Zoey Rogue Read Online Free PDF Page A

aspirin, V?”
    “Always.” Vikki reached into the locker beside Zoey’s and retrieved a bottle of painkillers, tossing it to her. “We went to a party last night after our secret mission that ended up not so secret. You were supposed to show. What the hell happened?”
    “I dunno,” Zoey muttered. “I woke up with a horrible headache and blood on my lucky knife.”
    Vikki eyed her. “You went out without me.”
    “Not on purpose. I can’t remember shit.”
    “This is what you have to look forward to,” Vikki said to Lydia. “A teammate who runs out on you to kill Cambions on her own.”
    “I didn’t run out on the team.” Zoey sighed. “My head hurts and I’m running late.” She placed her workout gear into her locker and closed it. “Besides, she won’t be on our team long anyway.”
    “Why not?” Lydia asked.
    Zoey and Vikki exchanged a knowing look.
    “Our team is for the Hunters no one wants to deal with,” Vikki replied. “Disciplinary nightmares. They can’t get rid of us, though, because we have the highest kill rates. And you’re blonde. None of us are.”
    Lydia glanced past them to the rest of the girls. Zoey followed her gaze. The rest of the locker room looked like it was overrun by cheerleading squads or wannabe models: the normal girls who transferred into the elite Cambion-killing corps – known as Hunters – were chosen for their looks and were almost all blonde. Zoey was one of a small handful of brunettes and Vikki the only redhead. The third member of their team, Ginny, was half African American with dark hair and the fourth, Tiff, half-Korean with blue-black hair.
    If Lydia stayed on Team R, she’d be the first and only blonde.
    Zoey tugged a strand of hair free from her ponytail and curled it around her finger to make sure she’d put in enough hair product to make it stay. The curl remained, and she tucked it behind her ear.
    “I don’t want to be a misfit, and I’m definitely not a disciplinary problem. Why did they put me on Team R?” Lydia’s voice showed how overwhelmed she was.
    “Geez, thanks,” Zoey said dryly. “Like we have the plague.”
    “We do,” Vikki said. “But we’re happy that way, and everyone knows we’re the best. You’ve reached the pinnacle, Lydia. Olivia is the only one who can appoint people to our team, and no one is allowed to transfer us or punish us the way they probably want to.”
    “That’s what I heard,” Lydia said. “Team R has the highest kill rates and most successful missions. I heard the waiting list was over two hundred Hunters long.”
    “So why did they put you on our team?” Zoey asked. “Didn’t you just transfer in from school?”
    “Yeah.” Lydia shrugged. “Heidi said I placed the highest on the agility and strength exams since you, Zoey.”
    “I hated those tests,” Zoey murmured, recalling the week-long trial that every Hunter went through. The better the Hunter, the farther down the alphabet they were assigned, in terms of teams. Team R was the most elite and smallest of them all. Teams A through Q consisted of at least ten Halflings each. There was no other team assigned a letter of the alphabet beyond R. Every Hunter was tested and placed upon entering the Hunter corps under the control of the full-blooded Succubae that acted as Internal Affairs officers.
    “It can’t be that hard,” Vikki teased. “Zoey is like, two feet tall, so maybe she’s the odd one out, not you, Lydia.”
    Even Lydia was close to six feet, like almost all half-Succubae were. Vikki’s flame-hued hair and Lydia’s flawless features reminded Zoey how different she really was. At just under five and half feet, Zoey was the smallest girl in the program and had been for three years. Her solace: she out-killed everyone but Vikki, her sole competition.
    Zoey recalled when she’d first transferred from the Sucubatti’s version of high school into IAB, the security branch of their society, three years before. She’d been