"So, you'll be at the ritual tonight, right?" I prompted, wondering why it was taking her so long to get out of my car.

"Yeah, I'll be there."

She sounded distracted. Whatever. The girl was just plain weird some times.

"Okay, see ya," I said.

"Yeah, see ya," she mumbled, opening the door and (finally) getting out of the car. But before she closed it, she bent down and said, "Something feels wrong. Do you feel it, too?" I thought about it. "I dunno. I'm feeling kinda restless and stressed, but that could be because my best friend's dead-I mean undead." Then I looked more closely at her. "Are you getting ready to have a vision?"

"I don't know. I can never tell when one will come on. I do get feelings about things sometimes and don't have a full-blown vision, though."

She looked really pale and even a little sweaty (which was definitely out of the norm for Aphrodite). "Maybe you should get back in the car. There's probably no one awake to see us come in together anyway." Aphrodite was a pain in the ass, but I'd seen how visions made her helpless and sick and I really didn't like the thought of her getting stuck outside in the daylight alone when one hit her.

She shook herself, reminding me of a cat coming in out of the rain. "I'll be okay. I'm probably just imaging things. See you tonight."

I watched her hurry toward the thick brick and stone wall that ringed the school grounds. Huge ancient oaks lined the wall, throwing it into shadow so that suddenly it looked unusually sinister. Jeesh, now who was imagining things? I had my hand on the gear and was just shifting into first so I could pull away when Aphrodite screamed.

Sometimes I don't think. My body takes over and I just act. This was one of those times. I was out of my car and running toward Aphrodite before I even thought about it. When I got to her, I knew two things at once. One was that something smelled wonderful, kinda familiar, yet not. Whatever it was, the scent had settled in the area like a delicious fog and I automatically inhaled deeply. The second thing I saw was Aphrodite bent over at the waist, puking her guts out and crying at the same time, which is not a very pleasant to do or to watch. I was too busy looking at her and trying to figure out what was going on and too distracted by the lovely smell to notice it. At first.

"Zoey!" Aphrodite sobbed, still retching. "Get someone! Fast!"

"What is it-a vision? What's wrong?" I grabbed her by the shoulders and tried to steady her while she continued to puke her guts up.

"No! Behind me! Against the wall..." She gagged, but didn't have anything else to puke up. "It's so awful." I didn't want to, but my eyes automatically looked up and behind her to the school's shadowy wall. It was the most horrible thing I'd ever seen. At first my mind wouldn't even register what it was. Later I thought that must have been some kind of instant defense mechanism. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. I blinked and peered into the darkness. Something looked slick and wet andAnd I knew what the sweet, seductive smell was. I fought against falling to my knees and puking my guts up beside Aphrodite. I smelled blood. Not ordinary human blood, which is delicious enough. What I was smelling was a lethal shedding of a full-grown vampyre's lifeblood.

Her body was nailed grotesquely to a crude wooden cross that was resting against the wall. They'd not just nailed her wrists and ankles. They'd also driven a thick wooden stake through her heart. There was some kind of paper over her heart, held in place by the grotesque stake. I could see that it had something written on it, but my eyes wouldn't focus well enough to read the words.

They'd also cut off her head. Professor Nolan's head. I knew it was her because they'd mounted her head on a wooden stake next to her body. Her long dark hair lifted softly in the breeze, looking obscenely graceful. Her mouth was open in a terrible grimace, but her eyes were closed.

I grabbed Aphrodite's elbow and hauled her to her feet. "Come on! We have to get help." Leaning on each other, we stumbled to my car. I don't know how I managed to start the Bug and pull away from the curb.

"I-I-I think I'm gonna be sick again." Aphrodite's teeth were chattering so bad she could hardly talk.

"No, you're not." I couldn't believe how calm I sounded. "Breathe. Center yourself. Draw strength from the earth." I realized I was automatically doing what I was telling her to do, only in my case I was drawing strength from the five elements. "You're okay," I told her as I channeled energy from wind, fire, water, earth, and spirit to keep back the hysterics and shock I wanted to give in to. "We're okay."