Chosen Read online

  Plus, with all the other crap going on in my life—as in my undead best friend, trying to deal with Aphrodite, who all my friends can't stand, and the horror that had happened with Professor Nolan—I really didn't have the time or energy it took for dating drama.

  Not to mention the fact that I'm really not used to feeling ho-ish. It wasn't a feeling I particularly liked. (Although the lifestyle did seem to come with good jewelry.)

  So I made a decision, and this time it was one that called for action. Immediate action. I flipped open my phone and text messaged Heath.

  We need to talk

  His reply was almost instant. I could practically see his cute grin.

  Yes! 2day?

  I chewed my lip while I thought about it. Before I made my decision I pushed the thick curtain aside and peeked out the window. The day had stayed cloudy and cold. Good. That meant there would be less chance of people hanging around outside, especially since it was already dark. I was just trying to figure out where we should meet when my phone chimed again.

  I can come 2 u

  NO

  I texted back quickly. The last thing I needed was for cute, clueless, and totally Imprinted Heath to show up at the House of Night. But where could I meet him? Getting away probably wouldn't be easy, what with one of our professors having been killed. My phone chimed. I sighed.

  Where?

  Crap. Where? Then it hit me and I knew the perfect place. I smiled and texted Heath back.

  Starbucks in 1 hr

  OK!

  Now all I had to do was figure out how to really break up with Heath. Or at least figure out a way I could keep him at a distance until the Imprint between us faded. If it faded. Surely it would fade.

  I made my way blurrily to the bathroom and washed my face with cold water, trying to shock some awake into me. Not feeling like answering a barrage of questions about where I was headed, I tossed into my purse the jar of concealer that fledglings were required to wear whenever they went off school grounds to mingle with the local populace (which kinda made us sound like scientists doing field studies while they tried to blend in with the alien population). I suppose I really hadn't needed to look out the window to see what the weather was like. My long dark hair was being extra crazy today, which could only mean rain and humidity. On purpose I picked out very unsexy clothes, deciding on a black tank top, my dorky Borg Invasion 4D hoodie, and my most comfortable pair of jeans. Keeping in mind that I needed to detour through the kitchen and grab a can of brown pop—fully leaded with sugar and caffeine—I opened my door to see Aphrodite standing there with her hand raised to knock.

  "Hi," I said.

  "Hey." She looked furtively up and down the empty hall.

  "Come on in." I stepped aside and shut the door behind us. "I gotta hurry, though. I'm meeting someone off campus."

  "That's part of why I'm here. They're not letting anyone off campus."

  "They?"

  "The vamps and their warriors."

  "The warriors are here already?"

  Aphrodite nodded. "A bunch of the Sons of Erebus. They're damn nice to look at—I mean truly, seriously hot—but they're definitely going to be cramping our style."

  And then I realized what she was saying. "Ah, crap. Stevie Rae."

  "She'll be out of blood by tomorrow. That is, if she's not already. She was really pigging down those blood bags," Aphrodite said with a little curl of her lip.

  "I'll call her and tell her to make them last, but we're going to have to get more to her. Soon. Crap!" I said again. "I really need to not put off this, uh, appointment."

  "So Heath's back in town?"

  I frowned at her. "Maybe."

  "Oh, please. Your face is totally easy to read." Then she lifted one of her perfectly plucked blond brows. "Bet Erik doesn't know about this appointment."

  Keeping in mind that Aphrodite was Erik's ex-girlfriend, and no matter how friendly she and I appeared to be getting I knew she would jump at the chance to latch back onto Erik, I shrugged nonchalantly. "Erik will know as soon as I get back. I happen to be going to break up with Heath. As if that's any of your business."

  "I hear breaking an Imprint bond is next to impossible," she said.

  "That's an Imprint with an adult vamp. It's different for fledglings." At least I hoped it was. "Plus, still not your business."

  "Okay. No problem. If it's not my business that you need to get off campus, then there's no reason for me to tell you how to sneak out of here."

  "Aphrodite. I do not have time for games."

  "Fine," she started to turn to go and I stepped in front of her. "You're being a bitch. Again," I said.

  "And you're almost cussing. Again," she said.

  I crossed my arms and tapped my foot.

  Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Okay, whatever. You can sneak out if you go to the part of the school wall closest to the stables—the section that's near the edge of the little pasture. There's a grove at the end of it and a tree there was split by lightning a couple years ago. It's leaning against the wall. The split makes it easy to climb. Jumping from the top of the wall isn't really that big a deal."

  "How do you get back on campus? Is there a tree on the other side, too?"

  She gave me an evil smile. "No, but someone just happened to conveniently leave a rope tied to the branch. Climbing back over the wall isn't hard, but it's hell on your manicure."

  "Okay. I got it. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get some more blood from the kitchen." I was speaking to myself more to Aphrodite. "I have just enough time to meet Heath, run by and see Stevie Rae, and get back here for the ritual."

  "You have less time than that. Neferet is having a Full Moon Ritual of her own and she wants everyone to be there," Aphrodite said.

  "Dang it! I thought Neferet wasn't performing a school-wide ritual this month because of winter break."

  "Winter break has been officially called off. All vamps and fledglings have been ordered to return to campus immediately. And dang it isn't actually a word."

  I ignored her commentary on my non-cuss cuss words. "Break is called off because of what happened to Professor Nolan?"

  Aphrodite nodded. "It was really horrible, wasn't it?"

  "Yeah."

  "Why didn't you puke?"

  I shrugged uncomfortably. "I think I was too freaked to puke."

  "I wish I had been," Aphrodite said.

  I glanced at my watch. It was almost eight. I was going to have to rush to get out of here and get back in time. "I gotta go." I was already feeling sick about having to figure out a way to sneak blood out of what was probably a busy kitchen.

  "Here." Aphrodite handed me the canvas bag she'd been carrying over her shoulder. "Take this to Stevie Rae."

  The bag was full of pouches of blood. I blinked in surprise. "How did you get these?"

  "I couldn't sleep, and I figured the vamps would call in major backup after what happened to Professor Nolan, which means the kitchen was going to be busy again. So I thought I better make a quick trip to clean out the supply of blood before we couldn't get to it anymore. I kept it in the mini-fridge in my room."

  "You have a mini-fridge." Dang. I'd really like to have a mini-fridge.

  She gave me a very Aphrodite-like sneer while she looked down her nose at me. "It's one of the privileges of being an upperclassman."

  "Well, thanks. It was really nice of you to get this for Stevie Rae."

  Her sneer deepened. "Look, I wasn't being nice. I just didn't want Stevie Rae foaming at the mouth and eating my parents' help. As Mother says, dependable illegals are really hard to find."

  "You're all heart, Aphrodite."

  "Don't mention it." She walked around me and cracked open the door, peeking out into the hall to be sure no one was out there. Then she looked back at me. "And I mean it: Don't mention it."

  "I'll see you at the Dark Daughters ritual. Don't forget."

  "Sadly, I haven't forgotten. Even more sadly, I'll be ther
e."

  Then she hurried out of my room and disappeared down the hall. "Issues," I muttered as I left my room and went the opposite way down the hall. "The girl has such issues."

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Erik was going to be so dang pissed at me. The Twins had been perched on their favorite chairs staring at a Spider-Man 3 DVD as I hurried out of the kitchen clutching my can of brown pop and the canvas bag full of blood.

  "Holy shit, Z, are you okay?" Shaunee asked, looking kinda wide-eyed and freaked.

  "We heard about you and the hag—" Erin paused and then reluctantly corrected herself, "I mean you and Aphrodite finding Professor Nolan. It must have been totally awful."

  "Yeah, it was pretty bad." I made myself smile reassuringly at them and not act like I was dying to bolt from the room.

  "I can't believe it really happened," Erin said.

  "I know. It just doesn't seem real," Shaunee said.

  "It's real. She's dead," I said solemnly.

  "You're sure you're okay?" Shaunee asked.

  "We're all really worried about you," Erin added.

  "I'm fine. Promise." My gut twisted. Shaunee, Erin, Damien, and Erik were my best friends, and I hated lying to them, even if most of the lies I was telling were by omission. In the two months I'd been at the House of Night we had become a family, so they weren't faking. They were genuinely worried about me. And as I stood there trying to sift through what I could and couldn't say to them, a horrible premonition shivered over my skin. What if they found out about all the stuff I had been keeping from them and they turned away from me? What if they stopped being my family? Just thinking about that terrible possibility made me all fluttery and panicky inside. Before I could chicken out, confess everything, and fling myself at their feet while I begged them to understand and not be mad at me, I blurted, "I have to go see Heath."

