Hunted (6 page)

“Let's get it straight right now that I'm not sharin' my bed with no one,” Kramisha said, weaving her head around and looking bored and pissed off at the same time.

“Kramisha, I told you about a zillion times, don't make an issue outta somethin' that isn't one,” Stevie Rae said.

“I just want to be clear about myself,” Kramisha said.

“Fine. You're clear.” Stevie Rae paused and looked up at me expectantly. “Okay, that's my group.”

“And these are the extent of the red fledglings?” Darius asked before I could launch into my introductions.

Stevie Rae chewed the inside of her cheek and didn't meet Darius's eyes. “Yeah, these are all of my red fledglings.”

Ah oh, that's her I'm-not-telling-the-whole-truth look
. I knew it,
but when she met my eyes, hers so clearly begged me not to say anything that I decided to keep my mouth shut and get the whole story when we weren't the focus of everybody's attention.

But me putting off questioning Stevie Rae didn't put off the
feeling
that had come back, alarm bells ringing inside my head, loud and clear, at her evasion. There was definitely something going on with the red fledglings, and I didn't think that something was going to be good.

I cleared my throat. “Well, I'm Zoey Redbird.” I tried to sound polite and normal in a situation that didn't feel either.

“I've told y'all about Zoey. She has an affinity for all five elements, and it's through her powers that I was able to Change and we were all given our humanity back,” Stevie Rae said. I noticed she was looking directly at Venus.

“Well, it wasn't just through me that happened. My friends had a lot to do with it, too.” I nodded at Aphrodite, who was still drinking directly from the bottle of wine. “You guys obviously know Aphrodite. She's a human now, but let's just say she's not normal,” I said, completely avoiding the subject of her fresh Imprint with Stevie Rae.

Aphrodite snorted, but didn't say anything.

“This is Erin and Shaunee, the Twins. Erin has an affinity for water, Shaunee's affinity is fire.” The Twins nodded and said hi.

“Damien and Jack are a couple,” I said. “Damien's affinity is air. Jack is our audiovisual guy.”

“Hi,” Damien said.

“Hey there,” Jack said. He lifted the bag he was still carrying. “I made sandwiches. Anyone hungry?”

“Can someone explain why that dog's in here?” Venus said, totally ignoring Jack's friendly overture.

“She's here 'cause she's mine,” Jack said. “She stays with me.” He reached down and petted Duchess's soft ears.

“Duchess stays with Jack,” I said firmly, giving Venus a hard look and thinking that I could happily strangle her with Duchess's leash before I continued with the intros. “And this is Erik Night.”

“I remember you from drama class,” Shannoncompton said, her cheeks turning pink. “You're really famous.”

“Hi, Shannon.” Erik smiled easily at her. “Nice to see you again.”

“I remember you, too. You were with Aphrodite,” Venus said.

“Not anymore,” Aphrodite said quickly, giving Darius
a look
.

“Obviously. You're not a fledgling anymore,” Venus said in a silky voice that sounded way too interested. “When did you Change?”

“Just a few days ago,” he said. “I was on my way to the European acting academy when Shekinah asked that I take Professor Nolan's place temporarily at the House of Night.”

“Wow, I knew that High Priestess looked familiar. That was actually Shekinah!” Shannoncompton said. “I saw her just before she started toward that winged guy and—” She stopped talking and picked at her lip worriedly.

“And she was killed by Neferet,” I bluntly finished for her.

“Was she? Do you know that for certain?” Darius asked.

“She's dead and I saw Neferet do it. I think she killed her with her mind,” I said.

“Queen Tsi Sgili,” Damien murmured. “It's true then.”

“I need all of this explained to me,” Darius said curtly.

“And this is our Son of Erebus warrior, Darius,” I said.

“He's right,” Stevie Rae said. “We need what happened tonight explained to us.”

“Not just tonight's happenings,” Darius said. His gaze rested on the group of unusual fledglings. “I need information if I am to protect you. I must know everything that has been going on.”

“Agreed,” I said, glad beyond words that we had an experienced Son of Erebus in our group.

“We could eat and talk,” Jack said. When I looked at him, he gave me a big smile. “It always helps to eat with each other. A meal makes things better.”

“Unless
you're
the meal,” I heard Aphrodite mutter.

“Jack's right,” Stevie Rae said. “Why don't y'all go grab some of the
egg crates we have in the kitchen and some bags of chips and whatnot. Let's eat while we talk.”

