"Did you ever think about being nice and not putting him through your usual crap?"

Aphrodite met my eyes. "Actually, I have been thinking about it and may consider changing things up with Darius." She paused and added. "She chose me."

"She who?"

"Maleficent."

"Well, yeah, she chose you. She's your cat. Just like Nala chose me and Darius's cat, whatever her name is . . . uh . . ."

"Nefertiti," Aphrodite said.

"Yeah, Nefertiti, she chose him. So what's the big deal? Happens all the time. Cats choose their fledglings, or sometimes their vamps. Most every vamp eventually gets one and--"

And I suddenly realized why the cat choosing her had made such an impact on Aphrodite.

"It makes me belong," she said quietly. "Somehow I'm still a part of the whole"-- she paused, talking so low, I had to lean into her to hear her--"I'm still part of the whole vamp thing. It means I'm not totally an outsider."

"You couldn't be an outsider," I whispered back. "You're part of the Dark Daughters. You're part of the school. And most important, you're part of Nyx."

"But since this happened"--she brushed her hand across her forehead where she hadn't needed any makeup to cover the Mark that no longer was there--"since this happened, I haven't really felt like I was a part of anything. But Maleficent changed that."

"Huh," I said, more than a little taken back by Aphrodite's sincerity.

Then she shook herself, shrugged, and--looking much more like the Aphrodite we all knew and couldn't stand--said, "Whatever, though. My life still sucks. And after I eat this cheap, greasy crap with you, I'll probably break out." "Hey, a little grease is good for your hair and nails. Kinda like vitamin E." I bumped her shoulder. "I'll even order for you."

"Could I have something diet?"

"Please. There's nothing diet about Charlie's."

"They have diet pop," she said.

I sneered down at her size 6 perfectness. "Not for you."

Since it really was fast food, it didn't take long to fill our order, and Aphrodite and I found a semi-clean table and started shoving greasy fried chicken and catsup-slathered fries into our faces. Now, don't get me wrong. Even though I was shoveling in the chicken and fries 'cause we needed to get back to school and it was rude to lounge around while Darius babysat Aphrodite's cat from hell, I savored every bite. I mean, after a couple months of really nutritious, excellent food from the House of Night cafeteria, my taste buds needed a dose of disgustingly delicious and utterly not-good-for-me food. Yum. Seriously.

"So," I said between bites, "Stevie Rae and I talked."

"Yeah, I thought I heard her twang out there in the other room." Aphrodite picked delicately at a drumstick and wrinkled her nose at me when I added salt to the already totally salty fries. "You're going to bloat like a dead fish."

"If I do, I'll just wear sweats until I pee it out." I grinned around a big bite of chicken.

She shuddered. "You're so gross. I cannot believe we're friends, which proves I'm in the middle of a personal crisis. Anyway--what's up with Stevie Rae and the zoo animals?"

"Well, we didn't really talk about her or the other kids very much," I said, not willing to tell Aphrodite that Stevie Rae admitted to not being herself.

"So since you didn't talk about the crazies much, my guess is Stark was who you did talk about."

"Yeah. It's not good."

"Well, no. The kid's dead. Or possibly undead. Either isn't very good. What did Stevie Rae say about the time frame for him coming back? Or do we just wait till he starts to stink and figure he's not going to wake up."

"Don't talk about him like that!"

"Sorry, I forget that you had a thing with him. What did Stevie Rae say?"

"Sadly, she couldn't give me many specifics. Her memory of everything before she Changed is pretty sketchy. Her best advice was to steal his body and see if he wakes up. And if he does wake up, he'll need to be fed right away."

"Fed? As in a burger and some fries, or fed as in opening a vein?"

"Your second guess is the right one."

"Oh, ugh. I know you've gotten all into the bloodsucking-back-and-forth stuff, but it still squees me out."

"It squees me out, too, but there's no denying the power of it," I admitted uncomfortably.