Free Hunted by P.C. Cast Page A

Aphrodite jerked hard enough on his hand to pull him from the room. Then she stuck her head back through the doorway. “Good night. Don’t bother us.” And she disappeared.
    “Better him than me,” I heard Erik mutter as he watched the blanket swing back into place. I made no attempt to hide my smile. I was glad Erik wasn’t still interested in Aphrodite. Erik met my eyes. And slowly he smiled, too.

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    CHAPTER SEVEN

    “No, you two go on. Catch up with the others. I’m just gonna sleep,” Stevie Rae said as she curled onto her side, moving gingerly.
    There was a grumpy “mee-uf-ow” and a chubby little orange ball of fur padded into the room and jumped up on Stevie Rae’s bed.
    “Nala!” Stevie Rae scratched the top of my cat’s head. “Hey, I’ve missed you.”
    Nala sneezed in Stevie Rae’s face and then made three rotations on the pillow beside her head, lay down, and started up her purr engine. Stevie Rae and I grinned at each other.
    Okay—SPECIAL NOTE: Duchess, Jack’s yellow Lab, is an anomaly. Stark brought her with him when he transferred to our school from the Chicago House of Night. Then he died. Jack adopted her. Then he un-died, but was obviously not himself, ’cause the first thing he did was shoot an arrow through Stevie Rae. Hence the fact Duchess is still with Jack. Plus I think the kid’s really getting attached to her.
    Anyway, when the group of us escaped from the House of Night, our cats, plus Duchess, followed us. So seeing Nala making herself comfortable added a comfy, homelike touch to Stevie Rae’s room for Stevie Rae and me.
    “You and Erik go on. Get a shower or whatever,” Stevie Rae repeated sleepily as she cuddled with Nala. “Nal and I’ll take a little nap. Oh, you can catch the rest of them if you go out, turn left, and then keep circling to your right. The entrance to the depot is by the room where we keep the fridges.”
    “Hey, Darius said I should check your bandages,” I reminded her.
    “Later,” she yawned massively. “They’re fine.”
    “Okay, if you say so.” I tried not to show the relief I felt. No way was I ever going to be anything resembling a nurse. “Get some sleep. I’ll be back in a little while,” I said. I swear she was out before Erik and I ducked through the checkered blanket.
    We turned to our left and walked without saying anything for a little way. The tunnels were less creepy than when I’d been down here before, but that didn’t make them unclaustrophobic and bright and cheery. Every few yards there were lanterns staked with what looked like railroad spikes into the cement walls at about eye level, but the dampness permeated everything. We hadn’t gone far when something caught at the corner of my eyes and I slowed down, peering into the heavy shadows between the lanterns.
    “What is it?” Erik asked softly.
    My stomach tightened with fear. “I don’t know, I—” My words broke off as something exploded out of the darkness at me. I’d opened my mouth to shriek, imagining feral red fledglings or, worse, the horror of the Raven Mockers. But Erik’s arm went around me and he pulled me out of the way of half a dozen bats, who fluttered past.
    “They’re as scared of you as you are of them,” he said, taking his arm from around me as soon as the creatures were past us.
    I shuddered, trying to force my heart to beat regularly again. “Okay, no possible way could they be as scared of me as I am of them. Eesh, bats are rats with wings.”
    He chuckled as we started walking again. “I thought pigeons were rats with wings.”
    “Bat, pigeons, ravens—I don’t care about distinctions right now. Any fluttery, flappy thing is not cool with me.”
    “I see your point,” he said, smiling at me. His smile didn’t do much to help my heartbeat slow down, and as we kept walking, I swear I could still feel the warmth of his arm around my shoulders. In a few more feet we came to a section of the tunnel that was as amazing as