"Yeah," he repeated in a clipped voice, turning his gaze away from her and stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Everyone knows that."

"Hey, but this Tracker thing is just a little speed bump in the road to Hollywood, right? What are you, twenty-one?"

"Nineteen. I just completed the Change a few months ago. Why? Do I look old?"

Shaylin laughed. "Twenty-one isn't old."

"It is if you have to add four years onto it, and I've just started a four-year Tracker job."

"Does being a Tracker mean you have to stay at the House of Night in Tulsa?"

"Trying to get rid of me?" He only sounded about half kidding.

"No, of course not," she assured him. "What I meant is, can't you transfer to the West Coast and still be a Tracker? There must be a House of Night nearer to Hollywood than this." As they talked, Shaylin realized that Erik didn't sound like a pissed-off, spoiled brat. He just sounded tired and frustrated and maybe even kinda depressed.

"I already looked into it. The answer I got was weird and a little creepy." He paused and sent her a sideways glance. "Well, probably creepier for the kids who are being Tracked than for me."

"Been there-done that. It wasn't so creepy. Actually, you were kinda funny," she said.

Erik frowned. "I was supposed to be powerful and confident and maybe a little scary."

"So, you want to be creepy?"

That made him laugh. "No, not really. And the actual Marking isn't the creepy part anyway, or at least it's not supposed to be. The part that's definitely not normal is that there's something in my blood that keeps me anchored to this place. Yeah, I can travel, but only if it's because my blood's calling me to Mark a kid who belongs at this House of Night."

"So, you're kinda like a GPS."

"I suppose." Erik didn't sound thrilled about it. "Hey, but enough about me. Where are you going?"

Shaylin swallowed around the dryness in her throat and said the first lie that came to her mind. "I'm going to the dorm. Aphrodite asked me to pick up some of her stuff from her room."

"She asked, as in please would you? Or she commanded, as in 'Get my stuff or I'll rubber band your hands together and shove you in a boiling pot like my mom's chef would cook a lobster!'"

Shaylin giggled. "Your acting skills either went way up or way down in my opinion, because you sound entirely too much like Aphrodite."

He shuddered. "I'll try not to do that again."

"But in answer to your question-it was more like the second example than the first."

"Big surprise. So, I'll walk you to the dorm. Okay?"

Shaylin met his eyes. What could it hurt? "Okay," she said.

Erik

"I think I agree with you about the lesson plan stuff. It must be super boring to have to figure out what you're going to teach-write it down-turn it in-then teach it. Talk about overkill," Shaylin said.

"Tell me about it," Erik said dryly. "We're going into Shakespeare. I love the plays, but it was a lot cooler when I just got to act and didn't have to be a damn robot for the school's High Council. Yeah, lesson plans are boring. Writing them sucks."

He had to keep reminding himself to stop looking at Shaylin's boobs. Okay, but in his defense, she was wearing a white T-shirt that was sheer enough that it was obvious she had on a hot pink bra under it. And that bra had little black bows in the middle part and on the straps.

"So, which play will you teach in the Shakespeare class?" she was asking him.

Look at her face and concentrate! "Shakespeare class?"

She gave him a look that said she thought he was an idiot-and he had to agree with her because when he forced himself not to glance at her pink-bra-ed boobs he got all distracted by her thick mane of dark hair that curled and waved and looked like it would be soft as silk if he just-

"Oh, yeah, Shakespeare class. Definitely a comedy. There's way too much tragedy in the world today."

"Which one?"

She looked honestly interested, so he heard himself admitting, "I'm torn. My favorite is The Taming of the Shrew, but when you think about it and really look at Kate's last speech, it doesn't go with the matriarchal belief system of the House of Night, and the last thing I need is to piss off Thanatos. So, I'm thinking about doing As You Like It. Rosalind is one of the Bard's strongest heroines. That shouldn't cause me any hassles with the administration."