Before I could take a step off the sidewalk, Darius seemed to materialize beside me. Jeesh, for a great big guy, he could sure move scarily fast and silent.

"Zoey, you must come with me," he said. "What's going on?"

"It's Aphrodite."

My stomach clenched so hard, I thought I was going to be sick. "She's not dying, is she?"

"No, but she needs you. Now."

He didn't have to tell me any more. The strain in his face and the deadly seriousness of his voice said it all. She wasn't dying, so Aphrodite had to be having a vision.

"Okay, I'm coming." And I started hurrying toward the dorms, trying to keep up with Darius.

The warrior stopped for an instant, giving me a piercing look that was so intense, it made me want to squirm. "Do you trust me?" he asked abruptly.

I nodded.

"Then relax and believe you're safe with me."

"Okay." I didn't have a clue what he was talking about, but I didn't protest when he grabbed my arm.

"Remember, stay relaxed," he said.

I opened my mouth to repeat my okay (and maybe roll my eyes at him), when all the breath was pushed from my lungs as Darius exploded forward, somehow taking me with him. It was the most bizarre thing I'd ever experienced, which was saying something, because I'd had a ton of bizarre experiences in the past couple of months. But this was like being on one of those moving sidewalks at the airport, only the "sidewalk" was Darius's aura or something, and the moving was happening so fast that the world around us was one big blur.

We were in front of the girls' dorm within a couple of seconds, and I'm not exaggerating.

"Holy crap! How did you do that?" I was panting a little, and as soon as he let go of my arm, I began to frantically brush my hair back out of my face. It was like I'd just taken a supersonic ride on a Harley.

"The Sons of Erebus are mighty warriors with vast skills," he said cryptically.

"Huh. No kidding?" I was going to say that they also sounded like they should be in a Lord of the Rings movie, but I didn't want to be rude.

"She's in her room," he said, kinda pushing me up the stairs to the dorm while he reached ahead of me and opened the door. "She told me to get you right away."

"Well, you certainly did that," I said over my shoulder. "Oh, could you find Lenobia and tell her why I'm not in class?"

"Of course, Priestess," he said. Then he disappeared again. Jeesh. I hurried into the dorm, still feeling kinda frazzled. The main room was empty--everyone (except Aphrodite and me) was in class, so I could rush up the stairs and sprint to Aphrodite's room without having to answer a bunch of questions from way-too-curious girls. I rapped twice on Aphrodite's door before opening it.

The only light in the room was coming from one small candle. Aphrodite was sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, her elbows resting on them, and her face buried in her hands. Maleficent was curled into a fluffy white ball beside her. The cat looked up at me when I entered the room and growled softly.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked. Her body shuddered, and with what was obviously a huge effort, she lifted her head and opened her eyes.

"Oh my god! What happened!" I hurried over to her, turning on the Tiffany's light that was on her bedside table. When Maleficent stirred and hissed a warning at me, I told the beast, "Try it and I will throw you out the window and call down rain to soak the crap out of you."

"Maleficent, it's okay. Zoey's hateful, but she won't hurt me," she said wearily.

The cat growled again, but subsided back into a white ball. I turned my attention to Aphrodite. Her eyes were completely bloodshot--it was so bad that the whites of them were totally red. Not pink and inflamed like she was allergic to pollen and she'd just walked through a field of it. They were red. As in blood. As in blood filling her eyes and staining them scarlet.

"This one was really bad." She sounded awful. Her voice was shaky, and her face was scarily white. "C-can you get me a bottle of Fiji Water from the fridge?"

I hurried over to her mini-fridge and grabbed a bottle of water from it. Then I detoured into her bathroom, where I got one of her gold-embroidered washcloths. (Jeesh, she is so darn rich!) I quickly poured some of the cold spring water onto the washcloth before hurrying back to her.

"Drink some of this, and then close your eyes and put this across your face."

"I look terrible, don't I?"

"Yep."