Hunted

because, hello! I don’t eat my friends! I thought about Heath and decided to amend my thought: I don’t eat my friends under normal circumstances and unless they give me their permission.
    “I can clean it,” Darius said, reaching for the alcohol wipe I was balling up in my fisted hand.
    “No,” I said, then repeated more firmly, shaking my head to try to clear away the wooziness in it. “No, that’s ridiculous. You’re hurt; I’ll do it. Just walk me through what I need to do.” I paused, before I continued, “Darius, we have to get out of here.”
    “I know,” he said solemnly.
    “You don’t know all of why. I overheard Kalona and Neferet talking. They said they were planning some kind of a new future, and then said it would involve ‘swaying the Council.’ ”
    Darius’s eyes widened in shock. “Nyx’s Council? As in the High Council of Vampyres?”
    “I don’t know! They didn’t say anything else about it. I guess they could have been talking about the Council here at the House of Night.”
    He studied my face. “But you do not believe that is what they were referring to?”
    I shook my head slowly.
    “Sweet Nyx! It cannot be done!”
    I frowned, wishing my gut wasn’t disagreeing with him. “I’m afraid there’s a chance it can be done. Kalona is powerful, and he has that magical draw-people-to-him thing going on. Look, the bottom line is we can’t be trapped under Neferet’s control while she and the bird guy put their disgusting plan in motion—whatever that plan might be.” Actually, I was scared that they’d already put their disgusting plan in motion, but saying it out loud felt like a spell that would make it be true. “So can’t we just get you fixed up, grab Aphrodite, the Twins, and Damien, and go back to the tunnels?” I felt precariously close to bursting into tears. “I’m all better, and I think it’s worth the chance of drowning in my own blood to get the hell out of here.”
    “Agreed, and I believe Neferet has healed you enough that you will not be in danger of rejecting the Change, even if you are not among a full fold of vampyres.”
    “Are you okay enough to leave?”
    “I told you I am fine, and I was speaking the truth. Let us get this cleaned up and then we will leave this place.”
    “I like the tunnels better.” I surprised myself by admitting out loud what I had been thinking, but Darius nodded solemnly in agreement. “It is because it feels safe there, and it is definitely no longer safe here,” he said.
    “Did you notice Neferet?” I asked him.
    “If you mean did I notice the Priestess’s power seems to have increased—yes, I did.”
    “Great. I almost wish I was just imagining things,” I muttered.
    “Your instincts are good, and they’ve been warning you about Neferet for quite a while.” He paused. “Kalona’s hypnotic power is unusual. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
    “Yeah,” I said, cleaning the blood off his face. “But I think I’ve broken whatever hold he was having over me.” I refused to admit, even to myself, that though the hypnotic effect was gone, I still had had a powerful reaction to his kiss. “Hey, did Kalona look different to you?”
    “Different? How so?”
    “Younger, like he’s not even as old as you.” I guessed that Darius was somewhere in his early to mid-twenties—or at least that’s how old he appeared to me.
    Darius gave me a long, considering look. “No, Kalona appeared the same as when first I’d seen him—ageless, but not in a way that could ever be mistaken for a teenager. Perhaps he has the ability to alter his appearance to please you.”
    I wanted to deny it, and then I remembered what he’d called me just before he kissed me. It had been the same name he’d called me during my nightmare. My response to him is almost automatic, as if my soul recognizes him, my mind whispered traitorously. A terrible fear shivered through my body, causing the little hairs on my arms and the back of my neck to stand straight up. “He calls me A-ya,” I said.
    “The name sounds familiar. What does it mean?”
    “It’s the name of the maiden the Ghigua women created to trap Kalona.”
    Darius sighed deeply. “Well, at least we now know why he’s so intent upon protecting you. He thinks you are the maiden he loved.”
    “I think it was more obsession than love,” I said quickly, not wanting to even consider the idea that Kalona could possibly have loved A-ya. “Plus, we