Disclaimer: All original characters from the House of Night books belong to P.C and Kristin Cast but the storyline and new characters belong to myself.
My Version of Burned
Chapter 13
Zoey' POV
It's weird how much things can change in just four short months. 122 days ago, I was passed out on a bed which wasn't mine in Italy with the bane of my existence standing just a few feet outside my door. It's safe to say that things have been looking up since then. Stark and I were official official and while he was an archery teacher at Tulsa's House of Night, I was the High Priestess there.
Freaky, right?
And how did this all happen, I hear you ask?
Well it all started on that same disastrous day in Venice...
"Zoey? Zoey, wake up!" Damien shook me gently, his breath washing over my face as I wriggled uncomfortably. Opening my eyes, his face surprised me by how close it was.
"Ever heard of personal space?" I deadpanned, moving to sit up and feeling more than slightly guilty when a hurt look overtook Damien's face, "I'm sorry honey, I'm just stressed."
He nodded understandingly and handed me a glass of water.
"Thought you might be thirsty? You've been asleep for over five hours..." Now that he mentioned it, I was pretty thirsty. Lifting the rim to my lips, I took a big gulp of the refreshing liquid and didn't stop until I had finished it and felt much more energized. Who knew that water could help almost as much as blood...almost, blood was still better though.
"You wanna update me on what's being going on?" Even though I already know a part of it, I thought in my head.
"Okay, well, as you know, they came in here, then you passed out and after making sure you were okay, Stark went outside to talk to them and judging by the harsh comments I could overhear, I am assuming he threatened them but it was a relatively short conversation," He paused for a breath and I took the opportunity to release the panic that had been building up inside of me.
"Where's Stark now? Is he okay?" I shoot up out of bed and went to sprint to the door. I didn't know what I was going to do once I got there but I trusted that our bond would take me to him.
"Zoey! Down!" Damien ordered like I was a dog, pointing back at my bed for me to sit, "Stark is fine, he's just off on general warrior duty, letting you get your rest."
I decided not to press for anymore information and obeyed his command because I really did want to know what went down with them after Stark had left.
Settling down on the soft duvet, I leant against the wall behind the bed and hugged my pillow to my chest.
"Carry on." I encouraged, moving to put my hair up in a bun, because it was seriously hating on me after my nap, as Damien continued.
"Anyway, after Stark had threatened and left them alone in the corridor, I heard a few illegible murmurs and then there was utter silence. I don't know what possessed me to do it, knowing that it could be a trap, but I went outside after a couple of minutes and found this note taped to the outside of the door."
He handed me the note and I rolled my eyes at the mysteriousity (yes, I was feeling well enough to start making up my own words again) of it all.
We'll leave for now, but don't forget this: we will be back. You won't get any warning of when or how but we will return...
Even Damien managed to giggle gaily a little as he re-read it.
"After I read the note, I came straight back inside and I've been waiting here with you so that I could show you the note once you woke up." He was the sweetest thing.
"You didn't have to do that." I said incredulously, reaching over to squeeze his hand lightly before letting go.
"I wanted to. I feel..." He choked up a little bit as tears filled his eyes, "I feel like I should appreciate you guys more...after I found out that Stevie Rae died, my heart just broke into a trillion tiny pieces." He sniffed loudly and leant over to rest his head on my shoulder.
"She died, Zoey. She was in a plane to here to warn us about them but she didn't make it in time because of this stupid pilot of something. Lenobia called and explained everything; Lenobia's fine though, physically at least." I grimaced at Damien's explanation because I already knew what had happened.
Let's just say that after I had passed out, I had another Otherworld dream. Yes, Heath was there again, but Stevie Rae was there too. I was more than confused to say the least, but after a lot of explaining, everything was resolved and the truth was revealed.
Firstly, Stevie Rae explained to me why she was there by explaining her death etcetera and before I could get upset about another one of my friends dying, she also explained her plan. Well, Heath and her plan. Their plan to do what, you ask?
To banish Kalona.
Yeah my friends were great, despite the fact that Heath had lied to me on my first Otherworld visit about him having a plan to become human again, but learning about this new plan made him 100% forgiven.
After I woke up and dealt with the Damien situation, it was pretty hectic to say the least. We had to deal with the high council, Neferet and Kalona but after two months from that day, it was all worth it.
Okay, I could do this. All I had to do was take deep breaths. Deep breaths.
"You ready for this, Zo?" Heath asked with worry laced in his voice like his hands were laced with mine.
"I think so." I whispered, squeezing both of my friends hands before letting go.
