Shaunee
"Really, Twin. Go with Kramisha and Aphrodikey. My stomach is still messed up from the Lunchables I had for breakfast. I need to stay here closer to the bathroom," Shaunee said.
"Eew, Twin, I tried to tell you Lunchables aren't a breakfast food," Erin said.
"Look, are you staying here and suckling Shauneedy, or are you coming with us? The bumpkin and the bird are upstairs heating up the car and waiting on us. We have like two-point-five minutes to get to the back door of Miss Jackson's and have Kramisha and Stevie Rae convince the security guy to let us in before he goes off shift and the damn store is locked up tight," Aphrodite said. "I have zero patience for Twin crap. The whole trip is already a pain in my shapely ass because I know Stevie Rae is gonna make me leave my credit card number."
"That is the right thing to do," Shaunee said.
"Whatever. Let's go, " Aphrodite said.
"Twin, are you-" Erin began and Kramisha cut her off. "You know I hate to agree with Hateful over there, but as my momma would say, shit or get off the pot."
"Gross," Shaunee said. "Especially with the way my stomach's feeling."
"Totally," Erin agreed.
"Are you comin' or not?" Kramisha said.
"Go," Shaunee insisted. "Grab me something that has cashmere and fur. In red, 'cause I'm so hot. And make Aphrodite pay for it." Erin grinned. "Done, Twin."
"Are you two gonna kiss good-bye now or what?" Aphrodite said.
Erin rolled her eyes. "Come on, Hateful. Let's shop."
"'Bout time..." Kramisha muttered as the three of them hurried from the kitchen.
Shaunee felt a little guilty when Erin gave her one last worried look and waved. She was frowning and staring down at the table when Zoey came in with a super rumpled looking Stark.
"Hey there, Shaunee," Z said. "You feeling better?"
"Where's Erin?" Stark asked.
"No, and shopping," Shaunee said. She didn't like the way Stark was looking at her, all disapproving and adult-like. "What's your problem?" she asked him.
"Nothin'." He shrugged nonchalantly and stuck his head in one of the fridges. "Just need some caffeine to wake up." But even though he sounded all whatever he still kept with the Look, and Shaunee didn't feel like dealing. "I'm gonna go get some fresh air, then lay down. And, like Damien would say, I got homework to do." She started walking toward the exit in the corner that led up to the abandoned depot and the quickest way out.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay? You're not-"
"No!" Shaunee said quickly, Z's worried voice making her feel even guiltier. "I'm not coughing at all. Really. My stomach's just messed up. It was the old Lunchables. I knew that ham was nasty, but I love me some mini-Ritz sandwiches."
"I'll come to your room and check on you later," Z said.
"Yeah, okay, thanks," Shaunee called and escaped up the stairs and into the old ticket booth.
There she breathed easier. The depot was a mess, but she'd liked it from the very beginning-even though it was dingy and old and definitely needed some TLC. Still, it had a feel to it that reminded her of taking family trips, back before her parents had decided she wasn't interesting enough, or whatever, and quit letting her come on vacation with them.
It wasn't like she'd had a crappy life before she'd been Marked. They'd had money. She'd gone to a cool private school back in Connecticut.
She'd been popular and busy and ... and ...
And lonely.
Then she'd been Marked during a school trip to a summer art class or whatever during a layover at the Tulsa International Airport. Her teacher had left her behind when their plane boarded.
Crying and totally freaked, she'd called her dad. That's why his PA had put her call through to him. In the five years the woman had worked for her dad, she'd never heard Mr. Cole's daughter cry.
Shaunee had asked her dad to please send her a ticket home so she could see them before she went to a House of Night on the East Coast, preferably the one in the Hamptons.
Her dad had told her to stay in Tulsa. There was a House of Night there. Good luck and good-bye.
She hadn't seen her parents since.
They'd set up an account for her, though, and dumped money in it.
Her parents were good at believing money could fix any problem.
