Tempted (6 page)

“How could you tell that?” Damien interrupted her. “How could you even guess where you were heading?”

“Easy-peasy for me! I can always find north, you know, the direction of my earth element. Once I find it—I can find anything.”

“Hmm,” he said.

“Go on,” I said. “Then what?”

“Then it ran out. Just, well, stopped. Before you slipped me the note about meeting you here at the sisters’ place, that’s where I stopped, too. I mean, sure, I was plannin’ to go back and check it out some more later, but it really wasn’t a high priority to me. When you told me I might have to move the kids here, I couldn’t quit thinkin’ about the dirt tunnel. I remembered that it had been headed in this direction before it ran out. So I went back there. I thought about where I wanted to go and how I wished the tunnel would go there. Then I pushed again, like I’d done to get the opening bigger, only more so. Then, well, presto-chango, the earth did what I told it to do, and here we are! Ta-da!” She finished with a big smile and a flourish.

Into the silence that surrounded Stevie Rae’s explanation, Sister Mary Angela’s voice sounded utterly normal and reasonable, which made me heart her even more than I already did. “Remarkable, isn’t it? Stevie Rae, you and I may disagree upon the source of your gift, but I am nonetheless in awe of its vastness.”

“Thank you, Sister! I think you’re pretty awesome, too, ’specially for a nun.”

“How did you see down there?” I asked.

“Well, I really don’t have a problem seeing in the dark, but the other kids aren’t as good at it as I am, so I brought some lanterns from the depot tunnels.” Stevie Rae pointed to a few oil lanterns that I hadn’t noticed before in the dark corners of the root cellar.

“Still, it was a long way,” Shaunee was saying.

“Seriously. It must have been dark and creepy,” Erin said.

“Nah, the earth really isn’t creepy to me, or to the red fledglings.” She shrugged. “Like I said, it was no big deal. Actually, it was super-easy.”

“And you managed to get all the red fledglings here safely?” Damien said.

“Yep!”

“Which all?” I asked.

“What do ya mean, which all? That doesn’t make any sense, Z,” she said. “I brought all the red fledgings y’all met before, plus Erik and Heath. Who else are ya talkin’ about?” Her words sounded normal, but she ended with a weird, nervous laugh and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

My stomach clenched. Stevie Rae was
still
lying to me. And I didn’t know what to do about it.

“I think maybe Zoey is feeling confused because she’s exhausted, as she should be after the experience she’s had tonight.” Sister Mary Angela’s warm hand on my shoulder felt as reassuring as her voice. “We’re all tired,” she added. Her smile took in Stevie Rae, the Twins, Aphrodite, and Damien. “Dawn is not long off. Let’s get you settled with the rest of your friends. Sleep. Everything will seem clearer when you’re well rested.”

I nodded wearily and let Sister Mary Angela shepherd us out of the depths of the root cellar and up the staircase we’d come down not too long ago. But instead of continuing up and into the hallway of the abbey, the nun opened a door off the landing I hadn’t noticed when I’d been hurrying after Damien earlier. A shorter staircase led into the main basement area, a big but normal-looking cement basement, which had been transformed by the nuns from a giant laundry room to a temporary dorm. There were a bunch of cots spread out along two walls opposite each other, made up with blankets and pillows and looking cozy. There was a kid-sized mound in one of the beds, and the poof of red hair that was sticking out of the blanket he’d pulled up over most of his head told me that Elliott had already crashed. The rest of the red fledglings were clustered around the washer-dryer area, sitting on those folding metal chairs that always make my butt cold, watching a large flat-screen TV that was perched on top of one of the washers. There was a lot of yawning going on with them, which meant it really must be almost dawn, but they seemed mesmerized by whatever was on TV. I glanced at the screen and felt my tired face break into a big grin.

“
The Sound of Music
? They’re watching
The Sound of Music
?” I laughed.

Sister Mary Angela lifted one eyebrow at me. “It’s one of our favorite DVDs. I thought the fledglings might enjoy it, too.”

“It is a classic,” Damien said.

