Burned (House of Night #7)(45)

Sapphire said.

Stevie Rae made herself meet the vampyre nurse's gaze. "I'm a red vampyre High Priestess. There's never been anyone like me before, so I guess we can say I'm setting the learning curve for all of us. We must heal fast." She flipped the edge of the sheet over her body and then held her hand out to Kramisha.

"I need your phone now."

Without another word, Kramisha walked over to where she'd dropped her purse, dug out her cell phone, and gave it to Stevie Rae. "Aphrodite's listed under the B's."

Stevie Rae punched in the number. Aphrodite picked up on the third ring.

"Yes, it is too damn early to call, and no, I do not care about whatever stupid poem you just wrote, Kramisha."

"It's me."

Aphrodite's sarcastic tone instantly changed. "What happened?"

"Did you know the white bull's bad and the black bull's good?"

"Yeah. Didn't I tell you that part?" Aphrodite said.

"No, which really sucked 'cause I called the white bull to my circle."

"Uh-oh. That's seriously not good. What happened?"

"Not good? Try understatement of the dang decade, Aphrodite. It was bad. Really, really bad." Stevie Rae wanted to tell Lenobia and Sapphire and even Kramisha to go away so she could talk to Aphrodite in private, and then maybe have a really good breakdown and bawl her eyes out; but she knew they needed to hear what she had to say. Sadly, bad stuff didn't go away just because it was ignored.

"Aphrodite, it's evil like nothing I've seen before. It makes Neferet look like a trick-or-treat kid." She ignored Sapphire's indignant snort and kept talking quickly. "And it's powerful beyond belief. I couldn't fight it. I don't think anything can fight it except the other bull."

"So how did you get away from it?" Aphrodite paused for half a heartbeat, and then added, "You are away from it, aren't you? You're not all under its spell so that you're being used like a sock puppet for evil with a bumpkin accent, right?"

"That's just silly, Aphrodite."

"Still, say something to prove you're really you."

"You called me a retard last time we talked. More than once. And said I was asstarded, which is not

even a word. I'm still tellin' you that's not nice."

"Fine. It's you. So how did you get away from the bull?"

"I managed to call up the good bull, and he is as really, really good as the other one is bad. He fought it, and they both disappeared."

"So you didn't learn anything?"

"Yeah, I did." Stevie Rae squinted while she concentrated hard, wanting to be sure she remembered word for word what the white bull had said. "I asked how Stark could get to Zoey so that he can protect her while she gets herself together and comes back here. This is what the bull said: 'The Warrior must look to his blood to discover the bridge to enter the Isle of Women, and then he must defeat himself to enter the arena. Only by acknowledging one before the other will he join his Priestess.

After he joins her, it is her choice and not his whether she returns.' "

"He said Isle of Women? Are you sure about that?"

"Yeah, I'm positive. That's exactly what he said."

"Good. Okay. Uh, hang on, I'm writing this all down so I don't forget any of it."

Stevie Rae could hear Aphrodite scribbling on a piece of paper. When she was done, her voice was filled with excitement. "This means we are on the right track! But how the hell does Stark find a bridge by looking at blood? And what does that stuff about him having to defeat himself mean?"

Stevie Rae sighed. A massive headache had started to throb between her temples. "I don't have a clue, but getting that answer almost killed me, so it has to mean somethin' important."

"Then Stark better figure it out." Aphrodite hesitated before saying, "If the black bull is so super good, why don't you just call it back again and - "

"No!" Stevie Rae spoke with such force she caused everyone in the room to jump. "Never again. And you shouldn't let anyone else conjure either of those bulls. The price is too much."

"What do you mean, the price is too much?" Aphrodite said.

"I mean they're too powerful. They can't be controlled, whether they're good or bad. Aphrodite, there're some things that weren't meant to be messed with, and those bulls are part of those things. Plus, I'm not so sure one can be called up without the other eventually showing up, and believe me, you don't want to ever, ever meet that white bull."

"Okay, okay - relax. I get what you're saying, and I can tell you I have a kinda creepy feeling just talking about those bulls. I think you're right. Don't stress. No one's gonna do anything except try to help Stark find a blood bridge to the Isle of Skye."

"Aphrodite, I don't think it's a blood bridge. That doesn't even sound right." Stevie Rae rubbed her face and was surprised to see that her hand was shaking.

"Enough for now," Lenobia whispered. "You're strong, but you're not immortal."

Stevie Rae's gaze shot to hers, but she saw nothing in the Horse Mistress's gray eyes except concern.

"Hey, uh, I gotta go for now. I'm not feelin' so good."