Revealed (House of Night #11)(34)

“Huh? Birth control?” Z walked in.

“Never mind. Too late.”

“Hi,” Zoey said. “You don’t look bad.”

“I never look bad,” Aphrodite told her.

Z rolled her eyes and waved at Darius. “Hey there, Darius. Stark said to tell you he needs help with the boxes, like, right now. Kalona’s plan worked and he’s got Dallas and his group piling up logs for the pyre.”

“I am on my way.” He paused to kiss Aphrodite quickly before leaving. “You, I will meet back here at sunrise.”

“Alone.” Aphrodite enunciated the word carefully, sending Zoey a Look.

After Darius closed the door, Z perched on one of Aphrodite’s velvet chairs. “So, if you’re feeling frisky, you must not be too hung over.”

“Frisky is not a verb people under the age of eighty use to describe anything except the behavior of horses, and I’m not hung over at all,” Aphrodite began as she fixed her T-shirt, went to her vanity mirror, and started combing her hair. Then, watching Zoey in the reflection, she added, “Well, okay, maybe I got a little messed up last night, but sleep, caffeine, and sugar fixed that.”

“Brown pop always does it for me,” Z said.

“You know that’s not good for your skin,” Aphrodite told her.

“Like your mimosas are?”

“Orange juice is totally healthy. I just like mine diluted.”

“With alcohol,” Z said, shaking her head and trying, unsuccessfully, not to smile.

“With good alcohol. Like Marilyn Monroe. And you see that her skin didn’t wrinkle.”

“Aphrodite, Marilyn Monroe died before she could get wrinkled.”

“My point exactly. Mimosas are healthy. The end.”

“You’re making my head hurt,” Z said.

Aphrodite smiled. “You are welcome. Oh, and before Darius and I started our super hot makeout session, which was going to lead to super hot sex, which you totally interrupted, he told me about Chera and the jewels.”

“First, eew, frisky sounded so much better than your description. Second, Chera seemed cool, but basically her being here means the House of Night is in deep poo. Third, you do understand they’re not jewels—they’re ancient weapons that happen to have diamonds and rubies and stuff like that set into them.”

“Proving how moronic males can be. Precious gems belong draped around a beautiful woman’s—meaning mine—body. Not wasted in pointy and shieldy things.”

“Except for the part about them belonging just on your body, I’m in total agreement with you.”

“And I agree with you that we need to keep our mouths shut about them.”

“Yeah, that’s what my gut told me to do, but it felt awkward keeping it from Thanatos.”

“If Thanatos didn’t mention the weapons to you, that means Dragon was the one keeping them from her, not you—not us. I say box them up and hide them in one of Lenobia’s tack rooms. I’m pretty sure if I tried to use my mom’s gold card today, it would tell me I’m shit out of luck, so I say yes to having a financial backup plan.”

Zoey’s gaze met hers in the mirror. “Last night was bad. I’m really sorry about your dad, and I’m sorry about the stuff your mom said to you, too.”

Aphrodite bit back the sarcastic reply that came so easily to her, drew a deep breath, and was honest with her friend. “I knew my mom never really cared about me, but knowing it and having her put it out there for everyone else to know are two different things—two different feelings. It hurts. A lot.”

“Yeah,” Z said softly, her eyes getting watery. “I know what you mean.”

Aphrodite turned the little stool around so she could face Zoey. “You know what one of the first things I was happy about when I got Marked?”

“Having awesome hair?” Z smiled through her tears.

“No, stupid, I already had awesome hair,” she quipped, and then her voice changed and she stared down at her lap. “One of the first things that made me happy was that I learned vampyres can’t have babies, so I knew there was no way I’d slip up and accidentally get pregnant and then be a shitty mom and make some poor kid as f**king miserable as my mom made me.”

“Hey, that’s not going to happen.”

Aphrodite wiped her eyes and looked up at Z. “Yeah, not as long as I keep having super hot sex with a vampyre it won’t.”

“Well, that’s as true as it is gross, but it’s not what I was talking about. That’s not going to happen to you because you aren’t like your mom,” Zoey said carefully. “You’re good and loyal, and you wouldn’t hurt someone you love.”

“Thanks,” Aphrodite managed to say, wiping her eyes again.

“And don’t call me stupid,” Z said.

“I didn’t call you a retard. I was being nice and politically correct.” Aphrodite turned back around and started fixing her smeared mascara.

“And yet you still found a reason to say the r word.” Zoey sighed. “So, you really are okay after losing your dad?”

“Are you really okay after losing your mom?”

Z looked surprised at the question. “I guess I will be. I mean, like you, my mom hadn’t done much mothering in a long time. I was used to her not being around already.”