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After what see time my sobs turned to hiccups and I wished I hadn’t run out of the rec hall without my purse I could really use a Kleenex

"Here You look like you need this"

Nala complained as I juhhteen

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I’m okay Totally Fine" I lied

"You don’t look fine," Erik said "Mind if I sit down?"

"No, go ahead," I said listlessly I knewonsuspicion he’d witnessed at least part of the night worse and worse I glanced at hiht as well continue the trend "In case you didn’t realize it, it was me who saw that little scene between you and Aphrodite in the hall yesterday"

He didn’t even hesitate "I know, and I wish you hadn’t I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about me"

"And what idea would that be?"

"That there’son between Aphrodite and me than there really is" "Not ed "I just want you to know that she and I are not going out anymore"

I almost said that it sure looked like Aphrodite wasn’t aware of that, but then I thought about what had just happened between Heath and me, and with a sense of surprise I realized that uys aren’t going out," I said

He sat quietly beside ht he sounded alry "Aphrodite didn’t tell you about the blood in the wine"

He hadn’t said it like a question, but I answered anyway "Nope"

He shook his head and I saw his jaw tighten "She toldto She said she’d let you knohile you were changing your clothes so that if you weren’t okay with it you could skip drinking fro surprise," he said

"Ya think?" I could feelhas just been wrong I get pressured into going to the Dark Daughters’ ritual where I’ blood Then I meet up with my almost-ex-boyfriend who just happens to be one hundred percent human, and no-damn-body bothered to explain to me that the tiniest speck of his blood would turn me intointoa er so I wouldn’t start crying again I also decided I wouldn’t say anything about thinking I saw Elizabeth’s ghost-- that was too ht

"No one explained it to you because it’s so that shouldn’t have started to effect you until you were a sixth forly articulate

"Bloodlust doesn’t usually begin until you’re a sixth fored Once in a while you’ll hear about a fifth former who has to deal with it early, but that doesn’t happen very often"

"Wait--what are you saying?" Myaround in it

"You start having classes about bloodlust and other thingsyour fifth form, and then, in your final year, that’s mostly what school focuses on--that and whatever you’ve decided to major in"

"But I’m a third former--barely I mean, I’ve only been Marked a few days"

"Your Mark is different; you’re different," he said

"I don’t want to be different!" I realized I was shouting and got et through this like everybody else"

"Too late, Z," he said

"So what now?"

"I think you’d better talk to your mentor It’s Neferet, isn’t it?"

"Yeah," I said reat She hardly ever takes on fledglings to mentor anymore, so she must really believe in you"

"I know, I know It’s just that thisto Neferet about what had happened tonight? Eain and I had to tell our o to the locker rooe eous and attentive and perfect Hell I couldn’t tell him that So instead I blurted, "Stupid It makes me feel stupid" Which wasn’t actually a lie, but mostly what it made me feel, besides embarrassed and stupid, was scared I didn’t want this thing that made it impossible for me to fit in

"Don’t feel stupid You’re actually way ahead of the rest of us"

"So," I hesitated, then took a deep breath and barreled on, "did you like the way the blood in the goblet tasted tonight?"

"Well, here’s the deal with that: My first Full Moon Ritual with the Dark Daughters was at the end of erator’ that night, I was the only third forave a sh "They only invited me because I’d finaled in the Shakespeare soliloquy contest and was being flown to London for the colanced at me and looked a little eht had everdeal" He shook his head self- deal So the Dark Daughters invited iven the opportunity to turn it down I didn’t"

"But did you like it?"

This tiuts up It was the roaned My head dropped forward and I putood," I said,thing you’d ever tasted? I thought it was the most delicious Well, thewhat I had been about to say

"Until you tasted fresh blood?" he asked gently

I noddeder under ht at him "Don’t be e the taste of blood is not normal Not for me"

"Yes, it is All vampyres have to deal with their lust for blood," he said