untamed - Weebly

I also remembered the flash of red I'd seen in Stevie Rae's eyes earlier and the
meanness that had looked so out of place on her face, but seeing her now, sounding and
acting like herself, it was easy to convince myself I'd been wrong—that I'd imagined or
exaggerated what I'd seen.
I mentally shook myself and said, "But Stevie Rae, those other kids were awful."
Aphrodite snorted. "They're still awful and living in an awful disgusting place.
And, yes, they're still awful rude, too."
"They're not out of control like they used to be, but they're also not what you'd
call normal, either," Stevie Rae said.
"They're disgusting throwaway kids, that's what they are," Aphrodite said. "Like
redheaded stepchildren."
"Yeah, some of them have problems and aren't exactly the most popular kids ever,
but so what?"
"I'm just saying that it would be easier to figure out what we're going to do about
you if we only had you to deal with."
"It's not always about what's easiest. I don't care what we have to do, or what I
have to do. I'm not gonna let Neferet use those other kids," Stevie Rae told her firmly.
And what Stevie Rae said clicked. I shivered in horror as my gut told me my
terrible new thought was right. "Oh my god! That's why Neferet did whatever she did to
make the dying kids come back as undead dead kids. She wants to use them in the war
she's declared against humans."
"But, Z, kids have been undying for a while now, and Professor Nolan and Loren
were only just killed, so Neferet has only just declared the whole guerrilla war thing,"
Stevie Rae said.
I didn't say anything. I couldn't. What I was thinking was too awful to speak out
loud. I was afraid that the syllables of the words would turn into separate little weapons,
and if I put them together, they would join to destroy all of us.
"What is it?" Aphrodite was watching me too closely.
"Nothing." I shifted the words in my mind so that they became something
bearable. "It's just that this whole thing makes me think that Neferet has been hoping
there would be a reason to fight the humans for a long time. I really wouldn't be surprised
if she did create the undead dead kids to be her private army. I saw her with Elliott not
long after he was supposed to have died. It was disgusting how much control she had
over him." I shivered, remembering only too clearly how Neferet had ordered Elliott
around and how he had bowed and scraped in front of her, and then lapped up the
offering of her blood in a disgusting and way-too-sexual manner. Watching it had been
entirely nasty.
"That's why I have to go back to them," Stevie Rae said. "They need me to care
about them and show them that they can Change, too. When Neferet finds out about the
difference in their Marks, she'll still try to control them and keep them—well, let's just
say, not so nice. I think they can be okay again, like I'm okay again."
"What about the ones who were never okay? Remember the Elliott kid Zoey was
just talking about? He was a loser alive and he's a loser undead. He'll still be a loser if he
manages to Change into a red whatever." Aphrodite gave an exaggerated, long-suffering
sigh when Stevie Rae glared at her. "The point I'm trying to make is that they weren't
normal to begin with. Maybe there's nothing for you to save about them."