HON belongs to PC and Kristen Cast - and google or read PC's blog for images of her and the real-life Seoras. They're dating and she absolutely glows :-D.

Kalona is in Vegas.

"In Vegas?" I repeated. My mind immediately flashed to Kalona in my dream. That didn't look like Vegas… Both Heath and Erik looked at me funny. "Are you sure?"

Aphrodite snorted delicately from her spot on the dorm lounge couch. "We should have thought of that a while ago. Vegas is perfect. Lots of vamps, and the casinos really frown on cameras and cell phones. Perfect place for him to lie low and not attract a lot of attention."

"Wings and worshiping minions don't get attention?" Erin asked.

"Not in Vegas," Aphrodite shrugged.

"Aphrodite is right about the wings," Jack said, sounding flustered. "But it's not just Vegas. Wings are everywhere – it's a new faery crazy. It was really hard following up on all the tweets and blogs and google alerts because I kept getting so many dead ends."

"Faery craze?" Shaunee asked.

"Wings are in," Jack answered, sounding very much like a gay fashionista for a second.

"A fashion we missed, Twin?" Erin asked. "I don't think so."

"It's very new. I think it has to be connected to Kalona somehow but I can't figure out how. I just know in the past few weeks we've got wings in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Orleans… and the big designers are all tweeting about faeries… nothing outside the US, but it's just me and my laptop," he added apologetically, "so I'm awful worried that I'm missing a bunch, but I'm doing the best I can."

I was a little overwhelmed. I'd just figured Aphrodite and her visions would be our early-warning system. I hadn't asked Jack to use his uber-techno-geek skills, and I was fighting between wanting to kick myself for overlooking him and wanting to hug him for being so on top of things. I'd basically fallen down on the job, not using everyone's skills in tracking down Kalona. Luckily my friends were smarter than me, but I was not making a good showing as a high priestess just yet. I just had to hope that I was really learning from all my mistakes.

In the meantime, the enormity of what we were trying to do hit me again. Kalona could be working on a global scale and we were just a bunch of kids. I pushed all that away so I could at least sound like a priestess who knew what the hell she was doing. "You're doing great, Jack. Tell us what you need and we'll help." (And yeah, I didn't want to think too hard just then about what I'd been doing to "help".)

"Thanks," Jack blushed. "I've got my own system for filtering all the information that comes in and following up on leads, but maybe it would help to have more eyes looking at things."

"Say no more," Erin grinned.

"We're tired of sitting around waiting for the next crisis. It'd be kind of nice to see it coming. We're all yours." Shawnee said.

Damien kissed Jack's cheek. "Good job, you."

I tried not to take the "sitting around waiting" comment personally. "So Kalona is in Vegas," I said. I got more weird looks from Heath and Erik, but I'd have to deal with them later. "How do you know?"

"Stark?" Jack asked.

"All you."

Jack opened his laptop and fiddled with a few things, then the huge flatscreen on the wall lit up and started to look like a giant version of his desktop. "I've been hitting dead ends all month," he said, pulling up a couple different windows. "I'm pretty sure some of the weirder giant bird blog and twitter mentions are Raven Mockers, but no Kalona. Lots of hot guys with wings, but all the video I get is human or vamp. I was following up on another tweet tonight that seemed right in a scary way. Let me get the exact post…" he pulled up Twitter, and scrolled up to some posts almost a day ago. He highlighted the one he wanted us to see and read it out loud – he and Damien were clearly soulmates in the professor-wannabe department. "HumanVegasCop said 'New winged resident, pretty boy, vamps love him, humans 50/50. Came from nowhere, no history. No case, tell me if you know my new friend.'"

"Carefully phrased," Darius noted.

"Yeah, that's what Stark thought, too. So I did my usual, used one of my twitter accounts – I've got twenty, so I'm harder to track - to ask for video. He said it'd be pretty hard in the casino because of the no cameras rule, but he had an idea and would get back to me. A few hours ago he sent me this."

He typed and clicked a few things, then the giant desktop went away and the screen was filled with a grainy, wobbly picture, obviously in low light, maybe from someone's cell phone. The frame moved and Kalona filled the screen, standing in front of a door in what looked like a hotel hallway. Even in the grainy video, he was, sadly, breathtaking – my breath, anyway. His wings seemed to absorb light, they were so black, and the fringe of feathers at the edges dripped like black ink. He was still bare-chested, denim riding low on his hips; smooth, perfect skin over perfect muscles. He was looking away, so the video only showed him in profile, but profile was more than enough. The corner of his mouth turned up in a beautiful, seductive smile, and his eyes were warm. He pulled someone closer, and that someone joined him in front of the door.

I felt a stab of jealousy. Not just a stab: a full, end-of-Braveheart evisceration. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Heath drop himself onto one of the lounge couches, and on the other side of me, Erik clenched his jaw so tight he was grinding his teeth. Kalona spread his wings: a mesmerizing expansion, like a full body, morning-after-an-amazing-night stretch. He curved them forward – around her.

