"We have to warn them," Aphrodite said.

I nodded. "Yes, we do. This nanny cam thing won't reach all the way to St. John's, will it?"

"Probably not. I think the range is only a few hundred yards."

"Then while I'm getting dressed, take it to the Twins' room. Tell them what's happened, and also tell them to warn Damien and Jack about Neferet." Then I took a deep breath and added, "Last night, there was a Raven Mocker clinging to my window."

"Oh my Goddess!"

"It was horrible." I shuddered. "Grandma blew crushed turquoise at it, and I had wind help her out, and that made it disappear, but I don't know how long it had been listening to us."

"That's what you started to say. The Raven Mocker knew your grandma was going to the Chalkboard."

"It caused her accident," I said.

"It or Neferet," she said.

"Or the two of them together." I went to my bedside table and grabbed the nanny cam monitor. "Get this to the Twins. Wait." I stopped her before she'd left the room. I went to Grandma's blue overnight bag and search through the zippered compartment that she'd left open. Sure enough, just inside it was a deer hide pouch. I opened it up to double-check and then, satisfied, I handed it to Aphrodite. "This is more turquoise dust. Have the Twins split it with Damien and Jack. Tell them it's powerful protection, but we don't have much of it."

She nodded. "Got it."

"Hurry. I'll be ready to go when you get back."

"Zoey, she's going to be okay. They said she's in intensive care, but she had her seat belt on and she's still alive." "She has to be," I told Aphrodite as my eyes filled with tears again. "I don't know what I'd do if she wasn't okay."

The short ride to St. John's Hospital was a silent one. It was, of course, an obnoxiously sunny day. So, even though we all had on sunglasses and the Lexus had heavily tinted windows, it was uncomfortable for us. (Well, us being Darius and me-- Aphrodite looked like she was having a hard time not hanging out the window and basking in the sun.) Darius dropped us off in the ER drive-through and said he'd park the car and meet us in intensive care.

Even though I hadn't spent much time inside a hospital, the smell seemed to be an innate memory, and one that wasn't positive. I really hated the antiseptic-covering-disease sense of it. Aphrodite and I stopped at the information desk, and a nice old lady in a salmon-colored smock pointed us to intensive care.

Okay, it was really scary in intensive care. We hesitated, not sure whether we could actually go through the swinging double doors that had INTENSIVE CARE emblazoned in red across them. Then I remembered that they had my grandma in there, and I marched resolutely through the intimidating doors into Scaryville.

"Don't look," Aphrodite whispered as I started to stumble because my eyes were automatically being drawn to the glass windows of the patient rooms. Seriously. The walls of the rooms weren't walls at all. They were windows--so that everyone could gawk at the dying old people using potty pans and such. "Just keep walking to the nurses' station. They'll tell you about your grandma."

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" I whispered back.

"My dad's OD'ed twice and ended up here."

I gave her a shocked look. "Really?"

She shrugged. "Wouldn't you OD if you were married to my mom?"

I suppose I would, but I thought it best not to say so. Plus, we'd come to the nurses' station.

"How may I help you?" said a blonde who was built like a brick.

"I'm here to see my grandma, Sylvia Redbird."

"And you are?"

"Zoey Redbird," I said.

The nurse checked a chart, and then she smiled at me. "You're listed here as her next of kin. Just a moment. The doctor is with her now. If you wait in the family room just down the hall there, I'll let him know you're here."

"Can't I see her?"

"Of course you can, but the doctor needs to finish with her first."

"Okay. I'll be waiting." After I'd taken just a few steps, I stopped. "She's not left alone, is she?"

"No, that's why all the rooms have windows for walls. None of the patients in intensive care are ever left alone."

Well, peeking through a window wasn't going to be good enough for what was going on with Grandma. "Just be sure the doctor gets me right away, okay?"