by P. C. Cast
I sighed. “Heath, un-human-ness isn’t a word. It’s inhumanity.”
“Zo, I’m not stupid. I know that. I was just coining a word.”
“Coining?” Had he really said that?
He nodded. “I learned about it in Dickson’s English class. It has to do with . . .” He paused, and I swear the creatures were even listening expectantly. “Poetry.”
Despite our awful situation I laughed. “Heath, you really have been studying!”
“Told you so.” He grinned, looking completely adorable.
“Enough!” Stevie Rae’s voice echoed off the round walls of the tunnel. “I’m done with this.” She turned her back to Heath and me, ignoring us completely. “They’ve seen us. They know too much. They have to die. Kill them.” And she walked away.
This time Heath didn’t mess with trying to pull me behind him. Instead he whirled around and, completely catching me off guard, tackled me so that I landed on my butt on the disgusting mattress with an oofh. Then he turned to the closing circle of snarling undead creatures with his legs planted a hip’s width apart and his hands balled into fists and he gave his Broken Arrow Tiger football growl.
“Bring it, freaks!”
Okay, it wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate Heath’s machoness. But the boy was in over his cute blond head. I stood up and centered myself.
“Fire, I need you again!” This time I yelled the words with the command of a High Priestess. Flames burst into life from the palms of my hands all up and down my arms. I would have liked to have taken time to study the fire I’d called into being—it was cool that it could burn on me, and not actually burn me, but there was no time for that. “Move, Heath.”
He looked over his shoulder at me, and his eyes got huge and round. “Zo?”
“I’m fine. Just move!”
He jumped out of my way as, burning, I walked forward. The creatures cringed back from me, even as their hands tried to reach around me to get to Heath.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Back off and leave him alone. Heath and I are going to walk out of here. Now. If you try to stop us, I’m going to kill you, and I have a feeling that this time you’re going to die for good.” Okay, I really, really didn’t want to kill anyone. What I wanted to do was to get Heath out of there, and then find Stevie Rae and have her explain to me how fledglings who were supposed to have died could be walking around with bad attitudes, glowing eyes, and smelling like mold and dust.
From the edge of my vision I saw a movement. I turned in time to see one of the creatures launch herself at Heath. I lifted my arms and flung the fire at her as if I were throwing a ball. As she screamed and went up in flames I recognized her and had to fight hard not to be sick. It was Elizabeth No Last Name—the nice girl who had died last month. Now her burning body writhed on the floor, reeking of spoiled meat and decay, which was all that was left of her lifeless shell.
“Wind and rain! I call you,” I cried, and as the air around me began to swirl and fill with the scent of spring rain, I got a flash of Damien and Erin sitting cross-legged beside Shaunee. Their eyes were closed in concentration and they were holding votives the color of their elements. I pointed my fiery finger at Elizabeth’s smoldering body and it was washed in a sudden flush of rain, then a cool breeze took the green-tinged smoke, lifting it above our heads, and carried its stench down the tunnel and out into the night.
I faced the creatures again. “That’s what I’ll do to any of you who try to stop us.” I motioned for Heath to walk in front of me, and I followed him, backing away from the creatures.
They followed us. I couldn’t always see them as we rewound our way through the dark tunnel, but I could hear their shuffling feet and muffled snarls. It was about then that I began to feel the exhaustion. It was like I was a cell phone that hadn’t been charged in a while, and someone was talking on me too long. I let the fire that outlined by arms go out except for a flickering flame that I cupped in my right hand. No way Heath could see to walk out of here without that, and I was still backing behind him, keeping an eye out for attacking creatures. After I passed two offshoot tunnel branches I called for Heath to stop.
“We should hurry, Zo. I know you have this power thing going on, but there are a lot of them—more than what were back there. I don’t know how many you can handle.” He touched my face. “Not to be mean or anything, but you look like shit.”
