"What do you mean?" I ask suddenly very interested in my bag of clothes.
"You know exactly what I mean. He was the one that began worrying about you in the first place, and then when we save your ass you treat each other like dirt."
He didn't treat me like dirt until Zoey was in hearing distance that little voice in my head argues. I couldn't tell Erik that though. It wasn't my place. And it would keep Zoey from knowing how Stark really feels. Because even though he is an asshole that apparently wants Zoey, and nothing to do with me. He not only saved me single handedly with all his bow and arrow magic, but was part of the reason I was saved in the first place. So instead I continue to play dumb.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I insist, watching the dim yellow lights pass by.
"If you say so, but I suggest you keep the hostility at a minimum otherwise others will start asking questions too."
Others as in Zoey? I didn't need to ask to know that's what he meant. He was just as afraid of finding out what would happen between them as I was. He wasn't stupid, but I knew he was holding out hope. That she would pick him over all the other guys. Only he doesn't know what she said about Stark and soul mates. And it isn't your place to tell him so stop even thinking about it Faith, my subconscious yells at me.
"How did you stand the smell of my blood?" I ask, wanting badly to change the subject.
"I don't know. Perhaps because it wasn't such a surprise this time. I'm not going to lie to you. It was still hard though Faith. But it's not supposed to be like that. Maybe in fictional vampire stories, but not here. Not in real life."
We sat there in awkward silence for the rest of the trip. It was about a fifteen-minute drive to the nearest Denny's and I knew the first thing I was going to do was change. And then wake up Nichole. She had a hell of a lot explaining to do.
"I'm going to go change really fast, and then I will be back out to wake up Nichole. Wait for me?" I ask him, the moment the car slid into a parking space.
He nodded, and I ran off to put on normal clothes. The lady behind the cash register looked at me in astonishment as I rushed past her to the restrooms. Once I looked in the mirror I understood why. I kind of looked like a vampyre zombie. My hair was now in knots, and my mascara was in thick streams down my face, all the while my mark was as clear as day. I hurriedly put back on my jeans and a t-shirt and washed all my make-up off. There, now I looked normal, kind of. I stuffed everything back in the bag and ran back outside to the car.
"They already went in, said we'd find them." Erik says, as I threw the bag on the floor and hopped in the back seat by Nichole.
"That's fine." I sat Nichole up so her back was resting against the door. She was completely limp so it was difficult to balance her upright but eventually I got it.
"Okay Nichole. Time to wake up." I say, shaking her a bit. Her eyes didn't even flutter. "Come on! Wakey, Wakey!!" I let go of her and she slumped to the side.
"Can you go get me a glass of water please?" I ask Erik politely. He does as I ask. He comes back with a large cup of ice water. I grin, fantastic.
"Thank you." I say, taking the cup from him, and tossing the contents all over her face. She would be furious when she woke up, what with her dress wet and her make-up ruined, but I was ready for it.
She screamed loudly, her eyes popping open. When she saw me holding the cup in front of her she screamed again, even louder this time.
"I know I'm not that hideous without make-up." I quip handing Erik the cup.
"What.. what are you doing here? Why am I in my car?" she stammers, looking around confused.
"Did you hit your head when you passed out? Let me see if you have a bump." I say about to pull her closer to me to examine her head, but she doesn't let me. She was looking angrier by the minute.
"Faith, what are you doing here really? Is this some practical joke? You're supposed to be at the house of night. And why the hell did you pour water all over me?" she retorts, trying to wipe herself off.
"Nichole, what are you talking about? You drove up to Oklahoma to see me. You picked me up in your car, and you took me to this horrible place where we nearly got killed."
She was staring at me like I had lost my marbles.
"Are you okay Miss?" Erik asks.
She looks over to him with wide eyes. "Who are you?" she asks rudely.
"That is Erik, my theatre professor." I say trying to get her to focus back on me.
"Oh my God, you're Erik? You forgot to mention how fucking sexy he was in the midst of that sucking your blood story."
I blush slightly, giving Erik an apologetic smile. Nichole and her big mouth.
"He is taken Nichole. Now focus. Do you not remember driving up here and hanging out with me for the last four hours? Do you not remember walking straight into a bar full of vampyres who wanted to kill us?"
"I had a dream where all that happened. And then it transitioned into me showing up naked at school again."
"You had a dream?" I ask slowly.
"God, yes Faith. I came home from school. Took my nap. Dreamt of you, shopping, special vampires, and going to school naked. And then you wake me up here in my car, soaking wet. I know you were having a bad day yesterday, but seriously hun?"
I was staring at her in horror. I looked over at Erik, and knew he was wearing an identical expression to mine.
