Tempted (28 page)

Agony seared through Rephaim. His broken wing was on fire, lighting his body with white-hot agony. With everything inside him he wished he was whole again so that he could destroy this arrogant red fledgling with one slice of his beak.

But he wasn’t whole. He was weak and wounded and abandoned.

“My father wanted her captured. He said she was dangerous. Neferet didn’t trust her. I am not obsessed. I am only following my father’s will,” he choked out through the pain.

“How about we see if you’re really telling us the truth,” Nicole said. Then she tightened her already viselike grip on his arm, closed her eyes, and bowed her head.

Incredibly, Rephaim felt her palms begin to heat. The heat radiated through him, tracing his bloodstream, pounding in time with the frantic beating of his heart, and slamming into his body.

A shudder went through Nicole, then she opened her eyes and lifted her head. Her smile was sly. She continued to hold him against the wall for one very long minute more before she dropped him. Looking down at where he’d crumpled on the floor, she said, “She saved you.”

“What the fuck?” Kurtis shouted.

“Stevie Rae saved him?” Starr said.

Nicole and Rephaim acted as if neither had spoken.

“She did,” Rephaim gasped, fighting to get his breathing under control so he wouldn’t pass out. Then he said nothing more, only tried to figure out what had just happened while he breathed through the radiating pain in his wing. The red fledgling had done something
to him when she’d touched him—something that had given her a glimpse into his mind, maybe even his soul. But he also knew that he was unlike any being she’d ever before touched; his thoughts would be difficult, if not nearly impossible for her to read, no matter her talents.

“Why would Stevie Rae do that?” Nicole asked him.

“You saw into my mind. You know that I have no idea why she did what she did.”

“That much is true,” she said slowly. “It’s also true that I didn’t pick up that you have any bad feelings toward her. What’s with that?”

“I’m not sure what you mean. Bad feelings? That makes no sense to me.”

She scoffed. “No sense—like you have any sense? Your mind was the weirdest thing I’ve ever looked into. So it’s like this, birdboy, you say you’re still doing what your dad told you to do. At the very least that should mean you want to capture her—maybe kill her.”

“My father did not want her killed. He wanted her brought to him unharmed so he could study her, and maybe use her powers,” Rephaim said.

“Whatever. But, see, the problem is, when I looked into that bird-brain of yours, I didn’t find anything that said you’re after her.”

“Why would I be after her right now? She isn’t here.”

Nicole shook her head. “No, see, that’s just weird. If you want to get Stevie Rae, you
want to get her,
whether she’s here or not.”

“That isn’t logical.”

Nicole stared at him. “Look, this is what I have to know. Are you with us or not?”

“With you?”

“Yeah,
with us
. We’re going to kill Stevie Rae.” She spoke matter-of-factly while she moved with her preternatural speed to his side and grasped his arm in her iron grip. Rephaim’s bicep heated instantly as she probed his thoughts. “So, what’s your choice? Are you with us, or not?”

Rephaim knew he had to answer. Nicole might not be able to read all of his thoughts, but obviously she had enough power that she could discover things he’d rather keep hidden. Making the decision
quickly, he met the red fledgling’s scarlet gaze with his own and said truthfully, “I am my father’s son.”

She stared at him, her hand burning the flesh of his arm and her eyes glowing red. Then she smiled her sly smile again. “Good answer, birdboy, ’cause that’s the major thing I found inside your bird head. You definitely are your dad’s kid.” She let loose of him. “Welcome to my team, and don’t worry. Since your dad’s not here right now, I don’t think he’ll care whether Stevie Rae’s dead or alive when you catch her.”

“And dead’s easier,” Kurtis said.

“Most definitely,” Starr said.

Nicole laughed, sounding so much like Neferet that the feathers at the nape of Rephaim’s neck lifted in response.
Father! Beware!
His mind shrieked,
The Tsi Sgili is more than what she seems!

“Heath, what are you doing in here?”

