"Oh, Zoey! There you are. I was just asking your friends"-she paused long enough to give the Twins, Damien, and (eek!) Erik one of her amazing one-hundred-twenty-five-watt smiles-"where you could have gotten off to." She dimmed the smile and exchanged it for a perfect look of motherly concern. "Now is not the time to wander about by yourself."

"Sorry. I, uh, I needed ..." I trailed off, majorly aware that all eyes were on me.

"She needed to be alone before the rituals," Shaunee said, stepping up to put an arm through mine.

"Yeah, she always needs to be alone before rituals. It's a Zoey thing," Erin said, moving to my other side and taking my other arm.

"Yep, we call it Z.A.T.-Zoey Alone Time," Damien said, joining the three of us.

"It's kinda annoying, but what can you do?" Erik said, moving around behind me to rest his warm hands on my shoulders. "That's our Z."

I had to struggle not to burst into tears. My friends were the best. Of course, Neferet probably knew they were lying, but they'd done it in a way that made it look like I was probably only up to little teenage mischief (i.e., sneaking out to break up with a boyfriend) versus big, scary mischief (i.e., hiding my undead dead best friend).

"Well, I want you to be sure you limit your alone time in the near future," Neferet told me in a mildly chastising tone.

"I will. Sorry," I mumbled.

"And now, on to the ritual." Regally, Neferet strode out from the group, causing the warriors to scramble to keep up with her and leaving me and my little cluster of friends in the figurative dust. Of course, we followed her. What else could we do?

"So, did you get the dirty done?" Shaunee whispered.

"Huh?" I blinked in shock at her. How did she know I'd been ho-ishly grinding against Heath. Did it show?

God, I was going to die if it showed!

Erin rolled her eyes. "Heath. Breakup. You with him," she whispered.

"Oh, that. Well, I, uh-"

"I was worried about you today." Erik had moved up and neatly nudged Shaunee from her place beside me. I expected the Twins to hiss and spit at him, but instead they waggled their brows at us and fell back to walk with Damien. I heard Shaunee murmur, "So damn fiiiiine." Jeesh, they could face Neferet, but Erik's hotness totally did them in.

"Sorry," I said hastily, feeling guilty about how nice it felt when he took my hand. "I didn't mean to worry you. I just had, well, stuff."

Erik grinned and laced his fingers through mine. "I hope you got rid of him-I mean, that particular stuff this time."

I sent daggerlike looks over my shoulder at the Twins, who tried to look innocent. "Traitors!" I muttered.

"Don't be pissed at them. I used my unfair advantage and bribed them with their weakness."

"Shoes?"

"Something they like better, at least for a moment in time. T. J. and Cole."

"That was very sly of you," I said.

"And not very tough to manage. T. J. and Cole think the Twins are dead sexy," Erik said, using an excellent Scottish accent and proving, again, what an old movie dork he was (hello-Austin Powers).

"T. J. and Cole called the Twins dead sexy in that awful accent?" He squeezed my hand playfully. "My accent isn't awful."

"You're right. It's not." I smiled up into his clear blue eyes and wondered how I could have gotten myself into a position where I was double cheating on him.

"How are you today, Zoey?"

I knew through our joined hands Erik could feel the shock that went through my body at the sound of Loren's voice.

"I'm fine. Thanks," I said.

"You slept well last night? I wondered how you'd managed after I left you at the dorm." Loren gave Erik what was obviously a patronizing, I'm-way-older-than-you smile and explained, "Zoey had quite a shock yesterday."

"Yeah, I know." Erik's clipped the words out. I could feel the tension between them and wondered a little frantically if anyone else had noticed. When I heard Shaunee's whispered, "Damn, girl!" and Erin's

"Um-hum!" I had to force myself not to groan. Clearly everyone else (translation: the Twins) noticed.

By then we'd caught up to the group of adults that were now standing around what I realized was the trapdoor in the east wall. Ignoring the potentially explosive boyfriend situation I'd put myself right smack in the middle of, I said, "Hey! Why are we stopped here?"

"Neferet is offering prayers for Professor Nolan's spirit, as well as invoking a protective spell around the school grounds," Loren said. His voice sounded way too friendly and his gaze felt way too warm as our eyes met and locked. God, he was utterly gorgeous. I remembered how his lips had felt against mine and ... And then I realized what he'd just said.