Hunted

they’re fine,” I said. It was only later that I would remember that Stevie Rae never really answered my question about whether the red fledglings were really safe.
    “All right, but we’re holding Stevie Rae responsible,” Shaunee said.
    “Yeah, if one of them tries to chomp on us, we’re going to have words with her about it after she’s better,” Erin said.
    “Blood and wine. Now. Less talking. More doing,” Darius said bluntly.
    They all scurried out of the room, leaving me with Darius, Aphrodite, and my best friend, currently en brochette.
    Hell.

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    CHAPTER THREE

    “Seriously, Darius. Can’t we do this another way? Some other more hospital-like way. In a hospital. With doctors and waiting rooms for friends to wait in while the . . . the . . . ” I’d made a semi-panicky gesture at the arrow sticking through Stevie Rae’s body. “While the stuff is fixed.”
    “There may be a better way, but not under these conditions. I have limited supplies down here, and if you took a moment to think about it, Priestess, I do not believe you would want any of us to go aboveground to one of the city hospitals tonight,” Darius said.
    I chewed my lip silently, thinking that he was right but still trying to come up with a less horrifying alternative.
    “No. I’m not going back up there. Not only is Kalona free, along with his totally gross bird babies, but I can’t get caught aboveground when the sun rises, and I can feel that sunrise isn’t that far away. I don’t think I could survive it already hurting like this. Z, you’re just gonna have to do it,” said Stevie Rae.
    “You want me to push on the arrow while you hold her still?” Aphrodite asked.
    “No, watching it will probably be worse than helping with it,” I said.
    “I’ll do my best not to scream too loud,” Stevie Rae said.
    She’d been serious, which made my heart squeeze then, just like it did now as I thought back. “Oh, honey! Scream all you want. Hell, I’ll scream along with you.” I looked at Darius. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
    “I will cut off the feathered end of the arrow that is still protruding from the front of her chest. When I do that, you take this,” he handed me a wad of gauze that was wet with alcohol, “and press it over the cutoff end. When I have a good grip on the front of the arrow I’ll tell you to push. Push hard while I pull. It should come out fairly easily.”
    “But it might hurt just a little?” Stevie Rae said, sounding faint.
    “Priestess,” Darius rested his big hand on her shoulder. “This will hurt quite a bit more than a little.”
    “That’s why I’m here,” Aphrodite said. “I’ll be holding on to you so you don’t flail about as you writhe in pain and mess up Darius’s plan.” She hesitated, and then added, “But you need to know if you go all crazy from agony and bite me again , I’m going to knock the shit right out of you.”
    “Aphrodite. I’m not gonna bite you. Again,” Stevie Rae said.
    “Let’s just get this over with,” I said.
    Before Darius ripped off what remained of Stevie Rae’s shirt he said, “Priestess, I must bare your breasts.”
    “Well, I’ve been thinkin’ about that while you’ve been workin’ on my back. You’re kinda like a doctor, aren’t you?”
    “All of the Sons of Erebus are trained in the medicine field so that we can care for our wounded brothers.” He relaxed his stern expression for a moment and smiled at Stevie Rae. “So, yes, you may think of me as a physician.”
    “Then I’m fine with you seeing my boobies. Doctors are trained not to care about that kind of stuff.”
    “Let’s hope his training hasn’t been that thorough,” Aphrodite muttered.
    Darius gave her a quick wink. I made a gagging sound, which made Stevie Rae giggle and then gasp when the movement caused her pain. She tried to smile reassuringly at me, but she was way too pale and shaky to pull it off.
    It was about then that I really started to worry. Back at the House of Night the undead-dead Stark followed Neferet’s pain-in-the-butt orders and shot Stevie Rae, blood had spilled out of her body at an alarming rate, so much so that it had made the ground around her look like it was bleeding, which fulfilled the stupid prophecy to free the stupid fallen angel, Kalona, from his gazillion-year imprisonment in the earth. Stevie Rae looked like all of the blood in her body had been left on the ground and even though she’d done pretty well