Actually, Shaunee was good at pretending she believed the same thing.
She walked slowly around the depot. It was cold and dark inside and, almost absently, she stopped at a pile of broken tiles that had been heaped in the center of the floor.
"Fire, come to me," Shaunee said. She inhaled and exhaled, soaking up the heat that flowed harmlessly through her body, directing it to her outstretched hands. Her fingers glowed with flickering flame. She touched the pile of tiles. "Warm 'em up." Instantly they absorbed the fire and began glowing red.
"That is certainly a useful affinity to have."
Shaunee spun around, hands raised, ready to shoot flame.
"I mean you no harm." Kalona raised his own hands, holding them and his arms open. "I have come to speak with my son, but I cannot enter the tunnels below without causing myself great pain."
Shaunee made sure she didn't look in the immortal's eyes-she remembered that he had a powerful and seductive gaze. Instead she stared over his shoulder at a spot of ceramic tile left on the ruined depot wall, pulled her element closer to herself, and in what she hoped like hell was a strong whatever voice said, "So you're just hiding up here?"
"Not hiding, waiting. I have been here since dusk hoping that Rephaim might come above."
"Well, you wouldn't find him here unless he was coming up to take a shower in the old locker room. This isn't the normal entrance and exit we use," Shaunee said automatically, and then she closed her mouth. That was stupid. I shouldn't have told him our business.
"I could not know that. I assumed you would come and go through there." He gestured to the wide front doors that looked dusty and kinda catawampus and only half on their hinges.
"Rephaim isn't here," Shaunee said. "He's shopping with Stevie Rae and those guys."
"Oh. Well, then. I..." Kalona paused awkwardly and Shaunee snuck a quick peek at him. He wasn't looking at her. His shoulders were slumped and he was staring at the floor. He seemed glaringly out of place and uncomfortable.
With a little start she realized he also looked a lot like Rephaim. Sure, instead of being brown and Cherokee-ish looking, Kalona was more golden. He was bigger, too. And, yeah, he had those giant black wings. But the mouth was the same. And the face was the same. Kalona glanced up at her.
Except for being amber colored, the eyes were the same, too.
Shaunee looked quickly away.
"You may meet my gaze without fear," he said. "There is a truce between us. I mean you no harm."
"No one trusts you," she said quickly and a little breathlessly.
"No one? Not even my son?"
He sounded totally defeated.
"Rephaim wants to trust you."
"Which means that he does not," Kalona said.
Shaunee did meet the immortal's gaze then. She waited, but didn't feel like he zapped her or anything. Actually, he just looked like a hot older guy with wings who seemed sad. Real sad.
"I should go," he said, and began to turn.
"Do you want me to tell Rephaim anything for you?"
He hesitated and then said, "I came here because I have been considering our common enemy, Neferet's new creature."
"Aurox," she said.
"Yes, Aurox. From what my other son told me, the creature has the ability to change form into a being that resembles a bull."
"I haven't seen him do that myself, but Zoey has," Shaunee said. "So has Rephaim." Kalona nodded. "Then it must be truth. This means Aurox has been infused with power from an immortal, and to manifest as it has, with such a complex and complete disguise, the power used to create it had to be mighty indeed."
"That's what you want me to tell Rephaim?"
"In part. Also tell my son that power of this magnitude had to have taken a great sacrifice. Perhaps a death that was close to those in your group."
"Jack?"
"No. That boy was sacrificed by Neferet to pay her debt to Darkness for imprisoning me and forcing my spirit to the Otherworld." Kalona's voice was bitter-his anger just barely under control. "That is why I know Aurox's conception must have been the result of a death-as was my torment.
Look to the sacrifice and you may discover evidence against Neferet. Causing her destruction would be more possible were she at odds with the High Council."
"I'll tell Rephaim."
"Thank you, Shaunee." Kalona said the words slowly, hesitantly, as if he was unused to the taste of them. "And tell him I said I wish him well."