I felt like poo, too, but I didn’t want to mention it. “I have an idea.” We’d just come around a curve where the tunnel had narrowed until I could touch either side of it by spreading out my arms. I walked back to the narrowest part of the curve. Heath started to follow me, but I told him, “Stand over there,” and pointed farther down the tunnel the way we were heading. He frowned, but did as I told him.
I turned my back to Heath and concentrated. Lifting my arms, I thought of newly plowed fields and pretty Oklahoma meadows filled with uncut winter hay. I thought about the earth and how I was standing within it . . . surrounded by it . . .
“Earth! I call to you!” As I lifted my arms a vision of Stevie Rae flashed across my closed eyelids. She wasn’t as she used to be—sweet-faced and concentrating hard over a glowing green candle. She was curled up in the corner of a dark tunnel. Her face was gaunt and white and her eyes glowed scarlet. But her face wasn’t an emotionless parody of herself or a cruel mask. She was weeping openly, her expression filled with despair. It’s a start, I thought. Then, with a swift, powerful motion I lowered my arms while I commanded, “Close!” In front and above me, pieces of dirt and rock began to fall from the ceiling. At first it was just a trickle of pebbles, but soon there was a mini-avalanche going on that quickly drowned out the pissed-off growls and hisses of the trapped creatures.
A wave of weakness crashed over me and I staggered back.
“I got ya, Zo.” Heath’s strong arms were around me and I let myself rest against him for a moment. Several of his cuts had broken loose during our escape, and the ripe scent of his blood tickled against my senses.
“They’re not really trapped, you know,” I said softly, trying to keep my mind off how much I wanted to lick the line of blood that was trickling down his cheek. “We passed a couple other tunnels. I’m sure they’ll be able to find their way out eventually.”
“It’s okay, Zo.” Heath kept his arms wrapped around me, but he pulled back enough so that he could look into my eyes. “I know what you need. I can feel it. If you feed from me you won’t be so weak.” He smiled, and his blue eyes darkened. “It’s okay,” he repeated. “I want you to.”
“Heath, you’ve been through way too much. Who knows how much blood you’ve already lost? My drinking more of it isn’t a good idea.” I was saying no, but my voice trembled with desire.
“Are you kidding? A big, studly football jock like me? I got plenty of blood to spare,” Heath teased. Then his expression turned serious. “For you, I have anything to spare.” While he looked into my eyes, he wiped one of his fingers down the damp red slash on his cheek and the rubbed the blood on his bottom lip. Then he bent and kissed me.
I tasted the dark sweetness of his blood and it dissolved in my mouth to send a surge of fiery pleasure and energy through my body. Heath pulled his lips from mine and guided me to the cut on his cheek. When my tongue snaked out and touched it, he moaned and pressed my hips closer to his. I closed my eyes and began to lick—
“Kill me!” Stevie Rae’s broken voice shattered the spell of Heath’s blood.
CHAPTER THIRTY
My face flamed with embarrassment as I pushed myself out of Heath’s arms, wiping my mouth and breathing hard. Stevie Rae was standing down the tunnel just a few yards from us. Tears still rained down her cheeks and her face was twisted in despair.
“Kill me,” she repeated on a sob.
“No.” I shook my head and took a step toward her, but she backed away from me, putting up her hand as if she wanted to hold me off. I stopped and gulped some deep breaths, trying to get myself under control. “Come
back to the House of Night with me. We’ll figure out how this happened. It’ll be okay, Stevie Rae, I promise. All that matters is that you’re alive.”
Stevie Rae had started shaking her head as I’d begun talking. “I’m not really alive, and I can’t go back there.”
“Of course you’re alive. You’re walking and talking.”
“I’m not me anymore. I did die, and part of me—the best part of me—is still dead, just like it is for the rest of them.” She gestured back at the cave-in.
“You’re not like they are,” I said firmly.
“I’m more like them than I am like you.” Her gaze shifted from me to Heath, who was standing quietly beside me. “You wouldn’t believe the awful things that go through my mind. I could kill him without a second thought. I would have already if his blood hadn’t been changed by the Imprint with you.”
“Maybe it wasn’t just that, Stevie Rae. Maybe you didn’t kill him because you really didn’t want to,” I said.
