Hunted

feel stupid at all. It felt right. It’s just that he was so incredible! His skin was completely free of any blemish and was the golden tan that white girls try but always fail to get by roasting in tanning beds. His hair was thick and black. It was long but not ridiculously Fabio long. It was just kinda shaggy and had a cute wave to it. The more I looked at it, the more I could imagine running my fingers through it. Not heeding Aphrodite’s warning, I looked directly into his eyes and felt a jolt of electricity sizzle through me as his eyes widened in recognition, and that jolt seemed to zap even more of my already almost nonexistent strength. I sagged in Darius’s arms, so weak I could hardly hold my head up.
    “She is wounded!” Kalona’s voice boomed down the hall. Even Neferet cringed. “Why is she not being tended?”
    I heard the sickening sound of huge wings fluttering, and then Rephaim stepped out of the room Kalona had just been in. I shivered as I realized the Raven Mocker must have flown up to the window and then crawled in from there. Isn’t there any place aboveground that the horrid things couldn’t get to?
    “Father, I ordered the warrior to take the priestess to the infirmary so that she could be properly cared for.” Rephaim’s unnatural voice sounded even more obscene after hearing the majesty of Kalona.
    “Oh, bullshit!” Completely shocked, I stared openmouthed at Aphrodite, who was giving the Raven Mocker her best bitchy sneer. She tossed back her thick blond hair as she continued, “Bird boy kept us out there in the freezing rain while he yammered about the Red One this and the Red One that. Darius got Zoey in here despite his help .” Aphrodite air-quoted over the word “help.”
    There was utter silence in the hallway, and then Kalona threw back his beautiful head and laughed. “I had forgotten how amusing human women can be.” With a graceful movement of his hand he gestured to Darius. “Bring the young priestess here so that she may be tended.”
    I could feel Darius’s reluctance in the tension of his body, but he did as Kalona ordered, with my friends at his side. We reached Neferet and the infirmary door at the same time Kalona did.
    “Your duty is finished here, Warrior,” Kalona told Darius. “Neferet and I shall attend her now.” And the fallen angel opened his arms as if he expected Darius to give me to him. With that movement the enormous raven-feathered wings that had until then been tucked neatly against his back, rustled and half opened.
    I wanted to reach out and touch those wings and was glad I was too weak to do more than stare.
    “My duty is not finished.” Darius’s voice was as tense as his body. “I have sworn to care for this young priestess, and I must stay by her side.”
    “I’m staying, too,” Aphrodite said.
    “And I stay.” Damien sounded small and shaky, but I saw that his fists were still clenched firmly by his sides.
    “Us, too,” Erin said, and Shaunee nodded grimly.
    It was Neferet’s turn to laugh. “Surely you don’t think you can stay with Zoey through my examination?” The amusement in her voice disappeared. “Stop being ridiculous! Darius, take her into that room and leave her on the bed. If you insist, you may wait here in the hall for her, though by the look of you, the wiser choice would be for you to eat and refresh yourself. After all, you have brought Zoey home, where she is safe, so you have completed your charge. The rest of you return to the dorms. The human part of the city might be paralyzed by a simple storm, but we are not humans. Life goes on for us, which means school goes on.” She paused and gave Aphrodite a look so filled with hatred that it twisted her face into something that was too hard and cold to keep even a tiny bit of its beauty. “But you are now a human, are you not, Aphrodite?”
    “I am,” Aphrodite said. Her face was pale, but she lifted her chin and met Neferet’s frigid gaze.
    “Then you belong out there.” Neferet made a vague motion away from us.
    “No, she doesn’t,” I said. Concentrating on Neferet had broken the spell staring at Kalona had cast over me. I barely recognized my own voice. It sounded like a whispery, weak old woman, but Neferet didn’t have any problem hearing me, and she turned her attention from Aphrodite to me. “Aphrodite still has visions from Nyx. She belongs here,” I managed to say, even though I had to blink rapidly because gray spots kept