"Nichole. That wasn't a dream. You're here. In Oklahoma. And all that happened."
"Except the naked part. I'm guessing that didn't really happen." Erik interjects.
She looked skeptical at first, like she was waiting for us to say just kidding any second, but when that second past and seconds turned to minutes, her eyes grew wide in shock.
"Look, here's the skirt you bought for yourself," I pull out the skirt that was lying in a bag on the floor, "And I have the dress and heals you got me in a bag up front. I'm not lying Nichole."
"How is that possible?" she whispers.
"I don't know. But the others need to hear this. They might be able to help."
I nodded agreeing with Erik's suggestion, and we started getting out of the car.
"What others?" she asks, and I couldn't tell if she was still getting over her shock or excited. She was always excited to meet new people. I shut the door behind me and faced her.
"Stark, Zoey, Aphrodite, and Aphrodite's boyfriend Darius." I say really quickly.
"Can I punch Stark?"
"Is she kidding?" Erik asks, looking as if Nichole was crazier than he thought.
"I wasn't kidding, no. He is le douche bag of the month." She states, walking in step with me to the door.
"He saved our lives tonight." I tell her.
She stopped mid stride. "He did did he?" she asks, a certain hint to her voice.
"You cannot say anything to anyone about anything regarding my phone calls to you. Not a word. So be civil, and act like you've never heard any of their names before." I hiss quietly.
"Yes, Ma'am." She salutes me and we make our way through the door.
"I won't say anything either." Erik gives me a wink, as he passes us both and walks quickly to the table in the corner. He slides in next to Zoey, and plants a small kiss on her cheek. It made me smile, to think he loves her despite everything she's done. I shook me head, it was time to focus, and I had some things to figure out.
"Nichole this is Erik, Zoey, Stark, Aphrodite and Darius. And this is Nichole." I say, taking a seat across from Zoey.
"Nice to meet you all." She says in her most polite voice before sitting down next to me across from Stark. It was the interrogators on one side and the witnesses on the other. Nichole and I being the witnesses.
"So now can you share with us what the fuck was going through your head when you left the House of Night and saunter right on into a bar full of evil Vampyres?"
Glad Aphrodite wasn't wasting anytime. I did owe them an explanation though; they all participated in saving our lives.
"I left because I wanted to hang out with Nichole. We just wanted to go to a club. It just turned out that the one Nichole picked wasn't really a club at all."
"Did the lack of music give you that hint, or the lack of dancing? I'm curious as to which one…"
"Hey dick head, try to keep the sarcastic comments to yourself okay? Us adults are going to have a conversation now if that's okay with you." Nichole snapped at Stark, shutting him up. He turned slightly red, whether it was from embarrassment or anger I couldn't tell.
"Look, I was just hanging out with my best friend. I had no intention of going on a suicide mission." I say, trying to ease the awkward tension in the air.
"But you should have known…" Zoey began, but Nichole cut her off. More politely this time, but still cut our high priestess in training off mid-sentence. I was so screwed.
"It was actually all my fault. You see I was actually the one who took her out shopping and then to the club/bar thing. I mean I know more about your world then she does, I knew what to look up on the Internet."
"You mean you went there on purpose?" Darius asks, a mix of anger and confusion racking his voice.
"Yes. I thought it would be more fun for Faith to see what it would be like to hang out with her own kind. And out of the hundreds of choices I picked that one."
"That would have been awfully sweet if it wasn't completely against the rules and potentially and incredibly dangerous. If you know so much about our world then you should know if she is away form an adult vampire for too long then she could…" Zoey says, taking control of her leadership role.
"Die? Yeah, I know. Hence another reason for the Vampyre club. Towards the end was when I realized I was dreaming and so I just went with the flow and…"
"Wait. You were dreaming?" Aphrodite asks skeptically.
"She thought she was. When she woke up in the car just now, she thought we were playing a practical joke on her. She thought she had dreamed everything up." Erik answers for me. I nod along to show my support.
"So you thought you were dreaming everything?" Zoey asks again.
"Yes. The only weird thing was that I hadn't originally decided on that specific club. In fact I don't remember seeing it at all the first time I was scrolling through the list. But when I saw it, it was like I had to go there. I just had to. And then towards the end, when I knew I was dreaming I had to transition my dream. It was like I could no longer stay in that dream sequence, and then I was dreaming about being back at school."
"That must have happened when you fainted." I conclude.
"May I take your order?" the waitress was hesitantly positioned at the end of our table, not knowing if we were actually there to order anything. I was starving though, so I spoke up right away, "I'll have the cheese sticks."
"And I'll have the club sandwich." Nichole adds.
