Awakened (House of Night #8)(63)

"Yeah," I said. Our eyes met.

"Are you going to do something about it?" he said.

My gaze didn't falter one little bit. "Absolutely everything in my power."

He almost smiled. "Well, that's good enough for me." He wiped his face again and ran a hand through his hair. "I was leaving."

"Huh?" I said brilliantly.

"Yeah, going. Leaving the Tulsa House of Night for L.A. They want me there--in Hollywood. I was supposed to be the next Brad Pitt."

"Was?" I asked, totally confused. "What's stopping you?"

Slowly, Erik raised his right hand and held it, palm out, toward me. I blinked several times, not really understanding what I was seeing.

"Yeah, it's what you think," he said.

"It's Nyx's Labyrinth." Of course I recognized the raised sapphire-colored tattoo that filled his palm, but it was like my mind was having a hard time catching up with my eyes, and I wasn't getting it until Aphrodite's voice came from behind me. "Oh, for shit's sake! Erik's a Tracker."

Erik's eyes shifted from me to Aphrodite. "Happy now? Go ahead and laugh. You know this means I can't leave the Tulsa House of Night for four years--that I have to stay here and follow a damn essence and be the ass**le who is there when every kid for the next four years is Marked and finds out he might or might not die, but for sure has to change his life forever."

There was a moment of silence and then Aphrodite said, "Is that what's bothering you? That you're the new Tracker and it's a tough job, or is what's really bothering you that you have to put off Hollywood for four years and in that time there's sure to be `the next Brad Pitt'?" I whirled around and faced her. "He was Jack's roommate! Do you remember what it's like to lose a roommate?" I saw her expression shift and soften, but I just shook my head. "No. You and Darius go on. I'll follow you." When Aphrodite still hesitated I spoke directly to her Warrior. "As your High Priestess I'm commanding you. I want to be alone with Erik. Take Aphrodite and meet me at Jack's pyre."

Darius didn't hesitate for another second. He bowed solemnly to me, then he took Aphrodite by the elbow and literally pulled her away. I sighed deeply and sat down next to Erik on the bench.

"Sorry about that. Aphrodite means well, but like Stevie Rae would say, she's not very nice sometimes."

Erik snorted. "You don't need to tell me that. She and I dated, remember?"

"I remember," I said quietly. Then added, "You and I dated, too."

"Yeah," he said. "I thought I loved you."

"I thought I loved you, too."

He looked at me. "Were we wrong?"

I looked back at him. Really looked back at him. Goddess, he was hot in a seriously Superman/Clark Kent kind of way. Tall and dark and blue eyed and muscly. But there was more to him than that. Yeah, he was controlling and arrogant, but somewhere inside him I knew there was a really, really good guy. I just wasn't the right girl for that guy.

"Yeah, we were wrong, but that's okay. Recently I've been reminded that it's okay not to be perfect, especially if you learn from your mess-ups. So how about we learn from ours? I think we could make better friends anyway."

His gorgeous lips turned up. "I think you might be right."

"Plus," I added, bumping him with my shoulder, "I don't have enough pretty straight guys as my friends." "I'm a pretty straight guy. I mean, a really straight guy who is also, as you say, pretty."

"Yep, you are," I said. Then I held out my hand.

"Friends?"

"Friends." Erik took my hand in his and then, with a rakish smile, he dropped gracefully from the bench to one knee. "My lady, let's always be friends."

"Okie dokie," I said, kinda breathlessly, 'cause, well, no matter how much I loved Stark, Erik was seriously hot and a super good actor. He bowed and kissed my hand. Not in a creepy I'm-trying-to-get-into-your-pants way, but in a real old-school-gentleman way.

Still on his knee, he looked up at me and said, "You have to say something tonight that gives us hope and helps Damien, because right now lots of us are just floating out there wondering what the f**k--and Damien is seriously not doing well."

My heart clenched. "I know."

"Good. No matter what else, I believe in you, Zoey."

I sighed. Again.

He smiled and stood up, pulling me up with him. "So please let me escort you to this funeral." I took Erik's arm and stepped into a future I couldn't have begun to imagine.

***

It was an awesome, sad, incredible sight. Unlike the last time a funeral pyre had burned for a vampyre at the House of Night, the entire school was there. Fledglings and vampyres made a huge circle around a benchlike structure that had been built in the very center of the school grounds. I could still see the charred grass that bore witness to the fact that not long ago Anastasia Lankford's body had been consumed by the Goddess's fire in that very same place. Only the school hadn't come out to witness and show respect for her then. Too many of them had been under the control of Kalona--or just downright scared. Tonight was different. Kalona's control had been broken and Jack was getting a Warrior's sendoff.