I'd been in Kalona's arms a couple of times – in the infirmary after Neferet had healed me from the Raven Mocker attack, and when Kalona got into my dreams and Stark interrupted – but I'd been more than a little distracted both times. I hadn't really paid attention to his wings. Now, watching him hold a girl who wasn't me, I concentrated on his wings so I wouldn't start crying.

I guess I'd thought that his wings were a little like hands. Instead, his wings were a whole other magnificent creation, something that worked like no other part of a human body, but something a human body was obviously missing. He surrounded the girl in softness, draping his wings around her like a cloak. Each feather was under his control, and he brushed them all along her body, caressing her arms, her waist, her legs, all the way down to the sides of her slender feet – she was up on her tip-toes, balancing on delicate, barely-there but insanely high strappy stiletto heels. As he leaned over her, I saw just how big those wings were - the tips of those inky black feathers brushed the floor.

He cradled her closer, supporting her in a beautiful lacework of feathers, so light and airy and fragile-looking, but obviously so solid and strong. Oh-so-slowly, he bent and pressed his lips against her neck. His kiss was whisper-light and she dropped her head back, relaxing into his embrace in a complete, trusting surrender. He drew her closer, those strong feathers overlapping in a lattice that held her effortlessly, and she nearly floated on the blanket of his wings as his hands trailed over the rest of her body.

My body reacted really inappropriately – as in, it reacted just like Kalona was cradling me in his wings and kissing my skin. I nearly had to sit on my hands to keep myself from reaching out, wanting to feel the ticking softness of his feathers against my fingers.

Ah. Hell.

I could barely control myself, and Kalona wasn't even here.

Erin saved me from having to say anything, which was good because I couldn't breathe, much less talk. "Damn."

"Scary bird boy is still hotness incarnate," Shawnee sighed.

"Focus, hormone-morons," Aphrodite snapped. "So Kalona is in Vegas, here's proof. Why am I losing beauty sleep when you could have texted me this oh-so-earth-shattering news?"

"Wait." Stark's voice was flat, but it cut through Aphrodite's annoyance and me dealing with my overwhelming physical response.

Aphrodite pinched her lips together but actually listened to him. It took just a second more to see what Stark meant.

The girl on the video turned her head, and even with the closed eyes and blissful expression, it was obvious: the girl was me. Okay, not really me, but a girl who was gotta-look-twice similar. Same long, dark, kind of nappy hair, same strong Cherokee – or native-something – nose. Her chin was different, more pointy, and her cheekbones were (sadly) better than mine. But her eyes were exactly the same shape, and when she opened them, she looked directly at the camera. She narrowed her eyes, obviously pissed about being watched or recorded or interrupted – or probably all three – then her mouth curved in a pretty smile when Kalona whispered something in her ear. At that moment, it was eerily like looking at a really good, pre-Marked photo of myself.

Looking at her was hard, but it was still easier than looking at Kalona. "Huh," I said, trying to sound casual - but my throat was tight and I failed utterly. I looked over at Stark – he'd stayed by the stairs, looking very Warrior-protector-ish – "You could have warned me."

He cracked his trademark cocky grin. "I had other things on my mind."

"Sorry, Z," Jack said, sounding truly worried. "I should have shown you first, in private."

Yes, he should have. Okay, not really, but sheesh, I didn't need to see that, not in front of everyone. I felt like screaming.

"I just thought you'd want everyone together so we can figure out what Kalona is doing."

"Yeah, Z.," Erik sounded tired. "What's Kalona doing?"

Something about the way he said it was… weird. Everybody else turned to look at him, too. "What do you mean?"

He looked right at me then, and his eyes were dangerous, almost as bad as the other night. I took a step back and Stark was by my side, clearly between me and Erik, in an instant.

Erik shrugged, and took an obvious step, in a definitely threatening way, so he was closer to me and less blocked by Stark. Stark stayed put, but he was practically vibrating beside me. Erik didn't move any more, though; he just stood there, staring at me. "I'm tired of this. I love you, I really do. But you've got to be honest about Kalona right here, right now."

"Honest about what?" The arousal burned away and I was baffled, and a little scared. Not even Stark knew how attracted I was to Kalona, so there was no way Erik had figured that out, but I had no idea what else he could be getting at. And I really didn't want a repeat of the yelling and cruel Erik I saw lurking in his eyes.

"Fine," he said. He looked around. He definitely had everyone's attention. "Kalona gets in Zoey's dreams. And they do a lot more than talk."

I wanted to strangle him.

Seeing Kalona kissing, caressing, and making another girl smile was bad enough. The fact that she looked like me was really upsetting and disturbing and more than a little confusing. Erik telling everyone that that girl could legitimately be me was just flat out mean. Explaining that I actually was insanely attracted to Kalona was just going to complicate matters and I so wanted to leave that part out for another time. I know I said I'd tell everyone later, but right now, I was thinking never. Never was sounding really, really good.

