Hunted (House of Night #5)(37)

"I have to go back, Heath," I said, trying hard to get my breathing and my racing heart under control. "You have to go back, too, where you belong. And that's not here."

"Zoey, what's wrong?" He took a step toward me, and I moved one more step away from him. "What did I do?"

"Nothing. It's--It's not you, Heath." I pushed my wet hair back from my face. "You're great. You've always been great, and I do love you. That's why this can't happen between us again. Imprinting with me isn't good for you, especially not right now."

"Why don't you let me worry about what's good for me and what's not?"

"Because you don't think straight when it comes to me and you!" I shouted. "Remember how painful it was when our Imprint broke? Remember how you said it made you feel like you wanted to die?"

"Then don't break it again."

"It's not that simple. My life isn't that simple anymore."

"Maybe you're just making it too complicated. There's you. There's me. We love each other, and we have since we were kids, so we should be together. The end," he said.

"Life isn't a book, Heath! There's no guarantee of a happy ending," I said.

"I don't need a guarantee if I have you."

"That's just it. You don't have me, Heath. You can't. Not anymore." I shook my head and held up my hand to stop him when he started to say something else. "No! I can't do this right now. I just want you to get in your truck and go back to B.A. I'm going to go back down there. To my people and my vampyre boyfriend."

"Oh, please! You and that vamp ass**le? No way are you going to put up with his crap, Zo."

"This isn't just about Erik and me. The truth is you and I can't happen, Heath. You need to forget about me and go on with your life. Your human life." I turned my back on him and made myself walk away. When I heard him following me, I didn't look back. I just yelled, "No! I want you to leave, Heath, and I don't want you to come back. Ever."

I held my breath and heard his footsteps stop. I still didn't look at him. I was afraid if I did that, I would turn around, run back to him, and hurl myself into his arms.

I was almost to the old metal grate when I heard the first croaking caw. The sound stopped me like I'd run into a brick wall. I whirled around. Heath was standing in the freezing rain under the tree just a few feet from his truck. I spared hardly a glance for him. My eyes darted up into the dark branches of the ice-bowed tree.

Within the shadows of the naked boughs a darkness stirred. It reminded me of something, and I blinked, staring at it and trying to remember where I'd seen something like it before. Then the image shifted...changed...I gasped as it became more visible. Neferet! She was clinging to a thick, ice-slick branch that leaned against the roof of the depot. Her eyes blazed crimson and her hair whipped around her crazily, like she had been caught in a sudden wind.

Neferet smiled at me. Her expression was so purely evil that I felt frozen in place.

Then, as I stared up in horror, her image shifted again, wavered, and where the image of the tainted High Priestess had been, there was now a huge Raven Mocker. The thing perched on the side of the depot roof wasn't human and it wasn't animal. It was a terrible mutated mixture of both. It was staring at me with eyes the color of blood and the shape of a man's. Its human arms and legs were naked, looking vile and perverted emerging from the body of a gigantic raven. I could see its forked tongue and the glistening sa sape liva that dripped hungrily from that horrible maw.

"Zoey, what's going on?" Heath said. And before I could tell him not to, he followed my gaze, looking up at the icy limbs that rested against the roof of the depot. "What the f**k?" But as I saw the realization of what the creature must be cross his face, the bird thing turned its glowing red eyes from Heath to me.

"Zzzzzoey?" It breathed my name, its voice sounding wrong and flat and utterly inhuman. "We havvvve been loooooking for you."

My body felt frozen. My mind was screaming inside my head they've been looking for me! But nothing came out of my mouth--no warning to Heath. Not even the shrill girl scream that filled my throat.

"My father will be very pleassssssed when I presssssent you to him," the Mocker hissed, spreading his wings as if he was preparing to fly down and snatch me up.

"I'll have to say `hell no' to that little messed-up plan of yours," Heath yelled.

Chapter Twelve

I tore my horrified gaze from the Raven Mocker to see Heath standing just a couple of feet in front of me. He had his gun out and was holding it before him, pointing it directly at the creature in the tree.

"Puny human!" the thing screeched. "You think to ssssstop an Old One?"

Everything went into fast-forward then. The creature exploded from the tree at the same time my body thawed and I sprinted forward. I saw Heath squeeze the trigger and heard the deafening blast of the gun, but the Raven Mocker was moving with inhuman speed. It dodged, and the place Heath had been aiming at was empty the instant before the bullet sliced through the air, embedding itself in the ice-coated tree. As the thing flew toward Heath, I saw its jagged talons curling into claws and I remembered how, even in spirit form, a creature like this had almost sliced through my neck. Now the Raven Mockers had their bodies returned to them and I knew unless I did something fast, this one was going to kill Heath.