Chapter 32: Over the Edge

Aphrodite POV

Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT! MOTHERFUCKING HORSE SHIT! I was pacing back and forth in mine and Zoey's bedroom. It had been only five minutes since she'd run from me. Damn it all to Hell! How could I have been so fucking stupid?! I cursed the wretched tears that threatened to fall, and a broken sob escaped me. I hurt her. I hurt Zoey. I wasn't thinking for one second and I scared her. Oh god, what do I do now? What if she doesn't forgive me? What if she wants to break it off, break the imprint? No, I can't live without her. I won't survive the agony breaking the imprint would cause.

But I deserved it. By the gods, I deserved it for scaring her and turning that beautiful intimate moment into an involuntary trigger of the most painful memories of her life.

I wanted to find her, feel her through the imprint, but I didn't want her to think I was becoming some crazy stalker. So now I had to wait until she decided when she wanted the torture to end.

Another five minutes passed when suddenly there was a loud crash outside followed by an all too familiar roar. Goddess, forget feeling for her, rage and hate and all manner of badness was radiating off her like a fucking nuclear bomb site. I burst out the door and ran down the hall. Damn this fucking mazelike abbey. By the time I got to the scene, the rage was topped off by beastliness. What I found just about scared me shitless. Zoey was there, eyes pitch black, holding the step-loser against the wall by his throat, sneering and snapping ferociously. The stupid human choked and glared at her, saying something I couldn't hear that made Zoey roar again and toss him into the nuns' living room, busting a chair to pieces on impact.

Fuck! When did Zoey get that fucking strong?! Even full-grown vamps weren't that strong.

What happened next was even scarier. A shudder passed through Zoey, growls ripping from her clenched teeth, and then she just about threw herself into the wall. Clutching her head and snarling, she writhed against the cozy gold flowers wallpaper, like she couldn't control her body or something. Which she couldn't, I remembered. I could feel the Beast in its full evil glory in control of Zoey, hence the black eyes and murderous intentions. But there was something else, something that was stopping it from continuing its rampage.

Shit! Of course, it was so obvious! The Beast wasn't in full control, and Zoey was giving it one hell of a hair pulling, nail clawing, ear biting fight.

Shit, what do I do? As I watched this, the others arrived behind me and from the living room, and they also seemed to be too terrified to do anything.

"Give up, Zoey." That voice; that gut-wrenching, blood freezing voice. It was Zoey, but it wasn't. It was too cold, too angry, and too damn bitchy to be Zoey; the voice of Il Fantasma. "You want him dead just as much as I do. I can feel it in you every time you're reminded of your family, of his ugly little red face. Give in, and we'll kill him together."

"No!" She whipped around, again slamming into the wall. "No! I won't let anyone die by yours, mine, or our hands." That was Zoey's voice, angry still, but full of other emotions that the Beast lacked. Everyone else looked just as scared and confused, if not more so, as me.

"Why not?" Beast again. "He's one pathetic little mortal bigot. Your world will be better without him. Come on, Zoey, stop being weak. Isn't that your goal, make the world a better place free of bigotry?" Cocky fucker; it was taunting her.

"Maybe, but I know it's not just bigoted jerks you want to kill. So thanks for the offer, but GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!" Zoey again. The two, trapped in one body, turned to the wall and punched a wicked hole through it. Or maybe that was just Zoey.

Beast: (sighs) We've been through this, Zoey. We are each other. I cannot live without you, and you cannot live without me. We are one.

Zoey: (growls) Maybe, but I'll be damned if I let you live our life for us. We may be one, but in that, we are two very different things.

Shekinah: (trying to grab them) Foul ghost, you dare manifest in this place of sacred worship!

Beast: (hissing) Yes, a place of worship soon to be wiped from existence. There won't be enough ashes to bury when I'm through.

Various nuns: (praying unintelligibly)

Grandma: (calm?) Treacherous rabbit, Trickster god, Dark chief, my u-do. This is my blessing to you. May the warm winds of Heaven blow softly on your home and the Great Spirit bless all who enter there.

Beast: (looking piss-your-pants-and-run-screaming-like-a-little-girl scary) Silence, Cherokee woman!

Grandma: (calm as ever, smiling slightly) May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows. And may the rainbow always touch your shoulder.

Beast: (lethal smile) I'll bathe her in your blood! (Lunges.)

And with that, Grandma threw some nifty looking, sweet smelling powder onto Zoey/Beast. The moment it hit their skin, the Beast let out an agonized scream that belonged to no sane person. It twisted and writhed harder than ever, busting the wall again in some places. It fell to its knees, to the ground, and with a final bloodcurdling scream… was simply gone.

Zoey became limp on the floor and an oppressive silence fell over the rest of us. I saw Shekinah heave a sigh of relief and send a smile to Grandma, who returned it and tucked a little deerskin pouch back into her jacket pocket. Ignoring them as just another damn mystery, I rushed to Zoey and knelt down. Tentatively, I reached out and touched her cheek.

As if I turned her power switch on again, her once again brown eyes flew open and fell upon my throat. She sat up almost too fast to see and sank her fangs into my flesh. I bit back the really loud and erotic moan that wanted to burst free from me so neither of us was embarrassed later. Fighting the delicious haze of pleasure in order to concentrate, I noticed several really important things. One: Zoey was not trying to hurt me. She was feeding to calm herself down. Two: The others (bunch of idiots) didn't recognize that and were coming forward to stop her. And three: if they stopped her, they wouldn't have hands for much longer.

