Hunted (13 page)

“Cross my heart.” Automatically, I crossed my heart. We were standing so close that the back of my hand brushed his chest.

“Tell me.” His voice had gone deep and intimate.

“I wish Dracula hadn't let everyone come between him and Mina. He should have bitten Mina, made her like him, and then taken her away so they could be together forever—and lived happily ever after.”

“Because they're the same and they belong together,” he said.

I looked up into Erik's amazing blue eyes and saw that all the kidding had gone out of them.

“Yeah, even if bad things happened in their past. They'd have to forgive each other for the bad stuff, but I think they could have.”

“I know they could have. I think when two people care about each other enough, anything can be forgiven.”

Obviously Erik and I weren't talking about fictional characters from an old book. We were talking about ourselves, testing each other to see if we could actually make it work between us.

I had to forgive Erik for being so awful to me after he'd caught me with Loren. And he had been horrible, but the truth was I'd hurt Erik a lot more than he'd hurt me—and not just with Loren. When I'd first started dating Erik, I'd still had a relationship with Heath, my human boyfriend. It had pissed Erik off that I had been seeing him and Heath at the same time, but he'd believed that I would come to my senses eventually and understand that Heath was a part of my old world, my old life, and that he wouldn't fit into my future like Erik would.

And Erik had a point. Now that the Imprint with Heath had been broken, which I knew for sure because he and I had had a very ugly scene when I ran into him just a couple of days ago at Charlie's Chicken (of all places). My ridiculous mistake in having sex with Loren had had a domino effect of messing up lots of things in my life. One very big mess-up was the painful way it had broken my Imprint with Heath, and he'd made it clear he didn't ever want to see me again. Sure, I'd warned Heath about the Raven Mockers and
Kalona being loose, told him to get himself and his family to safety, but it was over between Heath and me, just like it had been over between Loren and me (even before he'd been killed), which is really how it should be.

I continued to meet Erik's gaze. “So you like my version of
Dracula
?”

“I like your ending—the one where the two of them are vampyres and they have a happily-ever-after, especially because they care enough to get over their past mistakes.”

Still smiling, Erik bent to kiss me. His lips were soft and warm, and he tasted like Doritos and Mountain Dew, which wasn't as nasty as you might think. His arms went around me, and he pulled me close, deepening the kiss. It felt good to be in his arms. So good that at first I managed to tune out the little alarm bells that were ringing in the rational part of my mind as Erik's hands slid down my back to cup my butt. But when he pressed me hard against him, grinding intimately into me, the lovely warm fog he'd started inside me began to clear. I liked him touching me. But what I didn't like was the feeling that his touch had suddenly become too aggressive, too insistent, too
she is mine, I want her, and I'm going to have her now
.

He must have felt me stiffen because he pulled back, gave me an easy smile, and then said, “So, what are you doing up here?”

I blinked, disoriented at the instant change in him. I took a little step away from him and grabbed my pop from where he'd put it on his chair, taking a big gulp and pulling myself together. Finally I managed to say, “Oh, I, uh, came to talk to Darius and see if my cell would work.” I fished into my pocket for it and then held it up like a dork. Glancing at it, I could see three bars lit up. “Yea! It looks like it might!”

“Well, the rain changing to ice stopped not too long ago, and I haven't heard any thunder for a while, either. If we don't get another wave of this crappy weather, service might actually stay up. Hope that's a good sign.”

“Yeah, me, too, I'll try to call Sister Mary Angela in a sec and check
on Grandma.” My words were coming easier now. I studied Erik as we talked. He seemed so nice and normal, just his usual good-guy self. Had I been overreacting about his kiss? Had what happened with Loren made me too sensitive? Realizing there was a bunch of dead air between us and Erik was starting to give me a questioning look, I said quickly, “So, where is Darius?”

“I relieved him early. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, and I figured he's going to need the extra rest since he's basically our entire army.”

“Was Aphrodite still trashed?”

