Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(75)

Damien forced himself to pull back a little. He was holding Jack against his chest and Grandma Redbird’s rope of turquoise nestled between them—pressed as firmly against Jack as was Damien.

“The turquoise isn’t burning you.” Damien felt breathless and dizzy.

“And I don’t want to bite you!” Jack touched Damien’s cheek. His hand followed a light, caressing path down the side of his neck, where it lingered for a moment, before it slid down to Damien’s chest where it rested, palm pressed against the turquoise beads. “Well,” Jack smiled with shy flirtation. “I may want to bite you, but I don’t mean to hurt you.”

“How could this be?”

“I don’t know. But I am so—”

The door slammed open and Aphrodite rushed into the room. She came to a stop beside the bed. Her Taser was in her hand, raised, and ready to shoot, but her eyes studied Damien and Jack. She lowered it.

“It really did work. Hey, Other Jack. You feeling fine?”

“I feel like myself!”

“Well, good. Excellent, actually.”

“Oh my holy shitfuck what happened to your face?” Damien shouted, almost dropping Jack off the edge of the bed.

One corner of Aphrodite’s mouth lifted. She raised her chin and shook back her uncharacteristically messy hair. “I made the Change. Times two. Oh, and Other Jack’s totally fixed. You are welcome.” And she twitched away.

Damien looked at Jack. Jack looked at Damien.

“Aphrodite is weird in any world,” Other Jack said.

“I have zero trouble believing that.” He pulled Jack into his arms. “Welcome home.”

Their lips met, and they clung to each other as if they were human lifelines. Because that was exactly what they were.



Zoey

“No, Stark, we’re getting you home. The sky is clearing. You know you can’t stay out here in the sunlight.” I turned around and stared out of the front window of the Escalade. “Ignore him and drive, Shaunee.”

“Whatever you say, High Priestess.” Shaunee gave me her version of a salute and pulled out into the snow-covered street while Stark huddled in the back seat, covered with a blanket against the sunlight that had suddenly decided to break through the low-hanging clouds and turn Tulsa into a glistening snow-globe scene. Yeah, it was beautiful. It was also deadly for red vampyres and red fledglings.

“Shaunee, go east down Fifth until you get to Detroit, then take a left. Let’s go up over the overpass and make a loop around the Brady District. They might have found places to hide around Guthrie Green.” Stark’s voice was muffled but insistent.

“Well?” Shaunee cocked a brow at me.

“I’m fine back here, and you need to look for your brother.”

“Without you frying,” I said. “Which is why we’re going back to the House of Night—right after we make that loop around the Brady District and Guthrie Green. But I’m doing the looking. Shaunee is doing the driving. And you keep your head covered.”

“Deal,” Stark said. “Hey, can you think of anywhere your brother would go? Any place that’s special to him downtown?”

“No! I don’t know him that well!” Then I drew a deep breath and started again. “Sorry. I don’t mean to seem so crazy, but I’m—um—I’m pretty freaked out right now.”

“When’s the last time you talked to your brother?” Shaunee asked.

“The day I was Marked. I have a sister, too. Her name’s Barbara, but I like to call her Barbie. She’s a freshman at OSU—majoring in beer, cheerleading, and hot guys. Kevin is a sophomore this year at Broken Arrow. He’s doing okay, but his teachers say his grades aren’t great.”

No one said anything. I sighed again. “What? Just because we don’t talk doesn’t mean I don’t check up on them. Since Mom died I wanted to be sure they were okay. They are. The step-loser adopted Kevin. He didn’t adopt Barbie, but she’s over eighteen, so whatever.”

“You didn’t call them or anything?” Shaunee asked—not unkindly.

“I didn’t know what to say. And the step-loser is a problem. He hated me. Well, hates me. I’m sure it’s a present-tense thing. I didn’t want any of that to rub off on them, plus Barbie has never wanted much to do with me. She was always perfect. She looked way more like Mom than Kev and me.” I paused, thinking about what I really meant. We all had the same bio-dad, but Barbie looked super white—she was even blond without too much help from her colorist at Ihloff Salon. Kevin and I looked like Grandma. We were brown—brown hair, brown eyes, brownish skin. I shrugged. “I thought I was helping them by staying away. And most fledglings and vamps break from their human families. If not when they’re Marked, when they Change.” I squinted out at the uber-bright snowy morning, trying to catch a glimpse of something—anything—that might be Other Kevin.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” Shaunee said. “My family totally has nothing to do with me. When I got Marked they basically dumped me.”

“Mine, too,” Stark said. “Z, we didn’t mean to come down on you. We’re just trying to help.”

“I know, I know. I was just so shocked. Am just so shocked. I mean—Kevin. My annoying little brother who is totally into video games and smells like a teenage boy.”