  "Heath?" Shaunee looked utterly confused.

  "Her human ex-boyfriend, Twin. Remember?" Erin supplied.

  "Oh yeah, the blond hottie who almost got eaten by the vamp ghosts two months ago, and then almost got killed by that nasty street-person-turned-serial-killer last month," Shaunee said.

  "You know, Z, you're hard on your ex-boyfriends," Erin said.

  "Yeah, sucks to be him," I inserted, moving casually toward the door. "I gotta go, guys."

  "They're not letting anyone leave campus," Erin said.

  "I know, but I, um, well…" I hesitated, and then I felt ridiculous for the hesitation. I couldn't tell the Twins about Stevie Rae or Loren, but I sure as hell could tell them something as typically teenage as sneaking out of school. "I know a secret way off campus."

  "Well done, Z!" Shaunee said happily. "We'll totally use your superior sneaking-out-of-school skills during finals this spring when we're supposed to be studying."

  "Please." Erin rolled her eyes. "As if we have to study. Especially when there are end-or-season shoe sales to pillage. Then she raised her very blond brows and added, "Uh, Z. What do we tell boyfriend?"

  "Boyfriend?"

  "Your boyfriend, Erik I'm-So-Damn-Fiiiine Night." Erin gave me a look that said she thought I'd lost my mind.

  "Hello. Earth to Zoey. Are you sure you're okay?" Shaunee said.

  "Yeah, yeah. I'm okay. Sorry. Why do you have to tell Erik anything?"

  "Because he said for us to tell you to call him the instant you woke the hell up. He's majorly worried about you, too," Shaunee said.

  "No doubt if he doesn't hear from you pretty soon he'll be camped out here," Erin said. "Ooooh, Twin!" Her eyes widened and her lips curled into a sexy smile. "Do you think boyfriend will bring along the two hotties?"

  Shaunee tossed back her thick dark hair. "It's a definite possibility, Twin. T. J. and Cole are friends of his and this is a very stressful time."

  "Right you are, Twin. And we all know that during stressful times friends should stick together."

  In perfect agreement the Twins turned to me. "Go ahead and go do whatever with ex-boyfriend," Erin said.

  "Yeah, we have your back here. We'll wait around for Erik to show up and then tell him it's just too scary for little ol' us to be all alone," Shaunee said.

  "We definitely need protected," Erin said. "Which means he'll have to go get his friends and all of us will curl up and wait for you to get back from your meeting."

  Sounds like a plan. Oh, but don t tell him I went off campus. He might freak. Just be vague, like I might be talking to Neferet or whatnot."

  "Whatever. We'll cover for you. But, speaking of going off campus, are you sure it's safe?" Shaunee said. "We're not completely making up the fact that it's scary around here right now."

  "Yeah, can't you break up with human boyfriend later, like after they catch the psycho who beheaded and crucified Professor Nolan?" Erin asked.

  "It's something I have to do now. You know, what with the Imprint it's not exactly a normal breakup."

  "Drama," Erin said.

  "Serious drama." Shaunee nodded in solemn agreement.

  "Yeah, and the longer I put it off, the worse it's gonna be. I mean, Heath just got back in town and he's already text messaging me to death." The Twins gave me sympathetic looks. "So, later. I'll be back in time to change before Neferet's ritual." I retreated fast while the Twins called "see ya" after me.

  I'd rushed out the door and had run right into what felt like a large male mountain. Impossibly strong hands steadied me before I could fall off the steps. I looked up (and up and up) into a stonelike, starkly handsome face. And then blinked in surprise. He was definitely a full-grown vampyre (complete with cool tattoo), even though he didn't look much older than me. But, dang, he was big!

  "Careful, fledgling," the mountain who was dressed all in black said. Then his nonexpression shifted. "You're Zoey Redbird."

  "Yeah, I'm Zoey."

  Releasing me, he took a step back and pressed his fist over his heart in a snappy salute. "Merry met. It is a pleasure to know the fledgling Nyx has so greatly gifted."

