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Zoey will probably reood-bye, Aurox thought For awith Zoey Perhaps there would be so he could say or do that would help

No Stark would be with Zoey, and Stark could only abide Aurox’s presence if Zoey wasn’t near

And yet Aurox felt drawn to Stark as well as to his young Priestess He honestly liked the Warrior There had even beenStark and Darius ready the baseether--coed Then Stark and Darius had sent him on an errand and Thanatos had called hi

Aurox had found Zoey easily He thought he could always find Zo

But Stark had been with her, and suddenly the Warrior had beco Zoey to berate hiht, though he knew there was no reason for Stark to feel the slightest bit of jealousy

Zoey paid no attention to Aurox She rarely even glanced in his direction Earlier, it had seemed as if she could hardly bear to share the same table with him in the cafeteria

Aurox knew that within him there was supposed to be the soul of a human boy named Heath This boy had been Zoey’s love--her intended Consort--even though she was bonded to an Oath Sworn Warrior

Aurox had asked Damien about it, and Damien had explained the situation to hih his explanation hadn’t really helped

It wasn’t that Aurox didn’t understand that it was acceptable for a fledgling or a vampyre to have a human Consort as well as a Warrior or even a vampyre mate That made sense to Aurox Love was too coiven limitations

What Aurox didn’t understand was how he could possibly host a human boy’s soul

Where was this Heath?

Aurox had tried to reach him Tried to talk to him He never received any answer Yes, once in a while he had odd drea Zoey

No, that drea Zoey because he wanted to kiss Zoey She was beautiful She was powerful She had believed him to be more than a vessel of evil before he believed it himself

Aurox mentally shook himself It mattered little what Zoey was because of what she was not She was not interested in hi the soul of her huet how Aurox had been created He had coh the death of her ive himself for that How could Zoey?

But I didn’t murder her mother! Aurox’s mind cried

Had her mother not died, I would not exist! His conscience reminded him

Not my choice! Not my fault!

Yet, still, I am held responsible for the death!

Because I am a product of that death!

Mentally exhausted by the internal debate that never changed--never could be won--Aurox did the only thing that he kneould silence the struggle within him Unnoticed by anyone, Aurox rounds of the House of Night It stood twelve feet tall and two feet wide With preternatural strength, Aurox leaped to the top of the wall, dropping quietly over the outer side The as exactly 6,823 feet long Aurox knew this not because he had looked up its length in the school’s registry He knew it because he had covered each of those feet, shadowing the great wall, running, running, running, around and around the school grounds in the darkness outside the wall, until all he kneas the struggle for breath, the pounding of his heart, the burning of his body, and the ithin hishigh on iron arhts were the only electric spotlights the House of Night owned, and they were aiht atterounds Those spotlights also created the shadow at the base of the wall in which Aurox ran, unseen, more swiftly than any huht before, after the fledgling and the human had died, it had taken ten laps around the school for Aurox’s ht take severalhis ar his body unmercifully

Aurox’s left shoulder skimmed the stone as he followed the first curve around the northwestern part of the school

He didn’t see the metal barrel He didn’t see the humans He did collide with both hu several feet before he could stop himself

"Fuck! Va!" another er Already he was reaching out for the fear that afting fro hie into a creature that would battle theered plastic cups that had had been full of liquid before Aurox had slarabbed the littleit aith them as they backed away from him

"Hey, that’s not a damn vampyre," one of the boys said