“She was passed out. Darius carried her out of here. She's going to have a killer hangover when she wakes up.” He sounded pleased at the prospect. “He was going to Dallas's room to sleep. He hasn't been gone long, so maybe you won't even have to wake him up.”

“Well, I really just wanted directions to Damien and Jack. I couldn't sleep, either, so I thought I'd relieve them and let the Twins rest.”

“Oh, that's easy. I can tell you how to find them. They're not far from the entrance up into the depot we took before.”

“Good, I don't really want to bother Darius if he's actually resting. You're right. Our army needs to get some sleep.” I paused and then added, in a way-too-nonchalant tone, “Hey, you didn't notice anything, uh, weird in the tunnels on the way up here, did you?”

“Weird? Like what?”

I didn't want to say blackness, because, well, they were tunnels and for them to be dark wasn't weird. Plus, as I'd already imagined, I could hear Erik reminding me of how much the bats had freaked me out. So I blurted, “Like the lanterns suddenly going out.”

He shrugged and shook his head. “Nope, but that's really not all that weird. I'm sure the red fledglings have to refill their oil pretty often, and I would bet that recent events have messed up their schedule for that.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” And it did. So, just for that little moment I let myself feel a sense of relief that even then I knew deep down
wasn't real, and grinned at Erik. He smiled back at me and there we were, grinning at each other. I reminded myself that Erik really was a great boyfriend. I'd been glad that he and I were back together. I was still glad we were back together, wasn't I? Couldn't I just stay glad and not let the good things we had between us be messed up because I was freaked that he was going to want more from me than I could give him right now?

Farther to the back of my mind I shoved the memory of the kiss Stark and I had shared and Kalona's nightmare visit and how he'd made me feel things no guy had ever come close to making me feel.

I stood up so abruptly I almost knocked the chair over. “I gotta call Sister Mary Angela!”

Erik gave me an odd look, but only said, “Okay, walk a little way over there, but don't get too close to the door. If anyone's hanging around outside I don't want them to hear you.”

I nodded and gave him what I hoped didn't look like a guilty smile. Then I walked a little ways through the basement, which, I noticed, also wasn't as disgusting now as it had been last time I'd been down here. Stevie Rae and her group had obviously done a lot of cleaning and throwing away of the street people's stuff that had been littering the place before. And, happily, it didn't smell like urine anymore, which was a definite improvement.

I pressed Sister Mary Angela's number and mentally crossed my fingers while it said it was calling . . . calling . . . and then it actually rang, once, twice, three times . . . My stomach was just starting to hurt when she answered. The connection was really crappy, but at least I could understand her.

“Oh, Zoey! I'm so glad you called,” said Sister Mary Angela.

“Sister, are you okay? Is Grandma?”

“She's fine . . . all fine. We're . . .” She was definitely breaking up now.

“Sister, I can't hear you very well. Where are you? Is Grandma conscious?”

“Grand . . . is conscious. We're under the abbey, but . . .” There was static and then suddenly I could hear her clearly. “Are you influencing the weather, Zoey?”

“Me? No! What about Grandma? Are you guys safe in the abbey basement?”

“. . . fine. Not to worry, we . . .”

And the line went dead.

“Hell! This connection sucks so much!” I paced a short path of frustration while I tried to call her back. Nothing. I had service, but the screen kept saying that it was a lost call. I tried several more times before I saw that, not only was I not getting her back, but my phone was getting ready to die. “Hell!” I repeated.

“What did she say?” Erik had come up behind me.

“Not much, 'cause I lost the connection and can't get it back. But I did manage to hear her say that she's okay and Grandma's okay. I even think she's finally conscious.”

“That's really good news! Don't worry; everything's going to be fine. The nuns have your grandma safe underground, right?”

I nodded, feeling stupidly close to tears that were really more because of frustration than fear for Grandma. I completely trusted Sister Mary Angela, so if she said Grandma was okay, then I believed her. “It's hard not knowing what's going on. Not just with Grandma, but with everything out there.” I jerked my thumb up at the outside world.

