by P. C. Cast
“Could be because they are old and nasty and abandoned,” Aphrodite slurred sarcastically. I noticed she’d ignored the fact that I’d cut her off and started on her second bottle of wine.
“That’s not right. They ain’t nasty and abandoned,” Kramisha spoke up, frowning at Aphrodite. “We’re here and we been decorating. You should know ’cause we used your got-no-limit gold card to buy the stuff.”
“Did you use incorrect grammar at the same time? Like you are now?” Aphrodite said asAYe she peered blurrily at Kramisha from around Darius.
“Look, I know you human and just been awkwardly Imprinted with Stevie Rae, not to mentioned you gettin’ totally trashed, so I’d hate to use my superior red fledgling skills to kick your bony ass, but if you talk about me again I’m gonna forget to be nice,” Kramisha said.
“Can we not focus on the bad guys who might be trying to eat us instead of bickering with each other?” I said wearily. “Stevie Rae, do the other tunnels connect to these?”
“Yeah, but they’re sealed off, or at least that’s what it would look like to everyone else.”
“Is there only one entrance from this section of tunnels to the public ones?” Darius asked.
“Only one that I know of. And it was blocked by some seriously thick metal doors. How ’bout y’all? Have you found any more?” Stevie Rae said.
“Well, maybe,” Ant said.
“Maybe?” Stevie Rae said.
“I was exploring and I found something, but the opening to it was little even for me, so I didn’t go into it. I meant to go back and poke around with a shovel or, better yet, with Johnny B’s muscles, but I just haven’t yet.”
Johnny B grinned and flexed for us. I ignored him, but the Twins tittered appreciatively.
“So, basically, what you guys are saying is that besides the depot entrance, there’s one we know of for sure that links these tunnels to the other ones?” I said.
“Sounds about right,” Stevie Rae said.
“Then I advise you to post two guards, Priestess,” Darius said. “One at the depot entrance and one at the known entrance to the other tunnel system.”
“Okay, that sounds like a good idea,” I said.
“I’ll take first shift on the depot entrance,” Darius said. “Erik, you should take over for me there. It’s our most vulnerable place, so full vampyres should guard it.”
Erik nodded. “Agreed.”
“Jack and I will take the first shift guarding the sealed-off entrance to the downtown tunnels,” Damien said. “That is, if it’s okay with you guys.”
“Yeah, we could even plan some menus and write down some things we need for the kitchen,” Jack said.
“Sounds good,” I said, smiling at Jack and Damien.
“I agree. Shaunee and Erin, could you relieve them for the next shift?” Darius said.
The Twins shrugged. “Okay with us,” Erin said.
“Good. I think it wise that we don’t use the red fledglings to guard the entrances during daylight hours,” Darius said.
“Hey, we can kick some ass,” Johnny B spoke up, looking all jockish and testosterone filled.
“It’s not that,” I said, guessing what Dariu jockishbs meant. “We need to let you guys sleep during the day so that you can stand guard at night when you’re strongest. Which means, hopefully, you’ll be stronger than the creatures who will be coming against us.” What I didn’t say was that, even had Darius not spoken up because of the daylight issue with the red fledglings, I would have said something. I didn’t want to be “protected” by Stevie Rae’s kids until I felt surer about them.
“Oh, well. Yeah. We can do that. I’m cool with protecting a priestess and her group,” Johnny B said, giving me a cocky wink.
I stifled an eye roll. Even without the red fledgling issue, the last thing I needed was another football player-like guy in my life. My eyes slid over to Erik and I had to force myself not to jump guiltily. Yes, he’d been watching me. Great. He’d mostly ignored me since we’d gotten to the tunnels and chose the instant when some other guy was acting flirty to stare at me.
Jack held up his hand like a good little student. “Um, question…”
“Yes, Jack,” I said.
“Where do we sleep?”
“Good question.” I turned to Stevie Rae. “Where do we sleep?”
Johnny B spoke up before Stevie Rae could answer. “For the record, I’m willing to share my bed. My heart is more giving than Kramisha’s.”
“It ain’t your heart you wanna share,” Kramisha said.
“Don’t go hatin’ on me, baby!” Johnny B said, trying (unsuccessfully) to sound black.
