Hidden (House of Night Novels) (26 page)

“Well, maybe.
If
she lets you in the front door,” Stark said. “Last time I checked, she doesn’t like you much.”

“Neferet loathes me, but that does not change the fact that she desires me.”

“Really? That’s not how it looks to everyone else. Neferet’s moved on,” Stark continued. “Her Consort’s the white bull.”

Kalona smiled sardonically at Stark. “You are young and know little of women.”

I felt Stark bristle and quickly wiped my eyes and my nose and pulled myself together. “You’re going to have to make her believe you’re betraying us to her—that your oath to Thanatos is a fake.”

“Neferet does not know I have sworn to Thanatos,” he said.

“Uh, I think she might,” Shaunee said.

I glanced at her in surprise.

“I’m not saying this to be mean, and I really don’t want to go into details, so I’m asking you to just trust me—but it’s pretty safe to say that whatever Erin knows about us, Dallas knows,” Shaunee said.

“Holy crap!” Stevie Rae said.

“Dallas talks to Neferet,” Rephaim said.

“Huh?” I’d practically forgotten Rephaim was there, and then I felt guilty as hell when he shrugged and explained, “I’m not used to talking a lot. I don’t say much, so people ignore me and then I hear things.”

“I don’t ignore you,” Stevie Rae said, tiptoeing to kiss his cheek.

He smiled at her. “No, never you. But Dallas does. He was near me when his phone rang between classes today. Twice. It was Neferet both times.”

“And I’m about ninety-nine percent sure Erin would tell Dallas anything he wants to know about us,” Shaunee said.

“Erin remained here at the House of Night when the rest of you returned to the depot yesterday,” Thanatos said.

I met Shaylin’s gaze. “Tell her.”

The fledgling didn’t hesitate. “Erin’s colors are different than they used to be. I noticed it a couple of days ago.”

“She’s changing,” Aphrodite said. “Shaylin and I both believe it. That’s why we advised Zoey to let Erin stay when she told Zoey she wanted to.”

“Then I agree with Shaunee. It is very possible that Neferet knows everything Erin knows,” Thanatos said.

“Here’s what I think,” Aphrodite said. “I think we all need to keep our mouths shut about what’s going on with Grandma Redbird and Aurox and our business in general. If you’re not part of this group, then you don’t know shit. Erin’s just one kid, but what she knows could definitely mess us up.”

“Prophetess, it sounds as if there is a lesson to be learned in what you’re saying,” Thanatos said, and the rest of us nodded.

I glanced at Kalona. Including him in our group felt really weird, but I couldn’t tell if that meant we should or shouldn’t trust him.

Weirdly echoing my thoughts, Thanatos asked Kalona, “Do you still believe she will trust you?”

“Neferet? Trust me? Never. But she does desire me, even if it is only my immortal power after which she lusts. And, as Aphrodite said, she measures everyone’s depth of loyalty by her own,” Kalona said.

“Neferet is only loyal to herself,” Rephaim said.

“Exactly,” Kalona said.

“Well, let’s hope you’re not that shallow,” Stark added, sounding like he believed the opposite.

I just stood there, staring at Kalona, remembering what a lying, manipulative killer he had been, and thinking
that’s who’s going to save my grandma?

I was blinking back freaked-out tears when Rephaim whispered my name. I looked over at him. He smiled and mouthed two small words:
people change.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Shaylin

“Here. Now.” Aphrodite crooked her finger at Shaylin, motioning for her to follow. She did her twitchy walk, cutting across the grass and heading in the general direction of the fledglings’ dorms.

Shaylin sighed, squelched her irritation, and followed the annoying blonde. As she caught up with her, Aphrodite was already talking. “Okay, you need to reconnoiter.”

“Okay, you need to grow some manners,” Shaylin said.

Aphrodite stopped and narrowed her eyes to blue slits.

“You should know that look is unattractive
and
it causes crow’s feet,” Shaylin spoke quickly before Aphrodite could say something mean and smart-assy.

“You’ve been talking to Damien, haven’t you?”

“Maybe,” Shaylin answered vaguely, not wanting to get Damien in any trouble. But, yeah, the truth was she had been talking to him. Actually, she’d really started to like Damien, as well as Stevie Rae and Zoey. Aphrodite, though,
she
was a different story. “Aphrodite, really, it looks like you and I might have to work together, or whatever you’d call this Prophetess stuff. So, it’d make both of our lives easier if you could, at least, be polite to me.”