Her eyes found mine again. “No. I wanted to kill him. I still do.”
“The rest of them killed Brad and Chris,” Heath said. “And that was my fault.”
“Heath, now’s not the time—” I started, but he cut me off.
“No, you need to hear this, Zoey. Those things grabbed Brad and Chris because they were hanging around the House of Night, and that’s my fault because I’d told them how hot you are.” He gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Zo.” Then his expression hardened and he said, “You should kill her. You should kill them all. As long as they’re alive people will be in danger.”
“He’s right,” Stevie Rae said.
“And how will killing you and the rest of them solve this? Won’t more of you happen?” I made my mind up and closed the space between Stevie Rae and me. She looked like she wanted to take off, but my words stopped her. “How did this happen? What made you like this?”
Her face contorted with anguish. “I don’t know how. I only know who.”
“Then who did this?”
She opened her mouth to answer me and then, with a movement so fast her body blurred, she was suddenly cowering against the side of the tunnel.
“She’s coming!”
“What? Who?” I crouched beside her.
“Get out of here! Fast. There’s probably still time for you to get away.” Then Stevie Rae reached out and took my hand in hers. Her flesh was cold, but her grip was strong. “She’ll kill you if she sees you—you and him. You know too much. She may kill you anyway, but it’ll be harder for her to do if you get back to the House of Night.”
“Who are you talking about, Stevie Rae?”
“Neferet.”
The name blasted through me and even as I shook my head in denial I felt the truth of it deep within me. “Neferet did this to you, to all of you?”
“Yes. Now get out of here, Zoey!”
I could feel her terror and I knew she was right. If Heath and I didn’t leave, we would die.
“I’m not giving up on you, Stevie Rae. Use your element. You still have a connection with the earth, I can feel it. So use your element to stay strong. I’ll come back for you, and somehow we’ll figure this out—we’ll make this okay. I promise.” Then I hugged her hard, and after only a little hesitation, she hugged me back.
“Let’s go, Heath.” I grabbed his hand so I could guide him quickly down the darkness of the tunnel. The light in my palm had gone out when I’d called earth to me, and no way was I going to take a chance on relighting it. It might guide her to us. As we ran down the tunnel I heard Stevie Rae’s whispered “Please don’t forget me . . .” follow us.
Heath and I ran. The surge of energy his blood had given me didn’t last long, and by the time we came to the metal ladder that led up to the grate in the basement, I wanted to collapse and sleep for days. Heath was all for rushing up the ladder and into the basement, but I made him wait. Breathing heavily, I leaned against the side of the tunnel and fished my cell phone out of my pants pocket, along with Detective Marx’s card. I flipped open the phone and I swear my heart didn’t beat until the bars started to light up green.
“Can ya hear me now?” Heath said, grinning at me.
“Sssh!” I told him, but smiled back. Then I punched in the detective’s number.
“This is Marx,” the deep voice answered on the second ring.
“Detective Marx, this is Zoey Redbird. I only have a second to talk, then I have to go. I’ve found Heath Luck. We’re in the basement of the Tulsa Depot, and we need help.”
“Hang tight. I’ll be right there!”
A noise from above made me cut off the connection and switch the phone off. I pressed my finger to my lips when Heath started to speak. Heath put his arm around me, and we tried not to breathe. Then I heard the coo-coo of a pigeon and the fluttering of wings.
“I think it’s just a bird,” Heath whispered. “I’m going to go look.”
I was too tired to argue with him, plus Marx was on his way and I was sick of the damp, nasty tunnel. “Be careful,” I whispered back.
Heath nodded and squeezed my shoulder, then climbed up the ladder. Slowly and carefully he lifted the metal grate, sticking his head up and peering around. Pretty soon he reached down and motioned for me to climb up and take his hand. “It’s just a pigeon. Come on.”