Kramisha rolled her eyes at him. “You so crazy.”
“Well, we have some sleeping bags,” Stevie Rae broke in, sounding like she was on the verge of falling asleep. “Venus, could you show Zoey and the rest of the kids where they are? I guess y’all can sleep in whosever room you want to.” She paused and smiled wearily at Kramisha. “Except Kramisha doesn’t share her bed.”
“But you can stay in my room. That’s cool with me,” Kramisha said. “Just not on the bed.”
“Do all of you guys have rooms now?” I couldn’t keep the surprise from my voice. This was all so different from the first time I’d been down here. Then the kids could barely have been called humanoid, and the tunnels were dark and dirty and creepy. Now the room we were crammed into was cozy, lit by flickering oil lanterns and candles, and the furniture was comfortable, obviously new, and even had cute matching pillows on the bed. It all seemed so normal. Was I just imagining that there was weird stuff going on with them because I was so darn tired I could hardly think?
“Any of us who wanted his or her own room has one,” Venus answered me. “They’re really not hard to fix up. In this part of the tunnels there’re lots of little dead ends. We’ve been turning them into real rooms. I definitely have my own room.” She smiled at Erik. I had to remind myself it probably wasn’t ethical to evoke fire and have it burn all the hair off her bobble-head.
“This is probably where most of the bootleg liquor was stored during Prohibition,” Damien said. “It’s logical because this is right here at the train tracks, and it would have been easy to sneak stuff in and out at night.”
“That’s so cool and romantic!” Jack sighed. “I mean, the whole 1920s flapper thing and juke joints and gangsters.”
Damien smiled indulgently at Jack. “Actually, Prohibition lasted in Tulsa until 1957.”
“Well, never mind. That’s not so romantic. That’s more like gay Bible Belt stuff.” He giggled. “Gay! Hee hees.”
“You’re funny and cute. That’s why I love you,” Damien said, kissing Jack smack on the mouth and causing Duchess to bark happily.
“Okay, barf,” Aphrodite said.
“Oh, and I have one more question,” Jack said, frowning at Aphrodite.
As he started to put his hand up, I said, “Yes, Jack. What is it?”
“Where do we potty?”
“Potty? Did he really just say potty?” Aphrodite giggled until she snorted. We ignored her.
“That’s easy,” Stevie Rae said around a giant yawn. “Venus, would you show them?”
“You have a bathroom?” What? There was working plumbing in the tunnels?
Venus sneered a guess-you-don’t-know-everything look at me. “Bathrooms, actually. With showers.”
“Hot water showers?” Jack said enthusiastically.
“Of course. We’re not barbarians,” Venus said.
“How?” I said.
“They’re in the depot building above us,” Stevie Rae said. “We’ve done a lot of exploring in the building. It’s totally boarded up, so no one can get in, except from the basement entrance, so we control who comes and goes.”
“And we don’t let just anyone in,” Venus added, looking a little dangerous.
Okay, honestly, I was liking her less and less with every second. And this time it had nothing to do wit
h her drooling over Erik.
“Exclusssssive. My kind of place,” Aphrodite said, then she burped.
“Anyway”—Stevie Rae rolled her eyes at Aphrodite—“we were checking out the depot and we found two locker rooms—a guy’s and a girl’s. We figured they were for the depot employees. There’s even a gym up there, too. Dallas did the rest.” She plopped tiredly back on her pillows, giving Dallas a go-ahead-and-tell-the-rest-of it gesture.
Dallas shrugged nonchalantly, but his grin said he knew he’d done something cool. “I just found the water main connection to the depot and opened it up. The pipes were all still good.”
“That’s not all you did,” Stevie Rae said.
He grinned at her and again I caught a thing between them. Hm&helliv- fp;I was definitely going to get the scoop from Stevie Rae later.
“Well, I also figured out how to turn on the electricity. That started the water heaters again, and then Aphrodite’s credit card got us the extra-long extension cords and such that I spliced into the old tunnel lighting system. A little work here and there, and we have hot water up there and electricity down here.”
“Wow,” Jack said. “That’s really cool.”
“Impressive,” Damien agreed.
Dallas just kept grinning.