"And two diet cokes too please." I finish, giving the lady a small smile.
"Anything else?" she asks looking to the other side of the table.
"Um, can we have a few more minutes?" Zoey asks, grabbing one of the menus.
"Sure thing." The waitress says as she walks away as fast as she could.
"You guys didn't even touch a menu." Erik points out, as he takes one for himself.
"We used to come here all the time after school. We pretty much memorized the menus." Nichole says, smiling at me.
"So how long have you two been friends?" Zoey asks, as she scans the menu.
"Well since forever."
"That isn't true Nichole. You didn't even know who I was until third grade when I told you that you were saying Nefertiti wrong."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. How was I saying it?" She laughs trying to say different forms of the word Nefertiti in hopes one would ring a bell.
"Neferet." Zoey says throwing down her menu.
"No that's not how I was saying it," Nichole says, not aware of the reaction that name had on every person sitting in front of us.
"Neferet had to be behind this." Zoey continues.
Stark went rigid, while Erik and Aphrodite shuddered.
"Am I missing something?" Nichole asks, stopping her walk down memory lane.
"Neferet. Evil lady who caused a whole lot of bad things to happen to the House of Night before I got there." I tell her, not wanting Zoey to have to break her concentration on whatever she was thinking about.
"It makes sense. Neferet can control minds; Kalona can control dreams. If they were working together to lure Faith to her death, then they knew they would have to use someone she would trust. Someone who was weak."
"Hey!" Nichole actually sounded hurt by that comment, and glared at Aphrodite for saying it.
"You're completely human Nichole. Your mind would have had no chance against them." Zoey explains.
"But why me?" I ask quietly.
"Maybe Neferet knows why Nyx sent you here." Zoey suggests.
"Besides Zoey, Neferet isn't usually threatened by fledglings." Aphrodite points out.
"She's threatened by power." Stark says, speaking up for the first time since Nichole had snapped at him.
Everyone was now looking at me, obviously sizing me, and my power, up. The only problem being I don't have any power. It wasn't like I had saved myself back there. That was all Stark.
"It's a lovely theory, but just one tiny miniscule detail that I'd like to point out… I have no power."
"Believe me, you have power. Whether you're in control of it or not isn't really the question. But when I drank your blood I felt like I had the power to conquer death."
Everyone but Stark was looking at Erik. Well and me, because I felt entirely too awkward to look at him right now. So of course my gaze fell on Stark, and he had let his façade drop for just long enough for me to see worry outline his features, and then he was back to the cold stare once more. I got to have one whole day to enjoy Stark's company before he pushed me away. One day was all I needed to lose my mind over him. I didn't hear what they were saying now because Stark's thoughts popped into my head.
She needs to think I want nothing to do with her. Make her hate me. That's the goal.
It's a fine goal Stark. But much harder to achieve when the girl you're referring to can read your mind. I start to refocus back on the conversation at hand when the dark feeling slapped me hard across the face. I reached my hand up to my right cheek. It was throbbing. Then it seemed to push me back, almost to the point where I was going to topple out of my chair. And then I understood.
"We have to go." I announce standing up, yanking on Nichole's arm.
"But what about our food? They haven't even ordered yet, and I'm," Nichole was arguing with me, while the rest of them watched.
"Listen. I just felt the feeling that I felt before I walked into that club to die. I didn't listen to it then, I suggest we all listen to it now." I whisper urgently.
It took a second for them to respond, but sure enough it seemed to click and they were moving quickly out of the booth and towards the door.
"Erik, give me the keys." I say, holding out my hand.
"Do you really think that is necessary?" Zoey asks. Whether she was worried about my driving capabilities or the fact I was taking control of the situation I didn't know, nor did I really care.
"Yes, I do."
Erik tosses them to me as I make for the car.
"Aphrodite, do you know how to drive that car past 70 mph?" I holler, unlocking the door.
"I don't drive." She says snippily.
"That would be my job." Darius bows slightly in front of me. I don't even know how he got there so quickly.
"Look, just keep up. Do not lose me." I order, sliding in the front seat and buckling up.
Nichole slid in the passenger side and buckled her seat belt immediately. The back door opened and closed, and I was pulling out of the parking lot.
"I didn't think you wanted to be near me." I scoff, as I pull out onto the street.
"Apparently I'm in charge of keeping you two safe. Even though I'm supposed to be keeping Zoey safe, but hey, let's not trouble with the rules when it's Faith's gut feeling we're acting on."
I slam on the breaks so suddenly that Stark flies forward on top of the middle console, almost hitting his head on the shifter. I look down at him and smile, "Buckle up." And with that I floor it, laughing as Stark flies back, colliding with the back window.