Hunted

by P. C. Cast

Chapter Five

  "So we have p. b. and j. , bologna, and processed American cheese slices. " Jack said the "processed American cheese slices" part like he was reluctantly offering us worms and mud. "And my personal gourmet Top Chef concoction: mayonnaise, peanut butter, and lettuce on wheat bread. "

  "Okay, Jack. Nasty," Shaunee said.

  "Have you lost your damn mind?" Erin said.

  "Gay white boy is weird," Kramisha said, snagging one of the bologna and cheese sandwiches.

  The Twins nodded and made "yep" noises as Kramisha joined them on a nearby egg crate.

  Jack looked mortally offended. "I think they're good, and you guys should try things before you disrespect them. "

  "I'll try one of them," said Shannoncompton sweetly.

  "Thanks. " Jack grinned and handed her a sandwich wrapped in a paper towel.

  There was the rustling of a lot of paper as all of us crowded into Stevie Rae's room, grabbed sandwiches, and passed bags of chips around. I was surprised to see the amount of food and chips and brown pop (yea for brown pop!). It made a weird, surreal mixture with the bottles of red wine and bags of blood that were being shared. I sat on the bed with Aphrodite and Darius and Stevie Rae, who was looking better and better. For a second, with the normal sounds of kids eating and talking, it was easy to imagine that we were just in a kind of ratty building at the House of Night and forget that we were in a tunnel under the city and that all of our lives were in the process of never being the same. For a second, we were nothing but a group of kids, some friends, some not, and we were just hanging out together. "Tell me what you know of the creature that rose from the earth and the bird beings that followed him. " Darius's words made the whole just-hanging-out fa?ade crumple like a house of cards. ? Jcrate.

  "Sadly, we don't know as much about him as I wish we did, and what we do know comes from my grandma. " I swallowed down the tightness in my throat that mentioning her caused. "Grandma's in a coma, so she can't help us right now. "

  "Oh, Z! I'm so sorry! What happened?" Stevie Rae cried, touching my arm.

  "The official version is she was in a car accident. The truth is that the accident was caused by the Raven Mockers because she knew too much about them," I said.

  "Raven Mockers--those are the beings that came out of the earth after the winged man appeared?" Darius said.

  I nodded. "They're his children--what happened after he raped the women of my grandma's people more than a thousand years ago. When Kalona broke out of the ground their bodies were returned to them. "

  "And you know these things because they are creatures from Cherokee legend?" Darius said.

  "Actually, we know these things because in the vision Aphrodite had a couple days ago she was shown what we figured out was a prophecy about Kalona returning. It was written in Grandma's handwriting, so we called her--told her about it. She recognized the references and came to the House of Night to help us. " I paused, steadying my voice. "That's why the Raven Mockers attacked her. "

  "I really wish we had that prophecy," Damien said. "I'd like to take a look at it again now that Kalona has actually been set free. "

  "That's easy enough," Aphrodite said. She took a long drink from her bottle of wine, hiccupped a little, and then recited:

  "Ancient one sleeping, waiting to arise

  When earth's power bleeds sacred red

  The mark strikes true; Queen Tsi Sgili will devise

  He shall be washed from his entombing bed

  Through the hand of the dead he is free

  Terrible beauty, monstrous sight

  Ruled again they shall be

  Women shall kneel to his dark might

  Kalona's song sounds sweet

  As we slaughter with cold heat. "

  "Wow! Well done, you!" Jack said, clapping his hands.

  Aphrodite inclined her head regally and said, "Thank you. . . Thank you. . . It was nothing. Really. " And th"><

  His eyes widened in surprise, and then his lips tilted up in his cocky Bad Boy smile. "You mean it?"

  "Sadly, yes. Now come over here because I'm about to fall asleep in the middle of talking to you. "

  "Cool! I don't have to be told twice. I'm a monster, not a moron. " He moved quickly back to the bed.

  I scooted over, dislodging Nala, which pissed her off. Grumbling, she padded to the end of the bed, made three quick circles, and I swear she was asleep again before her head was pillowed on her paws. I looked from her to Stark and hastily threw my arm across his side of the bed before he could tuck himself in.

  "What?" he said.

  "First you have to get rid of that bow and arrow business that's practically growing on your back. "

  "Oh, okay. " He pulled over his head the leather contraption that held the bow and quiver of arrows to his back and dropped them on the floor beside the bed. When I still didn't move my arm, he said, "What now?"

  "You are so not getting in my bed with your shoes on. "

  "Crap. Sorry," he muttered, kicking off his shoes. Then he looked down at me. "Want me to take anything else off?"

  I frowned up at him. Like he wasn't hot enough already in his black T-shirt, his jeans, and his cocky smile? But no way was I going to tell him that. "No. You may not take anything else off. Jeesh, just get in here. I'm seriously tired. "

  As he slid into bed beside me, I realized just how small my bed was when I was sharing it with a guy. I had to remind myself that I really was tired and that the whole point of Stark sleeping with me was for me to get some rest.

  "Turn off the light, would ya?" I asked him, sounding way more nonchalant than I felt.

  He reached over and snapped the light off.

  "So, you think you'll be going to class tomorrow?" he asked.

  "Yeah, I suppose. " Then, because I really didn't want to talk about why I might be going to class so soon after I'd been hurt so badly, I added, "And I have to remember to look through the Hummer Darius drove us in here with. I think I left my purse in it. Or at least I hope I did, 'cause having a lost purse really sucks. "

  "Now that scares me," Stark said.

