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Shaylin

"Here Now" Aphrodite crooked her finger at Shaylin,across the grass and heading in the general direction of the fledglings&039; dorhed, squelched her irritation, and followed the annoying blonde As she caught up with her, Aphrodite was already talking "Okay, you need to reconnoiter"

"Okay, you need to grow some manners," Shaylin said

Aphrodite stopped and narrowed her eyes to blue slits

"You should know that look is unattractive and it causes crow&039;s feet," Shaylin spoke quickly before Aphrodite could say soto Damien, haven&039;t you?"

"Maybe," Shaylin answered vaguely, not wanting to get Damien in any trouble But, yeah, the truth was she had been talking to him Actually, she&039;d really started to like Dah, she was a different story "Aphrodite, really, it looks like you and I ether, or whatever you&039;d call this Prophetess stuff So, it&039;d make both of our lives easier if you could, at least, be polite to me"

"No, it would e at all"

Shaylin shook her head "Really? Why don&039;t you run that attitude past Nyx? We have ht Zoey&039;s er Correct , but isn&039;t Zoey a friend of yours?"

Aphrodite&039;s eyes narrowed again, but she only said one word: "Yes"

"Then how about you do everything you can to help her"

"I a that, bitch," Aphrodite snapped

"How can you be so sure? Did you ever consider the small fact that maybe, if you were less hateful, you&039;d have access to ifts?"

Aphrodite&039;s eyes un-narrowed Slowly She even looked a little surprised "No I&039;ve never considered that"

Shaylin threw her hands up in frustration "Jeesh, were you raised by wolves?"

"Sort of," Aphrodite said "But they had money"

"Incredible," Shaylin murmured Then she started over "Okay, here&039;s what I know When I read your aura and was bitchy about the little flickering light I saithin you, it messed with my head The next ti together"

"Which, obviously,pissed"

"No, because everyone&039;s colors looked all runny and indistinct until I apologized to you Wait, scratch that The coized to you and "

"I&039;h to you at all, am I?"

"As much as anyone can," Aphrodite said "So, back to reconnoitering"

"Fine Yes What do you want me to do?"

"Find Erin And Dallas If I&039;m correct, which, just FYI for future reference, I alether"

"And that would be bad, right?"

"Are you brain da to answer that," Shaylin said

"Good We don&039;t have ti to be dawn in a couple of hours The bus will be heading back to the depot and Kalona will be heading into Neferet&039;s nasty lair"

"Yeah, Kalona waiting until dawn so she&039;d be weakened by the sun without it being totally obvious that he aiting until she eakened by the sun doesn&039;t look like it&039;s going to work," Shaylin said, looking skyward

"What in the hell are you talking about, fucktard?"

Shaylin pointed up "Rain clouds Lots of them I really wish they&039;d clear out They blanket the sun and its weakening effect Noho&039;s the fucktard?"

"Do not call me a fucktard," Aphrodite said

"Well, then don&039;t call me one," Shaylin said

"I&039;ll think about it Back to o back to the depot and Kalona takes off, I want you to check out Dallas and Erin&039;s colors Any additional info you can give us about Erin, especially about whether she&039;s a traitorous, skanky ho-yeah, I&039; about theht, yeah, sounds good, but I have no idea where they ifts you have?" Shaylin asked

"Goddess, you are brain daed No, I don&039;t have a GPS inside h It tellsthe nasty, itfor them in Erin&039;s dorm room-the dorm room she doesn&039;t share with Shaunee anymore"

"Oh Yeah That does make sense" Shaylin hesitated "But I don&039;t knohich dorm room is hers"

"Third floor, number thirty-six When they shared a brain, they used to say it stood for their chest size I said it was their combined IQ"

"Of course you did," Shaylin said

"See, you do understand me!" Aphrodite said with fake enthusiasm "I&039;ll meet you back at the bus Soon" Aphrodite started to walk away, paused and added, "Please"

Shaylin&039;s eyes widened

Aphrodite rolled her eyes and opened herhateful Then she stopped, stared above her for one long , "Looks like you&039;re getting your wish The rainclouds are clearing" Then Aphrodite tossed her hair and twitched off

Shaylin shook her head "Total nutjob," she irls&039; dorm "Nyx, I don&039;t know you very well, and I don&039;t want you to think I&039; like that, but Aphrodite as your Prophetess? Why?"

