"That is an insane plan," Aphrodite said.
"Yet it just might work," Darius said.
"I like it. It's kinda romantic, with the horses and all. Plus, it's the best plan we have," Damien said.
"It's the only plan we have," I said. At Lenobia's raised brows I hastily added, "But I like it, too."
"The fewer horses you take, the easier it will be for you to get away unnoticed. I suggest you ride double," Lenobia said.
"Three is definitely sneakier than six," Erin said.
"But how are we going to get Dragon and Anastasia in on it?" I said. "We definitely can't all go walking over to the fencing room or Anastasia's class. And I don't want us to split up."
Lenobia's brows went up again. "I don't know if you've heard of this, but there is something many of us use, called a cellular telephone. Believe it or not, Dragon and Anastasia each have one."
"Oh," I said, feeling like a moron.
Aphrodite rolled her eyes at me.
"I'll call them and fill them in on their part of the plan. Those of you wearing skirts--you need to change. Zoey can show you where the extra riding habits are kept in the tack room. Take anything in there you might need," Lenobia said as she hurried toward her office.
"I'll tell Dragon the persion will start in thirty minutes."
"Thirty minutes!" My stomach clenched.
"That should give you plenty of time to change and put bridles on three horses. You won't be able to use saddles. That would be too obvious." Lenobia disappeared into her office just as Damien said, "No saddles? I think I'm going to be sick."
"Join the crowd," I said. "Come on," I told Aphrodite and the Twins, "You need to change out of those short skirts. And who the hell wears stilettos in an ice storm?"
"They're boots," Aphrodite said. "And boots are proper winter attire."
"Three and a half inch stiletto boots are not sensible footwear for winter," I said, leading them to the tack room and the riding clothes hangi _??ng neatly there among the other tack.
"Fashion-impaired geek," Aphrodite muttered.
"Agreeing," Shaunee said.
"For once," Erin added.
I grabbed three bridles and shook my head at my friends. "Just change your clothes. There are riding boots in that closet. Avail yourselves of their use."
"Avail?" I heard Shaunee say as I marched out of the tack room.
"Girlfriend has been hanging around Queen Damien too much," Erin said.
I slammed the door. I wasn't sure what other two horses Lenobia would choose to go with us, but I knew Persephone would be carrying me, so I hurried toward her stall. Darius had moved over to one of the high stable windows and was busy stacking hay bales on top of each other. Obviously he was going to give us a weather and Raven Mocker check.
"Uh, Z, may I have one little word with you?" Damien said.
"Sure, come on in." I went back to Persephone's stall, grabbed the currycomb, and started giving the mare a quick wipedown.
Damien stayed in the doorway. "Here's the thing--I don't really ride."
"Well, that's not a problem. I'll do the hard part. You just sit behind me and hold on."
"What if I fall off? I'm sure she's a perfectly nice animal." He sent a little hello wave to Persephone, who was still happily chewing her hay and not paying any attention to Damien. "But she's also big. Really very big. Humongous, actually."
"Damien, we are about to break out of school, run for our lives, and then try to banish an ancient immortal and a vamp High Priestess gone bad, and you're stressing about riding behind me on a horse?"
"Bareback. Riding bareback behind you on a horse," he said. Then nodded. "Yes, yes, I am stressing about it."
I started giggling and had to lean against Persephone because I was hurting myself. Okay, here's the life lesson I've really been learning: If you have good friends, no matter how much life is sucking, they can make you laugh.
Meanwhile, Damien was frowning at me. "Just so you know, I'm going to tell Jack you were laughing at me, and he'll get mad at you. That means the next time I purchase a gift for you, he will go on strike and not supervise its tasteful wrapping."
"Jeesh, that's kinda harsh," I said, then burst into giggles again.
"Would you guys get serious! We have a war to win and a world to save." Aphrodite was standing with her hands on her hips just outside Persephone's stall. She was wearing her cropped black designer tank (with the gold JUICY label across her boobs) and her borrowed tan riding pants tucked into flat English riding boots. With no heels. None.
I took one look at her and started to giggle again. ThenH I*." I caught sight of the Twins, who were standing behind her. Both of them had on Dolce & Gabbana animal-print silk tunics (probably from Saks Fifth Avenue or Miss Jackson's, jeesh). Their butts were snugged with spandexy tan English riding leggings (hee hees), tucked into brown and tan English riding boots.
