Loved

by P. C. Cast

  “You are staring.”

  “Sorry. Your Mark is really pretty.”

  “I know, right? But you weren’t staring at me with a your-Mark-is-really-pretty stare.”

  “Well, it’s a lot to take in,” I equivocated.

  “Guys, could we get some help downstairs?” Shaylin rushed into the conference room looking wide-eyed and wild-haired. “Those new fledglings are crying. Seriously. I mean, bawling with snot and everything. Damien and Other Jack are trying to comfort them, but they’re super freaked. And by-the-by, their auras are all over the place.”

  “Someone needs to knock them out,” Aphrodite muttered.

  That gave me an idea. “Hey, what if we moved them from the basement to the boy’s dorm. The windows are securely draped and they’d be safe from sunlight, but it’s harder for red fledglings to stay awake if they’re above the ground.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Stark said. “And you’re right.”

  Shaylin smacked herself on the forehead. “Sheesh, I used to be a red fledgling. You’d think I would’ve remembered that.”

  “Okay, I’ll help move them,” Stark said.

  “And be sure they’re safe,” I said. “And I mean even from themselves.”

  “How about assigning one of our fledglings to each of them?” Aphrodite said.

  “I like that. Where’s Lenobia?”

  “In the basement, very awkwardly trying to get a bunch of boys to stop crying,” Shaylin said. “At this moment I’m pretty sure she hates her job.”

  “I’m pretty sure you’re right. So, have Lenobia make a list of students she thinks would be good partners for the new fledglings. Then you guys start pairing them off to the dorm.”

  “Okay, will do!” Shaylin said. Before she disappeared down the hallway, her eyes focused on Aphrodite. “Your Mark freaks me out. It’s beautiful and all, but still. Freaks. Me. Out.”

  “Thank you,” Aphrodite said. Then her eyes brightened and she was on her feet. “There’s my man!” She glanced around the room and rolled her eyes. “Why do we not have a mirror in here?”

  “Uh, it’s a conference room. A student conference room,” Shaunee said.

  “And your point is students don’t want to look good? That’s just ridiculous.” She came to me and peered into my face like I was a mirror. “How do I look?”

  “Well, your Mark is gorgeous.”

  “I know.”

  “And your hair is very cray.”

  “If Erin were here she’d say it looks like a fart,” Shaunee said.

  “No words. I have no words for you and that awful comment,” Aphrodite said to Shaunee.

  While Shaunee cackled, I told Aphrodite the truth. “Hey, stop stressing. Darius is going to think you’re beautiful. Because you are beautiful and because he loves you.”

  “You’re absolutely right. Thanks, Z.”

  Then Darius walked into the room, with a wall of Sons of Erebus Warriors at his back.

  “This is gonna be good,” Shaunee whispered.

  Aphrodite turned. I saw Darius’ face go blank, as if he couldn’t process what he was seeing, and then his eyes widened and his face flushed. He went to Aphrodite and knelt on one knee and bowed his head.

  “Marx said something happened. He said you are why the red fledglings woke and why the red vampyres committed suicide. My beauty, my High Priestess, my Consort, and my love—it is my lifelong honor to be your Oathbound Warrior. Do you accept my pledge?”

  Aphrodite knelt in front of him. She took his face between her hands so that he looked into her eyes. “Always, Darius. Always. I haven’t deserved you. But I give you my oath in return that I’ll work harder to be worthy of you. Now, please stand up and kiss me.”

  Darius did as his High Priestess commanded, and the Warriors behind him cheered.

  “That was super sappy,” Shaunee said under her breath.

  “What Shaunee said.” Stark kissed me quickly. “I’ll go help with the red fledglings. I have my phone with me, but if the cells go out again, be sure you keep radioing in back here. I want constant updates. Okay?”

  “Okay.” I kissed him back. “Thank you. By the way, just in case you even wonder—you are my definition of awesomesauce.”

  He grinned his cocky James Stark smile, tapped the end of my nose with his finger, and whispered, “I love you, too, my Queen.”

