But my dang cell phone wasn't there. Then I remembered it had fallen out of my pocket when I'd gotten naked with Loren. I must have forgotten to pick it up. Didn't that just figure? I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the rough bark of the tree.

"Mee-uf-ow!"

Nala's warm wet nose poked against my cheek. Without opening my eyes I spread my arms so that she could hop up into my lap. She put her little front paws on my shoulder and pressed her face into the crook of my neck, purring furiously, as if the sound could force me to feel better.

"Oh, Nala, I've messed up so bad." I held my cat and let the sobs shake my shoulders.

Chapter Twenty-five

When I heard the sound of footsteps approaching I figured it must be Darius coming back to check on me. I tried to get myself under control, wiping my face with my sleeve and attempting to stop crying.

"Well, crap, Aphrodite, you were right. She does look majorly like shit," Shaunee said. I looked up to see the Twins descending on me with Aphrodite and Damien close behind them.

"Z, you have snot on your face," Erin said to me, then she shook her head and told Shaunee, "Sadly, I, too, must say Aphrodite was right."

"Told you so," Aphrodite said smugly.

"I do not think it's particularly appropriate to give accolades to Aphrodite for her being right that something is seriously wrong with Zoey."

"Damien, I really wish," Erin began.

"You'd stop with the damn Sylvan Learning Center vocab bullshit," Shaunee finished for her.

"Would you two cease and desist, and perhaps get a dictionary?" Damien said primly. I know it's weird, but their bickering sounded wonderful.

"You guys make a pathetic rescue squad," Aphrodite said. "Here." She handed me a ball of (hopefully) clean Kleenex. "I'm more nurturing than the three of you, and that's a damn shame." Damien huffed and moved the Twins out of the way so he could crouch beside me. I blew my nose and wiped my face before I looked at him.

"Something bad's happened, hasn't it?" he said.

I nodded.

"Well, shit. Is someone else dead?" Erin said.

"No." My voice broke and I cleared my throat to try again. This time I sounded stuffy, but more like myself.

"No, no one's dead. It's nothing like that."

"Go ahead and tell us," Damien said, patting my shoulder lightly.

"Yeah, you know there's not much we can't handle together," Shaunee said.

"Ditto, Twin," Erin said.

"I may puke at the nerd herdishness of this," Aphrodite said.

"Shut up!" the Twins said.

I looked at each of my friends. As much as I didn't want to, I had to tell them about Loren. I also had to tell them about Stevie Rae. And I had to do it before what Neferet said came true-before my lies and my secrets pissed them off so much that I lost them.

"It's messed up and complicated, and not very pretty," I said.

"Oh, you mean like Aphrodite," Erin said.

"No problem. We're getting used to that," Shaunee said.

"Die Dorkamese Twins," Aphrodite said.

"If you three would shut up, Zoey might be able to explain what's wrong," Damien said with exaggerated patience.

"Sorry," the Twins muttered.

Aphrodite just rolled her eyes.

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to start the whole horrible story when Jack's perky voice interrupted me.

"Okay! I found him!"

Jack scampered up. His cute grin fading a little when he caught sight of me, proving that I really must look as bad as I felt. Then he hurried over to sit beside Damien, leaving Erik standing alone staring down at me.

"Go ahead, honey," Damien said, patting my shoulder again. "We're all here now. Tell us what's wrong." I couldn't speak. All I could do was stare at Erik. His face was a handsome, unreadable mask. Or at least it was unreadable until he started speaking, then his blank expression changed to disgust. His deep, expressive voice was a sneer.

"You want to tell them, honey, or should I?"

I wanted to say something. I wanted to yell at him to stop-to please forgive me-that he'd been right and I'd been so damn wrong that it was making me sick. But the only thing that came out of my mouth was a whispered no, so soft that I don't think Damien even heard me. Soon I realized it wouldn't have mattered if I'd shouted. Erik had come there to get back at me, and nothing was going to stop him.

"Fine. I'll tell them." Erik looked at each of my friends. "Our Z's been f**king Loren Blake."