It was priceless. This time Damien joined me in my hysteria.
"I hate both of them," Aphrodite said.
"Girlfriend, we're finding we have more and more in common with you," Erin told Aphrodite.
"Ditto," Shaunee said, scowling at Damien and me.
Sadly, Lenobia's words threw cold water on my giggly good time.
"I spoke with Anastasia. Everything's ready to go, even though Dragon was temporarily unavailable. He was dealing with an unusual case of vampyre Change. I was told to pass word along to Zoey that Stark arrived and has been taken care of."
"Did she say Stark?" Damien asked. "Huh?" the Twins said.
"Oh, shit," Aphrodite said.
"The weather still looks bad, and I can see stirrings in the trees. I think their plan is to grab us as we leave the stables. We better get going," Darius said as he rejoined our group. He paused as he saw everyone staring at me. "Obviously I missed something."
"Yes, and Zoey was just getting ready to fill us in," Damien said.
I gnawed my lip and looked from friend to friend. Well, hell. "Okay, here's the deal. Stark Changed. He's the second red vampyre there's ever been."
"Whoop-de-fucking-do," Erin said. "He's still an assbucket."
"Yeah, and why would you know shit about him Changing?" Shaunee said.
"You have to stop thinking of him like he's Stevie Rae. They're worlds apart," Damien said, more gently than the others.
"She loves him," Aphrodite blurted.
"Aphrodite!" I yelled.
"Well, someone had to clue the dorks in to your pathetic infatuation with him," Aphrodite said.
"You're not helping me," I said.
"Wait. Rewind. Zoey is in love with Stark? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life," Erin said.
"Well, except for the whole graduated driver's license law thing in Oklahoma, Twin. Let's get serious. That's the stupidest thing we've ever heard of in our entire lives," Shaunee said.
"True. Besides that, though. And, Aphrodite, we say: You. Have. Lost. Your. Damn. Mind," Erin said.
"Again," Shaunee finished.
Everyone looked at me.
"I think the graduated driver's *t, tho [Hlicense thing is stupid, too," I lamely said.
"See! I told you!" Aphrodite said. "She has a serious thing for Stark."
"Serious shit," Erin said.
"I would never have believed it," Shaunee said.
"Let her explain!" Damien yelled.
Everyone got really quiet.
I cleared my throat.
"Okay. Well. Remember the poem?" All of my friends narrowed their eyes at me, which I didn't think was very fair. But I continued anyway. "It said I was supposed to save his humanity? And I did. I think. I hope."
"Priestess, we caught him abusing a fledgling. How can you condone that?" Darius said.
"I don't condone it. It makes me sick. But I remember when Stevie Rae was fighting to keep her humanity, and she was awful." I looked at Aphrodite. "You know what I'm talking about." "Yeah, and I'm not one hundred percent sure you can trust her today. And I say that as the human she's Imprinted."
I expected the Twins and Damien to blow up at her, but they stayed very quiet. Finally I turned to Darius. "Stark gave me his Warrior's Oath."
"His Warrior's Oath! And you accepted him?" Darius said.
"I did. It was right after that he Changed."
Darius sighed deeply. "Then Stark is bound to you until you release him from his oath."
"I think that caused his Change," I said. "I think with the red fledglings their Change has something to do with the choice between good and evil."
"By pledging to you, Stark chose good," Darius said.
I smiled. "I like to think so."
"So that means he isn't an asscake anymore?" Erin said.
"I thought you called him an assbucket," Shaunee said.
"Twin, it's the same thing," Erin said.
"It means I trust him," I said. "And I wish you guys would give him a chance."
"Giving the wrong person a chance right now could get us killed," Darius said.
I drew a deep breath. "I know."
"A newly Changed vampyre needs to be secluded in Nyx's Temple. Dragon assured me Stark is safely there." Lenobia glanced at her watch. "We have exactly ten minutes. Can we not get on with more important things and leave the question of Stark's trustworthiness until a better time?"
