AN: Yeah yeah yeah, I don't own HoN.
Thanks for the reviews
Chapter 11
Zoey
I gasped in pleasure as he sunk his teeth into my skin.
Was this really happening? Stark was drinking from me? Oh my god this is was amazing. I remember from the grove when he drank from me, which was just sooo exhilarating!
He kept drinking and soon we were bonded as a whole, not even two people, but one being. An Imprint.
I reached down and started tugging at his shirt, about to remove it.
I stopped.
"No, it's okay," Stark said into my ear, trying to help me in what I was about to do.
"I, I'm just not ready yet," I stammered.
"Ok," Stark said, and with that he leaned in and closed the wound by running his tongue across it.
"I'm sorry," I said, honestly I was, I didn't want to disappoint him, but I really wasn't ready for this type of thing just yet.
"It's alright, we have lots of time ahead of us, my Queen," Stark said.
"Thanks for understanding, my Guardian" I said putting his hands in mine.
Stark pulled one of my hands up and kissed it softly like someone might, well, a queen. It was sort of silly, but cute.
"Looks like I lost" Stark said, making both of us laugh.
"If you realize what just happened I'd say we both won," I said, thinking about being Imprinted again. Obviously it would be different than with Heath who was human, Stark was my Guardian, so we were bonded even before.
When I woke up Stark wasn't there. I sat up and stared around the room, noticing Stevie Rae had returned.
"Hey Z, mornin'" Stevie Rae grumbled from over on her bed.
"Something the matter?" I asked her, catching the hint of a bad mood.
"Eh, I just don't like couch surfing that much," she said.
"But it couldn't have been that bad, Aphrodite's room is so close," I thought for a second, "why'd you leave anyway?" I asked.
"I did go to Aphrodite's at first, but then I heard noises and thought of possibly walking in on her and Darius doing," she made a gag face, "stuff."
"So then where did you go?" I said, hoping she hadn't actually gone through too much last night.
"To the Twins' room" she said.
"And you slept there?" I said, thinking this was where her little adventure ended last night.
"Kind of."
"Kind of?"
"Yeah. Kind of."
"Well what do you mean, 'kind of'?" I said, curious.
"I went in and they weren't asleep…" she said with a weird look on her face.
"What were they doing then? That's weird." What could they possibly be doing in the middle of the night? [technically it had been light out, but it was this whole day-night-switched thing.]
"Hanging out with Adrien," she grimaced.
"You don't like him?" I asked, it's not like we were really friends yet, I'd just met the guy. But I didn't really see anything really wrong with him.
"No, he's fine. Pretty cute too I guess." She admitted. But I sensed there was something else bothering her.
"But..?" I asked.
"So I go in and tell em I was just trying to give you and Stark a bit of privacy, they're cool with it. So I lay down to get some shut eye, but the thing is, they won't shut up! I love those girls but when they are flirting with some hunky Italian guy, ugh." She finished with a huff of irritation.
"I know what you mean. So what did you do?" I said.
"I left of course, it was ridiculous." She exclaimed.
"Where did you go? Is that when you came back here?" I guessed.
"I did come back here a little later.." she said vaguely.
"Where else did you go?" I asked suspiciously.
"Ok Zo. Pretty much everyone at this school hates me right now, or I can't trust em. Except for you, Stark, Aphrodite, the Twins, Adrien, Lenobia, and.." the last persons' name she said was so quiet that I couldn't hear it. I was pretty sure I was right in my guess though.
"Hm, what was that last one you said? Couldn't quite make that out?" I said, even though I already knew the answer.
"Erik." She said.
"Erik." I repeated, not sure I was hearing her right.
"Yes, Z, Erik. Trust me, it's totally fine. I had nowhere else to go, I just slept in his room for a few hours." Stevie Rae said.
"You slept in his bed with him! Stevie Rae! He's my ex!" I said incredulously.
"No of course I didn't Z! I wouldn't you silly High Priestess. He slept on the floor." He what?
"Stevie Rae, you made him give up his bed and sleep on the floor? That wasn't very nice, it's not like Stark and I needed the room to ourselves." It definitely would have been awkward with Stevie Rae in the room last night, but still, Erik didn't need to suffer for us.
"I didn't! I said all I wanted was to sleep on the floor, but he insisted that a lady should never have to sleep on the hard floor when a man is in a comfy bed mere inches away" it was funny to hear her imitation of Erik's voice.
"He really said that?" I said, happy and a little shocked that Erik had been so nice to Stevie Rae. He kind of needed to repay her for locking her up earlier though, so I guess he was doing a good job.
"Yep, it was real nice." Stevie Rae said.
"Oh yeah, where's Stark?" I asked, because he obviously wasn't here in the room with them.
"Uh I ran into him on my way back, he said he needed to take a walk or something. He said he'd meet us at breakfast. He also wanted me to make sure you were alright because you woke up from some weird Kalona-related dream again." She said, with a worried look on her face by the end of her statement.
"Oh yeah, I did have a dream about Kalona last night." I said.
"Well what was it about?" she asked.
