big. Humongous, actually.”
“Damien, we are about to break out of school, run for our lives, and then try to banish an ancient immortal and a vamp High Priestess gone bad, and you’re stressing about riding behind me on a horse?”
“Bareback. Riding bareback behind you on a horse,” he said. Then nodded. “Yes, yes, I am stressing about it.”
I started giggling and had to lean against Persephone because I was hurting myself. Okay, here’s the life lesson I’ve really been learning: If you have good friends, no matter how much life is sucking, they can make you laugh.
Meanwhile, Damien was frowning at me. “Just so you know, I’m going to tell Jack you were laughing at me, and he’ll get mad at you. That means the next time I purchase a gift for you, he will go on strike and not supervise its tasteful wrapping.”
“Jeesh, that’s kinda harsh,” I said, then burst into giggles again.
“Would you guys get serious! We have a war to win and a world to save.” Aphrodite was standing with her hands on her hips just outside Persephone’s stall. She was wearing her cropped black designer tank (with the gold JUICY label across her boobs) and her borrowed tan riding pants tucked into flat English riding boots. With no heels. None.
I took one look at her and started to giggle again. Then I caught sight of the Twins, who were standing behind her. Both of them had on Dolce & Gabbana animal-print silk tunics (probably from Saks Fifth Avenue or Miss Jackson’s, jeesh). Their butts were snugged with spandexy tan English riding leggings (hee hees), tucked into brown and tan English riding boots.
It was priceless. This time Damien joined me in my hysteria.
“I hate both of them,” Aphrodite said.
“Girlfriend, we’re finding we have more and more in common with you,” Erin told Aphrodite.
“Ditto,” Shaunee said, scowling at Damien and me.
Sadly, Lenobia’s words threw cold water on my giggly good time.
“I spoke with Anastasia. Everything’s ready to go, even though Dragon was temporarily unavailable. He was dealing with an unusual case of vampyre Change. I was told to pass word along to Zoey that Stark arrived and has been taken care of.”
“Did she say Stark?” Damien asked.
“Huh?” the Twins said.
“Oh, shit,” Aphrodite said.
“The weather still looks bad, and I can see stirrings in the trees. I think their plan is to grab us as we leave the stables. We better get going,” Darius said as he rejoined our group. He paused as he saw everyone staring at me. “Obviously I missed something.”
“Yes, and Zoey was just getting ready to fill us in,” Damien said.
I gnawed my lip and looked from friend to friend. Well, hell. “Okay, here’s the deal. Stark Changed. He’s the second red vampyre there’s ever been.”
“Whoop-de-fucking-do,” Erin said. “He’s still an assbucket.”
“Yeah, and why would you know shit about him Changing?” Shaunee said.
“You have to stop thinking of him like he’s Stevie Rae. They’re worlds apart,” Damien said, more gently than the others.
“She loves him,” Aphrodite blurted.
“Aphrodite!” I yelled.
“Well, someone had to clue the dorks in to your pathetic infatuation with him,” Aphrodite said.
“You’re not helping me,” I said.
“Wait. Rewind. Zoey is in love with Stark? That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” Erin said.
“Well, except for the whole graduated driver’s license law thing in Oklahoma, Twin. Let’s get serious. That’s the stupidest thing we’ve ever heard of in our entire lives,” Shaunee said.
“True. Besides that, though. And, Aphrodite, we say: You. Have. Lost. Your. Damn. Mind,” Erin said.
“Again,” Shaunee finished.
Everyone looked at me.
“I think the graduated driver’s license thing is stupid, too,” I lamely said.
“See! I told you!” Aphrodite said. “She has a serious thing for Stark.”
“Serious shit,” Erin said.
“I would never have believed it,” Shaunee said.
“Let her explain!” Damien yelled.
Everyone got really quiet.
I cleared my throat.
“Okay. Well. Remember the poem?” All of my friends narrowed their eyes at me, which I didn’t think was very fair. But I continued anyway. “It said I was supposed to save his humanity? And I did. I think. I hope.”
“Priestess, we caught him abusing a fledgling. How can you condone that?” Darius said.
“I don’t condone it. It makes me sick. But I remember when Stevie Rae was fighting to keep her humanity, and she was awful.” I looked at Aphrodite. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“Yeah, and I’m not one hundred percent sure you can trust her today. And I say that as the human she’s Imprinted.”
I expected the Twins and Damien to blow up at her, but they stayed very quiet. Finally I turned to Darius. “Stark gave me his Warrior’s Oath.”
“His Warrior’s Oath! And you accepted him?” Darius said.
“I did. It was right after that he Changed.”
Darius sighed deeply. “Then Stark is bound to you until you release him from his oath.”
“I think that caused his Change,” I said. “I think with the red fledglings their Change has something to do with the choice between good and evil.”
“By pledging to you, Stark chose good,” Darius said.
I smiled. “I like to think so.”
“So that means he isn’t an asscake anymore?” Erin said.
“I thought you called him an assbucket,” Shaunee said.
“Twin, it’s the same thing,” Erin said.
“It means I trust him,” I said. “And I wish you guys would give him a chance.”
“Giving the wrong person a chance right now could get us killed,” Darius said.
I drew a deep breath. “I know.”
“A newly Changed vampyre needs to be secluded in Nyx’s Temple. Dragon assured me Stark is safely there.” Lenobia glanced at her watch. “We have exactly ten minutes. Can we not get on with more important things and leave the question of Stark’s trustworthiness until a better time?”
“Definitely,” I said. “What’s left to do?” All I could hope was that Dragon really had the newly Changed Stark safely locked away in Nyx’s Temple, and that we would actually chase Kalona out of here, thereby getting rid of Neferet, too, so that we would have a chance to deal with his trustworthiness at a better time.