Don’t forget we’re taking your questions for our annual ask us anything anniversary celebration! Until there’s a way to share cake via the internet, this is what we’ll have to do.
Chapter 17
Having seen undead zombie-ghost Elliot a second time – this time conspiring with a suddenly very evil-seeming Neferet – Zoey acknowledges that she finally has to pay attention to this subplot. [Ariel says: And I guess since boyz aren’t back to distract her, she really doesn’t have any choice but to pay attention to this subplot.]
But first all of Zoey’s friends tell her about a snowball fight she missed out on. [Ariel says: Why do they keep brining up the fucking snow? We get it. It snowed. Move on!]
“Yeah, Z, you missed on hellacious wicked fight,” Erin said.
But, lo, Zoey has other matters on her mind than the snowball fight, hellacious though it may have been. Now, to be fair, I’m probably being a little harsh right now. Contrasting how carefree her friends are with the weighty matters on Zoey’s mind is a pretty effective device for establishing a fragile sense of normalcy, a calm before the storm. Or it would be if the Casts didn’t fuck it up.
It was like I was inside a fishbowl in the middle of a typhoon, and everyone else was on the outside cluelessly enjoying lovely weather.
No they’re not. They’re in a fucking typhoon.
Anyway, Zoey finally tells her friends about the trivial matter that is the undead kids walking around. And it only took her a book and a half!
“Damien, has there ever been a case of a fledgling who seemed to have died, but later was found alive?”
To his credit, Damien didn’t freak or ask me if I had gone insane. I could feel that the Twins and Stevie Rae were staring at me like I’d just announced I was going to be on Girls Gone Wild: Vamp Edition
[Ariel says: I can safely say that is a video I hope no one ever has to see no matter how vile a person they are.]
Stevie Rae initially worries that Zoey’s worried she’s starting to reject the Change and will die. Zoey assuages her worries and reveals that she saw Elliott, who died last month, and then Stevie Rae mentions that Zoey thought she saw the ghost of Elizabeth, who also died last month. Suddenly, Zoey realizes that she can’t tell any of them about what she saw with Neferet, which I guess is fair, but come on. She decides to lie to Damien (and the Twins, I guess, but who fucking cares) about what she saw to avoid that part of the story, but does so in a way that completely negates going to him for help at all:
No way could my four friends walk around school knowing that I’d seen [Neferet] letting some kind of disgusting undead Elliott creature suck her blood without Neferet knowing everything in their freaked-out minds. […] “tonight I think I saw Elliot’s [ghost],” I finally said.
Damien frowned. “If you saw ghosts why did you ask me about fledglings recovering from rejecting the Change?”
Yeah, Zoey. Now he can’t help at all. I don’t understand why Zoey couldn’t have come up with a lie that didn‘t change the detail that Elliott is undead, because that’s the only important one. Hell, she doesn’t even have to make something up! She already has an undead Elliott story WITHOUT Neferet, because he attacked her on his own once before! Zoey’s incompetence is needlessly stalling the plot, like the Casts want to drag this out for as long as possible and/or ignore their only interesting subplot. I can’t wait to read a dozen more chapters of Zoey making out with three different guys before she returns to this issue again!
Out of gratitude that Damien was the only one to not mock her seemingly-insane question, Zoey immediately mocks him:
I stared at the TV […] while Damien droned on and on about old vamp ghosts.
Things go from bad to worse when the lead story on that evening’s news is the discovery of a second dead high school student, whose cause of death was determined to be blood loss through multiple lacerations.
Damien said what we were all thinking. “Someone is trying to make it look like vampyres are killing human kids.”
“Maybe they are.” I hadn’t actually meant to speak my thought aloud, and pressed my lips closed, immediately sorry I’d let that slip.
“Why would you say that, Zoey?” Stevie Rae sounded utterly shocked.
Dang, Zo, if only there was a better story you could have told your friends about the undead vampyre zombie ghosts so they’d understand what the hell you’re talking about. Too bad there totally isn’t. Nope. Too bad. Luckily, her friends chalk it up to Zoey being freaked out because she knew the high schoolers who have died.
Damien was studying me again. “Did you have a feeling about Brad before you heard he was dead, Zoey?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. No.” I sighed. “I thought he was dead as soon as I heard he’d been taken,” I admitted.
“Did any specifics come with the feeling?”
Holy shit! Is Damien calling out Zoey on her “feeling” or “just knowing” things as a bullshit way to advance the plot? Did Damien just become my new favorite character? If only we knew if he was gay or not; the Casts haven’t said anything for a whole chapter.
Feeling overwhelmed, Zoey decides to tell her friends she’s going to her room to work on her ritual for tomorrow. [Ariel says: When in doubt, ritual it out.] Stevie Rae follows her. Also, Stevie Rae’s probably gonna get killed off pretty soon. [Ariel says: Ug, Matt, did any *specifics* come with that feeling? Aside from the feeling of complete and utter predictability.]
“Do you mind if I come back to the room now, too? I have a really bad headache. I really just want to sleep. […]”
“No, I don’t mind,” I said quickly. I glanced at her. She did look kinda pale. Stevie Rae was so sensitive that even though she didn’t know Chris or Brad, their deaths were clearly upsetting her.
Or, based on her being the one concerned that Zoey’s body was rejecting the Change earlier, this is not-so-subtle foreshadowing that Stevie Rae’s rejecting the Change.
“Hey, everything’s gonna be okay.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just tired.” She grinned up at me, but she didn’t sound as perky as usual.
Time to reminisce on our favorite Stevie Rae moments, guys! Like the time she… uh… Fuck. [Ariel says: I can’t believe she’s going to go before her time! What about the epic love story between her and that jock guy with the crush from a couple chapters ago? What will become of him??]