"Okay, I will. Hey, uh, I think you should get a cell phone."
The winged immortal's brows went up. "Cell phone?"
"Yeah, how's Rephaim supposed to call you if he needs to talk to his dad?"
Shaunee thought Kalona almost smiled. "I do not have a cell phone."
"I guess going to the AT&T store is pretty much not an option for you."
"No." His lips tilted up even as he shook his head. "I'm not sure what I would do with my wings."
"Very true," she said. "Uh, how about a laptop? You could be on Skype."
"I do not have a laptop, either. Young fledgling, I am living in the woods on a ridge southwest of Tulsa with a flock of creatures who should not exist in the modern world. I do not have, as you would say, computer access."
Shaunee was nonplused. "I could get you a laptop. All you need is one of those remote satellite connection things and a power source, and you'll have Internet anywhere-even in the woods southwest of Tulsa. You can find electricity, can't you?"
"Yes."
"So if I got you the computer stuff, would you call your son?"
There was no hesitation Shaunee could see. "Yes," he said.
"Okay, good. Take this." She reached into the little chain mail Rebecca Minkoff shoulder purse that was her current favorite, pulled out her iPhone and threw it to Kalona. The immortal caught it without even blinking. "I'll call you when I have the laptop and stuff."
"That's very generous of you."
"Don't get emotional," she said blandly. "My parents have money. I'll just spend some of it. It's no big thing."
"I wasn't speaking of the money. I was speaking of the generosity of the friendship you are showing to my son." Shaunee shrugged. "He's a friend of a friend-that's all. And don't get me wrong. I want my phone back."
"Yes, of course," Kalona said. Then he really smiled and Shaunee thought she'd never seen anything so amazing and joyful and totally beautiful.
"Thank you, Shaunee. This time I mean it with my whole being-and that is, indeed, rare for me."
"You're welcome. Just be nice to Rephaim. He deserves a good dad."
Kalona met her gaze and she felt him look through her eyes to her heart and soul. "As do you, my fledgling friend. Fare-thee-well." Then Kalona turned and left her, exiting through the broken doors. Shaunee could hear the beat of his massive wings as he lifted into the dark evening sky.
For a long time afterward she stood there, heating the pile of broken tiles with her flame, and thinking ...
* * *
"Twin, really. No blood coughing? You're absolutely not dying?" Erin's already porcelain skin had paled to crystal ized snow.
"Twin. Seriously. I'm fine."
"No. If you're not dying then what the hell is wrong with you? You gave Kalona your iPhone!" There was a shocked silence as the entire group that Shaunee had finally managed to get together, Erin, Zoey, Stevie Rae, Rephaim, Damien, Aphrodite, Darius, and Kramisha, paused to let the echoes of Erin's almost-shriek bounce from the tunnel walls of the kitchen.
"Well, Twin." Shaunee's voice sounded small and uber-calm in the wake of Erin's tantrum. "Like I just explained to everyone, I was upstairs and Rephaim's dad was there, too 'cause he was trying to wait around and see his kid. He told me to tell Rephaim the stuff I said. I gave him my phone so that I could actually call him and then trade it for the laptop I'm getting for him 'cause he can't go to the Apple store with those wings. Then he flew away, as per usual. That's it. I'm totally okay. The end."
"Can't he hide them wings inside one of the long black goth/cowboy coats?" Kramisha asked.
"I don't think so. They'd probably hang out of the bottom of it. Plus, he'd look, like, deformed and all humpy and probably call all sorts of unwanted attention to himself," Damien said.
"Seriously. The unwanted attention would be wearing something that's totally circa 1999 and unattractive," Aphrodite said absently as she pawed through the Miss Jackson's bag at her feet.
"Well, whether it's fashion or fear, logically speaking, I suppose he does need Shaunee to get the laptop for him," Damien concluded.