Wearily, I climbed to him and let him pull me up into the basement. We sat in the corner by the grate for several long minutes, listening intently. Finally, I whispered, “Let’s go outside and wait for Marx there.” Heath had already started to shiver, but I remembered the blanket Aphrodite had made me bring. Plus, I’d rather take my chances with the weather than stay in the creepy basement.
“I hate it in here, too. It’s like a damn tomb,” Heath said softly between chattering teeth.
Hand in hand, we walked across the basement, passing through the slatted grayish light that reflected down from the world above. We were at the iron door when I heard the distant wail of a police siren. The terrible tension in my body had just begun to relax when Neferet’s voice came from the shadows.
“I should have known you would be here.”
Heath’s body jerked in surprise and my hand tightened in warning on his. As I turned to face her, I was centering myself and could feel the power of the elements beginning to shimmer in the air around me. I drew a deep breath and carefully blanked my mind.
“Oh, Neferet! I’m so glad to see you!” I squeezed Heath’s hand one more time before I let go of him, trying to telegraph play along with whatever I say through touch. Then I ran, sobbing, into the High Priestess’s arms. “How did you find me? Did Detective Marx call you?”
I could see indecision in her eyes as Neferet smoothly disentangled herself from my arms. “Detective Marx?”
“Yeah.” I sniffed and wiped my nose on my sleeve, forcing myself to beam relief and trust to her. “That’s him coming right now.” The sound of the siren was very close, and I could hear that it had been joined by at least two other cars. “Thank you for finding me!” I gushed. “It was so terrible. I thought that crazy street person was going to kill both of us.” I moved back to Heath’s side and took his hand again. He was staring at Neferet, looking a lot like he was in shock. I realized that he was probably remembering pieces of the only other time he’d seen the High Priestess—the night the vampyre ghosts had almost killed him—and imagined his mind was too freaked out for Neferet to make much sense of what was going on inside his head. Good thing, too.
Then car doors were slamming and heavy feet were crunching through the snow.
“Zoey, Heath . . .” Neferet moved swiftly to us. She lifted her hands, which glowed with a weird, reddish light, suddenly reminding me of the undead things’ eyes. Before I could run or scream or even take a breath, she grabbed our shoulders. I felt Heath go rigid as pain shot through my body. It blasted against my mind and my knees would have buckled had her hand not been like a vise, holding me up. “You will remember nothing!”
The words echoed through my agony-filled mind, and then there was only darkness.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I was in a beautiful meadow that was in the middle of what looked like a dense forest. A warm, soft breeze was blowing the scent of lilacs to me. A stream ran through the meadow, its crystal water bubbled musically over smooth stones.
“Zoey? Can you hear me, Zoey?” An insistent male voice intruded on my dream.
I frowned and tried to ignore him. I didn’t want to wake up, but my spirit stirred. I needed to wake up. I needed to remember. She needed me to remember.
But who was she?
“Zoey . . .” This time the voice was inside my dream and I could see my name painted against the blue of the spring sky. The voice was a woman’s . . . familiar . . . magical . . . wondrous. “Zoey . . .”
I looked around the clearing and found the Goddess sitting on the other side of the stream, gracefully perched on a smooth Oklahoma sandstone rock with her bare feet playing in the water.
“Nyx!” I cried. “Am I dead?” My words shimmered around me.
The Goddess smiled. “Will you ask that of me each time I visit you, Zoey Redbird?”
“No, I’m, uh, sorry.” My words were tinged pink, probably blushing like my cheeks.
“Don’t be sorry, my daughter. You have done very well. I am pleased with you. Now, it is time you awakened. And also I wish to remind you that the elements can restore as well as destroy.”
I started to thank her, even though I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but the shaking of my shoulder and a sudden blast of cold air interrupted me. I opened my eyes.
Snow swirled all around me. Detective Marx was bending over me, shaking my shoulder. Through the weird fog in my mind I found one word. “Heath?” I croaked.
Marx jerked his chin to his right and I tilted my head to see Heath’s still body being loaded into an ambulance.
“Is he . . .” I couldn’t finish.
“He’s fine, just banged up. He’s lost a lot of blood and they’ve already given him something for the pain.”
