P.C. Cast - Tempted

“Then call them to you. You should go with them,” he said.

Stevie Rae concentrated, waved her hand, and the small crack in the far end of the ceiling of their hiding place trembled and then got bigger. Stevie Rae pressed herself back against the raw ground. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and called: “Lenobia! Erik! I’m down here!”

Quickly she leaned over, laying her palms against the earth on either side of Rephaim. “Hide him for me, earth. Don’t let him be discovered.” Then she pushed, and like the swirling of water down a drain, the dirt behind him rippled backward, leaving a Raven Mocker— sized cubbyhole, into which he reluctantly crawled.

“Stevie Rae?” Lenobia’s voice came from above them near the crack.

“Yeah, I’m here, but I can’t come out unless you can cover this part of the ground with a tent or somethin’.”

“We’ll take care of that. You just stay down there where you’re safe.”

“Are you okay? Do we need to get something for you?” Erik’s voice asked.

Stevie Rae figured the “something” Erik was asking about was really a bag or ten of blood from the fridge in the tunnels, and no way did she want him going down there.

“No! I’m fine. Just get somethin’ to cover me from the sun.”

“No problem. We’ll be back in a sec,” Erik said.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere,” she called back to them. Then she turned to Rephaim. “What about you?”

“I stay here, hidden in this corner. If you don’t tell them I’m here, they will not know.”

She shook her head. “I don’t mean now. Of course I’m not tellin’ ’em you’re down here. But where are you gonna go?”

“Not back into those tunnels,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s definitely not a good idea. Okay, let me think. Once Lenobia and Erik are out of here, you can get away real easy right now. The red fledglings can’t come out after you in the daytime, and it’s super-early, so most people will still be asleep.” She considered his options. She wanted to keep him close, and not just because she figured she’d have to help him get food, and those bandages were nasty dirty, so his wounds would definitely need doctoring. Stevie Rae was also aware that she needed to keep a check on him. He would get better, and become stronger, like he used to be. Then what would he do?

And there was the little fact that she’d Imprinted with him, which meant it was uncomfortable to think about him being very far from her. Strange that she hadn’t felt that with Aphrodite…

“Stevie Rae, I can hear them returning,” Rephaim said. “Where should I go?”

“Ah, crap… um… well, you need someplace close but hidable for you. And it wouldn’t hurt if it had a creepy reputation so people would stay out, or at least wouldn’t think it wasn’t unusual if you went bump in the night.” Then her eyes widened and she grinned at him. “I got it! After Halloween, Z and the gang and I went on a ghost tour of Tulsa. It was in one of those cool old-time trolleys.”

“Stevie Rae! You still okay down there?” Erik’s voice called from above.

“Yeah, fine,” she yelled back.

“We’re putting up something like a tent over this crack and around the tree. Will that be good enough to get you out?”

“You just get a space covered for me. I can take care of the getting-out part.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know when we’re ready,” he said.

Stevie Rae turned back to Rephaim. “So here’s my point. The last trolley stop was at the Gilcrease Museum. It’s in north Tulsa. There’s a big ol’ house smack in the middle of it that’s totally unoccupied. They keep talking about renovating it, but they haven’t got the money together. You can hide there.”

“Won’t people see me?”

“Heck no! Not if you stay in the house during the day. It’s a mess—all boarded up and locked so tourists don’t stumble into it. And here’s the best part—it’s super-haunted! That’s why it was on the ghost tour. Apparently Mr. Gilcrease, his second wife, and even ghost kids hang out there regularly, so if someone sees or hears something weird—meaning you—they’ll freak and think it’s just more ghost stuff.”

“Spirits of the dead.”

Stevie Rae raised her brows. “You’re not scared of them, are you?”

“No. I understand them too well. I existed as a spirit for centuries.”

“Dang, I’m sorry. I forgot about—”

“Okay, Stevie Rae! We’re ready for you up here,” Lenobia called.

“’Kay, I’ll be right up. Stand back, though, so you don’t fall down here when I make the crack bigger.” She stood up and moved closer to the crack in the ground above them, which was no longer letting in much light. “I’ll get them out of here right away. Then you get yourself over the railroad tracks. You’ll see highway 244 east—follow it. It turns into OK 51. Go north until you see the Gilcrease Museum exit sign—it’s on your right. Then just follow that road and you’ll run smack into the museum. The hardest part will be over then, ’cause there’re lots of trees and stuff to hide in on that road. It’s the highway you’re gonna have trouble with. Just move as fast as you can and stay off to the side and in the ditch. If you hunker down anyone who gets a glimpse of you might think you’re just a giant bird.”

Rephaim made a disgusted sound, which Stevie Rae ignored. “The house is in the middle of the museum grounds. Hide there and I’ll bring food and stuff to you tomorrow night.”

He hesitated and then said, “It isn’t wise for you to see me again.”

“None of this has been very smart, if you get right down to it,” she said.

“Then I will probably see you tomorrow, as neither of us seems able to be smart where the other is concerned.”

“Well, then, bye until tomorrow.”

“Stay safe,” he said. “If you don’t, I–I believe I would, perhaps, feel your loss.” He hesitated over the words, like he didn’t quite know how to say them.

“Yeah, same right back at ya,” she said. Before she raised her arms to open the earth, she added, “Thank you for saving my life. Your debt is totally paid in full.”

“Odd how it doesn’t feel like I’m free of it,” he said softly.

“Yeah,” said Stevie Rae. “I know what you mean.”

And then, while Rephaim crouched within the earth, Stevie Rae called on her element, opened the ceiling of their chamber, and let Lenobia and Erik pull her free.

No one thought to look behind her. No one suspected. And no one saw a creature, half raven, half man, limping to the Gilcrease Museum to hide himself among the spirits of the past.

Zoey

“Stevie Rae! Are you really okay?” I gripped the cell phone, wishing I could beam myself to Tulsa and actually see with my own eyes that my BFF was alive and well.

“Z! You sound so worried. Don’t be! I’m okay. Promise. It was all a big, stupid accident. Goddess, I’m such a dork.”

“What happened?”

“Well, I was late leavin’ the House of Night. I’m so stupid. I should have just stayed there and waited till tomorrow to come back to the tunnels. But I went anyway. And then, get this—I thought I heard someone up on the roof! So I rushed up there ’cause it was almost dawn and I thought some red fledgling kid might be trapped. Goddess, I need to have my ears checked. It was a cat. A great big, fat, calico cat yowling on the roof. I started to leave and, like the totally uncoordinated noncheerleader type I am, I fell and bonked my head so hard I passed out. You would not believe all the blood. Totally scary.”

“You knocked yourself out on the roof? Right before dawn?” I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her.