Thanks for the reviews, I'm pretty happy with the length of that last chapter =) And a load of you were confused about the Zoey/Erik thing ... I meant that I thought they'd be together, not in MY story. You guys know how much I love Stark xD I meant that in the real series, by the Casts, Zoey will probably ditch Stark since Erik's been there throughout the whole series (unless he dies... =]) and Stark'll probably be her Guardian or something, the end. Zoey and Erik together forever and ever amen =( I haven't even decided who Zoey'll end up with in my fanfic. Also, since this IS a fanfic and not a blog, I'll carry on with the whole writing thing now...
I sent Stark a quick, All good before turning to my friends, who all displayed expressions of worry, presumably because of Neferet and her threatening self. Okay, yeah, I was annoyed too, but I really wasn't in the mood for Neferet at the moment, and thought it was probably best to ignore her. But like dirty laundry, ignoring Neferet doesn't make the problem go away. It just makes it worse. A lot worse.
"You shouldn't have yelled at her, Z," Aphrodite sighed, plopping down next to Darius. I hadn't noticed her get up, but she must have done so while Neferet was all up in my face. And now here she was, lecturing me, as if she was such a saint herself. As if she wouldn't have lost her temper if Neferet had been breathing inside her personal space.
"I know, but she's just so ... " I struggled to find a word fitting to describe my ex-mentor.
Aphrodite nodded knowingly. "Neferet's a superbitch, we all know that. Thing is, she just threatened you. And right now, our goal is to keep you alive, and I gotta say you aren't exactly making it an easy task. So will you stop trying to play heroine and let us try to protect you?" I was taken aback. As per usual, I had only been thinking of myself and no one else. I mean, had I not met my friends? Of course they would take it upon themselves to look after me. And of course Aphrodite was right, I was making it very difficult for them to do just that. "Okay, yeah, fine. I get it. I'll be more careful. I'm just worried about Heath, Stark, my grandma and all of you guys. It's kinda hard to concentrate." "Well, you should also be worried about yourself now, seeing as Neferet just threatened you. And it sounds pretty serious," Damien said quietly. As he spoke, my eyes travelled to Stark's passed out body instinctively. I don't know what made me do it - I guess I was just adjusting to Neferet and her evil ways. However, I knew that her threat was about to come to life soon, and it would most likely be through Stark. I wondered who she'd send through his body. I mean, she'd already sent Loren and Kalona, so how bad could it really be? How much worse could it get? Stark rose, and I prepared myself. I heard a couple of my friends taking a deep breath, and assumed that they were also getting ready for what horror Neferet had in store for us. "Zo?" the soul asked, and I let out the breath I hadn't realised I was holding. It was just Heath! I mentally rejoiced as I finally recognised how scared I had actually been, and that in itself scared me even more. What use was I if Neferet still possessed the ability to scare me? "I'm here, Heath, I'm here. Are you okay?" I added worriedly as he lowered his head to his hands and started to shake. I stepped closer. "Heath?" "No!" Darius shouted. I suppose his Warrior instinct told him something was wrong before the rest of us, even me, noticed anything. But it was too late. As Darius tried to get in front of me, even his Son of Erebus speed couldn't help him. I turned, wondering why he was acting so weird. That's when Heath dived for me, attacking me. I screamed in agony, and my friends rushed forwards. Heath looked up and growled at them, and I only had a chance to see his blood red eyes before I blacked out. I am SOOOOOO sorry I took so long to update! I've just been extremely busy with school and stuff. I promise I won't take this long again. Also, I apologise for the incredibly short chapter, but I figured it was better than nothing. I'll do my best to update either this week or next week. In other news, I'm (FINALLY) going to a Taylor Swift concert! She's coming to Ireland next March and I'm actually allowed go xD xD you have no idea how excited I am!