Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(20)

“You will not stop her. She’s been crying since the plane circled Tulsa to land.” Rephaim pulled me into a quick hug, kissing me on top of my head (which reminded me of just how tall he was).

I hugged him back and then met my BFF’s liquid gaze. “You’ve been bawling since then? What’s going on with you?”

She sniffled and wiped at her cheeks, trying to smile through her tears. “I just—I just, m-miss home.”

“Awww, come here.” I opened my arms again and, sobbing like someone had taken her favorite cowboy boots (which wasn’t true because she was wearing them), she clung to me. “Hey, if you’re that homesick we can talk about bringing you back here. Stevie Rae, I didn’t mean for you to be miserable up there in the north.”

“What about me? I’m semimiserable in the east. New York City has been in the deep freeze since mid-November. I’m so over it.” Damien spoke as he entered the Council Chamber, holding out his arms and grinning at me.

“Damien!” Stevie Rae and I said together.

“Group hug!” she said, and we shifted so that Damien could join our hug fest.

“Me, too! Me, too!” Shaylin rushed into the chamber, clapping her hands, with Nicole close on her heals.

“Oh, no, no, no. No one’s group hugging without fire!” Shaunee blazed into the room.

“And me. Unless my star power is too much for you guys to handle.”

“Erik!” I grinned happily as Erik Night made his grand entrance—last, of course. “OMG, is it really you, Dracula?” I gushed in my best tween-boy-band-concert voice. Erik was the current megastar of a new Joss Whedon–directed cable series called Fantasyworld—a fantastic addition to the insanely popular Westworld and Futureworld series. He plays, of course, Dracula. A super-sexy robot version of Dracula—complete with seminude sex scenes realistic enough to make me blush. They filmed the series in NOLA, and Joss was so awesome that he kept a private jet on standby for when Erik was called to fulfill his Tracker duties—which is why he could be a megasuperstar.

Stevie Rae, Shaylin, and Damien all followed my lead. They began swooning dramatically and begging “Dracula” for his autograph.

“And could I have a little ol’ lock of your hair? I’m making an Erik Night doll for my Erik Night shrine. Not that that’s creepy at all,” Stevie Rae said, giggling through her tears.

“I want to have your babies!” Damien gushed.

“I can hardly speak. Your handsomeness has done me in.” Shaylin fanned herself.

Erik frowned. “Okay, Shaylin just jumped the shark. She doesn’t even bat for my team.”

“Nope, she’s totally on my team.” Nicole made kiss noises at her Consort.

“Jumped the shark?” Stevie Rae asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Damien said.

“Is this better?” Shaylin put the back of her hand against her forehead and launched into a fairly good imitation of Scarlet from Gone with the Wind. “Your virility has changed me. I shall nevah eat pussy again!”

“I hate that movie,” I said. “It goes on, like, forever.”

“And it’s racist,” Shaunee added.

“Everything back then was racist,” Damien said, sotto voce.

“Please don’t use that word. It makes you sound like a peasant.” Aphrodite walked slowly into the room, holding on to Darius’ arm.

“Racist?” Damien said.

“Pussy,” Aphrodite said.

“Ohmygoodness. Your eyes.” Stevie Rae went to Aphrodite and touched her face gently. “You just had a vision. Are you okay?”

“I will be. And it’s good to see you, too.”

“Wait, that’s why the surprise was foiled?” Damien said. “Aphrodite had a vision.” His eyes met mine. “And it’s bad enough that we all needed to get here right away.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“On the good-bad scale, with there being for-real unicorns discovered as good, and Kenny Chesney permanently losing his voice as bad—how bad is it?” Stevie Rae asked.

“It’s Kenny-Chesney-was-never-born, off-the-scale bad.” Stark said.

“We all need to sit down,” I said as Lenobia and Kramisha entered the room with the Poet Laureate closing the Council Chamber door firmly behind them.

“Ah, hell,” Stevie Rae whispered, sounding disconcertingly like me.





7


Zoey


“Okay, so you guys all have copies of the poem Kramisha brought to me just as I was waking up from the Kalona dream.” I’d quickly explained the dream to everyone while Kramisha passed out copies of her prophetic poem.

“I think we all also need copies of Neferet’s journal,” Lenobia said. She was officially part of our school’s High Council and not the North American Council, but we all respected her wisdom—so she was always invited to our meetings. “Let us read it carefully. Kalona has a point. If we have to fight Neferet again, knowledge will be our second greatest power.”

“Second greatest?” Stark asked.

Lenobia smiled seraphically. “Why, Stark, I’m surprised you have to ask.” Her distinctive gray eyes found mine. “Zoey Redbird, what is our greatest power?”