"I`m so sorry!" I apologized just barely suppressing the stutter that almost thrived in the sentence. I distantly heard the girls behind us giggle. My mind was focused on the sexual energy that almost seemed to thrum between me and the Adonis-like Tracker. With a shock I realized not a breath of space separated us, a blush burned my cheeks as I started to stand back. I`d just started to hear Isabelle`s messed up and highly annoying laugh when the Adonis-like statue came to life. I gasped as a strong arm wrapped around my waist and held me to him. The annoying laughing broke of almost immediately.
"I've been looking for you." Oh goddess, his deep voice turned my bones to nothing but jelly shivers coursed over my body. Part of me whispered that I should smack him, it was his fault I'd ended up at this House Of Night ,his fault that I was hit on by too many guys and his fault that Isabelle had been making my life hell….but even as the thoughts swam through my head I contradicted them; it wasn't anyone`s fault I was marked, the great Goddess Nyx had chosen me, for some odd reason every time I thought about it that way I felt special, like she`d chosen me for a different reason than why she`d chosen the others. It was odd…but somehow also exhilarating in some way.
But this, standing next to the Tracker, was more than exhilarating, I literally felt like I couldn't breathe! This is not love! I thought to myself sternly, No siree! Not with him! No matter how sexy and stunning and attracting and yummy he is and how he pretty much radiates magnetic attraction energy and…STOP! I yelled at myself.
It was then I remembered that I was still staring at him, looking like a complete idiot. Shoot! I looked up at him. Even the two year separation hadn`t changed or touched him in the least; he was still at least way over 6 feet, tall and had winded style long black hair that cascaded over his soul shattering blue eyes that burned a sapphire hue. His pale skin strained in his shirt over his easily seen well fit muscles and pecks, my cheeks burned when I saw him looking over me also. I tried to move away again but his arms were a cage that prevented me from going anywhere. Suddenly his words penetrated my mind. Searching for me? Why? What did I do?
"We need to talk to, Keira." Sanari said suddenly in the doorway. She started to walk out when she finished the sentence and I was scared that she`d leave me with this awkward atmosphere but the tracker had taken my wrist had he started pulling me in the direction that she had disappeared into. I wanted to stop right there and demand to get an explanation of what was going on but I had feeling it wasn`t going to be long till I found out.
I sat in her office while she and the Tracker talked silently. Something was definitely wrong here! In near panic I turned and looked for something to concentrate on, I spotted, on Sanari`s desk, a picture of a young girl, I walked over to it and picked it up. In the picture was a young very beautiful girl with beautifully amazing marks that enriched her face in a pattern as I'd never seen before on any other vampire, she had long black hair and pale skin , her marks enchanted the skin along her forehead and almost all her skin, even on her palms, in the picture she was sitting on the ground, her back against the giant tree trunk that I'd heard once grown by the House Of Night East perimeter wall, it had stated regrow but was not nearly as big as it looked in the picture. I saw a name in the corner and read it.
"Zoey Redbird." I immediately recognized the name; no vampire in their right mind would not know that name. Zoey Redbird was the High Priestess who had destroyed the evil gone wrong High Priestess Neferet who had tried and nearby succeeded in plunging the whole school into darkness and using all the young fledglings that she had poisoned with darkness to destroy all the humans and create a world of vampires whom she would control. As the story went she used the great beast Kalona and his son Rephraim as her pawns. In the tale Rephraim had fallen for the first ever red vampire High Priestess Steve Rae and Kalona had fallen for Zoey who was in love her Guardian Stark. Strangely enough she disappeared from sight along with her warrior, almost like she and he just disappeared suddenly, some rumors circled that her and her warrior had escaped to the Isles where time did not exist, where she could be Queen and he be her King as well as her warrior and mate. I smiled as I remembered the story; I had almost felt an instant connection to Zoey, although I'd never met her. I laughed a little remembering the story. How did she feel going through so much when she had never asked for it all? What would she do in a situation like this? Would she accept it without even knowing what was going on or would she turn away from it because she wasn't apart of it?
The questions that whirled around in my head came to an abrupt silence when I turned and saw the Tracker watching me again. My mouth went dry when I took in his appearance again. Luckily Sanari walked in before I had to say anything to him.
Sanari sat at her desk, a frown on her usually beautifully crafted face. Before I could even ask what was wrong she started.
"We need your help, Keira." Chills raced down my spine, screaming that something was very wrong here.
"What`s wrong, Sanari?" I asked. Something in my gut twisted and I had to fight not to immediately stand up and say that I had no reason to help them but something stronger in me told me to just sit my tail down and listen to her and help in any way I could.
Sanari took a deep breath and started again. "We need your help. Priestesses have been going missing in all the House of Night schools all over the world. No one knows where they are, they just disappear! Our own disappeared three days ago. "I remembered, Serena Elizabeth Saturn had been the school`s High Priestess in Training, she`d gone out to get her cat, Lantern, and had had never came back even though Lantern had. The school had searched for her and still was but Sanari and I both new she was as gone as the others. "We need you to pose as a High Priestess in Training in order to get taken and that way we can find out just what the hell is going on and where the hell they`re being taken to."
I stared at her in shock. My throat and mouth gone completely dry. Me? As a High Priestess in Training? That would never work! No one would believe it! It would never work! Never! Ever! Not in a million years!
Sanari must`ve seen the maelstrom of panic in my eyes because she quickly added "Travis" she nodded to the Tracker who I'd totally momentarily forgot was even there, "will be your guardian. All Priestesses have guardians."
I remembered how Zoey had fallen in love with her guardian Stark and suddenly being a priestess didn`t seem all that bad, even as the thought came I cursed myself for it. I turned to Sanari-and almost totally regretted that I did; she looked so vulnerable, so needy ,and suddenly I was struck with how, over all the other faithful students in this school, she`d chosen me to help her with this ultra-important mission that could and probably already had held every House Of Night school in the world at risk. I sighed knowing that I couldn't say no to this woman or to the mission she`d desperately presented at my feet.
"All right." I all but groaned, exasperated and beaten by my own honor and kindness. Sanari`s face lit up like a kid`s on Christmas Morning -which did nothing to help. She started speaking but I couldn`t hear her at all ,because just then I had turned to look at Travis the Tracker –and was suddenly frozen as his opened sapphire shining eyes fixed on me. A low electric hum chased through my veins and suddenly I had a feeling that maybe, just maybe, I'd just taken on much more than I could possibly chew.