Erik stepped up beside me and his warm hand closed over mine. He turned me so that I was facing him, and then with his thumb he gently traced the new tattoos that covered my palm. “Hey, we'll get through this. Nyx is at work here, remember? Just look at your hands to see proof of her favor. Yeah, our group is small, but we're strong and we know we're on the right side.”

Just then my phone made the little chime that said I had a text message. “Oh, good. Maybe this is Sister Mary Angela.” I flipped open the phone and stared at the message, not really getting it.

 

All fledglings and vampyres are to return

to the House of Night immediately.

 

“What the hell?” I said, still staring at my phone's screen.

“Let me see,” Erik said. I flipped the phone so he could read it. He nodded slowly, as if the text confirmed something he'd already thought about. “It's Neferet. And even though it's sounding like one of those schoolwide text broadcasts, I'd bet she's talking directly to us.”

“Are you sure it's her?”

“Yeah, I recognize her number.”

“She gave you her phone number?” I tried not to sound as annoyed as that made me feel, but I doubt I was very successful.

Erik shrugged. “Yeah, she gave it to me before I left for Europe. Said if I ever needed anything I could call her.”

I snorted.

Erik smiled. “Are you jealous?”

“No!” I lied. “She's just such a manipulative bitch that it makes me mad.”

“Well, she's definitely into some bad shit with Kalona.”

“Yeah, that's for sure, and we're not going back to the House of Night. At least not right now.”

“I think you're right about that. We need to find out more about what's happened above before we make our next move. Plus, if your instincts are telling you we need to stay clear of the school, then that's what we should do.”

I looked up at him. He smiled reassuringly down at me and brushed a strand of my hair back from my face. His eyes were warm and kind, not sex crazed and possessive. Jeesh, I had to get a grip on myself. Erik made me feel safe. He believed what he was saying. He believed in me.

“Thank you,” I said. “Thanks for still believing in me.”

“I'll always believe in you, Zoey,” he said. “Always.” Erik wrapped me in his arms and kissed me.

The door to the outside was wrenched open, letting in the murky light of a stormy afternoon and a blast of frigid air. Erik whirled, pushing me behind him. I felt a heart-thundering rush of pure fear.

“Get below! Get Darius!” Erik shouted as he moved forward to face the figure silhouetted against the gray upper world.

I had started to run back to the basement ladder when Heath's voice stopped me.

“Hey, is that you, Zo?”

 

 

 

 

“Heath!” I hurried toward him, practically shouting my relief that it was him and not a terrifying Raven Mocker or worse, an ancient immortal with eyes like the night sky and a voice like a forbidden secret.

“Heath?” Erik didn't sound nearly as pleased. He grabbed my arm so I couldn't run past him. He frowned, still managing to stay protectively in front of me. “You mean your human boyfriend?”

“
Ex
-boyfriend,” Heath and I said at the same time.

“Hey, aren't you that Erik guy? Zo's fledgling ex-boyfriend?” Heath said. He ignored the three stairs that emptied into the basement and jumped lightly down, looking every inch (and I do mean at least six feet tall with kinda curly, sandy, blond-brown hair and the cutest eyes and guy dimples you have every seen) the star quarterback he was. Yes, I'll admit it freely, my high school boyfriend was a cliché, but at least he was an adorable one.

“Boyfriend.” Erik's voice was flint. “Not ex. Just like vampyre, not fledgling.”

“Oh. I'd say congrats on the makeup with Zo and on not drowning in your own blood, but that would pretty much be bullshit 'cause I wouldn't mean it. Know what I mean, dude?” He talked as he walked around Erik to snag my wrist, but before he could pull me into a big hug he glanced down and saw the new tattoos covering my palms. “Whoa! Now that is majorly cool! So, your goddess is still takin' care of you?”

“Yeah, she is,” I said.

“I'm glad,” he said and pulled me into the hug I'd been expecting. “Damn, I've been worried about you!” Then he held me at arm's length and checked me out. “You all in once piece?”