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Zoey

So, I ended up cutting first hour INeferet take passive-aggressive shots atInstead I sent Rephaim to class (and told him to tell the professor he&039;d been in the bathroom) and then found a shadowy seat not far from the stables I needed time to sit and think By myself

Kalona said he wanted a truce with us, which I figured was pretty much bull poopie The truth probably was that he wanted to use Rephaim to infiltrate our ranks and ht the nerd herd and I were turning into a redneck Okie pararoups be more attractive? Which made me think about the inbred panther people on True Blood and how stupid Jason was Jeesh, I needed to rewatch season three I was totally behind on season four

"hello, Zoey Focus," I toldlike he wants a truce Rephaim believes him because that kid has a bad case of I-want-onna be pissed when she finds out he&039;s been talking to Rephaim, which I totally understood She wanted to protect Rephais, and Kalona + a new and improved Rephaim = train wreck

And then there was the whole bad red fledglings returning to school and pretending not to be raving lunatics and kill ers Ugh, just ugh Thinking about the fights in the halls that was going to cause gave me a headache

Throw into thewell, Neferet&039;s new Consort was a bull (Eew, that couldn&039;t mean what it sounded like it meant, could it?), and the Aurox kid/whatever who ht freaked-and the whole school see to explode

I stared up at thedirectly to the shining crescent, "in six days I have to go perforrandma&039;s land because my mooing to cry Again I was just going to sit out here in the o to drama class second hour

As if I didn&039;t have enough drama in my life already

"Well," I told the moon "At least my soul isn&039;t shattered anyhost" Right on the heels of that cheery thought I spoke aloud the very next thing that came into my mind: "I miss Heath so much" The words were still in the air around an to waraze was pulled froht Aurox was jogging along the school side of the wall Even fro for possible trouble, his gaze scanning around and up He even looked like he was sniffing the air He was coh not directly so My bench was several yards closer to the school fro trees, and he hadn&039;t seen ed in the open and even though the ave off enough silver-blue light that, as he approached, I could see his face

Aurox was definitely what any girl would call hot Well, any girl who didn&039;t knoas some kind of killer creature in a boy skin suit Then I res had made over him after he&039;d killed the Raven Mocker Guess they didn&039;t care whether his skin was a suit or for real It felt like soave a little shudder I cared I cared a lot about as beneath the skin

His eyes were super strange I&039;d noticed theht they reminded me of the moon, or at least of those rocks called lowed

My hand went slowly to my seer stone I could feel my heartbeat speed up What was it about Aurox that scared me so badly? I didn&039;t know, but I did believe that I needed to defeat this fear I needed to look through the seer stone and see whatever the rock revealed to an to lift the stone and it was then that I noticed it

His shadow, cast against the rocky wall of the school, did not uy Aurox&039;s shadoas that of a bull

I asped-lowy eyes foundand headed straight for me

I slid the seer stone undernor out of my chest

When he was just a few yards away I couldn&039;t help ht iron bench I knoas silly, but so between us

He stopped and looked atHis expression was bizarrely curious, like he&039;d never seen a girl before and was trying to figure out what the heck I was-even though that analogy was ridiculous

"You do not weep this night," he finally said

"No"

"You should be in class," he said "Neferet has ordered all fledglings to class"

"Why do you cast the shadow of a bull?" I blurted the question like a moron and then I wanted to s with me?

His brow furrowed and he looked to the spot on the ground beside hi shadow-

turned its head in time with him

"My shadow is not a bull," he said

"It was a bull, before, while you were jogging beside the wall I saw it," I said, wondering how I could sound so calm and certain when even to my own ears I seemed totally crazy

"The bull is part of me," he said, and then he looked as surprised by his answer as I&039;d been by my question

"The white bull or the black bull?" I asked

"What color was lanced at his dark, human shadow "Black, of course"

"Then my bull is black," he said "You should return to class Neferet has co okay out here?"

Stark&039;s voicequickly toward me, a boith a notched arrow held with deceptive nonchalance in his hand

"Yeah, fine," I said "Aurox was telling ave Aurox a hard look "I didn&039;t know you were a professor at this school"

"I a Neferet&039;s command," Aurox said He sounded the sae had totally changed He looked bigger, erous

Thankfully, the bell that signaled the end of first hour chi it to first hour Better get to second hour on tih" I turned h his, and said, "Walk me to drama class?"

"Absolutely," he said

Neither of us said anything to Aurox

"He scares you," Stark said ere out of Aurox&039;s hearing range

"Yeah"

Stark opened the door to thehallway that held s changing class, but he kept his voice low and me close so that only I could hear hi?"

"He casts the-"

My words broke off as a tall, dark-haired vampyre stepped from Neferet&039;s classroom and into the hall before us Stark and I stopped At first it was hard to really believe who I was seeing, and I wanted to rub my eyes as if to clear them Then Stark fisted his hand over his heart and bowed deeply, breakingdream and I followed his example while he said, "Merry meet, Thanatos"

"Ah, Stark, Zoey,so well"

"What are you doing here?" I asked way more bluntly than I should have

Her dark broent up, but she looked h Council has decided the very special fledglings," she paused and glanced at Stark, "and vampyres here deserve some additional attention"

"What does that awking and whispering I saw Damien&039;s head stick out of the door to his second-hour class and his mouth formed a round, surprised "Ooooh!" when he saw Thanatos

"It means that Monday if you cut your first-hour class, you&039;ll be cutting one taught by Thanatos" Neferet came out of the open doorway to her classroom She spoke with no more sternness than any normal teacher would have used with a kid who cut her class, but her eyes told a different story I felt Stark&039;s body tense and uess was Darkness was all around her

"I&039;d like to believe Zoey isto class today" Thanatos s

Neferet&039;s face see smile looked brittle "I&039;d like to believe so, too Be that as it e of Zoey and any of those other special students you would like to include There is a spare classrooht Now, if you&039;ll excuse me I need to be sure a room is readied for your indefinite stay"