“No, it would make
your
life easier. Mine, it wouldn’t change at all.”

Shaylin shook her head. “Really? Why don’t you run that attitude past Nyx? We have major Darkness to fight. Zoey’s mom was just killed and now her grandma’s in serious danger. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Zoey a friend of yours?”

Aphrodite’s eyes narrowed again, but she only said one word: “Yes.”

“Then how about you do everything you can to help her.”

“I am doing that, bitch,” Aphrodite snapped.

“How can you be so sure? Did you ever consider the small fact that maybe, if you were less hateful, you’d have access to more of your Prophetess gifts?”

Aphrodite’s eyes un-narrowed. Slowly. She even looked a little surprised. “No. I’ve never considered that.”

Shaylin threw her hands up in frustration. “Jeesh, were you raised by wolves?”

“Sort of,” Aphrodite said. “But they had money.”

“Incredible,” Shaylin murmured. Then she started over. “Okay, here’s what I know. When I read your aura and was bitchy about the little flickering light I saw within you, it messed with my head. The next time I looked at you, it was like your colors were all running together.”

“Which, obviously, means you saw me being pissed.”

“No, because
everyone’s
colors looked all runny and indistinct until I apologized to you. Wait, scratch that. The complete truth is my True Sight was messed up until I apologized to you and
meant it
.”

“Huh. That’s almost interesting.”

“I’m not getting through to you at all, am I?”

“As much as anyone can,” Aphrodite said. “So, back to reconnoitering.”

“Fine. Yes. What do you want me to do?”

“Find Erin. And Dallas. If I’m correct, which, just FYI for future reference, I almost always am, you’re going to find them together.”

“And that would be bad, right?”

“Are you brain damaged?”

“I’m not even going to answer that,” Shaylin said.

“Good. We don’t have time for connect-the-dots. It’s going to be dawn in a couple of hours. The bus will be heading back to the depot and Kalona will be heading into Neferet’s nasty lair.”

“Yeah, Kalona waiting until dawn so she’d be weakened by the sun without it being totally obvious that he was waiting until she was weakened by the sun doesn’t look like it’s going to work,” Shaylin said, looking skyward.

“What in the hell are you talking about, fucktard?”

Shaylin pointed up. “Rain clouds. Lots of them. I really wish they’d clear out. They blanket the sun and its weakening effect. Now who’s the fucktard?”

“Do not call me a fucktard,” Aphrodite said.

“Well, then don’t call me one,” Shaylin said.

“I’ll think about it. Back to my original point—before we go back to the depot and Kalona takes off, I want you to check out Dallas and Erin’s colors. Any additional info you can give us about Erin, especially about whether she’s a traitorous, skanky ho—yeah, I’m paraphrasing Shaunee—would be a good thing. I have a feeling about them, and it’s not a warm, fuzzy one.”

“All right, yeah, sounds good, but I have no idea where they might be. Do you? Is that one of the gifts you have?” Shaylin asked.

“Goddess, you are brain damaged. No, I don’t have a GPS inside my head. I
do
have a brain inside it, though. It tells me that if Erin and Dallas are doing the nasty, it makes sense to start looking for them in Erin’s dorm room—the dorm room she
doesn’t
share with Shaunee anymore.”

“Oh. Yeah. That does make sense.” Shaylin hesitated. “But I don’t know which dorm room is hers.”

“Third floor, number thirty-six. When they shared a brain, they used to say it stood for their chest size. I said it was their combined IQ.”

“Of course you did,” Shaylin said.

“See, you do understand me!” Aphrodite said with fake enthusiasm. “I’ll meet you back at the bus. Soon.” Aphrodite started to walk away, paused and added, “Please.”

Shaylin’s eyes widened.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, obviously preparing to say something hateful. Then she stopped, stared above her for one long moment, before glancing at Shaylin and saying, “Looks like you’re getting your wish. The rainclouds are clearing.” Then Aphrodite tossed her hair and twitched off.

Shaylin shook her head. “Total nutjob,” she muttered to herself as she made her way to the girls’ dorm. “Nyx, I don’t know you very well, and I don’t want you to think I’m rude or blasphemous or anything like that, but Aphrodite as your Prophetess? Why?”

“No one knows, and I think that includes Aphrodite herself.”