“So do you want to use the facilities or not?” Venus said. I thought she sounded grumpy, or maybe “bitchy” was a better descriptive word.
“Yeah!” Jack said happily. “I could definitely use a hot shower before we go on duty.”
“Uh, what’s the status on your hair-care products down here?” Shaunee asked.
“Oh, girl. I took care of that first thing after I got my sense back. Do not worry. I got you covered,” Kramisha said, standing up and brushing crumbs from her butt-hugging jeans.
“Excellent,” Erin said. “Let’s go.”
I hung back as everyone started to file out of Stevie Rae’s room.
“Hey, Z, you wanna be my roomie again?” Stevie Rae looked exhausted, but she was smiling her old smile at me.
“Absolutely,” I said. Our gazes slid over to Aphrodite, who was still perched on the end of her bed, half-leaning against Darius.
“Aphrodite, go get yourself a sleepin’ bag. You can crash in here, too,” Stevie Rae said.
“Okay, look. No damn way am I sleeping with you,” she said, trying hard not to slur her words. “Our Imprint is not that kind of Imprint. And even if I was gay, which I’m not, you are not my type.”
“Aphrodite, I was not makin’ a move on you. That’s just stupid,” Stevie Rae said.
“I’m just letting you know. I’m also letting you know that I’m breaking this damn Imprint the first second I can figure out how.”
Stevie Rae sighed. “Don’t do somethin’ that’s gonna hurt either one of us. I’ve had enough with stuff hurtin’ for a while.”
I’d been listening to the exchange between them with frank interest. I mean, I’d been Imprinted with my human boyfriend, Heath, so I knew something about being linked to a human through the magic of blood. I also knew something about breaking an Imprint—and it could be very painful.
“Zoey, is it too much to ask that you stop gawking at me!” Aphrodite burst out, making me jump guiltily.
“I’m not gawking,” I lied.
“Whatever. Just stop.”
“An Imprint is nothing to be ashamed of, my beauty,” Darius said, putting his arm around Aphrodite gently.
“It is weird, though,” Stevie Rae said.
Darius smiled kindly at her. “There are many types of Imprints.”
“Well, ours is not the drink-your-blood-and-have-sex-with-you type,” Aphrodite said.
“Of course it is not,” Darius kissed her on her forehead.
“Which means you can sleep in here without being freaked out,” Stevie Rae said.
“And again I say hell no. Plus, I’m going with Darius. I’ll be on duty with him,” Aphrodite said decisively, raising her half-empty second bottle of wine in a weird, drunken salute.
“Darius has to guard the entrance to the tunnels. He doesn’t need to be takin’ care of your drunk behind,” Stevie Rae told her.
“I. Am. Going. With. Darius,” Aphrodite repeated slowly and stubbornly.
“She may come with me,” Darius, said, unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile. “I’ll get a sleeping bag for her. I do not believe she will be much trouble, and I like to keep her close to me.”
“Not much trouble?” I said. Stevie Rae and I raised our brows at him. I swear his high, chiseled cheeks blushed just a smidgen of pink.
“He must be thinkin’ of another Aphrodite. One we don’t know,” Stevie Rae said.
“Come on,” Aphrodite said, getting unsteadily to her feet. “I know where they keep the stupid sleeping bags. Just ignore them.” She gave us a hilarious attempt at a scowl, which turned into another manly belch, grabbed Darius’s hand, and staggered from the room while Stevie Rae and I laughed.
Before he ducked under the blanket, Darius spoke over his shoulder to Erik, who I’d almost forgotten was still lingering in the room. Almost.
“Erik, get some sleep. I will wake you for the second shift.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be…” Erik hesitated.
“Dallas’s room is just down the tunnel from here. I’ll bet he wouldn’t mind if you roomed with him,” Stevie Rae said.
“Okay, that’s where I’ll be,” Erik said.
Darius nodded. “Priestess, would you check the bandages on Stevie Rae’s wounds? If they need to be changed—”
“If they need to be changed, I can do it,” I interrupted. Hell, I’d already helped shove an arrow through her chest. I could certainly change a Band-Aid without freaking.
