Hunted (House of Night #5)(40)

I wanted to tell her not to be silly, that she wasn't making sense and I wasn't going anywhere, but through the pain and the numbness I was starting to get a strange feeling. The only way I could describe it was as a sense of not-rightness. What ever had happened, what ever was going on with me, that was the source of the not-rightness. And this new feeling, more than the blood--more than the fear in my friends' faces--was telling me that something was so wrong with me that I might, indeed, be going somewhere.

It was then that the pain began to recede, and I decided that if this was what it felt like to die, then it was better than living and hurting like hell.

Heath burst into the room, came straight to me, and took my other hand. He barely looked at Stevie Rae. Instead, he smoothed the hair out of my face.

"How are ya, babe? Still holding on?"

I tried to smile at him, but he seemed so far away that I couldn't make the change in expression reach him.

The Twins ran into the room with Kramisha close behind them.

"Oh no!" Erin stopped several feet from where I was and pressed her hand against her mouth.

"Zoey?" I thought Shaunee looked confused. Then she blinked several times, her gaze traveled down my body, and she burst into tears.

"That don't look good," Kramisha said. "Not good at all." She paused and then her eyes went from me to Heath, whose attention was so focused on me I swear he didn't look like he'd notice if a giant white elephant in a tutu danced into the room. "Ain't that the human kid who was down here before?"

I don't know why, but except for my own body, which didn't seem to belong to me anymore, I had become majorly aware of everything that was going on around me. The Tw

D uins were holding hands and bawling so hard snot was running from their noses. Darius was still digging through the first aid kit. Stevie Rae was patting my hand and trying (unsuccessfully) not to cry. Heath was whispering silly butchered lines from Titanic to me. In other words, everyone was focused on me--except Kramisha. She was staring hungrily at Heath. Little warning bells started ringing in my mind and I tried to struggle to regain awareness of my body. I needed to warn Heath to be on his guard. I needed to tell him he should leave this place before something bad happened to him. "Heath," I managed to whisper.

"I'm here, babe. I'm not going anywhere."

I did a mental eye roll. Heath and his heroics were cute and all, but I was afraid they were going to get him eaten by Stevie Rae's red fledglings.

"Hey, ain't you the human kid who was down here before? The one Zoey came after?" Kramisha had moved closer to Heath. Her eyes had taken on a red tint that was a gigantic warning sign. Was I the only one who could see danger in the intense way she was staring at him?

"Darius!" I finally gasped.

Thankfully, the warrior looked up from rummaging through the first aid kit. I flicked my eyes from his to where Kramisha was practically drooling on Heath and saw understanding cross Darius's face.

"Kramisha. Leave the room. Now," Darius snapped.

She hesitated, then dragged her red gaze from Heath to look directly at me. Go! I mouthed the word. Her eyes didn't change, but Kramisha nodded once and walked quickly from the room.

It was then that Aphrodite slapped the doorway blanket aside and made her grand entrance. Looking seriously like poopie, she scowled at the room.

"Damn it, this Imprint is a pain in the ass! Stevie Rae, could you not get a handle on yourself and keep your emotional bullshit under control and show just a smidge of respect for those of us who can still have hangovers that would kill the average--" She finally managed to focus her blurry vision enough to actually see me. Her face, already pale and hollow-eyed, blanched so that it looked a sickly shade of fish-belly white. "Oh, Goddess! Zoey!" She started shaking her head back and forth, back and forth as she rushed over to me. "No, Zoey. No. I didn't see this." She was talking earnestly to me. "I never saw this. You beat the first death vision I had. The next one wasn't supposed to be you being cut again. The next was supposed to be you drowning. No! This isn't right!"

I tried to say something, but she'd already rounded on Heath.

"You! What the f**k are you doing here?"

"I--I came to see if she was okay," Heath stammered, obviously freaked by her intensity.

Aphrodite shook her head again. "No. You aren't supposed to be here. This isn't right." She paused and her eyes narrowed at Heath. "You caused this, didn't you?"

I watched Heath's eyes fill with tears. "Yeah, I think I did," he said.

Chapter Thirteen

Damien, Jack, and Erik ran into the room, followed closely by Duchess. Jack took one look at me, screamed like a girl, and fainted. Damien caught him in time to keep him from falling and bashing his head on the floor. He laid him down on Stevie Rae's bed while the poor confused Lab whined and stared with big, worried brown eyes from Jack to Damien and me, and then back to Jack again. Damien joined everyone else, including Erik, who was crowding around me. Darius waded into the group, parting kids like he was a vampyre Moses and they were the fledgling Red Sea.

"They need to cast a circle and focus the healing powers of the elements on Zoey," Darius told Aphrodite. She nodded, touched my forehead gently, and then started snapping commands at my friends.

"Nerd herd! Take your places. Let's get this circle cast."