"Kalona wanted to apologize for what he did to Heath and he told me if Rephaim was here than he didn't care if he stayed or something like that." I said to her, trying to remember the rest, "and he said if Rephaim wanted to join him, 'he knows where to find him.'" I said.
"Really? He said Rephaim could stay?" She seemed a little too excited in my opinion.
"But didn't you say he was far away by now?" I reminded her.
"Yeah, probably." Stevie Rae said disappointedly.
"Probably? So you don't know for sure? You never know, he could still be near.." I hated to think of her going off to see a Raven Mocker in her free time but it was worse to see her all sad and whatnot like this.
"It's not like I know his exact location, but I just know he's far away," Stevie Rea said uncertainly.
"Oh. I guess that makes sense" I said.
"Aphrodite! What the hell!" Stevie Rae said in response to our blond friend running in their room naked, barely covered with a white towel.
"Oh, don't even. It's not my fault my shower's broken." She said as she headed for our bathroom.
"What happened to it?" I asked.
"How the hell should I know? I'm not a damn plumber." Normally we would just shrug off her bitchiness, but this made us laugh. A good subject change was always great.
Stevie Rae
It took them a little more time to get ready that morning, what with someone occupying their bathroom for an hour.
Once they all got downstairs most had eaten breakfast so they didn't have anyone to deal with in the kitchen.
Settled in front of her bowl of cereal, Stevie Rae dug in.
Zzz zzz zzz
Her phone vibrated, alerting her that she had a text. She opened it;
Hi
It was from Rephaim. Hi? That wasn't a normal message from him. Then again, it wasn't exactly normal yet to have Rephaim texting her.
So it was pretty easy to text back;
Hello
Stevie Rae smiled to herself. She was glad it wasn't something urgent that made her head hurt.
"What are you grinning about over here?" Zoey's voice came from beside her, where Zoey was sitting down with her Count Chocula.
"Oh nothing, just happy to be home is all," she wasn't really lying, just omitting the other part of the truth.
"Yeah I know what you mean, I suppose things should go back to normal now. At least for awhile." She said, jokingly.
"So what should we do today?" Stevie Rae said, considering there aren't any classes on Saturdays. A'duh.
"I don't know. What do you want to do?" Zoey said.
Go see Rephaim.
What?
Stevie Rae pushed that suggestion to the back of her brain.
Zoey gave her a look, reacting to Stevie Rae's odd expression.
"Hmm. I think I want to take a walk. Have some alone time. Consult with Earth a bit if you catch my drift." She said, trying to sound nonchalant.
Zoey looked at her while she took some more bites of cereal, "Alright. That sounds nice, hope ya have fun." She said as she hopped off her stool and put her dish in the sink.
"Thanks," Stevie Rae said before Zoey walked away.
Was she mad about something?
Stevie Rae couldn't think of anything she might have said to make Z mad.
Zz zzzz zzzz z
"What Rephaim?" she said out loud without thinking.
"Who?" A voice behind her asked, scaring her.
"What? Oh no, I, I wasn't talking to anyone, just talking to myself," Stevie Rae said, lamely.
Aphrodite shrugged and walked away, while muttering, "dang hillbillies."
Stevie Rae paid no attention to her little comment. She opened the awaiting text message;
How are you?
What the hay? Why was he so concerned?
She could have sworn they'd said goodbye back at the museum, for, well, awhile. Now he was texting her like some regular friend? This was confusing.
She typed out her response and pressed send;
I'm doing good. How about you?
She really should have just said 'fine. Bye.' Or something along those lines. She wanted their imprint to go away so they could eventually forget about one another.
That thought sent a searing pain through her chest.
No.
She didn't want that, not really.
She wanted to be around him, and feel his presence.
She felt the next message arrive and looked at her phone.
I'm surviving.
What does that mean? He was surviving, but not good?
Stevie Rae responded;
Is there something wrong?
She waited. By now she was outside, heading for a tree in her sight that was big and looked very welcoming.
Once she was on the ground in front of the old oak, leaning her back against it, she opened her phone to see the message she knew was there.
Life is dull.
Stevie Rae laughed quietly to herself as she replied.
Yes it is, but there isn't much I can do for you.
The next message she got was surprising.
Rephaim: I wish to see you.
Stevie Rae: Why?
Rephaim: Life isn't much lately, I am terribly bored.
Stevie Rae: What about your father? Haven't you missed him? Have you found him yet?
Rephaim: I have missed him, but no, I stopped my quest in going back to him.
Stevie Rae: How come?
Rephaim: I don't know.
Stevie Rae: What are you talking about?
Rephaim: It doesn't matter. When can I see you?
Stevie Rae didn't know if seeing him anytime soon was such a good idea. She wanted to. But she shouldn't. But there were questions she'd rather ask in person…
Stevie Rae: When are you gonna be back in town?
It was a little longer wait than normal before he responded.
Rephaim: I am in town now.
Stevie Rae: Where?
Rephaim: Around. When can we meet?
She hesitated. Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to leave the school grounds.
Stevie Rae: Today. Meet me behind the museum that you hid in before. In an hour.
Rephaim: Okay. See you then.
End of Chapter 11
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