Hunted (House of Night #5)(48)

I sighed. "You're right. They'd just follow us back and then complain at us for years about leaving them behind."

"Tell Darius I'll be right back." Aphrodite ducked out through the blanket.

That left Erik and me alone.

Without looking at me he started to move toward the doorway saying, "I'm going to--"

"Erik, don't go. Can't we talk for just a second?"

He stopped, his back still to me. His head was bowed and his shoulders were slumped. He looked utterly defeated.

"Erik, please..." He spun around and I saw there were tears pooling in his eyes. "I'm so damn pissed I don't know what the hell to do! And what's worse is that this," he paused, gesturing to the huge Ace bandage hiding the wound that sliced across my chest, "is really my fault."

"Your fault?"

"If I hadn't been such a possessive ass**le in the basement, you wouldn't have gone outside with Heath. You were sending him away, but I had to push things and piss you off, so you went out there with him." He ran his hand through his thick dark hair. "It's just that Heath makes me so damn jealous! He's known you since you two were kids. I just--" He hesitated and his jaw clenched and unclenched. "I just didn't want to lose you again, so I acted like a jerk, and not only did you almost die, but I lost you again!"

I blinked de Q] at him. So he hadn't been acting like stone man because he didn't care or because he was mad at me. He'd been hiding his emotions because he thought all of this was his fault. Jeesh--I hadn't had a clue.

I held out my hand to him. "Erik, come here." Slowly he came over to me and took my hand.

"I acted like a jerk," he said.

"Yeah, you did. But I should have shown some sense and not gone outside with Heath."

Erik looked at me for a long time before he spoke. "It was hard to see you with him. To see you drink from him."

"I wish there could have been some other way," I said. I did wish it, and not just because it had been uncomfortable for Erik to watch. I loved Heath, but I'd made the decision not to be with him again, not to ever Imprint with him again. I knew the best thing for both of us, especially for Heath, was to be out of each other's lives, and that's what I'd planned. Sadly, my life rarely goes according to my plans. I sighed and tried to put some of what I was feeling into words. "I can't help loving Heath. He's been part of my life for a long time, and now that we're Imprinted again, he literally carries part of me with him, even though I didn't mean for it to happen."

"I don't know how much of your human boyfriend I can stand," Erik said.

I kept meeting Erik's steady gaze and almost blurted I'm not sure how much of your possessiveness I can stand, but I was too tired. I'd save that till later, after I had more time and energy to think things through. Instead I just said, "He's not my boyfriend. He's the human I've Imprinted with. There's a big difference."

"Consort," Erik said bitterly. "It's called being the High Priestess's human consort. Many of them have one. Often they have more than one."

I blinked in surprise. I sure hadn't gotten to that part in my Vamp Sociology class. I mean, was this consort stuff even covered in the The Fledgling Handbook? Guess I'd have to read the darn thing more carefully. I did remember Darius mentioning something about it being difficult for a human to be involved with a High Priestess the day Heath and I had had our official breakup scene, and Darius had definitely used the word "consort" for the human. "Huh. Um. Does that mean the High Priestess doesn't have a vampyre, uh, consort?"

"Mate," he said quietly. "If he's a human who has Imprinted with a High Priestess, he's called her consort. If he's a vampyre, he's given the title of the High Priestess's mate. And no. It doesn't mean she can't have both."

That seemed like good news to me. Clearly it wasn't such good news to Erik, but at least I was beginning to believe other priestesses had gone through this kind of boyfriend stress before. Maybe I could read up on it or tactfully question Darius when the end-of-the-world stuff was resolved. For the time being I decided to put a Band-Aid on the issue and clean up the consequences later. If there was a later. "Okay, Erik. I don't know what I'm going to do about Heath. It's all a little too much for me to deal with right now on top of everything else. Hell, I don't know whatI 8? I'm going to do about you, either." "We're together," Erik said softly. "And I want us to stay together."

I opened my mouth to tell him I really wasn't totally sure that was the best idea, but Erik bent and kissed me gently on the lips, silencing my comment. Then someone cleared his throat and we looked at the entryway to see Heath standing there, looking pale and pissed.

"Heath! What are you doing here?" I hated how shrill and guilty I sounded as I frantically wondered how much he'd overheard.

"Darius sent me to tell you the roads are too bad. There's no way I can get back to B.A. to night. He and Stevie Rae went to find a four-wheel drive so that he can get you and the rest of the fledglings back to the House of Night." He paused. I recognized a tone I'd only heard in his voice a very few times. He was seriously pissed, but he was also hurt. The last time he'd sounded like this had been when he'd told me I'd killed part of his soul when I'd had sex with Loren and broken our Imprint. "Hey, carry on. Pretend I'm not here, just like you were doing before. Didn't mean to interrupt you two."