“I used to think that Nazi kid was cute,” Shaunee said.

“Except he rats out the Von Trapps,” Erin said.

“Which is when he turned not so cute,” Shaunee continued as the Twins grabbed folding chairs and joined the other fledglings in front of the TV.

“But everybody likes Julie Andrews,” Stevie Rae said.

“She shoulda smacked them damn spoiled kids,” Kramisha said from her place in front of the TV. She glanced over her shoulder and gave Sister Mary Angela a tired smile. “Sorry ’bout the ‘damn,’ Sister, but they is brats.”

“They just needed love and attention and understanding, like all children do,” said the sister.

“Okay, barf. Seriously,” Aphrodite said, “before any of you break into a chorus of ‘How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?’ and I have to gnaw through my slender wrists, I’m going to find Darius and my room.” She waggled her brows and started to twitch out of the basement.

“Aphrodite,” Sister Mary Angela called. When Aphrodite paused and looked back at her, the nun continued. “I imagine Darius is still with Stark. Saying good night to him would be just fine, but you’ll find your room on the fourth floor—you’ll be sharing it with Zoey and not with the warrior.”

“Ugh,” I said under my breath.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. “Why does that not surprise me?” And, muttering to herself, she continued to twitch away.

“Sorry, Z,” Stevie Rae said after she rolled her eyes at Aphrodite’s back. “I’d be your roomie again, but I think I should stay down here. Being underground really feels better to me after the sun rises, plus I need to stick close to the red fledglings.”

“That’s okay,” I said a little too quickly.
So now I didn’t even want to be alone with my BFF?

“Is everyone else still upstairs?” Damien asked. I saw him glancing around, and I was pretty sure he was looking for Jack.

I, on the other hand, hadn’t been looking around for
any
of my boyfriends. Actually, after their stupid, testosterone display outside, I was thinking that being boyfriendless sounded better and better.

And then there was Kalona and the memory I wish I’d never had.

“Yeah, everyone else is upstairs in the cafeteria or already in bed. Hey, Earth to Zo! Check it out. The nuns have a massively big selection of Doritos, and I even found some brown pop for you—full of caffeine
and
sugar,” said Heath as he jumped down the last three steps into the basement.

“Thanks, Heath.” I suppressed a sigh as Heath walked over to me and, grinning, offered me some nacho cheese Doritos and a can of brown pop.

“Z, if you’re really okay I’d like to find Jack and be sure Duchess is okay, then I’m going to sleep for a little bit of forever,” Damien said.

“No problem,” I said quickly, not wanting Damien to say anything about my A-ya memory to Heath.

“Where’s Erik?” Stevie Rae asked Heath as I chugged the can of brown pop.

“He’s still outside being all king of the castle.”

“Did you find anything after I left?” Stevie Rae’s voice suddenly got so sharp that several of the red fledglings glanced over from watching Maria and the Von Trapps sing “My Favorite Things.”

“Nah, he’s just a butt and rechecking what Dallas and I already checked.”

Dallas looked up from his place in front of the TV at the sound of his name. “Everything’s cool out there, Stevie Rae.”

Stevie Rae made a
come here
motion at Dallas, and he hurried to join us. She lowered her voice and said, “Fill me in.”

“I already told you outside before you came down here,” Dallas said, his eyes wandering back to the TV screen and cream-colored ponies . . . crisp apple strudel . . .

Stevie Rae gave his arm a smack. “Would you pay attention? I’m not outside anymore. Now I’m in here. So fill me in
again
.”

Dallas sighed, turned his full attention to her and gave her a cute,
indulgent smile. “Okay, okay. But only ’cause you asked so nice.”

Stevie Rae frowned at him and he continued. “Erik, Johnny B, Heath here,” he paused and nodded at Heath, “and me—we searched like you told us to, which was no fun ’cause the ice is really slick and it’s super-cold out there.” He paused. Stevie Rae stared silently at him until he continued. “Anyway,
like you already know,
we were doing that while you were searching down by Twenty-first Street. After a while we all met back at the grotto. That’s when we told you we found those three bodies at the Lewis and Twenty-first Street corner. You told us to take care of them. Then you left. So we did what you said, and then me and Heath and Johnny B came inside to dry off, eat, and watch TV. I guess Erik’s still out there looking around.”