“Would the whatnot be more blood?” Venus said.

“Yes, it would,” Stevie Rae said matter-of-factly, clearly not wanting to make a big deal out of the blood issue.

“Fine. I'll go get some more,” Venus said.

“Hey, while you're getting blood, grab me another bottle of wine,” Aphrodite said.

“You know I'm not into charity, so you'll be paying me back,” Venus said.

“I remember,” Aphrodite said. “And you should remember that I pay my debts.”

“Yeah, that's how you used to be, but seems you've made a change,” she said.

“No shit? You mean you just now noticed I turned human?”

“Not what I was talking about. So just replace the wine,” she added before leaving the room.

“Hey, weren't y'all roomies?” Stevie Rae asked Aphrodite.

Aphrodite ignored Stevie Rae and I had the urge to shake her and yell,
Not talking to her or looking at her is not going to break your Imprint with her
.

“Yes, they were,” Erik said into the dead air, reminding me that because he and Aphrodite used to be together, he would know her roommate, maybe too well.

“Yeah, well, things change.” Aphrodite found her voice.

“People change,” I said, pulling my gaze from Erik.

Aphrodite met my eyes. Her lips curled up in a sad, sarcastic smile. “And that is too damn true,” she said.

 

 

 

 

“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 façade crumple like a house of cards.

“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 then went back to her wine.

I made a mental note to keep an eye on her drinking. Okay, yeah, she'd been through a bunch of stress lately, and being bitten—twice—by Stevie Rae and, bizarrely enough, Imprinting with her couldn't be particularly good for her nerves, but the last thing we needed was Vision Girl to turn into Drunk Vision Girl.

Darius nodded thoughtfully. “Kalona is the ancient one, but that doesn't explain what type of being he is.”

“Grandma said that the easiest way to describe him is to think of him as a fallen angel, an immortal being that walked the earth in ancient times. Seems there were a bunch of them that showed up in the mythology of many cultures, like ancient Greece and the Old Testament.”

“Yeah, on vacation from heaven or whatever, they decided women were hot, and so they
mated
with them,” Aphrodite said, slurring her words a little. “Mated—that's an uptight way to say that they fu—”

“Thanks, Aphrodite. I'll take it from there,” I said. I was glad she had stopped her silent pouting, but wasn't so sure that her drunken sarcasm was much better. Wordlessly Damien handed me a sandwich and nodded at Aphrodite. I passed the sandwich to Aphrodite telling her, “Eat something.” Then I took up the thread of the story. “So Kalona started getting with Cherokee women and became bizarrely addicted to sex. The women rejected him and he started raping them and enslaving the men of the tribe. A group of Wise Women called Ghigua made a maiden out of the earth to trap him.”

“Huh?” Stevie Rae said. “You mean like a dirt doll?”

“Yeah, only an attractive one. Each of the women gave the doll a particular gift, then they breathed life into her and named her A-ya. Kalona wanted A-ya, and she ran from him, leading him to a cave deep in the ground. He followed her into the cave, even though he usually avoided anything that was underground, and that's where they managed to trap him.”

“That is why you brought us here, into these tunnels,” Darius said.

I nodded.

“So we are to think of Kalona as a dangerous immortal and the Raven Mockers as his servants. Who is the other creature mentioned in the prophecy and also by Damien, a Queen Tsi Sgili?” Darius said.

“According to Grandma, the Tsi Sgili are really awful Cherokee witches. Don't think cool Wiccans or Priestesses. They're not good at all, but more like demons, really, except that they are mortal and known for their psychic abilities, especially the ability to kill with their minds,” I said. “Neferet is the queen the prophecy was talking about.”

“But Neferet announced to the House of Night that Kalona is Erebus on earth, and her consort, as if she had become the literal incarnation of Nyx,” Darius said slowly, as if he was reasoning through it aloud.

“She's lying. Really, she's turned from Nyx,” I said. “I've known it for a while, but acting openly against her has been pretty close to impossible. I mean, look what happened tonight. Everyone saw Stevie Rae and the red fledglings and they didn't turn on her. Except for
Shekinah, they barely even blinked even after she ordered Stark to shoot.”

“Which is why she got Stark transferred from the Chicago House of Night to Tulsa,” Damien said. When just about everyone gave him confused looks, he explained. “Stark is James Stark, the fledgling who won the gold medal at the Summer Games for archery. Neferet wanted him here so she could use him to shoot Stevie Rae.”