Heath clutched his chest like she’d shot him and staggered around, making mock gasping sounds. “Your coldness is killing me, baby!”

“You are a dork,” she said. “If anything’s killing you, it’s your absolute lack of good sense. So, what
are
you doing in here? I thought you’d be out there doing bird burning with Darius and Shaunee.”

“Well, I was gonna, ’cause they can definitely use my superhuman strength to help them out.” He waggled his brows at her and flexed. Then he plopped onto the bench beside her. “But Stark found me and said you needed me—so here I am.”

“Stark was wrong. You should go back and help Darius.”

“You look bad, Zo,” he said, all kidding gone from his tone.

I sighed. “I’ve been through a bunch of stufflately, that’s all—just like all of us have.”

“Helping the hurt kids kicked your butt,” he said.

“Well, yeah, it did. But I’ll be okay. I just need to get today over with so I can get some sleep. That’s all.”

Heath watched me for a little while without speaking, then he held his hand out to me. It was an automatic reflex for me to thread my fingers through his.

“Zo, I’m trying hard not to let it drive me crazy that you have some kind of special thing with Stark—something you don’t have with me.”

“It’s a Warrior Bond. I can only have it with a vampyre.” I said the
words apologetically, and I was sorry—sorry that I kept hurting this guy whom I’d loved since grade school.

“Yeah, I heard about that. Anyway, what I was sayin’ is that I’m trying to deal with the Stark thing, but it makes it doubly hard for me when you push me away.”

I couldn’t say anything because I knew exactly what he was really talking about. It was why Stark had sent him in here. Heath wanted me to drink from him. Just thinking about it made my mouth water and my breath come faster.

“I know you want to,” he whispered.

Unable to meet his eyes, I stared down at our joined hands. In the dim light of the deserted cafeteria the tattoos on my palms were almost invisible and our hands looked so ordinary—so much like they’d looked for so many years that it made my stomach hurt.

“You know I want you to.”

I met his gaze then. “I know you do. I just can’t, Heath.”

I expected him to explode and get all pissed, but instead he deflated. His shoulders sagged and he shook his head. “Why won’t you let me help you in the one real way I can?”

I drew a deep breath and told him the complete truth. “Because I can’t deal with the sex part of it right now.”

He blinked in surprise at me. “Is that the only reason?”

“Sex is a kinda big reason,” I said.

“Well, yeah, not that I’d know from experience, but still I get what you’re saying.”

I felt my cheeks get warm. Heath was still a virgin? I’d thought for sure that after I was Marked and left my human life for the House of Night, my ex-BFF had totally gone after him. Actually, I
knew
skanky Kayla had gone after him.

“What about Kayla? I thought you two hooked up after I left .”

He gave a humorless little laugh. “She wishes. Not no, but hell, no. I wasn’t with Kayla. There’s only one girl for me.” The humorlessness left his expression and he grinned at me. “And even though you’re a big-time High Priestess and so not technically just a ‘girl’ anymore, to me you’re still my girl.”

Again, I didn’t know what to say. I’d always thought when I had
sex for the first time it would be with Heath, but then I’d messed up majorly and lost my virginity to Loren Blake, which was literally the biggest mistake of my life. It still made me feel sick and more than a little guilty.

“Hey, stop thinking about Blake. You can’t change what happened with him, so let’s forget it.”

“Are you a mind reader now?”

“I’ve always been able to get inside your head, Zo.” His grin faded. “Well, I guess I haven’t been able to do that so good recently.”

“I’m sorry about all of this, Heath. I hate that it hurts you.”

“I’m not a kid anymore. I knew what I was getting into when I got in my truck and drove to Tulsa to see you. It doesn’t have to be easy between us, but it does have to be honest.”

“Okay. I want to be honest, too. So I’m telling you the truth when I tell you that I can’t let myself drink from you. I can’t deal with what will happen between us because of it. I’m not ready to have sex, even if the whole world wasn’t going to hell in a handbasket all around us.”

