Hidden (House of Night #10)(55)

"Of course I have a grandpa. What are you, a biology moron?" Then Aphrodite shrugged. "Whatever. My family is kinda hard to explain. I'm going to follow it on the bus." And she did. She followed Shaylin.

Stevie Rae, Damien, and I were left alone.

"Crazy Town," was all I could think to say.

"Indeed," Damien nodded.

"All right, well, do you think everyone else is on the bus?" I asked.

"I hope so. I know Rephaim's there, and we only have a couple of hours until sunrise. I can pretty much be sure he's never seen any episodes of Fringe, and I think he'd like them. Watchin' DVDs curled up with him sounds real good right now, even if we do have to do it with Crazy Town Aphrodite." She grinned at me. "Can we order Andolini's pizza?"

"Totally," I said.

"Hurrumph..." Damien cleared his throat with staged precision.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Do, um, you guys think it's awful if I, um, maybe, meet someone for coffee. Late. Tonight. At The Coffee House on Cherry Street?"

"Are they still open?" I asked, glancing at my phone. Jeesh, it was almost 4:00 A.M.

"They've started staying open 24/7. The ice storm killed business for weeks and they're trying to make up for it by catering to the, well, night-time crowd," Damien explained.

"Seriously? They're staying open for us?" I so remembered their awesome deli sandwiches and the beautiful local art they displayed. "They used to close at 11:00 P.M.!"

"Not anymore," he said happily.

"Wow, that's cool. I mean, I've never been there, but it's awesomesauce that a coffee shop is stayin' open in Midtown so that we can hang out there," Stevie Rae said.

"How about tomorrow we have Darius detour the bus there on the way back to the depot?" I followed my gut. It's normal for a group of high school kids to want to stop off at a coffee shop after school. "Damien, if you went tonight would you ask whoever's working if they'd be okay with us coming by tomorrow?"

"I would definitely reconnoiter for you!" Then Damien's expression dimmed. "So, what do you think? Would Jack hate me?"

"Oh, honey, no!" I said quickly. "Of course he wouldn't."

"Jack would understand," Stevie Rae added. "He wouldn't want you to be sad and lonely while you waited for him to come back around."

"He will, won't he?" Damien stared in my eyes. "Jack will come back around, right?"

Their souls are meant to meet again ... the words whispered through my mind. Recognizing the wise, familiar voice of Nyx I smiled, twining my arm through Damien's. "He will. I promise. And so does the Goddess."

Damien blinked tears from his eyes. "I have a date! And I'm going to be happy about it."

"Yeah!" I said.

"I'm so happy I could just spit! Even though that's kinda gross," Stevie Rae said, taking Damien's other hand.

"It is a weird saying," Damien observed.

"Totally," I said. "You know it was disgusting during the Titanic movie when Leonardo did that whole spitting scene with Kate."

"Never would have happened," Damien agreed. "It was the only flaw in that movie."

"Well, that and Leo turning into an attractive Popsicle," I added.

Damien and Stevie Rae made noises in absolute agreement with me as we approached the bus. I could see the kids' faces in the windows. It looked like it was full, which made me feel a giant rush of relief because I was more than ready to go home. Stark was there, standing at the top of the stairs beside Darius. His eyes found me and his gaze made my skin feel tingly and warm. Rephaim was sitting in the first seat, right in front of Kramisha, and I could practically feel Stevie Rae vibrating with joy as she waved at him. Shaylin and Aphrodite were climbing the stairs. I couldn't see Aphrodite's face, but the toss of her hair said she was already flirting with her Warrior.

Okay, Darkness was a pain in the butt and hard things happened to us, but at least we were together and we had love. Always love.

"I need to talk to you."

Erin's emotionless voice was like ice water on my happy shower.

"Okay, sure. Hey, I'll be in the bus in a sec," I told Stevie Rae and Damien.

"I'm staying." Erin spoke the two words as soon as we were alone.

"Staying? You mean here?" I knew what she meant, but I needed to stall, to buy some time to try to wade through the questions in my mind. I mean, I'd stopped Shaunee when she'd tried to break away from us and move back to the House of Night right after she and Erin had started having problems. Shouldn't I stop Erin, too?

"Yeah, of course I mean here. I'm sick of the tunnels. The humidity is frizzing my hair."

"Uh, there's product for that. Aveda makes it. We'll pick you up some from the Utica Ilhoff salon tomorrow," I said.

"Okay, so, it's not just my hair. I don't want to live in the tunnels. This is where I live. This school. I don't want to be bussed in. It's stupid."

"Erin, I know taking the bus is stupid. Hell, it was stupid before I was Marked. But I think we need to stay together. We're more than just a group or a clique, we're a family."