"No one knows, and I think that includes Aphrodite herself"

Shaylin juht stepped from the shadows of a nearby oak tree

"Erik! What are you doing out here?" Shaylin&039;s hand went to her throat She iined Erik could see how hard her pulse pounded there, and not just because he&039;d startled her Her first view of him was always the same-his absolute, total, tall/dark/handsolimpse of his colors and they weren&039;t nearly as attractive Shaylin had decided he was like one of those gorgeously painted pieces of pottery that you&039;d like to use to toss a salad in or whatever, but if you flipped the piece over you&039;d see the WARNING: DO NOT USE TO SERVE FOOD label

"Sorry I didn&039;t " His shtbulb Shaylin could see why alirls were in love with hieousness

"I didn&039;t et back to your procrastination See ya"

"Hey" He touched her ar her to pause "I thought ere friends"

Shaylin studied him When Erik had Marked her his colors were reen that overshadowed the bright flashes of soolden, like the rays of the sun, but were too fleeting for her to be sure Other than that he&039;d just been kinda foggy and wishy-washy She hadn&039;t paid much attention to his colors the past few days, so when she focused, Shaylin was surprised to see that, even though his green was still there, it had lightened and now it didn&039;t bring to mind mushy peas Instead it rereen turquoise And all around the green-blue the foggya solid tan, like the sand of a beautiful, untouched beach Feeling a little like she&039;d fallen into deep water, Shaylin tried not to look nervous and blurted, "Yeah, we are friends, but that&039;s all"

"I didn&039;t ask for anything else, did I?"

Shaylin ht and blue, and spent way tooso like "you totally want to be friends with benefits" sounded way tooAphrodite would say So instead she chose a nicer answer "No, you haven&039;t asked for anything else"

He sain "So, we can be friends?"

It was hard not to smile back at him, and truthfully, she couldn&039;t think of a reason not to Shaylin grinned and nodded "Yep, friends"

"Aweso? I can procrastinate just as ith you as I can byabout?" Shaylin avoided the question of where she was going and just kinda eneral direction of the dorh "I really hate writing them You know, I never meant to be a professor"

"Yeah, everyone knows that You were meant to be a movie star," Shaylin said She spoke in an offhandor sarcastic, but the hurt in his blue eyes said she&039;d probably sounded both

"Yeah," he repeated in a clipped voice, turning his gaze away fro his hands in the pockets of his jeans "Everyone knows that"

"Hey, but this Tracker thing is just a little speed buht? What are you, twenty-one?"

"Nineteen I just coo Why? Do I look old?"

Shaylin laughed "Twenty-one isn&039;t old"

"It is if you have to add four years onto it, and I&039;ve just started a four-year Tracker job"

"Does being a Tracker ht in Tulsa?"

"Trying to get rid of

"No, of course not," she assured him "What I meant is, can&039;t you transfer to the West Coast and still be a Tracker? There ht nearer to Hollywood than this" As they talked, Shaylin realized that Erik didn&039;t sound like a pissed-off, spoiled brat He just sounded tired and frustrated and maybe even kinda depressed

"I already looked into it The answer I got eird and a little creepy" He paused and sent her a sideways glance "Well, probably creepier for the kids who are being Tracked than for me"

"Been there-done that It wasn&039;t so creepy Actually, you were kinda funny," she said

Erik frowned "I was supposed to be powerful and confident and maybe a little scary"

"So, you want to be creepy?"

Thatisn&039;t the creepy part anyway, or at least it&039;s not supposed to be The part that&039;s definitely not nor in my blood that keeps me anchored to this place Yeah, I can travel, but only if it&039;s because s at this House of Night"

"So, you&039;re kinda like a GPS"

"I suppose" Erik didn&039;t sound thrilled about it "Hey, but enough about ?"