“No, Heath,” I insisted. “You have to go home. It’s not safe for you here.”
“I don’t care if I’m safe or not. I care about being with you,” Heath said.
“I know, but I care if you’re safe or not. So, go home. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
“Okay, but I’ll be back here the second you call,” he said.
“Want me to walk him outside?” Stevie Rae asked. “The tunnels can be kinda confusing if you’re not familiar with them.”
Plus, I can stop any red fledgling who has a mind to take a bite out of him. The thought was there, but unsaid in the air between us.
“Okay, thanks, Stevie Rae,” I said.
“Erik, hold Zoey up. Aphrodite, finish wrapping this Ace bandage around her. I better go out there with Heath, too,” Darius said.
“The Raven Mocker was in the tree above his truck, kinda perched on the roof of the depot,” I told Darius.
“I’ll be vigilant, Priestess,” Darius said. “Come on, boy. You need to go home.”
“We’ll be back in a sec, Z,” Stevie Rae said.
Instead of following Darius and Stevie Rae from the room, Heath came to me. He cupped my cheek with his hand and smiled. “Stay safe, okay, Zo?”
“I’ll try. You, too,” I said. “And, Heath, thanks for saving my life.”
“Anytime, Zoey. And I mean that. Anytime.” Then, like we were alone and not in the middle of a room with my friends (and boyfriend) gawking at us, Heath bent and kissed me. He tasted like Doritos and brown pop and Heath. Through it all I could smell him, the distinct scent of his blood that was Imprinted uniquely to me and, because of that, literally the most fascinating, delicious smell on this earth.
“I love you, babe,” he whispered. He kissed me one more time. As he was leaving he waved at my friends. “See you guys around,” he said. I was only half surprised when Jack and Damien called bye and the Twins made kissing noises at him. I mean, Heath is cute. Totally cute. Right before he ducked out the blanket door he glanced back at Erik, who was standing beside me. “Hey, dude, I’m holding you personally responsible if anything hurts her.” Then Heath gave Erik his charming, lopsided grin. “Oh, and how about you make my job totally easy and try to boss her around a bunch while I’m gone?” Chuckling to himself, Heath finally left the room.
Aphrodite laughed, which she tried to cover with a cough.
“Ex-boyfriend does have a way about him,” Shaunee said.
“Yes, he does, Twin,” Erin said. “Not to mention a cute butt.”
“Uh, awkward, anyone?” Jack said.
CHAPTER 15
The Twins muttered hasty apologies, shooting Erik guilty looks. Erik, looking like he was carved out of stone, told Aphrodite, “Here, I’ll lift her up a little and you can wrap the bandage around her.”
“Fine by me,” Aphrodite said.
So, without meeting my eyes, Erik slid his hands under my shoulders and gently lifted my torso off the table. While I gritted my teeth against the pain and Aphrodite wrapped the Ace bandage around me, I wondered what the hell I was going to do about Erik and Heath. Erik and I were supposedly back together, but after the scene in the basement I wasn’t one hundred percent sure we should be together. I mean, he said he loved me, which was all well and good, but did loving me mean he’d turned all possessive and jerkish? And besides that, was what we had together strong enough to tolerate another Imprint with Heath, especially now that it wasn’t just an abstract idea? Now that he’d seen Heath and me together, was there any way Erik and I could be together?
I looked up at him as he held me so carefully. Feeling my gaze on him, his blue eyes shifted to me. He didn’t look like a stone man anymore. He just looked sad. Really, really sad. Did I still want to be Erik’s girlfriend? The longer I looked into his eyes, the more I thought that maybe I did. Then where did that leave me with Heath? Back to where I was with both of these guys before I’d cheated on them and let Loren trick me into giving him my virginity.
It had been an uncomfortable boyfriend triangle then, and it was even worse now. But what the hell was I going to do? The truth was I cared about both of them.
God, it’s exhausting being me.
When Aphrodite was done bandaging me, Erik asked Jack to bring him a pillow from the bed, and then he put me carefully back down with my head and shoulders resting on its softness.
“You guys had better get ready to leave,” Erik said to the Twins, Damien, and Aphrodite. “I’ll bet Darius will want to get Zoey back to the House of Night right away.”
“That means we have to get our purses from Kramisha’s room,” Shaunee said.
“Like I would forget my new winter season Ed Hardy purse, Twin?” Erin said.
“Of course not, Twin. I’m just sayin’…” Their voices faded as they hurried from the room.
“I want to go with you,” Jack said, looking close to tears.
“I want you to come, too,” Darius said. “But it’s too dangerous. You have to stay here with Erik and Stevie Rae until we know exactly what we’re up against.”
“My mind understands that, but my heart says something else,” Jack said, leaning his head against Damien’s shoulder. “It’s just…just…” Jack took a deep breath and finished on a sob, “It’s just poop that I can’t go!”
“We’re going to step down the tunnel a ways,” Damien said, putting his arm around Jack. “Just have Darius yell when he’s ready.” Then Damien led a stricken Jack out of the room, with Duchess trailing sadly along behind.
“I’m going to go find my cat,” Aphrodite said. “I’ll see if I can find your little orange creature, too.”
“Don’t you think we should leave the cats here?” I asked.
Aphrodite raised a blond brow at me. “Since when could cats be told what to do?”
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 asshole 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 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.