  Zoey

  I was beyond frustrated. We’d been searching downtown on a grid, and hadn’t found Kevin or any recent sign of him or any other red vampyres.

  Oh, we’d found where they’d broken into the old Sinclair Building on Boston. They’d eaten some poor homeless people who’d had the bad luck to think they’d found safety from the blizzard, but the red vampyres hadn’t returned. And now it was 5:00 and almost sunset, and I could only think of one thing to do.

  “Let’s return to the House of Night. I’ll get Stark and Stevie Rae and Rephaim, and we’ll come back out and keep searching.”

  “Z, not sure that’s such a good idea. It’s starting to snow again,” Shaunee said.

  “It’d be bad if you got stuck out here in another blizzard. Especially bad as there are red vampyres, probably panicked and dangerous, that are going to emerge from wherever they’re hiding in just a few minutes,” Darius added.

  “I have to keep looking. He’s my brother.” What I didn’t want to admit aloud is what had been circling around and around inside my head all day—that I couldn’t let Other Kevin down. I’d already let one Kevin down. I’d basically abandoned him, leaving him to deal with my step-loser and high school peer pressure by himself.

  “We get it, Z. We just want you to be safe,” Shaunee said.

  “I know. Sorry if I seem short.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I had an awful headache and my eyes were stinging from staring out at sun-drenched snow all day. I needed food and rest, but when I thought about Kevin out there huddled somewhere dark and the pain and fear and confusion he must be going through—well, I had to keep looking. “I appreciate you guys.”

  “We’ll find him.” Darius spoke with a lot more confidence than I felt.

  I stared out at the milky grayness that signaled the beginning of sunset as the SUV crawled its way home. It had started to snow again. Thankfully this time the wind was being still and fat flakes lazily feathered their way to the ground.

  Sometime in the middle of the day, the electricity had gone out across most of midtown, and as we approached the House of Night, it was lit up by flickering gaslight flames, making the campus look as if it had been frozen in the past.

  Stark met us as we walked through the door. He hugged me tightly and I gave myself a moment, resting my cheek against his chest while he wrapped me in his arms, surrounding me in love and warmth.

  “Thanks,” I whispered to him. “I needed that.”

  “Me, too. You okay?”

  “If I said yes would you believe me?”

  “Not for a second.”

  “Well then, let’s get something to eat and talk about our plan for the night.”

  “That sounds like a great idea. I’m starving,” Shaunee said. “And where’s—”

  Erik Night rounded the corner. The instant he saw Shaunee his face lit with his megawatt movie-star smile. He covered the few yards that separated them in two strides and lifted her into his arms, twirling her around.

  I waited, trying not to cringe, for her to zap him with a spark or, at the very least, order him to put her down. Instead, she giggled.

  Giggled.

  “There’s my hotness!” He nuzzled her neck and gave her a mischievous little bite. “Do you know what I’ve been doing all day while you were out gallivanting with Z?”

  “Running lines while you gazed lovingly at yourself in the mirror? Again?” she said impishly.

  “No
, smartass. I’ve been babysitting red fledglings.”

  “Did they not settle down and sleep?” I tried not to stare at the two of them. I mean, they make a gorgeous couple, but I just wasn’t used to Shaunee being all girly about a guy. Or Erik being so infatuated that he didn’t care whether he looked cool or not.

  Erik put Shaunee down. “About half of them did. The other half are touch and go. It was a good idea to pair them with our fledglings, though. That did help. One kid won’t stop crying. At all. Shaylin said his aura is very dark and messed up. I don’t think anyone knows what to do about it.”

  “I do.” Aphrodite emerged from the hallway that led to the Field House. “We give him time. We let him talk. And we get him a dog.” She went to Darius and started to wrap her arms around him before realizing he was covered in fat snowflakes. With a grimace, she brushed the snow from his shoulders, grumbling, “Ugh. Snow. It always reminds me of that awful scene from The Breakfast Club when Ally Sheedy’s Goth character makes that picture with dandruff snow. It scarred me for life.” Then she pulled him to her for a long, lingering kiss.

