Hunted

“Ready, Zoey?” Darius asked, making me jump.

Fear had made my teeth chatter so hard that I barely managed to stutter, “Y-yeah.”

“Stevie Rae?” he said gently. “Are you prepared?”

“As I’ll ever be, I guess. But I can tell you I really wish stuff like this would quit happenin’ to me.”

“Aphrodite?” He’d looked to her next.

Aphrodite moved so that she was kneeling on the floor in front of the bed and took both of Stevie Rae’s forearms in a strong handhold. “Try not to flail too much,” she told Stevie Rae.

“I’ll do my best.”

“On three,” Darius said, with the shears poised to close on the feather end of the arrow. “One…two…three!”

Then everything happened fast. He’d clipped off the end of the arrow like he’d just cut through a tiny twig.

“Cover it!” He barked the command at me, and I’d pressed the gauze against the inch or so of arrow that still stuck out of the front of Stevie Rae’s chest squarely between her boobies while he moved around behind her. Stevie Rae’s eyes had been squeezed closed. She was breathing in short little panting gasps again, and sweat was beading her face. “Again on three, only this time you push against the end of the arrow,” Darius said. I’d wanted to stop everything and scream No, let’s just wrap her up and take our chances getting her to a hospital, but Darius had already begun counting. “One…two…three!”

I shoved against the hard, newly sliced end of the arrow as Darius, bracing himself with one hand against Stevie Rae’s shoulder, pulled the arrow from her body with one swift, awful-sounding, jerk.

Stevie Rae did scream. So did I. So did Aphrodite. And then Stevie Rae slumped forward into my arms.

“Keep the gauze pressed against the wound.” Darius quickly and efficiently cleaned the newly exposed hole in Stevie Rae’s back.

I remembered repeating over and over, “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s out now. It’s all over now…”

Looking back, I remember that Aphrodite and I had both been sobbing. Stevie Rae’s head had been pressed against my shoulder, so I couldn’t see her face, but I could feel wetness leaking down my shirt. When Darius lifted her gently and laid her back on the bed so that he could dress the entry wound I felt a jolt of pure fear stab through me.

I’d never seen anyone look as pale as Stevie Rae—anyone who was still alive, that is. Her eyes were squeezed tight shut, but red-tinged tears made horrible tracks down her cheeks, the slight pink in stark contrast to her almost transparent colorless skin.

“Stevie Rae? Are you okay?” I could see her chest rising and falling, but she hadn’t opened her eyes and she wasn’t making any noise.

“I’m…still…here.” She whispered the words with long pauses between them. “But…kinda…floating…above…y’all.”

“She’s not bleeding,” Aphrodite said in a low voice.

“She has nothing left to bleed,” Darius said as he taped the gauze to her chest.

“The arrow missed her heart,” I said. “Its purpose wasn’t to kill her. It was to bleed her.”

“We are lucky, indeed, that the fledgling missed his mark,” Darius said.

His words still went round and round inside my head because I knew what none of the rest of them did, that it was impossible for Stark to miss his mark. His gift from Nyx had been that his aim was always true, that he always hit whatever it was he aimed at, even if that sometimes had horrible consequences. Our Goddess had told me herself that once she gave a gift, she never took it back, so even though Stark had died and then come back as a twisted version of himself, he still would have hit her heart and killed Stevie Rae if that had been his intention. So did that mean there was more of Stark’s humanity left than there had seemed to be? He’d called my name; he’d recognized me. I’d shivered, reliving the chemistry that had sparked between us right before he died.

“Priestess? Did you not hear me?” Darius and Aphrodite had been staring at me.

“Oh, sorry. Sorry. I was distracted by…” I hadn’t wanted to explain that I was thinking about the guy who had almost killed my best friend. I still didn’t want to explain that.

“Priestess, I was saying, if Stevie Rae doesn’t get blood, this wound, though it missed her heart, could very well be the death of her.” The warrior shook his head while he examined Stevie Rae. “Though I ca

I had drawn a deep breath and readied myself before saying, “Okay. Well. Forget waiting for the Twins and their bloodmobile. Bite me,” I told Stevie Rae.

Her eyes fluttered open and she somehow managed the hint of a smile. “Human blood, Z,” she said before closing her eyes again.

“She’s probably right. Human blood always has a more powerful effect on us than fledgling or even vampyre blood,” Darius said.

“Well, then, I’ll run and get the Twins,” I said, even though I hadn’t had any real idea where I would be ru

“Fresh blood would work better than that bland, refrigerated stuff,” Darius said.

He hadn’t so much as glanced at Aphrodite, but she definitely got the message. “Oh, for crap’s sake! I’m supposed to let her bite me? Again!”

I blinked, not sure what to say. Thankfully, Darius came to the rescue.

“Ask yourself what your Goddess would have you do,” he said.

“Well, shit! This being one of the good guys really, really sucks. Literally.” She sighed, stood up, and pushed back a sleeve of her black velvet dress. Holding her wrist in front of Stevie Rae’s face, she said, “Fine. Go ahead. Bite me. But you owe me big-time. Again. And I do not know why I’m the one who keeps saving your life. I mean, I don’t even—” Her words were choked off with a little yip of yikes!

It’s still kinda disconcerting to think about what happened next. When Stevie Rae grabbed Aphrodite’s arm I saw her entire expression change. She instantly went from my sweet BFF to a feral stranger. Her eyes glowed a nasty dark red, and with a scary hiss she bit the crap out of Aphrodite’s wrist.

Then Aphrodite’s yikes turned into a disturbingly sensual moan and her eyes closed as Stevie Rae’s mouth latched on to her, breaking the skin easily and causing the hot, pulsing blood to flow as my best friend greedily sucked and swallowed like a predator.

Okay, yes. It was disturbing and nasty, but it was also weirdly erotic. I know it felt good—it had to. That’s how vampyres are made. Even being bit by a fledgling will cause the bitee (a human) and the biter (a fledgling) both to experience a very real jolt of intense sexual pleasure. It’s how we survive. The old myths about vamps ripping open throats and taking victims by force is pretty much bullpoop—well, unless someone pisses off a vamp pretty badly. And then, even though his or her throat is being ripped out, the bitee would probably like it.

Anyway, we are what we are. And from observing what was going on with Stevie Rae and Aphrodite, it was clear that red vampyres definitely had the whole bring-your-human-pleasure phenomenon going. I mean, Aphrodite had even leaned suggestively into Darius, who wrapped an arm around her and bent to kiss her as Stevie Rae continued sucking on her wrist.

The kiss between the warrior and Aphrodite had so much sizzle to it I swear I could almost see sparks flying. Darius held her carefully so that he didn’t cause Stevie Rae to wrench her wrist. Aphrodite wrapped her free arm around him and gave herself to him with an ope

“Okay. Awkward.”

“Seriously. Could have gone my whole life without seeing that.”

I’d looked away from Stevie Rae and company to see the Twins standing just inside the blanketed door. Erin was holding several packets of what were obviously bags of blood. Shaunee was holding a bottle of some kind of red wine and a glass, as in the typical kitchen variety that Mom pours the iced tea into.