Destined (House of Night #9)(21)

Shaylin touched her forehead. "Oh, wow! That's right! I'm going to be a vampyre!"

"Well, if you live. Actually, I'm not sure what's going on. You have a red Mark."

"Red? I thought fledglings have blue Marks and, eventually, blue tattoos. You do." She pointed at his tattoo, which framed his Clark Kent blue eyes like a mask.

"Yeah, well, you should have a blue tattoo. But you don't. It's red. And could we go back to the stuff you were saying about seeing inside me?"

"Oh, that. Yeah, it's amazing. I can see you, and then I can also see all kinds of colors surrounding you. It's like what's inside you is glowing around you." She shook her head, as if in wonder, staring even harder at him. Then she blinked, frowned, and blinked again. "Huh. That's interesting."

"Colors? That doesn't make any sense." He realized she was clamping her lips together, as if she didn't want to say any more, which for some reason really annoyed him, so he asked, "What colors are around me?"

"Lots of pea green all mixed with something watery. It reminds me of the mushy peas some places try to give you when you order fish and chips, not that that makes any sense whatsoever."

Erik shook his head. "None of this makes any sense. Why the hell do I have mushy pea color around me?"

"Oh, that's the easy part. When I focus on it I can see what it means about you." She closed her mouth then and shrugged. "Plus you have some little bright specks that show up once in a while, but I can't tell what color they are and only a little of what they mean. Sounds crazy, right?"

"What does the pea green and the watery stuff say about me?"

"What do you think it says?"

"Why are you answering my question with a question?"

"Hey, you just answered my question with a question," Shaylin said.

"I asked you first."

"Does that really matter?" Shaylin asked.

"Yes," he said, trying to keep a handle on his temper, even though she was annoying the living crap out of him. "What does the pea color mean?"

"Fine. It means you've never had to work very hard at getting what you want."

He scowled at her.

She shrugged. "You're the one who asked."

"You don't know shit about me."

Shaylin suddenly looked pissed. "Oh, please! I don't know why, but I do know I know what I'm seeing."

"Hey, it's not like I have to be dripping in mushy peas for you to figure out this smile has taken me places," Erik said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, explain to me why I also know the gray, foggy-looking stuff means something has made you sad." She put her hands on her hips, squinted her eyes, stared at him. Hard. Then she nodded, like she was agreeing with herself. Looking smug she added, "I think someone close to you just died."

Erik felt like she'd smacked him in the face. He couldn't say anything. He just looked away from her and tried to think through a wave of sadness.

"Hey, I'm sorry."

He looked down to see that she'd hurried up to him and put her hand back on his arm. She didn't look smug anymore.

"That was really wrong of me," she said.

"No," he said. "You weren't wrong. A friend of mine did just die."

She shook her head. "That's not what I meant. I was wrong to have said it like that-all mean-girl. That's not who I am. That's not how I am. So, I'm sorry."

Erik sighed. "I'm sorry, too. None of this happened like it was supposed to."

Shaylin touched her forehead gingerly. "You've never Marked someone with red?"

"I've never Marked anyone beside you," he admitted.

"Oh, wow. I'm your first?"

"Yeah, and I messed it up."

She smiled. "If me being able to see is a mess-up, I'm all for it."

"Well, I'm glad you can see, but I still need to figure out how that happened." He gestured at her red Mark. "And this." Erik waved his hand around him. "The pea stuff."

"The pea stuff came from you, but there's other colors there, too. Like when you said sorry I could see-"

"No!" he held up a hand, cutting her off. "I don't think I want to know what else you can see."

"Sorry," she said softly, looking down and scuffing the toe of one shoe through the winter-brown grass. "I guess it is really weird. So, what happens next?"

Erik sighed again. "Don't be sorry, and there's nothing wrong with weird. I'm sure Nyx has a reason for giving you this gift, and this red Mark."

"Nyx?"

"Nyx is our Goddess. The Goddess of Night. She's awesome, and sometimes she gives her fledglings cool gifts." As he spoke Erik felt like a total ass. He had to be the crappiest Tracker in House of Night history. He'd turned a blind kid into a red fledgling who could see inside stuff, and he was just now telling her about their Goddess. "Come on." He didn't care if Charon would approve or not-he wasn't following the damn script anyway. He might as well go for broke and screw everything up. "Show me where you used to live. Pack a bag or whatever. You're going to come with me."