  Feeling awkward and silly, I returned his salute. "Nice to meet you, too. And you are?"

  "Darius, of the Sons of Erebus," he said, bowing formally and making it a title and not just a description.

  "You're one of the guys called in because of what happened with Professor Nolan?" My voice cracked a little, which he clearly noticed.

  "Hey," he said, looking even younger, yet also somehow incredibly powerful, "You shouldn't worry, Zoey. The Sons of Erebus will protect Nyx's school with our last breath."

  The way he said it made my skin prickle. He was huge and muscular and very, very serious. I couldn't imagine anything or anyone who could get past him, let alone make him breathe his last breath. "Th-thank you," I stammered.

  "My brother warriors are posted all over the school grounds. You may rest safely, little priestess," he smiled at me. Little priestess? Please. The kid had to have just Changed recently.

  "Oh, good. Uh, I will." I started down the steps. "I'm just going to the, uh, stable to visit my mare, Persephone. It was nice to meet you. I'm glad you're here," I added, giving him a ridiculous wave and then hurrying down the sidewalk toward the stables. I could feel his eyes following me.

  Crap. That was so not good. I wondered what the hell I was going to do. How was I going to sneak out of there with warrior mountains (no matter how young and cute) all over the place? Not that it mattered how young and cute he was. Like I had time for another possible boyfriend? Absolutely no way. Not to mention his hottiness didn't make him any less mountainous. Jeesh, I was a mess and I had such a dang headache.

  And then the soft voice was in my head, telling me to think … be calm…

  The words swirled soothingly through my frantic mind. Automatically I began to slow down. I breathed deeply, willing myself to relax and think. I needed to be calm … be still… think and—

  And just like that it came to me. I knew what I had to do. In the shadows between the next two gaslights I stepped quietly off the sidewalk as if I'd d
ecided to take a walk among the huge old oaks, only when I came to the first tree I paused in its shadow, closed my eyes, and centered myself. Then, as I had before, I called silence and invisibility to me, shrouding myself in the stillness of the grave (I briefly hoped that that metaphor was just me being overly imaginative and wasn't any kind of creepy, foretelling omen).

  I'm perfectly silent… no one can see me… no one can hear me … I'm like mist… dreams…spirit…

  I could sense the presence of the Sons of Erebus, but I didn't look around. I didn't allow my concentration to falter. Instead I kept up my internal prayer turned spell turned magic. I moved like the wisp of a thought or a secret, undetectable and hidden in layers of silence and fog, mist and magic. My body shivered. It seemed I actually floated, and when I glanced down at myself I saw only a shadow within fog within shadow. This must have been what Bram Stoker described in Dracula. Instead of startling me, the thought strengthened my concentration and I felt myself become even less substantial. Moving like a dream, I found the lightning-damaged tree and climbed up its broken trunk and out onto the thick branch that rested against the wall as if I was weightless.

  Just like Aphrodite had said, there was a rope tied securely around a fork in the branch and coiled like a waiting snake. Still moving in silent, dreamlike motions I tossed the end over the wall. Then, following an instinct that rippled up from the core of my soul through my body, I lifted my arms and whispered, "Come to me air and spirit. Like midnight mist, carry me to earth."

  I didn't have to jump from the wall. The wind swirled around me in an airy caress, lifting my body, which had turned as insubstantial as spirit, and floating me the twenty feet to the grass on the other side of the wall. For a moment the sense of wonder that filled me made me forget about murdered teachers, boyfriend issues, and the stress of my life in general. Arms still upraised, I twirled around, loving the feel of wind and power against my dewy, transparent skin. It was like I had become part of the night. Barely touching the ground I moved along the grassy path until I came to the sidewalk that led down Utica Street the short distance to Utica Square. I was feeling so amazing that I almost forgot to stop and dab the concealer over my facial tattoos. Reluctantly, I paused to fish the concealer and a mirror out of the canvas bag. My reflection made my breath catch in my throat. I looked iridescent. My skin shimmered with pearlized colors like a mirage. My dark hair lifted softly around me, floating in a breeze that blew for me alone. I didn't look human and I didn't look vampyre. I looked like a new kind of being, born of the night and blessed by the elements.