“Why?” Stevie Rae’s voice was sharp.

Dallas shrugged, “Could be like Heath said. The guy’s a butt.”

“Bodies?” said Sister Mary Angela.

Dallas nodded. “Yeah, we found three dead Raven Mockers. Darius shot them out of the sky ’cause they had bullet holes in them.”

Sister Mary Angela lowered her voice. “And what did you do with the dead creatures?”

“Put them in the Dumpsters behind the abbey like Stevie Rae said. It’s freezin’ out there. They’ll keep. And no garbage trucks are gonna be picking up anytime soon, what with the ice and everything. We thought they could stay there till y’all decided what to do with ’em.”

“Oh! Oh, my!” The nun’s face had gone pale.

“You put them in the Dumpsters? I didn’t tell you to put them in the Dumpsters!” Stevie Rae practically yelled.

“Sssh!” Kramisha told her while the TV watchers gave us the stank eye.

Sister Mary Angela motioned for us to follow her, and the five of us went quickly out of the basement, up the stairwell, and into the abbey hall.

“Dallas, I can
not
believe you put ’em in the Dumpsters!” Stevie Rae rounded on him as soon as we were out of earshot of the others.

“What’d you expect us to do with them, dig a grave and say Mass?” Dallas said, then he glanced at Sister Mary Angela. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to blaspheme, Sister. My folks are Catholic.”

“You meant no offense, I’m sure, son,” said the nun, sounding a little shaky. “Bodies . . . I—I hadn’t thought about the bodies.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sister.” Heath patted her arm awkwardly. “You don’t have to mess with them. I get what you’re feeling. This whole thing: the winged guy, Neferet, the Raven Mockers, well, is all hard to—”

“They can’t stay in the dang Dumpsters,” Stevie Rae spoke over Heath as if she hadn’t even heard him. “It’s not right.”

“Why not?” I asked calmly. I’d been quiet until then because I’d been studying Stevie Rae, watching closely as she became more and more upset.

Stevie Rae suddenly didn’t seem to have any problem meeting my gaze. “Because it’s not right, that’s why,” she repeated.

“They were monsters that were part immortal who would have tried their best to kill us all in a split second if Kalona had given them the word,” I said.

“Part immortal and part what?” Stevie Rae asked me.

I frowned at her, but Heath answered before I could. “Part bird?”

“No.” Stevie Rae didn’t even look at him. She kept staring at me. “Not part bird, that’s the immortal part. In their blood they’re part immortal and part human.
Human,
Zoey. I feel sorry for the human part, and think it deserves more than being stuck in the trash.”

There was something about the look in her eye—about the sound of her voice—that really bothered me. I answered her with the first thing that came into my mind. “It takes more than an accident of blood to make me feel sorry for someone.”

Stevie Rae’s eyes flashed and her body jerked, almost like I’d slapped her. “I guess that’s one difference between you and me.”

All of a sudden I realized why Stevie Rae was able to feel bad for the Raven Mockers. In a weird way, she must be seeing herself in them. She’d died and then, due to what I supposed she could call an “accident” she’d resurrected
without
most of her humanity. Then, due to another “accident,” she’d gotten her humanity back. Looking at it that way, I guess she felt sorry for them because she knew what it was like to be part monster, part human.

“Hey,” I said softly, wishing she and I were back at the House of
Night and could talk as easily as we used to. “There’s a big difference between an accident causing something to be born messed up, and something terrible that happens
after
someone’s born. On one hand you’re made the way you are—on the other, something tried to change you into someone you’re not.”

“Huh?” Heath said.

“I believe what Zoey is trying to say is that she understands why Stevie Rae might empathize with the dead Raven Mockers, even when she really has nothing in common with them,” said Sister Mary Angela. “And Zoey would be right. Those creatures are dark beings, and even though I, too, am disconcerted by death, I understand that they needed to die.”