"Definitely," I said. "What's left to do?" All I could hope was that Dragon really had the newly Changed Stark safely locked away in Nyx's Temple, and that we would actually chase Kalona out of here, thereby getting rid of Neferet, too, so that we would have a chan OfV' Nce to deal with his trustworthiness at a better time.
We quickly got bridles on two other horses, appropriately named Hope and Destiny. Then the hard part of our plan started.
"I still say it is not safe," Darius said, looking like a thundercloud.
"I have to do it. Stevie Rae's not here, and I'm the closest thing we have to a pure earth affinity," I said.
"It really doesn't sound that hard," Aphrodite said, trying to reason with the irate warrior. "All Zoey has to do is sneak out to the wall, tell the tree that's already smushing it to push harder, and then sneak back here."
"I will take her there," Darius said stubbornly.
"With your mega-quickness that'll be perfect," I said. "By the way, I'm ready."
"How will I know you've succeeded and it's my time to start the next part of the plan?" Lenobia asked me. "I'll send spirit to you. If you feel a jolt of something good, you'll know we're fine and it's time to tell Shaunee to get ready to let fire loose."
"But she must remember that only the shoes of the horses should be afire," Lenobia said, giving Shaunee a stern look.
"I know! It's not even hard. Just go on about your business. Destiny and I are making friends." Shaunee turned back to the big bay mare who would carry her and Erin, and continued to chatter to the horse as Erin brushed her and talked about sugar cubes and something called a Jazzy Apple.
"Just keep her safe and get back here to me," Aphrodite said. She kissed Darius on the mouth and then walked toward Hope to help Lenobia finish buckling the last of the mare's bridle straps.
"Well, Priestess, shall we?" Darius said.
I nodded and let him lift me into his arms. Darius took one step out into the frigid, stormy night, and then everything blurred around us as he moved kinda diagonally across the rear grounds to a part of the big wall surrounding the school that had an even bigger oak lying across it. Somehow in one of Tulsa's last winter disasters, the tree had succumbed and fallen down. Kinda. Word had it (from Aphrodite) that under normal circumstances it was an excellent place to sneak off campus undetected, and I knew from personal experience that she'd been right.
Today we were not dealing with normal circumstances.
Darius came to a halt way too fast beside the fallen tree, shoved me under it, and whispered, "Stay there until I'm sure it is safe." And off he went.
So I crouched under the tree and thought about how wet and cold it was and how annoying guys were. Then I heard the nasty wing-flapping sound, and I decided to uncrouch--quickly.
I emerged from under the side of the tree just in time to see Darius grabbing a Raven Mocker by his wing, jerking him to the ground, and then slitting his throat.
I looked away fast.
"Zoey, come on. We have no time."
Trying to ignore the corpse of the Raven Mocker, I hurried to the half-toppled tree. I placed my hand on it and closed my eyes. Centering myself, I searched for my internal north--the site of earth--and then invoked, "Earth, I need you. Please come to me." In the midst of an ice storm, in the dead of winter, I was suddenly, miraculously, surrounded by the scents of a spring meadow...ripe wheat...a mimosa tree in full bloom. I bowed my head gratefully and continued. "What I need you to do is hard, and I wouldn't ask it of you unless it was an emergency." I drew a deep breath, and focused on the ice-slicked bark beneath my palm. "Fall," I commanded. "Forgive me, but I have to ask you to fall." The skin of the tree shuddered under my hand, so violently that I fell backward, and with a crack that I swear I could hear a dying scream within, the old oak fell, crashing against the already weakened wall, sending blocks of stone and bricks tumbling down, and creating a break in the barrier that surrounded the school, a break it would seem logical for us to try to escape through.
I was breathing heavily and feeling more than a little shaky, but I automatically sent spirit to let Lenobia know I was successful. Then I picked myself up, staggered to the fallen tree, and put both hands on its bark. "Thank you, earth." Then a sudden thought had me adding, "Go to Stevie Rae. Tell her we're coming. Tell her to be ready." I felt the usual listening sense I got when I commanded an element to do something. "Go now, earth. Thank you again for helping me, and I'm really sorry I had to hurt the tree."
"We must return to the stables." Darius strode over to me and lifted me in his arms. "You did well, Priestess," he said. I put my head down on his friendly shoulder, and only knew I was crying because I could see the wet streaks on his jacket. "Let's get out of here."