"You'll do great Z, you always do." Stevie Rae reassured me confidently from my other side, giving me one last hug.
I could do this.
Stepping forward into the forest opening while Stevie Rae and Heath stepped back to hide behind some trees, Kalona came into my view.
"A-ya, you come back to me once again." His voice was like honey and sugar and I begged myself not to truly give in to what I knew was evil. A sweet-smelling breeze filled my body and I knew that it was Stevie Rae giving me the confidence I needed.
"I will always come back to you..." I assured him in the seductive voice I didn't know I had. He obviously didn't know I had it either judging by the surprised look on his face, but in this situation surprise was definitely not bad for him.
"Finally." He muttered underneath his breath before rushing forward to take me in his arms, "You must not be playing games with me, A-ya, because if you are..."
I stroked his face with the back of my hand lovingly.
"Like I would ever play games with you, my love." How I stopped myself from gagging, I do not know.
"Tell me you love me." His voice dropped two octaves and he placed delicate, soon turning to rough, kisses down my neck.
"I lov..." Before I could finish my sentence, his lips met mine and I gave into the sensations.
Don't kill me just yet because there is still more to come, thought I'd just let you all know that even though Kalona could make people think he was devastatingly gorgeous, I do not banish him by falling for him. Also, the whole point of this short paragraph was to waste your time and a bit of a spoiler for this next part of how I banished Kalona.
"Oh, A-ya!" Kalona moaned into my mouth, pulling me impossibly closer.
Or trying at least.
As soon as I had let myself go with him, the thing happened which I knew would happen.
She left me.
This entire time, I had been fighting Kalona because despite the fact that my soul was calling to him, he was evil. I never knew that all along, the only thing I had to do with give in.
Give in to the love I felt for him, the desire, because as soon as I did, I would be done.
And she would leave me to be with him.
As soon as I felt the emptiness in my soul, not necessarily a bad emptiness, I pulled away and smiled in triumph at the sight in front of me.
Mist and fog surrounded Kalona, trapping him and making him inable to speak. A-ya had trapped him once again and was carrying him further and further away; underground.
I was successful.
In case you didn't get that, all I had to do was stop fighting Kalona and kiss him with the passion I felt so that A-ya could find Kalona once again and etcetera.
I was pretty awesome, I know, but something bad which did result from Kalona's disappearance was that Heath and Stevie Rae were stuck in the Otherworld until I figured out how to get them back. This is because Kalona seemed to be the only one who knew how to get them there, and back we're assuming.
On a happier note, when he was banished, Neferet went right along with him; something to do with having such conviction that he was her consort...I don't even know.
But life was pretty amazing from then on, despite the fact that everyone was still tense anticipating their arrival back.
After returning from Italy back to Tulsa, Kalona's influence on everyone seemed to disappear when he did, so after about a month of discussion from basically everyone in the vampyre world, I was voted into power as Tulsa's High Priestess.
Stark was the new archery teacher, surprise surprise, but that wasn't really such a big deal considering that we didn't even have one in the first place.
Yes, I was still pregnant and the baby's father was most definitely his - I could figure that out without a paternity test – but it didn't bother me so such anymore. I knew that Stark would never be my baby's father by blood but he would be there for them when we started our family as if he was their real father.
Erin and Shaunee were doing pretty well, they were still in normal classes and finding it more than slightly weird being taught by their friends but they put up with it. Unfortunately, TJ and Cole were soon out of the picture when some twins were transferred from New York's House of Night to ours and let's just say that our twins ate them up.
Damien and Jack were more in love than ever and I had to say that they were the most adorable couple ever. They acted like an old married couple but in the sweetest way.
Aphrodite and Darius' relationship got stronger every day and I would probably name them the 3rd cutest couple, behind Damien and Jack and Stark and I.
Stark and I.
It felt amazing to say it and I couldn't be more happy that we were a couple couple.
Grandma Redbird was perfectly fine and was living on her lavender farm with regular visits from myself and Sister Mary Angela.
Life was good.
And I hoped for it stayed that way.
But as always, I spoke too soon.
A/N: Okay, so that was the chapter which I've written completely from scratch (give or take the paragraph which has the basic summary of this chapter) so please tell me what you guys think? Even though all of you have probably guessed it or reviewed it already, if you guess who the mysterious he or she is, please do not write it in your reviews because I want people to guess on their own and they aren't going to be able to do that if they look at the reviews page and it's right there in front of them. I don't mind if you PM me guessing who it is, but I'm not going to tell you despite the fact that I think Evie and Aleesha already know it:L love for you!
Favourite line? /lydia xox