So I hastily spoke up, hoping my voice didn't sound like I was in the middle of starring in a porno. "No, don't stop her," I barked at Shekinah, Dragon, and for some reason Sister Mary Angela. "She's not hurting me; she's just trying to calm down."

They reluctantly backed off, and I went back to the girl who had wormed her way on top of me. I touched her silky hair soothingly and waited for her to finish. After a couple more seconds, she disengaged from my sore artery and licked the wound to close it. She looked at me, dazedly at first, but I was just glad it was her. Soon enough, realization shown and she rolled off of me. I sat up and shook my head was banish the remaining sex fog.

"Are you just you right now?" I asked her. She shut her eyes in a grimace, but nodded. Yes.

"Good." Come on, let's get you up.

Aphrodite?

Yeah?

I'm really sorry.

I held back my stupid fucking tears. I'm the one who should apologize. I scared you. But it's all okay now. Right?

Right.

The others parted so I could take Zoey to the couch. The step-loser had been removed, but pieces of the chair were still rolling on the floor. The rest of her family were basically cowering the corner, her sister crying silently. I was getting a strong sense that they had something to do with this too, but I decided it was something to settle later. Zoey clung tightly to me on the little loveseat. I kissed the top of her head lovingly and waited from someone to say something.

"That was too dang close," Kramisha said eloquently; I held back from rolling my eyes.

"Indeed," Shekinah said darkly. She spied Zoey's family and zeroed in on them. "Could one of you explain what happened that was so upsetting to Zoey that the Beast nearly killed that fool?"

They looked at each other, but then her sister tremulously raised her hand. "W-well, Zoey came in here about ten minutes ago, looking upset. Sister Mary Angela gave her a can of brown pop and she leaned against the wall to calm down. We let her be since it was obvious she needed space, but John kept glaring at her from the table." I winced when she mentioned how upset Zoey seemed. The girl in question placed a comforting kiss on my neck that no one else saw. "After a couple minutes, she s-seemed better. She smiled at us and took a seat next to me…."

"And?" Shekinah pressed. Zoey's sister looked guilty, but she knew not to disobey a clearly pissed-off vamp woman.

"Well, I, I asked her some things and she answered and what she said made John angry. He said some really out of line stuff and Zoey started getting really mad. Mom tried to shut him up, but he wouldn't listen. Zoey tried to leave; made it into that hallway but John grabbed her wrist and jerked her back. He said more stuff and then her eyes turned black. She grabbed his head and bashed it into a little statuette on the mini-table. He hit the ground and she started kicking the crap out of him. Mom and I tried to pull her off before she killed him, but she threw us off. Then she took him by the throat and slammed him into the wall. Then you all showed up."

"What did you ask her?" Grandma said, putting a comforting hand on her arm. Zoey's sister (didn't Zoey call her Kelsey?) looked even guiltier and sheepish, but Shekinah clapped her hands to make her get to it.

"Well I, I asked her if she and that blonde girl over there were dating and she said yes. I asked her if it was going okay, she said yes. The last thing I asked was if she liked girls better than boys. She said yes and that was when John interfered.

"Let me guess, with anti-gay, bible-thumping crap, right?" I looked at Shaunee in surprise. Well, maybe there was hope for the nerd herd after all.

"Yeah, all that gay-people-are-unnatural-spawns-of-the-devil bull?" Erin chimed right on cue.

Kelsey nodded vigorously. "Not just that though. A bunch of stuff about vampyres being evil, soulless monsters, insulting your Goddess and what not. And then there was this shit about how foolish and unintelligent women were, that they were silly and couldn't survive without men around to tell them what to do. At that point, Mom and I were pissed, but Zoey looked like she was going to tear John's throat out if he said another word. She got up and tried to leave then, not even saying anything, but he grabbed her wrist and kept shouting at her. Even tried to slap her, spouting this crap about expelling the demons possessing her and that's when she lost it."

Shekinah sighed resignedly. "Very well," she muttered. She looked at Zoey and me. "Well, at least we now know you can fight or at least hold the Beast at bay. That's very good news." Zoey nodded, eyes lowered. "I suggest keeping John Heffer as far from Zoey as possible. We quieted the ghost for now, but it may attack again if she sees him."

"We could lock him outside," I growled. "Maybe he could get rid of the Raven Mockers by spouting that shit so they get annoyed and leave."

Our friends and the red fledglings snickered, and, though I couldn't be sure, I thought I saw Lenobia and Anastasia crack brief smirks.

"We can move him to a separate room on the other side of the chapel," Sister Mary Angela said, still with that eternal calm I was coming to envy.

"If that's the best offer, let's take it," Damien said. I gazed at him and Jack appraisingly. They looked… sad. Or rather Damien looked sad, and Jack looked vulnerable and sweet and hurt. It made me wonder how they felt about John saying anti-gay stuff. I'd heard Damien's parents were also big with the pedophilic fuckers at the People of Faith, so maybe he was more used to it than Jack was. Zoey felt my concern for them and smirked against my shoulder when no one was looking.

Going soft, darling?

I let out a mental snort. No. I just understand how they feel now.

Mmhmm, she said, smiling, and I elbowed her good-naturedly.