Stevie Rae didn't say anything for a while, and I let her get her thoughts together while she handed me cat toys. Finally she looked up and met my eyes again. "I wish I could tell you that he was going to come back--that he was going to be okay. But I just don't know."

"How long does it take to know?"

She shook her head, looking really frustrated now. "I don't know! I can't remember. Back then, days didn't mean anything to me."

"What do you remember?" I asked gently.

"I remember waking up and I was hungry--so hungry, Zoey. It was terrible. I had to have blood. She was there, and she gave it to me." Stevie Rae grimaced with the memory. "From her. I fed from her first thing when I woke up."

"Neferet?" I whispered the name.

Stevie Rae nodded.

"Where were you?"

"In that terrible morgue room. You know, it's off from the side of the school by the south wall and the pine trees there. It has the cremation thing in it."

I shuddered. I did know about the cremation thing. All the kids knew about it. That's supposedly where Stevie Rae's body had gone.

"Then what happened? I mean, after you fed?"

"She took me to the tunnels and the rest of the kids. She used to visit us a lot. Sometimes she'd even bring street people for us to eat." Stevie Rae looked away, but not before I saw the pain and guilt that filled her eyes. She was such a sweet soul--such a good girl--remembering how it was when she had been losing her humanity must be awful for her. "It's hard for me to think about it, Zoey. And it's even harder for me to talk about it."

"I know, I'm sorry, but this is important. I have to know what will happen if Stark comes back." Stevie Rae looked me square in the eyes, and suddenly her voice was that of a stranger. "I don't know what will happen. Sometimes I don't even know what will happen to me."

"But you're different now. You're Changed."

Her expression shifted, and I saw anger in Stevie Rae's eyes. "Yeah, I've Changed, but it's not as simple as what happens to regular vamps. I still have to choose my humanity, and sometimes that choice isn't as black-and-white as you'd think it would be." Her gaze sharpened. "You said the dead kid's name was Stark? I don't remember anyone with that name."

"He was new. He'd just transferred from the House of Night in Chicago."

"What was he like before he died?"

"Stark was a good guy," I said automatically, and then I paused, realizing that I hadn't really known what kind of a guy he was, and for the first time I wondered if maybe the attraction I'd felt for him had tainted how I saw him. He had admitted to killing his mentor--how could I have overlooked that so easily?

"Zoey? What is it?"

"I was starting to like him. Really like him, but I didn't know him very well," I finally said, suddenly reluctant to tell Stevie Rae everything about Stark.

Her expression softened, and she looked like my BFF again. "If you care about him, you're going to have to get to the morgue and get him out of there. Keep him somewhere for a few days, and see if he comes back. And if he does, he's going to be hungry and probably a little crazy when he wakes up. You'll have to feed him, Zoey."

I passed a shaky hand over my forehead, wiping my hair from my face. "Okay . . . okay . . . I'll figure it out. I'll just have to figure it out."

"If he does wake up, bring him to me. He can stay with us," Stevie Rae said.

"Okay," I repeated, feeling utterly overwhelmed. "There's just so much stuff going on at the House of Night right now. It's different than it was before."

"Different like how? Tell me, and maybe I can help you figure this out."

"Well, for one thing, Shekinah showed up at the House of Night."

"That name sounds familiar. Like she's a big deal or somethin'."

"She's a major big deal, as in the leader of all vamp High Priestesses. And she pretty much told Neferet right in front of the Council."

"Dang, wish I could have seen that."

"Yeah, it was great, but kinda scary, too. I mean, if Shekinah has enough power to put Neferet in her place--well, that's just plain scary."

Stevie Rae nodded. "So what did Shekinah say?"

"You know Neferet had closed the school, even though she called off winter break and made everyone come back."

"Yeah." Stevie Rae nodded again.

"Shekinah reopened the school." I leaned closer to Stevie Rae and lowered my already mostly whispery voice before I continued. "And she called off the war."