  "What scares you?"

  "Chicks' purses. Or at least all the weird stuff you people keep inside of them. "

  "Us people? Jeesh. We're girls, and purses just have girl stuff in them. " His normal-sounding guyness was making me smile.

  "There's no just about purse stuff," he said. And I swear I felt him shudder.

  I laughed out loud this time. "My grandma would say that you're a conundrum. "

  "Is that good or bad?"

  ses. @ E

  "A conundrum is something that's puzzling, even kinda paradoxical. For instance, here you are this macho, dangerous, warrior guy who can't miss anything he shoots at, but you're totally squeed out by girls' purses? It's like they're your spiders. "

  He chuckled. "My spiders? What's that supposed to mean?"

  "Well, I don't like spiders. At all. " I shuddered like he'd just done.

  "Oh, I get it. Yeah, purses are my spiders. Really big spiders you can open up and they're filled with a whole nest of baby spiders. "

  "Okay! Okay! You're totally grossing me out. Let's change the subject. "

  "Sounds good to me. So. . . I think you have to be touching whoever you're sleeping with for this to really work. " His voice sounded weirdly intimate coming from the darkness beside me.

  "Yeah, sure. " My stomach felt all fluttery, and not just because we'd been talking about spiders.

  His sigh was heavy and long-suffering. "I'm telling you the truth. Why do you think it doesn't keep him away if you're just sleeping with a roommate? You have to be touching. A guy and a girl. I guess a guy and a guy would work, too, if it was like Damien and his boyfriend. Or even a girl and a girl if they were into each other. " He paused. "I think I'm babbling. "

  "I think you are, too. " Actually, babbling was usually what I did when I was nervo
us, and it was refreshing to meet someone else who was a nervous babbler.

  "You really don't have to be scared of me. I'm not going to hurt you. "

  "Because you know I can kick your butt with the elements?"

  "Because I care about you," he said. "You were starting to care about me, weren't you? I mean before all of this happened to me. "

  "Yes. " On one hand, right about then was an excellent opportunity for me to mention the little fact that Erik and I were supposed to be back together. And maybe even say something about Heath. (Or maybe not. ) On the other hand, I was trying to somehow fix the kid's humanity, or lack thereof, and it probably wouldn't help for me to be all: Hey, I'll sleep with you and act like I care about you, but I kinda have a boyfriend. Or two. And besides all that, I needed to start being honest with myself. Erik had seemed so perfect for me; he's who everyone thought I should be with. Then why have I always liked other guys, too, and that's even before he started acting all insanely possessive? It wasn't just Heath I'd been drawn to, but Loren and then Stark. The only thing I could think was that something must be missing with Erik, or else I was just turning into a nasty skank. I mean, really. I didn't feel like a nasty skank. I felt like a girl who liked more than one guy.

  He shifted on the bed beside me and I tried not to jump when I felt his arm lift up. "Come on over here. You can put your head on my chest and go to sleep. I'll keep you safe. I promise. "

  I pushed the Erik problem from my mind, and figuring I might as well--I mean, I was already in nX A4 bed with the kid--I slid over. He put his arm around me and I tried to relax against his side with my head kinda awkwardly resting on his chest. I kept wondering if he was comfortable. Was I too heavy? Was I too close to him? Not close enough?

  Then his hand lifted and found my head. At first I thought he was going to move my head (because it was too heavy), or maybe even strangle me or whatnot. So it surprised me when he started to stroke my hair like I was a skittish horse.

  "You have really pretty hair. Did I tell you that before I died, or did I just think it?"

  "You must have just thought it," I said.

  "I would tell you that you looked really hot today when I saw you naked, but that probably wouldn't be appropriate, being as we're in bed together but not doing anything. "

  "No," I stiffened, getting ready to pull out of his arms. "It wouldn't be appropriate. "

  His chest rumbled under my ear as he chuckled. "Relax, will ya?"

  "Then don't talk about seeing me naked. "

  "Okay. " He caressed my hair silently for a little while, then he said, "That Raven Mocker hurt you pretty badly. "

  It wasn't a question, but I still said, "Yeah. "

  "Kalona doesn't want you hurt, so he'll be in for some shit when he gets back here. "

  "He won't be getting back. I killed him. Burned him up," I said simply.

  "Good," he said. "Zoey, would you make me one more promise?"

  "I suppose, but you don't seem one hundred percent happy when I keep my promises to you. "

  "I'll be happy if you keep this one. "

  "What is it this time?"

  "Promise me if I become a real monster like them, you'll burn me up, too. "

  "That's not a promise I feel comfortable making," I said.

  "Well, think about it because it might be a promise you'll have to fulfill. "

  We were silent again. The only sound in my room was Nala's soft snoring from the foot of my bed, and the steady beat of Stark's heart under my ear. He kept stroking my hair, and it wasn't long before my eyelids started to feel incredibly heavy. But before I fell asleep I had one more thing I wanted him to hear.

  "Would you do something for me?" I asked sleepily.

  "I think I'd do almost anything for you," Stark said.

  "Stop calling yourself a monster. "

  His hand stilled for a moment. He shifted slightly and I felt his lips against my forehead. "Go to sleep now. I'll watch over you. " I drifted to sleep while he was still slowly stroking my hair. Kalona didn't once enter my dreams.