My hand went slowly to my seer stone. I could feel my heartbeat speed up. What was it about Aurox that scared me so badly? I didn't know, but I did believe that I needed to defeat this fear. I needed to look through the seer stone and see whatever the rock revealed to me-Dark or Light, evil or good. I began to lift the stone and it was then that I noticed it.

His shadow, cast against the rocky wall of the school, did not mirror the tall, muscular body of a human guy. Aurox's shadow was that of a bull.

I must have gasped-must have made some little noise because his glowy eyes found me immediately. He changed the direction he was jogging and headed straight for me.

I slid the seer stone under my shirt and tried to keep my breathing normal and stop my heart from beating out of my chest.

When he was just a few yards away I couldn't help myself. I stood and moved around behind the wrought iron bench. I know it was silly, but somehow it felt better to have something, anything between us.

He stopped and looked at me for a few seconds without speaking. His expression was bizarrely curious, like he'd never seen a girl before and was trying to figure out what the heck I was-even though that analogy was ridiculous.

"You do not weep this night," he finally said.

"No."

"You should be in class," he said. "Neferet has ordered all fledglings to class."

"Why do you cast the shadow of a bull?" I blurted the question like a moron and then I wanted to smack my hand over my mouth. What the hell was wrong with me?

His brow furrowed and he looked to the spot on the ground beside him where his shadow-his very human and very normal looking shadow-

turned its head in time with him.

"My shadow is not a bull," he said.

"It was a bull, before, while you were jogging beside the wall. I saw it," I said, wondering how I could sound so calm and certain when even to my own ears I seemed totally crazy.

"The bull is part of me," he said, and then he looked as surprised by his answer as I'd been by my question.

"The white bull or the black bull?" I asked.

"What color was my shadow?" he countered with.

I frowned and glanced at his dark, human shadow. "Black, of course."

"Then my bull is black," he said. "You should return to class. Neferet has commanded it."

"Zoey, is everything okay out here?"

Stark's voice made me jump. I turned my head to see him walking quickly toward me, a bow with a notched arrow held with deceptive nonchalance in his hand.

"Yeah, fine," I said. "Aurox was telling me I needed to get to class."

Stark gave Aurox a hard look. "I didn't know you were a professor at this school."

"I am following Neferet's command," Aurox said. He sounded the same as he had before Stark had shown up, but his body language had totally changed. He looked bigger, more aggressive, more dangerous.

Thankfully, the bell that signaled the end of first hour chimed. "Oh, oopsie, looks like I won't be making it to first hour. Better get to second hour on time, though." I turned my back on Aurox and went to Stark, linked my arm through his, and said, "Walk me to drama class?"

"Absolutely," he said.

Neither of us said anything to Aurox.

"He scares you," Stark said when we were out of Aurox's hearing range.

"Yeah."

Stark opened the door to the main school building and the long hallway that held most of our classrooms. It was busy, filled with fledglings changing class, but he kept his voice low and me close so that only I could hear him. "Why? Did he do something?"

"He casts the-"

My words broke off as a tall, dark-haired vampyre stepped from Neferet's classroom and into the hall before us. Stark and I stopped. At first it was hard to really believe who I was seeing, and I wanted to rub my eyes as if to clear them. Then Stark fisted his hand over his heart and bowed deeply, breaking me out of my waking dream and I followed his example while he said, "Merry meet, Thanatos."

"Ah, Stark, Zoey, merry meet. I'm pleased to see you both looking so well."

"What are you doing here?" I asked way more bluntly than I should have.

Her dark brows went up, but she looked more amused than offended. "I am here because the High Council has decided the very special fledglings," she paused and glanced at Stark, "and vampyres here deserve some additional attention."

"What does that mean?" I asked. The kids walking by us in the hall were gawking and whispering. I saw Damien's head stick out of the door to his second-hour class and his mouth formed a round, surprised "Ooooh!" when he saw Thanatos.