"That's crazy," Damien scoffed. "Z would have told us. She's not going to do a Blake all over again."

Um, actually… I was. Crap. I was.

Erin and Shaunee looked at Erik, then looked at me. "Um, Twin," Erin said, "I'm not necessarily buying drama-boy's drama-moment here, but I think Z's got something to say."

I most definitely did not have something to say. But High Priestesses don't get to get scared and mute, and they most definitely don't get to back down when they're confronted with their mistakes. My mistakes.

"Erik is half right." I wanted to make it clear that even though I was attracted to Kalona, I hadn't actually done anything. "If I'm sleeping alone, Kalona can get in my dreams. So I don't sleep alone." I wished I could glare at Erik for outing me, but I couldn't look at him.

I looked at Stark, though. Stark, who slept with me every night to keep Kalona away from me – not that either of us was complaining about that. But the one time we'd actually talked about Kalona being in my dreams we'd had other issues going on and I hadn't told him the whole truth – that even though I was freaked out by Kalona, I still (sadly) ached for his touch. I hadn't meant to lie to Stark... I was pissed at Erik all over again – I was going to tell, I just wanted to tell Stark in private first.

I looked at Heath next, and my heart sank to my knees. He knew. I was back to being really, really miserable and annoyed about the whole he-feels-what-I-feel-through-the-Imprint. For once, though, he didn't look too thrilled about it either. I so wanted to just take a minute and pull him outside – where Stark couldn't go and Erik would at least be supremely uncomfortable – and try to explain.

Finally – and quickly, because I was starting to feel claustrophobic with everyone staring at me in a really-not-supportive way - I looked around at the rest of my friends. I'd lost Damien, Erin, and Shaunee before because I'd lied to them about Loren, and it took a lot for them to trust me again. And now, I was doing exactly what I did with Loren. Worse.

I didn't do it on purpose, but maybe I secretly wanted Kalona in my dreams. If I'd really been worried about Kalona I would have told Erik and Heath – first thing, more important than anything else: no matter what happens tonight, do not leave me sleeping alone. Heath had stayed with me anyway, but I couldn't blame Erik for getting up to get me breakfast when I'd never told him the dangers of leaving.

I wanted to give everyone a hundred excuses, a thousand excuses, explain everything, in detail, my actions and thoughts and feelings so I didn't look so bad for making the same mistake. For making the same mistake a zillion times worse. But no excuse was going to matter. I screwed up. Again.

I wanted to sit down, I wanted someone to hold my hand, I wanted to cry – but I made myself stand a little straighter instead and looked past Erik at Damien. "I don't sleep alone, but it doesn't matter. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I can't get Kalona out of my head. I'm resisting as much as I can, but I want Kalona so bad that if he showed up in this room right now I don't think I could say no to him. I wouldn't say no to him, no matter what he wanted." I surprised myself, admitting that much out loud. I hadn't even admitted that much inside my own head.

My skin seared with a familiar pain, all along my arms and down my legs; from my upper arms to the backs of my hands, and my thighs to the tops of my feet. The sensation raced hot and fast and gone, and I closed my eyes for just a second – not because of how much it hurt, but because I was happy. Admitting my mistake was the right thing - the really right thing to do. The new tattoos - hidden under the sleeves of my borrowed hoodie and my three-day old jeans - were proof: something about this horrible situation with Kalona was okay.

I really wanted to look, to see my new marks from my goddess, but I couldn't, not yet.

Damien spoke first. "You're serious, aren't you." He said it like a statement, not a question, and his face was white.

Stark stayed by my side, but he got really, really still. "I'm sorry," I said, to him – to everyone.

Aphrodite's voice was really dry. "Great. Does this mean I'm in charge again?"

But I couldn't answer or say anything else because Erik's mouth was on mine in a surprise kiss. "Thanks for finally admitting it," he whispered. "I know that wasn't easy for you."

And that's when my brain caught up. Erik. I flashed back to a thousand tiny – and some not-so-tiny – things: things he said, things he did, things other people said, things that happened when he was around… and they all spun together in an awful kind of vortex that vomited out an answer that I almost couldn't bear to see. Erik's hands were cradling my face and I covered his hands with mine. I looked into his eyes – somehow a perfect shade of Caribbean-blue in the soft lighting of the dorm lounge – and whispered back: "Who told you Kalona gets in my dreams?"

Thank you for sticking with me and this story! Thanks also for not hating me for starting another story while I wrestle with writer's block on this one... I wanted this chapter to be so much longer and more exciting, but I just couldn't make it work. I'm so sorry it took me so long and this is all I have! Good stuff is coming – stuff I'm excited about, anyway :-b – so I hope you'll forgive this chapter as kind of a "transition" chapter…

I hope everyone is having a great summer!