“Well, if you need me, simply have a fledgling—”
The warrior’s sentence was cut off as Aphrodite jerked hard enough on his hand to pull him from the room. Then she stuck her head back through the doorway. “Good night. Don’t bother us.” And she disappeared.
“Better him than me,” I heard Erik mutter as he watched the blanket swing back into place. I made no attempt to hide my smile. I was glad Erik wasn’t still interested in Aphrodite. Erik met my eyes. And slowly he smiled, too.
CHAPTER 7
“No, you two go on. Catch up with the others. I’m just gonna sleep,” Stevie Rae said as she curled onto her side, moving gingerly.
There was a grumpy “mee-uf-ow” and a chubby little orange ball of fur padded into the room and jumped up on Stevie Rae’s bed.
“Nala!” Stevie Rae scratched the top of my cat’s head. “Hey, I’ve missed you.”
Nala sneezed in Stevie Rae’s face and then made three rotations on the pillow beside her head, lay down, and started up her purr engine. Stevie Rae and I grinned at each other.
Okay—SPECIAL NOTE: Duchess, Jack’s yellow Lab, is an anomaly. Stark brought her with him when he transferred to our school from the Chicago House of Night. Then he died. Jack adopted her. Then he un-died, but was obviously not himself, ’cause the first thing he did was shoot an arrow through Stevie Rae. Hence the fact Duchess is still with Jack. Plus I think the kid’s really getting attached to her.
Anyway, when the group of us escaped from the House of Night, our cats, plus Duchess, followed us. So seeing Nala making herself comfortable added a comfy, homelike touch to Stevie Rae’s room for Stevie Rae and me.
“You and Erik go on. Get a shower or whatever,” Stevie Rae repeated sleepily as she cuddled with Nala. “Nal and I’ll take a little nap. Oh, you can catch the rest of them if you go out, turn left, and then keep circling to your right. The entrance to the depot is by the room where we keep the fridges.”
“Hey, Darius said I should check your bandages,” I reminded her.
“Later,” she yawned massively. “They’re fine.”
“Okay, if you say so.” I tried not to show the relief I felt. No way was I ever going to be anything resembling a nurse. “Get some sleep. I’ll be ba
ck in a little while,” I said. I swear she was out before Erik and I ducked through the checkered blanket.
We turned to our left and walked without saying anything for a little way. The tunnels were less creepy than when I’d been down here before, but that didn’t make them unclaustrophobic and bright and cheery. Every few yards there were lanterns staked with what looked like railroad spikes into the cement walls at about eye level, but the dampness permeated everything. We hadn’t gone far when something caught at the corner of my eyes and I slowed down, peering into the heavy shadows between the lanterns.
“What is it?” Erik asked softly.
My stomach tightened with fear. “I don’t know, I—” My words broke off as something exploded out of the darkness at me. I’d opened my mouth to shriek, imagining feral red fledglings or, worse, the horror of the Raven Mockers. But Erik’s arm went around me and he pulled me out of the way of half a dozen bats, who fluttered past.
“They’re as scared of you as you are of them,” he said, taking his arm from around me as soon as the creatures were past us.
I shuddered, trying to force my heart to beat regularly again. “Okay, no possible way could they be as scared of me as I am of them. Eesh, bats are rats with wings.”
He chuckled as we started walking again. “I thought pigeons were rats with wings.”
“Bat, pigeons, ravens—I don’t care about distinctions right now. Any fluttery, flappy thing is not cool with me.”
“I see your point,” he said, smiling at me. His smile didn’t do much to help my heartbeat slow down, and as we kept walking, I swear I could still feel the warmth of his arm around my shoulders. In a few more feet we came to a section of the tunnel that was as amazing as it was surprising. Erik and I stopped and stared.
“Wow, that is majorly cool,” I said.
“Yeah, wow,” Erik agreed with me. “This must be the work of that Gerarty girl. Didn’t Stevie Rae introduce her as being an artist who’s been decorating the tunnels?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t expect anything like this.” Forgetting about the bats, I traced my hand over the beautifully complex pattern of flowers and hearts and birds and all sorts of swirls, all entwined to make a brightly painted mosaic that seemed to breathe life and magic into this little section of the dreary, claustrophobic walls.
