Loved (House of Night Other World #1)(91)

On their heels was a gorgeous black girl whose blue tattoo was two phoenixes rising from flames. “Yeah, but that’s nothing compared to this kid’s red vamp friends. Erik’s with them. They won’t even leave their room. Um, could I have a cookie?” she said as everyone slid around to make room for the three of them and Zo made more introductions.

“Kevin, this is Damien—his affinity is for air. And Other Jack. He’s from your world. In this world he and Damien were together, and then our Jack was killed.”

“But now I have him back.” The Damien vampyre looked at Jack with so much love that it seemed an intrusion to watch.

“And I have him back,” Jack said, putting his head on Damien’s shoulder.

“Yeah, and this is Shaunee. Her affinity is for—”

“Fire, I bet,” Kevin said.

“Smart and handsome. I already like him,” said Shaunee.

“Guys, this is my brother, Other Kevin.”

“Hi,” Kev said. “So, it’s still bad with Marc and Dave?”

“Real bad,” said the fire vampyre. “Got any words of wisdom that might help us help them?”

Kevin looked down. He was so damn torn. On one hand he was amazingly, incredibly happy that his sister was alive. On the other was the past, and the men downstairs who might never be able to get over it.

“I wish I did,” he said slowly. “Time. And support. Talk to them, like Zo’s been talking to me.” He glanced up, smiling sadly at his sister. “Like I’m normal. Like I’m not a monster.”

“You’re not!” Zo exclaimed, sounding so big-sister protective that it made Kevin find his smile again.

“I’m not now, but my past isn’t pretty. And their past is even uglier.”

“We’ll help ’em get through it,” said the cute blond. “A few of us have some real ugly skeletons in our closets, too.”

“Your world isn’t the only one with monsters,” said the guy named Rephaim.

There was a long silence that had Kevin popping his knuckles nervously. Zo saved him by saying, “Um, guys, we just realized that in his world, he’s their me.”

And everyone stared at him again.

Kevin sighed.

Finally, the blue vampyre named Damien spoke. “Okay, I’ll say it because it looks like no one else will. If Other Kevin is his world’s Zoey, what is he doing here?”

“I came through the thing. You know, the bloody thing in the park. Like the rest of them did. Like Jack did,” Kevin said.

“It is nice to meet you.” Jack offered Kevin his hand, which he took. “How are you doing?”

“Fine. Good,” Kevin tried not to fidget as everyone gaped at him. He looked more closely at his world’s Jack. “I don’t think I know you.”

Jack moved his shoulders nervously. “Um, I kinda know who you are because you’re an officer, but you wouldn’t have known me. I, uh, avoided your kind as much as I could.”

“Wait, you kept your humanity, too?” Kevin leaned forward eagerly.

“Not really. I wasn’t Marked long ago. I could feel my humanity leaving me, but I’ve never been good at sports or fighting or boy stuff in general, so no one paid me any attention. I just kept to myself as much as possible, which was actually pretty much.”

“You were alone? All the time?” Damien looked heartbroken.

Jack turned to Damien. “Yeah. It was safer alone. I hoped when I made the Change and couldn’t think anymore that I would just forget everything and everyone from my real life. That’s the only way I could stand it.”

“It’s okay now. Everything is okay now. You’re home. You’ll never be lonely again.” Damien smoothed back his hair and kissed him gently, which gave Kevin a little start of surprise. That was the first time he’d witnessed a guy kiss a guy. He decided it was a little weird, but kinda nice, too. They seemed to love each other a lot.

Then Kevin processed what Damien had actually said. “Wait, go back to what you were saying. You asked what I was doing here, but you already knew the answer, didn’t you? So, I must be misunderstanding the question.”

Damien didn’t answer. He looked at Zo instead. “I think you should tell him.”

He watched his sister draw a long breath. He could see that she was picking at her fingers, which meant something was bothering her. So, he braced himself for bad news.

He should’ve braced himself for really bad news.

“This is going to sound stuck up,” Zo began, but Damien interrupted.

“Actually, narcissistic is a better way to put it than stuck up.” He paused and looked at his friends, who were all—even G-ma—frowning at him. “I didn’t mean Zoey is actually narcissistic, just that what she’s going to say will appear to be that.” Damien sighed. “Never mind. Carry on, Z.”

“Anyway,” Zo started again. “What they want me to tell you is that I’m the reason we defeated Neferet. It’s not that I did it on my own, but like Nyx said when I was Marked,” then she quoted almost exactly what Nyx had said to him, too, when he’d made the Change. “My power is in the uniqueness of my combined blood of ancient Wise Women and Elders, as well as insight and understanding of the modern world. She said that I would be her eyes and ears in a world that is struggling to find the balance between good and evil. Then she said,” Zo pointed at the words tattooed around his bicep, “Darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.”