Betrayed

"In other words, be careful around Neferet and don't trust her," I said.

"Yeah, but I never said that."

"Said what? We're not even having this conversation." I shut the door behind me and hurried to my room where I washed my face and brushed my teeth, pulled on some shoes, and then re­turned to the living room.

"Ready?" Erik asked.

"We'll come, too," Damien said, motioning to include the Twins, Jack, and Drew.

I started to tell them no, but I couldn't make the word come out. The truth was that I was glad they were here, glad they obvi­ously felt the need to join forces around me and protect me. I'd worried for a really long time that my extra powers and my weird Goddess-chosen Mark would brand me such a freak that I wouldn't fit in, wouldn't have any friends. But the opposite seemed to be happening.

"Okay, let's go." We headed for the door. I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to say to Neferet. All I knew was that I couldn't continue to keep my mouth shut, and that I had a terrible feeling my "dream" had really been a vision, and that there was more to the "spirits" I'd been seeing than ghosts. Most of all, I was afraid they'd taken Heath. What that said about what Stevie Rae had be­come chilled me to my core, but it didn't change the fact that Heath was missing, and that I think I knew who had taken him (if not what).

We hadn't quite made it to the door when it opened and Nef­eret glided into the room on a tide of snow-scented air. She was followed by Detective Marx and Detective Martin. They had blue down jackets on that were zipped to their chins. Their hats were covered with snow and their noses were red. Neferet, as usual, looked perfectly poised, perfectly groomed, perfectly in control.

"Ah, Zoey, good. This saves me from having to look for you. The two detectives have some rather bad news, and they'd also like to speak with you for a moment."

I didn't spare a glance for Neferet, and I could feel her stiffen­ing as I responded directly to the detectives. "I already heard on the news that Heath's missing. If there's any way I can help, I will."

"Could we use the library again?" Detective Marx asked. "Of course," Neferet said smoothly.

I started to follow Neferet and the detectives from the room, but paused to look back at Erik.

"We'll be here," he said.

"All of us," Damien said.

I nodded. Feeling better, I went to the library. I'd hardly entered the room when Detective Martin started questioning me.

"Zoey, can you account for your whereabouts between six thirty and eight thirty this morning?"

I nodded. "I was upstairs in my room. Around that time I was talking on the phone to my grandma, and then Heath and I text messaged each other back and forth a few times." I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out my cell phone. "I haven't even deleted the messages. You can see them if you want."

"You don't have to give him your phone, Zoey," Neferet said. I made myself smile at her.

"That's okay. I don't mind."

Detective Martin took my phone and started going through the text message files, copying onto a little pad the messages. "Did you see Heath this morning?" Detective Marx asked. "No. He asked if he could come see me, but I told him no."

"This says that you were pla

I could feel Neferet's sharp eyes on me. I drew a deep breath. The only way I could do this would be to stick as close to the truth as I was able.

"Yeah, I was going to go out with him after the game Friday."

"Zoey, you know it is strictly against school rules to continue to date humans from your old life." I noticed, as if for the first time, the disgust that filled her voice when she said humans.

"I know. I'm sorry." Again, I told the truth, only omitting a bloodsucking, Imprinting detail here and an I-don't-trust-you-anymore detail there. "It's just that Heath and I had so much his­tory between us that it was really hard to totally stop talking to him, even though I knew I had to. I thought it would be easier if we met and I told him to his face, once and for all, why we couldn't see each other. I would have told you, but I wanted to handle it on my own."

"So, you didn't see him this morning?" Detective Marx re­peated.

"No. After we were done text messaging I went to bed."

"Can anyone substantiate that you were in your room sleeping at that time?" Detective Martin asked, handing me back my phone.

Neferet's voice was ice. "Gentlemen, I already explained to you the terrible loss Zoey experienced just yesterday. Her roommate died. So, how she could have anyone substantiate her where­abouts at—"

"Um, excuse me, Neferet, but actually I wasn't sleeping alone. My friends Shaunee and Erin didn't want me to be by myself, so they came to my room and slept with me." I left Damien out. No point getting the kid in trouble.

"Oh, that was very kind of them," Neferet said gently, switch­ing in one breath from scary vampyre to concerned mother. I tried not to think of how not fooled I was by her.

"Do you have any idea where Heath might be?" I asked Detec­tive Marx (I still liked him better of the two).

"No. His truck was found not far from the school wall, but the snow is falling so fast that any tracks he might have made have been completely covered."

"Well, I should think that instead of wasting your time ques­tioning my fledgling, the police would be spending time search­ing the gutters for the teenager," Neferet said in an offhand tone that made me want to scream.

"Ma'am?" Marx said.

"It seems clear to me what happened. The boy was trying to see Zoey, again. It was only last month that he and that girlfriend of his climbed our wall saying they were going to break her out of the school." Neferet waved her hand dismissively. "He was drunk and high then, he was probably drunk and high this morning, too. The snow was too much for him and he's probably fallen into a gutter somewhere. Isn't that where drunks usually end up?"

"Ma'am, he's a teenager, not a drunk. And his parents and friends say he hasn't had a drink in a month."

Neferet's soft laugh made it obvious how much she didn't be­lieve him. Surprising me, Marx ignored her and studied me care­fully. "How about it, Zoey? You two dated for a couple of years, right? Can you think of where he might have gone?"

"Not out this way. If his truck was missing off Oak Grove Road in BA I could tell you where the keg party might be." I didn't mean it as a joke, especially after Neferet's mean cracks about Heath, but the detective seemed to be trying not to smile, which suddenly made him appear kind, and even approachable. Before I could change my mind, I blurted, "But I had a weird dream this morning that might not actually have been a dream but could have been some kind of vision about Heath."

Into the stu

"I know." Purposefully I made myself sound unsure and even a little scared (the scared part wasn't exactly pretense). "But it's just too weird that I dreamed that Heath was over by the east wall, and that he was grabbed there."

"What grabbed him, Zoey?" Detective Marx's voice was ur­gent. He was definitely taking me seriously.

"I don't know." Which definitely wasn't a lie. "I do know they weren't fledglings or vampyres. In my dream four cloaked figures dragged him away."

"Did you see where they went?"

"No, I woke up screaming for Heath." I didn't have to fake the tears that filled my eyes. "Maybe you should search everything around the school. Something's out there, and something's taking kids, but it's not us."

"Of course it's not us." Neferet came over to me and put her arm around me, patting my shoulder and making soft mom sounds. "Gentlemen, I think Zoey's had more than enough up­setting for one day. Why don't I introduce you to Shaunee and Erin, who, I'm sure, will collaborate her alibi."