Hunted

had passed when Darius came to an abrupt halt in front of the blanketed entrance to Stevie Rae’s room. He shoved inside. Stevie Rae was sitting up, rubbing her eyes and peering blurrily at us. Then her mouth opened in utter shock and she bounded off the bed.
    “Zoey! What happened?”
    “Raven Mocker,” Darius said. “Clear those things off that table.”
    Stevie Rae knocked the stuff off the table that sat by the end of her bed. I wanted to protest that she really shouldn’t make such a mess. I mean, I was sure she’d broken a glass or two and sent a whole bunch of DVDs flying across the room, but not only was my voice not working right, but I was really busy trying not to pass out from the terrible pain that was slicing through the top part of my body as Darius placed me on the table.
    “What can we do? What can we do?” Stevie Rae repeated the question. I thought she looked like a little lost girl and I noticed that she was crying, too.
    “Take her hand. Talk to her. Keep her conscious,” Darius said. And then he turned away and started throwing stuff out of the first aid kit.
    “Zoey, can you hear me?” I could feel that Stevie Rae had hold of my hand, but just barely.
    It took what felt like a superhuman effort, but I whispered, “Yeah.”
    Stevie Rae clutched my hand harder. “You’re gonna be okay. ’Kay? Nothin’ can happen to you, ’cause I don’t know what I’d do—” Her voice caught on a sob, and then she said, “You can’t die ’cause you’ve always believed the best of me, so I’ve tried to be what you believe I am. Without you, well, I’m afraid the good in me will die, too, and I’ll give in to the darkness. Plus, there are so many things I still need to tell you. Important things.”
    I wanted to tell her not to be silly, that she wasn’t making sense and I wasn’t going anywhere, but through the pain and the numbness I was starting to get a strange feeling. The only way I could describe it was as a sense of not-rightness. Whatever had happened, whatever was going on with me, that was the source of the not-rightness. And this new feeling, more than the blood—more than the fear in my friends’ faces—was telling me that something was so wrong with me that I might, indeed, be going somewhere.
    It was then that the pain began to recede, and I decided that if this was what it felt like to die, then it was better than living and hurting like hell.
    Heath burst into the room, came straight to me, and took my other hand. He barely looked at Stevie Rae. Instead, he smoothed the hair out of my face.
    “How are ya, babe? Still holding on?”
    I tried to smile at him, but he seemed so far away that I couldn’t make the change in expression reach him.
    The Twins ran into the room with Kramisha close behind them.
    “Oh no!” Erin stopped several feet from where I was and pressed her hand against her mouth.
    “Zoey?” I thought Shaunee looked confused. Then she blinked several times, her gaze traveled down my body, and she burst into tears.
    “That don’t look good,” Kramisha said. “Not good at all.” She paused and then her eyes went from me to Heath, whose attention was so focused on me I swear he didn’t look like he’d notice if a giant white elephant in a tutu danced into the room. “Ain’t that the human kid who was down here before?”
    I don’t know why, but except for my own body, which didn’t seem to belong to me anymore, I had become majorly aware of everything that was going on around me. The Twins were holding hands and bawling so hard snot was running from their noses. Darius was still digging through the first aid kit. Stevie Rae was patting my hand and trying (unsuccessfully) not to cry. Heath was whispering silly butchered lines from Titanic to me. In other words, everyone was focused on me—except Kramisha. She was staring hungrily at Heath. Little warning bells started ringing in my mind and I tried to struggle to regain awareness of my body. I needed to warn Heath to be on his guard. I needed to tell him he should leave this place before something bad happened to him.
    “Heath,” I managed to whisper.
    “I’m here, babe. I’m not going anywhere.”
    I did a mental eye roll. Heath and his heroics were cute and all, but I was afraid they were going to get him eaten by Stevie Rae’s red fledglings.
    “Hey, ain’t you the human kid who was down here before? The one Zoey came after?” Kramisha had moved closer to Heath. Her eyes had