Shaylin jumped in surprise as Erik Night stepped from the shadows of a nearby oak tree.

“Erik! What are you doing out here?” Shaylin’s hand went to her throat. She imagined Erik could see how hard her pulse pounded there, and not just because he’d startled her. Her first view of him was always the same—his absolute, total, tall/dark/handsomeness was obvious and distracting. But then she got a glimpse of his colors and they weren’t nearly as attractive. Shaylin had decided he was like one of those gorgeously painted pieces of pottery that you’d like to use to toss a salad in or whatever, but if you flipped the piece over you’d see the
WARNING: DO NOT USE TO SERVE FOOD
label.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m out here procrastinating.” His smile was a zillion-watt lightbulb. Shaylin could see why almost one hundred percent of the fledgling girls were in love with him. The problem was, she could also
see
more than his gorgeousness.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I’ll let you get back to your procrastination. See ya.”

“Hey.” He touched her arm, just for a moment as she walked past him, coaxing her to pause. “I thought we were friends.”

Shaylin studied him. When Erik had Marked her his colors were mostly made up of an indecisive, pea green that overshadowed the bright flashes of something that might have been golden, like the rays of the sun, but were too fleeting for her to be sure. Other than that he’d just been kinda foggy and wishy-washy. She hadn’t paid much attention to his colors the past few days, so when she focused, Shaylin was surprised to see that, even though his green was still there, it had lightened and now it didn’t bring to mind mushy peas. Instead it reminded her of turquoise, like pretty sea foam green turquoise. And all around the green-blue the foggy mishmash of gray had lifted, revealing a solid tan, like the sand of a beautiful, untouched beach. Feeling a little like she’d fallen into deep water, Shaylin tried not to look nervous and blurted, “Yeah, we are friends, but that’s all.”

“I didn’t ask for anything else, did I?”

Shaylin met his eyes. They were bright and blue, and spent way too much time wandering south to her boobs. Of course, saying something like “you totally want to be friends with benefits” sounded way too much like something Aphrodite would say. So instead she chose a nicer answer. “No, you haven’t
asked
for anything else.”

He smiled again. “So, we can be friends?”

It was hard not to smile back at him, and truthfully, she couldn’t think of a reason not to. Shaylin grinned and nodded. “Yep, friends.”

“Awesome! How about I walk you to wherever you’re going? I can procrastinate just as well with you as I can by myself.”

“What are you procrastinating about?” Shaylin avoided the question of where she was going and just kinda meandered in the general direction of the dorms. Slowly.

“Lesson plans,” he said with a sigh. “I really hate writing them. You know, I never meant to be a professor.”

“Yeah, everyone knows that. You were meant to be a movie star,” Shaylin said. She spoke in an offhand manner. She hadn’t meant to be patronizing or sarcastic, but the hurt in his blue eyes said she’d probably sounded both.

“Yeah,” he repeated in a clipped voice, turning his gaze away from her and stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Everyone knows that.”

“Hey, but this Tracker thing is just a little speed bump in the road to Hollywood, right? What are you, twenty-one?”

“Nineteen. I just completed the Change a few months ago. Why? Do I look old?”

Shaylin laughed. “Twenty-one isn’t old.”

“It is if you have to add four years onto it, and I’ve just started a four-year Tracker job.”

“Does being a Tracker mean you have to stay at the House of Night in Tulsa?”

“Trying to get rid of me?” He only sounded about half kidding.

“No, of course not,” she assured him. “What I meant is, can’t you transfer to the West Coast and still be a Tracker? There must be a House of Night nearer to Hollywood than this.” As they talked, Shaylin realized that Erik didn’t sound like a pissed-off, spoiled brat. He just sounded tired and frustrated and maybe even kinda depressed.

“I already looked into it. The answer I got was weird and a little creepy.” He paused and sent her a sideways glance. “Well, probably creepier for the kids who are being Tracked than for me.”

“Been there—done that. It wasn’t so creepy. Actually, you were kinda funny,” she said.

Erik frowned. “I was supposed to be powerful and confident and maybe a little scary.”

“So, you want to be creepy?”

That made him laugh. “No, not really. And the actual Marking isn’t the creepy part anyway, or at least it’s not supposed to be. The part that’s definitely
not normal
is that there’s something in my blood that keeps me anchored to this place. Yeah, I can travel, but only if it’s because my blood’s calling me to Mark a kid who belongs at this House of Night.”