  “Wait, did you say a dog?” I asked.

  “Yes. I think we need to invest in PTSD service dogs for the new fledglings. The cats don’t want anything to do with them. It’s weird, actually. But they came from another world, so I suppose cats being repulsed by them isn’t really that weird. Anyway, Duchess was downstairs with Damien and Other Jack. She didn’t mind the fledglings at all when they showed up hysterical and dirty. You know—that’s just another difference between dogs and cats, who I think are much better judges of character. Dogs accept practically anyone. Cats are more discerning.”

  “Do not disrespect my dog, Aphrodite,” Stark said.

  “Oh, don’t get your panties in a wad, Bow Boy. I’m just mentioning a difference in the two—I’m not disrespecting. Duchess helped today. A lot. So, let’s get more dogs.”

  “Seems like an easy fix to me. And I like dogs. Let’s contact the Tulsa Humane Society and rescue a bunch of cool dogs for the fledglings. Totally a win-win,” I said. “Do you guys all want to get something to eat and then I’ll check on the new kids before I go back out there and keep looking for Other Kevin?” I glanced around. “Is Damien still downstairs with Other Jack? And where’s Stevie Rae?”

  “Damien and Other Jack were heading to our dining hall. I told him you wouldn’t care if Other Jack joined him because he’s technically dead and not a student here,” Aphrodite said.

  “Morbid, but correct.”

  “And Stevie Rae was helping us with the fledglings, but when it got close to dusk she took off to catch Bird Boy, or whatever it is she does to get him to fly back to her.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “She said she’d meet us in the dining hall with Rephaim. I assume after he exchanges feathers for jeans and a T-shirt.”

  “All righty then,” I smiled at everyone, hoping if my face was happy, my mind would follow. “Who wants psaghetti?”

  Zoey

  I got a major flash of déjà vu when I stepped into the dining hall and saw Damien sitting at our table with Other Jack. The two of them were holding hands; their heads tilted toward one another. Jack whispered something into Damien’s ear and his laughter was like glitter, floating around the room and leaving little pieces of it on all of us.

  “He looks so much better,” Shaunee said.

  “Which one?” Aphrodite said.

  “Both,” Darius said as we walked to our table.

  “Hi guys. Other Jack, it’s really good to see you. I’d ask how you’re feeling, but it’s obvious that you are feeling great.”

  “Merry meet, High Priestess!” Other Jack stood, bowing to me formally.

  “Hey, call me Zoey. You and I are going to be good friends. Again.”

  We slid into our large table and the waitress took our orders. I was surprised when Aphrodite ordered a salad to go with her usual glass (or five) of wine, and even more surprised when it came and she ignored the wine and dug into the food.

  “There you are, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya!” Grandma, whirlwind-like, rushed up to our table. “Might I have a plate of that spaghetti?”

  “Absolutely!” Stark caught the priestess-on-duty’s attention and ordered a plate for Grandma.

  “I didn’t find him, Grandma. But I will. We will. I promise.”

  “The Sons of Erebus will do everything we can to bring him home, on that you have my word, as well, Grandma Redbird,” Darius said solemnly.

  “Oh, you won’t need to,” she said.

  “Huh?”

  Grandma gave me a sly smile and Darius a wink. “I believe Kevin will find you.”

  “Z! Good! You’re back. Rephaim has stuff to tell you.” Stevie Rae and Rephaim rushed to our table. “Hi Grandma! Oooh! Psaghetti! Yum. I’ll take some.”

  “Kalona wasn’t in your dream!” Rephaim said without any preamble.

  “Uh, yeah, he was. I was there. I saw him.”

  “It may have looked like him and sounded like him, but I promise you it was not my father. He swore on his love for Nyx that he did not enter your dream. Furthermore, he told me to relay to you that he gives you his oath that he will never come to you in a dream in a place from your past. It is just as I explained before, Father wants to distance himself from what he once was.”

