"We understand, Twin," Shaunee said. "I still like saying that it's because you're tired of pollution. Pollution's a real problem," Stevie Rae said stubbornly. "Okay, how about I say it's because of government interference and pollution in our rivers? That'll be the reason the bomb's on a bridge." They looked at me with blank expressions. I sighed. "Be cause of pollution in the river."

"Ohhh," they said. "We'd make dorky terrorists," Stevie Rae said with a giggle. "I think that's actually a good thing," Damien said. "So we're in agreement? I call the FBI, and we all keep our mouths shut about Aphrodite's vision." They nodded. "Good. Okay. Guess I'll find a phone book and look up the number for the FBI, and then--" A movement caught at the corner of my vision, and I glanced up to see Neferet escorting two men in suits into the dorm. Everyone went instantly silent, and I heard a whisper of "They're human ... " begin to buzz through the room. Then I didn't have time to think or to listen, because it was obvious that Neferet and the two human men were walking directly over to me. "Ah, Zoey, there you are." Neferet smiled at me with her usual warmth. "These gentlemen need to speak with you. I believe we can step into the library. This shouldn't take more than a mo ment." Neferet regally gestured for the suits and me to follow her as she swept from the big main room (with everyone gawking openmouthed at us) to the little side room we called the dorm library, but was actually more of a computer room with some comfortable chairs and a few shelves filled with paperbacks. There were only two girls at the row of computers, and with a quick command Neferet got rid of them. They scurried out and she closed the door behind them, then she turned to face us. I glanced at the clock over the computer. It was 7:06 A.M. on Satur day morning. What was going on? "Zoey, this is Detective Marx"--she pointed at the taller of the two men--"and Detective Martin from the homicide pision of the Tulsa Police Department. They wanted to ask you a few ques tions about the human boy who was killed."

"Okay," I said, wondering what kind of questions they could possibly want to ask me. Hell, I didn't know anything. I hadn't even known him that well. "Miss Montgomery," Detective Marx began, but he was cut neatly off by Neferet. "Redbird," she said. "Ma'am?"

"Zoey legally changed her last name to Redbird when she be came an emancipated minor upon entrance to our school last month. All of our students are legally emancipated. We find it helpful with the unique nature of our school." The cop gave a short nod. I couldn't tell whether he was an noyed or not, but I guessed by the way he kept looking at Neferet the answer was not. "Miss Redbird," he continued, "we have received information that you are acquainted with Chris Ford and Brad Higeons. Is this true?"

"Yeah, I mean yes," I hastily corrected. Clearly this wasn't a good time to sound like a silly teenager. "I know ... well, knew both of them."

"What do you mean by knew?" Detective Martin, the shorter cop, said sharply. "Well, I mean that I don't hang out with human teenagers any more, but even before I was Marked I didn't see Chris or Brad much." I wondered what he was so uptight about, and then I real ized that because Chris was dead and Brad was missing that my talking about them in the past tense probably sounded really bad. "When was the last time you saw the two boys?" Marx asked. I chewed my lip, trying to remember. "Not for months--since the beginning of football season, and then I just went to maybe two or three parties and they were there, too."

"So you weren't with either boy?" I frowned. "No. I was kinda dating the Broken Arrow quarter back. That's the only reason I knew any of those Union guys." I smiled, trying to lighten things up. "People think Union players hate BA players. It's not really true. Most of them grew up to gether. A bunch of them are still friends."

"Miss Redbird, you've been at the House of Night for how long?" the short cop asked as if I hadn't tried to be pleasant. "Zoey has been with us for almost exactly one month," Neferet answered for me. "And in that month did either Chris or Brad visit you here?" Totally surprised, I said, "No!"

"Are you saying no human teenagers have visited you here at all?" Martin fired the question quickly. Caught off guard I sputtered like a moron and I'm sure looked completely guilty. Thankfully, Neferet saved me. "Two friends of Zoey's did see her during her first week here, although I do not believe you'd call it an official visit," she said with a smooth, adult smile aimed at the detectives that clearly said kids will be kids. Then she nodded encouragement at me. "Go ahead and tell them about your two friends who thought it'd be fun to scale our walls." Neferet's green eyes locked on mine. I'd told her all about Heath and Kayla climbing the wall with the ridiculous idea of busting me out. Or at least that had been Heath's idea. Kayla, my ex-best friend, had just wanted me to see that she'd staked a claim on Heath. I'd told Neferet all of that, and more. How I'd kinda accidentally tasted Heath's blood--until Kayla had caught me and totally lost her mind. Staring into Neferet's eyes I knew as sure as if she'd said the words aloud that I was to keep the little blood-tasting incident to myself, which was more than okay with me. "There really wasn't much to it, and it was a whole month ago. Kayla and Heath thought they'd sneak in and bust me out." I paused to shake my head like I thought they were totally crazy, and the tall cop jumped in with, "Kayla and Heath who?"