“Hell in a handbasket—you sound like your grandma when you say that.”

“Heath, changing the subject won’t change my mind. I’m not having sex, so I’m not drinking from you.”

“Jeesh, Zo, I’m not a moron; I get that,” he said. “So we don’t have sex. We’ve spent a whole lot of years not having sex. We’re experienced at it.”

“There’s more to it than just wanting each other. You know what the Imprint does to both of us. It was intense enough before when I was hurt so bad I was almost dead. It would be that times ten if I drank from you now.”

Heath swallowed hard and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, okay, I know that. But here’s what I’m saying about it—the Imprint goes both ways, right? While you’re drinking my blood you feel stuff I feel, and I feel stuff you feel.”

“Yeah, and the ‘stuff’ is all about pleasure and sex,” I said.

“Okay, so, instead of us focusing on the sex part, we’ll focus on the pleasure part.”

I raised my brows at him. “You’re a guy, Heath. Since when do you
not
focus on the sex part?”

Instead of the kidding response I expected, his expression was absolutely serious. “When have I ever pressured you about sex?”

“There was that time in the tree house.”

“You were in fourth grade. That doesn’t count. Plus you knocked the crap out of me.” He didn’t exactly smile, but his brown eyes twinkled.

“How about the back of your truck last summer at the lake?”

“You really can’t count that, either. You had that new bikini on. And I didn’t actually pressure you.”

“You had your hands all over me.”

“Well, there was a lot of you showing!” He paused, lowering his voice to a normal level again. “My point is, we’ve been together for a long time. We can definitely be together without having sex. Do I want to have sex with you? Hell, yes. Do I want to have sex with you when your head is all messed up from that Blake guy and you’re worried as hell about everything that’s going on, and
you don’t actually want to have sex with me
? Hell, no! Hell, hell, no.” He put his finger under my chin and made me meet his gaze. “I promise that this won’t be about sex because you and me, what we have, means more than sex. Let me do this for you, Zoey.”

My mouth opened and before I could stop it I heard myself whisper, “Okay.”

His smile was like he’d just won the Super Bowl. “Excellent!”

“But no sex,” I said.

“Absolutely none at all. Just call me Heath No Sex. Hell, my middle name is No Sex.”

“Heath.” I put a finger on his lips to shut him up. “You’re dorking this up.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay,” he mumbled around my finger. Then he let loose my hand and reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out a small pocketknife. He slid off his coat and opened the knife. The blade looked weirdly like a kid’s toy in the dark cafeteria.

“Hang on!” I kinda shrieked when he started to lift the knife to the side of his neck.

“What?”

“Um. Right here? We’re doing this right here?”

He raised his brows at me. “Why not? We’re not having sex, remember?”

“Of course I remember,” I said. “It’s just, well, someone might come in.”

“Stark’s guarding the door. No one will get past him.”

That shocked me into silence. I mean, obviously this had been Stark’s idea, but guarding the door to make sure Heath and I had private time? That was just—

The scent of Heath’s blood hit me and all thoughts of Stark flew from my mind. My eyes found the small ribbon of red that lay along the soft spot where his neck met his shoulder. He shifted, putting the knife on the table and holding his arms open to me.

“Come here, Zo. It’s just you and me right now. No one else for you to think about. No one else for you to worry about. Come here,” he repeated.

I went into his arms inhaling his scent: Heath, blood, desire, home, and my past all wrapped up together in a strong, familiar embrace. When my tongue touched the line of scarlet I felt him shiver and knew he was suppressing a moan of pure desire. I hesitated, but it was too late. His blood exploded in my mouth. Unable to stop myself, I pressed my lips against his skin and drank. At that moment I didn’t care that I wasn’t ready for sex, or that the world around me was one big ball of chaos, or even that we were in the middle of the cafeteria while Stark guarded the door (and probably was experiencing everything I was feeling). At that moment all I cared about was Heath and his blood and his body and his touch.