P.C. Cast - Hunted

The door to the outside was wrenched open, letting in the murky light of a stormy afternoon and a blast of frigid air. Erik whirled, pushing me behind him. I felt a heart-thundering rush of pure fear.

“Get below! Get Darius!” Erik shouted as he moved forward to face the figure silhouetted against the gray upper world.

I had started to run back to the basement ladder when Heath’s voice stopped me.

“Hey, is that you, Zo?”

“Heath!” I hurried toward him, practically shouting my relief that it was him and not a terrifying Raven Mocker or worse, an ancient immortal with eyes like the night sky and a voice like a forbidden secret.

“Heath?” Erik didn’t sound nearly as pleased. He grabbed my arm so I couldn’t run past him. He frowned, still managing to stay protectively in front of me. “You mean your human boyfriend?”

“ Ex -boyfriend,” Heath and I said at the same time.

“Hey, aren’t you that Erik guy? Zo’s fledgling ex-boyfriend?” Heath said. He ignored the three stairs that emptied into the basement and jumped lightly down, looking every inch (and I do mean at least six feet tall with kinda curly, sandy, blond-brown hair and the cutest eyes and guy dimples you have every seen) the star quarterback he was. Yes, I’ll admit it freely, my high school boyfriend was a cliché, but at least he was an adorable one.

“Boyfriend.” Erik’s voice was flint. “Not ex. Just like vampyre, not fledgling.”

“Oh. I’d say congrats on the makeup with Zo and on not drowning in your own blood, but that would pretty much be bullshit ’cause I wouldn’t mean it. Know what I mean, dude?” He talked as he walked around Erik to snag my wrist, but before he could pull me into a big hug he glanced down and saw the new tattoos covering my palms. “Whoa! Now that is majorly cool! So, your goddess is still takin’ care of you?”

“Yeah, she is,” I said.

“I’m glad,” he said and pulled me into the hug I’d been expecting. “Damn, I’ve been worried about you!” Then he held me at arm’s length and checked me out. “You all in once piece?”

“I’m fine,” I said, a little breathlessly. I mean, last time I’d seen Heath he’d been breaking up with me. Plus, I could smell him when he hugged me and he smelled amazing. Like home mixed with my childhood mixed with something that was delicious and exciting and was calling to me from everywhere his skin touched mine. I knew what was calling me—his blood. And that messed with more than my head.

“Excellent.” Heath let go of my wrist and I took a quick little half step away from him and toward Erik. I saw a flash of pain go through Heath’s eyes, but it was only there for a second before he grinned nonchalantly and shrugged like the hug hadn’t been a big deal because he and I were just friends now. “Yeah, well, I figured you were okay. I mean, I thought even though that blood thing between us broke, I’d still know if something bad happened to you.” He’d said the words “blood thing” with a sexy emphasis that had Erik stirring beside me. “But I needed to see for myself. Plus, I wanted to ask what-the-fuck about the weird call last night?”

“Call?” Erik said. His eyes were guarded when he looked at me.

“Yes, call.” I lifted my chin. Erik might be my boyfriend again, but no way was I going to put up with his being all possessive and insanely jealous. The thought flitted through my mind that maybe Erik wouldn’t ever be able to really trust me after what had happened between us, and I’d have to put up with some obsessive jealousy. I’d kinda earned it. But I said in a cool voice, “I called Heath to warn him about the Raven Mockers and tell him to get his family to safety. He and I aren’t together, but that doesn’t mean I want anything bad to happen to him.”

“Raven Mockers?” Heath asked.

“What’s going on out there?” Erik asked, his voice all business.

“Goin’ on? What do ya mean? Like the major storm that’s been goin’ on since about midnight, and has turned into a mess of ice, or the gang bullshit that happened? And what’re Raven Mockers?”

“Gang bullshit? What do you mean by that?” Erik snapped.

“No. I’m not sayin’ shit till you answer my question.”

“Raven Mockers are demonlike creatures from Cherokee legend,” I answered. “Up until about midnight last night, they were only evil spirits, but all that changed when their daddy, an immortal named Kalona, broke free from his prison inside the earth, and is now making his new address the Tulsa House of Night.”

“You really think it’s a good idea to tell him all that?” Erik said.

“Hey, why don’t you let Zoey decide what she wants to tell me and what she doesn’t want to tell me?” Heath puffed up like he was dying to take a swing at Erik.

Erik puffed right back at him. “You’re a human, ” he said the word like it was an STD. “You can’t handle the same things we can handle. Try remembering that I had to help save your stupid human ass from a bunch of vamp ghosts just a couple months ago.”

“Zoey saved me, not you! And I’ve been handling Zoey for about a zillion years longer than you’ve even known her.”

“Yeah? How often has your stupid human ass put her in danger since she’s been Marked?”

That unpuffed Heath. “Look, I’m not putting her in danger by coming here. I just wanted to be sure she was okay. I tried to call a couple of times, but cell service is messed up.”

“Heath, it’s not me being in danger by you being here that I’m worried about. It’s you being in danger,” I said, giving Erik a hard you-should-shut-up-now look.

“Yeah, I already know about those nasty fledgling kids who tried to chomp on me last time we were here. I don’t remember real well everything that happened, but I remembered enough to bring this.” He reached into the pocket of his camo Carhartt and came out with a dangerous-looking black, snubbed-nose gun. “It’s my dad’s,” he said proudly. “I even have extra clips of ammo with me. I figured if they tried to eat me again, I could shoot whatever you couldn’t zap.”

“Heath, do not tell me you’re carrying a loaded gun in your pocket,” I said.

“Zo, I have the safety on and the first bullet in the clip is empty. I’m not a total moron.”

Erik snorted sarcastically. Heath narrowed his eyes at him.

I spoke quickly into the testosterone-filled air before they started banging on their chests. “The fledglings don’t eat people anymore, Heath, so you’re not going to have to shoot anyone. When I said I was worried about you being safe, I meant because of the Raven Mockers.”

“And she answered your question. Now what’s this about gang stuff going on?”

Heath shrugged. “It’s all over the news. ’Course, the electricity keeps going out and the stupid cable has been knocked out all day, along with the cell service being sucky. But they say that some gang went nuts last night about midnight, some kind of New Year’s initiation thing. Chera Kimiko on Fox News called it a bloodbath. Cops were late in responding ’cause of the storm. Some people were killed in midtown, which is freaking everyone ’cause midtown isn’t exactly gang central, so a bunch of rich white folks have lost their minds. Last time I watched the news they were yelling about calling in the National Guard, even though the cops are saying everything is under control.” He paused and I could practically see the wheels in his head turning. “Hey, midtown! That’s where the House of Night is.” Heath looked from me to Erik and then back to me. “So it wasn’t gang bullshit. It was those raven thingies.”