“But you can stay in my room. That’s cool with me,” Kramisha said. “Just not on the bed.”
“Do all of you guys have rooms now?” I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice. This was all so different from the first time I’d been down here. Then the kids could barely have been called humanoid, and the tunnels were dark and dirty and creepy. Now the room we were crammed into was cozy, lit by flickering oil lanterns and candles, and the furniture was comfortable, obviously new, and even had cute matching pillows on the bed. It all seemed so normal. Was I just imagining that there was weird stuff going on with them because I was so darn tired I could hardly think?
“Any of us who wanted his or her own room has one,” Venus answered me. “They’re really not hard to fix up. In this part of the tunnels there’re lots of little dead ends. We’ve been turning them into real rooms. I definitely have my own room.” She smiled at Erik. I had to remind myself it probably wasn’t ethical to evoke fire and have it burn all the hair off her bobble-head.
“This is probably where most of the bootleg liquor was stored during Prohibition,” Damien said. “It’s logical because this is right here at the train tracks, and it would have been easy to sneak stuff in and out at night.”
“That’s so cool and romantic!” Jack sighed. “I mean, the whole 1920s flapper thing and juke joints and gangsters.”
Damien smiled indulgently at Jack. “Actually, Prohibition lasted in Tulsa until 1957.”
“Well, never mind. That’s not so romantic. That’s more like gay Bible Belt stuff.” He giggled. “Gay! Hee hees.”
“You’re funny and cute. That’s why I love you,” Damien said, kissing Jack smack on the mouth and causing Duchess to bark happily.
“Okay, barf,” Aphrodite said.
“Oh, and I have one more question,” Jack said, frowning at Aphrodite.
As he started to put his hand up, I said, “Yes, Jack. What is it?”
“Where do we potty?”
“Potty? Did he really just say potty?” Aphrodite giggled until she snorted. We ignored her.
“That’s easy,” Stevie Rae said around a giant yawn. “Venus, would you show them?”
“You have a bathroom?” What? There was working plumbing in the tunnels?
Venus sneered a guess-you-don’t-know-everything look at me. “Bathrooms, actually. With showers.”
“Hot water showers?” Jack said enthusiastically.
“Of course. We’re not barbarians,” Venus said.
“How?” I said.
“They’re in the depot building above us,” Stevie Rae said. “We’ve done a lot of exploring in the building. It’s totally boarded up, so no one can get in, except from the basement entrance, so we control who comes and goes.”
“And we don’t let just anyone in,” Venus added, looking a little dangerous.
Okay, honestly, I was liking her less and less with every second. And this time it had nothing to do with her drooling over Erik.
“Exclusssssive. My kind of place,” Aphrodite said, then she burped.
“Anyway”—Stevie Rae rolled her eyes at Aphrodite—“we were checking out the depot and we found two locker rooms—a guy’s and a girl’s. We figured they were for the depot employees. There’s even a gym up there, too. Dallas did the rest.” She plopped tiredly back on her pillows, giving Dallas a go-ahead-and-tell-the-rest-of it gesture.
Dallas shrugged nonchalantly, but his grin said he knew he’d done something cool. “I just found the water main connection to the depot and opened it up. The pipes were all still good.”
“That’s not all you did,” Stevie Rae said.
He grinned at her and again I caught a thing between them. Hm&helliv- fp;I was definitely going to get the scoop from Stevie Rae later.
“Well, I also figured out how to turn on the electricity. That started the water heaters again, and then Aphrodite’s credit card got us the extra-long extension cords and such that I spliced into the old tunnel lighting system. A little work here and there, and we have hot water up there and electricity down here.”
“Wow,” Jack said. “That’s really cool.”
“Impressive,” Damien agreed.
Dallas just kept grinning.
“So do you want to use the facilities or not?” Venus said. I thought she sounded grumpy, or maybe “bitchy” was a better descriptive word.
“Yeah!” Jack said happily. “I could definitely use a hot shower before we go on duty.”
“Uh, what’s the status on your hair-care products down here?” Shaunee asked.
“Oh, girl. I took care of that first thing after I got my sense back. Do not worry. I got you covered,” Kramisha said, standing up and brushing crumbs from her butt-hugging jeans.
“Excellent,” Erin said. “Let’s go.”
I hung back as everyone started to file out of Stevie Rae’s room.
“Hey, Z, you wanna be my roomie again?” Stevie Rae looked exhausted, but she was smiling her old smile at me.
“Absolutely,” I said. Our gazes slid over to Aphrodite, who was still perched on the end of her bed, half-leaning against Darius.
“Aphrodite, go get yourself a sleepin’ bag. You can crash in here, too,” Stevie Rae said.
“Okay, look. No damn way am I sleeping with you,” she said, trying hard not to slur her words. “Our Imprint is not that kind of Imprint. And even if I was gay, which I’m not, you are not my type.”
“Aphrodite, I was not makin’ a move on you. That’s just stupid,” Stevie Rae said.
“I’m just letting you know. I’m also letting you know that I’m breaking this damn Imprint the first second I can figure out how.”
Stevie Rae sighed. “Don’t do somethin’ that’s gonna hurt either one of us. I’ve had enough with stuff hurtin’ for a while.”
I’d been listening to the exchange between them with frank interest. I mean, I’d been Imprinted with my human boyfriend, Heath, so I knew something about being linked to a human through the magic of blood. I also knew something about breaking an Imprint—and it could be very painful.
“Zoey, is it too much to ask that you stop gawking at me!” Aphrodite burst out, making me jump guiltily.
“I’m not gawking,” I lied.
“Whatever. Just stop.”
“An Imprint is nothing to be ashamed of, my beauty,” Darius said, putting his arm around Aphrodite gently.
“It is weird, though,” Stevie Rae said.
Darius smiled kindly at her. “There are many types of Imprints.”
“Well, ours is not the drink-your-blood-and-have-sex-with-you type,” Aphrodite said.
“Of course it is not,” Darius kissed her on her forehead.
“Which means you can sleep in here without being freaked out,” Stevie Rae said.
“And again I say hell no. Plus, I’m going with Darius. I’ll be on duty with him,” Aphrodite said decisively, raising her half-empty second bottle of wine in a weird, drunken salute.
“Darius has to guard the entrance to the tunnels. He doesn’t need to be takin’ care of your drunk behind,” Stevie Rae told her.
“I. Am. Going. With. Darius,” Aphrodite repeated slowly and stubbornly.
“She may come with me,” Darius, said, unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile. “I’ll get a sleeping bag for her. I do not believe she will be much trouble, and I like to keep her close to me.”
“Not much trouble?” I said. Stevie Rae and I raised our brows at him. I swear his high, chiseled cheeks blushed just a smidgen of pink.
“He must be thinkin’ of another Aphrodite. One we don’t know,” Stevie Rae said.
“Come on,” Aphrodite said, getting unsteadily to her feet. “I know where they keep the stupid sleeping bags. Just ignore them.” She gave us a hilarious attempt at a scowl, which turned into another manly belch, grabbed Darius’s hand, and staggered from the room while Stevie Rae and I laughed.