  “If it wasn’t him, then who the hell was it?” Stark looked as confused and upset as I felt.

  “Father said that you should try to remember anything that might have been off about the dream. He also said it was very odd that the message had to do with Neferet’s journal, as he believes he is the only person who knows about it.”

  I thought back. “It seemed like him. Well, an awkward version of him, but I didn’t think anything of that. I mean, he was showing up in my dream in a place he once stalked me—hence the awkwardness.” I chewed my lip, thinking. “Wait, there were two things a little weird. I mentioned that I liked his white wings better than the black ones, and he seemed shocked.”

  “Shocked that you like ’em?” Stevie Rae asked between bites of spaghetti.

  “No, shocked that they were white. Also, he made a comment that I didn’t think much of then, but now it could be a big deal. I’m paraphrasing, but he said that he was warning me because, unlike Nyx, he’d spent time with all of us and he knew we could handle the worry.”

  I saw Rephaim startle. “Father would not say that. He would not even infer anything negative about Nyx.”

  “Ah, shit. I just had a thought. Could it have been Neferet, pretending to be Kalona?” Aphrodite said.

  “I don’t think that’s possible,” I said.

  “Well, it might be if she has attained the ability to influence the world around her,” Darius said.

  “But it doesn’t make sense that she would warn us about herself,” I said. “And she would never show us her journal.”

  “Seriously, it’s way too personal,” Shaunee said.

  “Yeah, no way. And whoever was pretendin’ to be Kalona was right—we did learn a bunch of stuff about her when we read it,” Stevie Rae said.

  “Then who else has the power to manipulate dreams and has personal knowledge about Neferet?” Grandma asked.

  I thought back, mentally sifting through the horrific memories recorded in Emily Wheiler’s tragic journal—and a sudden coldness began to build and expand in the core of my body.

  “There’s only one entity who has that kind of power and that kind of knowledge—the White Bull,” I said.

  Into the awful silence, Other Jack raised his hand.

  “Honey, you don’t have to raise your hand to say something,” Damien told him.

  “Not even to ask a question?”

  “Not even to ask a question,” I said.

  “Oh, thanks. That’s nice of you. So, um, who’s the White B
ull?”

  “Evil,” Damien said. “The White Bull is pure evil.”

  “That’s bad. Really bad,” said Other Jack.

  “You have no idea.” I pushed my psaghetti away as I felt the puzzle pieces fall into place. “Of course the White Bull’s behind this mess. All that crap about Neferet and bad things coming our way—none of that was true. That dream created all of this—all by simply making us think Neferet was up to something and then letting it avalanche from there.”

  “But why? What does he want?” Other Jack asked.

  “Chaos and death—that’s all the White Bull wants,” Damien said.

  “And that’s exactly what he caused. Again,” I said.

  “Actually, u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, this time that is not all he caused,” Grandma added. “This time he caused Damien and Jack to be reunited, Aphrodite to be healed of her past and Marked as a special kind of vampyre Prophetess, and Kevin, our Other Kevin, to have his humanity returned to him. This time he believed he was causing chaos and working evil, but in truth love and Light shinned through his Darkness.”

  “Which means he’s going to be really pissed that his nefarious plan didn’t work,” said Aphrodite.

  Ah. Hell.

  26

  Zoey

  I’d gone back to my room to wash my face and change my clothes before Stark and I and a bunch of Warriors headed out to keep looking for Kevin when I heard the Warriors who were pulling duty on the wall sound a warning. I rushed from my room and down the hall, meeting Aphrodite and Darius as we surged into the stairway.

  “Do you know what it is?” I asked Darius.

  “No.” He looked grim, and I noticed as we jogged down the stair he was fitting throwing knives into his custom-made vest.

  I mentally crossed my fingers and sent up a silent plea, Nyx, let it be Other Kevin, and don’t let him be too crazy.

  We rushed to the front of the building and were met by a Son of Erebus Warrior and Stark.