"He said that he wished me well?" was the first thing Rephaim asked after Shaunee had made her big Kalona announcement to all of them.
"Yeah." Shaunee smiled at Rephaim.
"Kalona also had information about Aurox, or at least he had an idea of where we should begin in finding out his origin," Darius said. "Zoey, I think-"
"My mom could have been the sacrifice. I know."
Shaunee blinked and then felt like she was gonna be sick. She hadn't even thought of Z's mom when Kalona had been talking about the sacrifice of someone close to them! Jack was the first person who had popped into her mind, and then there had been all that other stuff to think about. She shook her head and interrupted something Darius was saying about rituals and such.
"Z, I'm really sorry."
Zoey's face was like a question mark. "You don't need to be sorry. You just told us what happened. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Yeah, I did. I didn't even think about your mom being killed a few days ago. I was thinking about my own dad stuff and everything. I'm really sorry," she repeated.
Zoey's smile was as friendly and forgiving as it always was. "That's okay, Shaunee. It's not your fault that what's going on with Rephaim and Kalona has you upset."
"Yeah, Shaunee. We're all trying to do the best that we can. Sometimes that's not so easy," Stevie Rae said, taking Rephaim's hand in hers.
"Thanks for standing up for Rephaim and caring. I 'preciate it."
"As do I," Rephaim said.
"Oh. Hey. No big thing. Yeah, I just-" Shaunee began, but Erin interrupted her in what sounded almost like a sarcastic play on their usual finish-each-other's-sentence habit.
"Yeah, I just gotta go put away the loot I got from Miss Jackson's and hang the new bead curtain I got from Pier 1. Later, everyone." Erin scooped a bunch of bags from the floor and hurried from the kitchen.
Totally confused, Shaunee watched her leave, feeling like she wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or scream.
"Go on." Zoey had come up beside her and was speaking quietly while Damien and Darius started to discuss the difference between cleansing and funeral rituals, and if there was a way that either of them could maybe be tweaked to turn into a tell-us-who-killed-her ritual.
"What?"
"Go on and talk to Erin. If anyone has any more questions about what happened I'll come find you. I don't want this to mess up your friendship," Z
said, glancing at Stevie Rae. "BFF's are super important. We all need to remember that."
"Okay, thanks." Shaunee slipped from the room and hurried down the tunnel toward the very cool tunnel room she shared with her Twin. But she needn't have hurried. Erin was loaded down and just a few yards from the kitchen she'd dropped an entire giant Pier 1 bag.
"Hey, Twin," Shaunee said as she bent to pick up a shiny pillow. "It looks like a glitter explosion happened out here." Erin didn't smile. She took the sequinned pillow from Shaunee's hands and crammed it back into an already bulging bag, saying, "I got this under control."
Shaunee touched Erin's shoulder, which felt hard and cold and lifeless. "Wait, Twin, what is it? Why are you so pissed?"
"You didn't even tell me you cared so much about your dad. You just kept it from me," Erin said, jerking her shoulder from Shaunee's touch.
"No, I didn't." Shaunee shook her head, feeling like Erin had just smacked her. "I tried to say stuff to you, but you were all, 'hey, that's in the past, Twin, let's shop' so I gave up. Don't you remember?"
"Okay, yeah, whatever. What is the big deal? I just don't get it! We've been best friends since we were both Marked- on the same day.
Everything was fine until this daddy crap came up with Rephaim and now we're suddenly not BFFs anymore."
"Wait, I get how Rephaim's feeling and you don't, that's all. I never said we weren't BFFs anymore."
"Yeah, well, you're right. I don't get it." Erin crossed her arms. "What exactly is the issue?" Shaunee felt like the world was pressing down on her shoulders and her best friend had suddenly become a stranger. "Erin, I miss my dad sometimes. That's all."
"Your dad? He didn't give a shit about you years before you were Marked. How can you miss him?" Shaunee hesitated. She looked deep and truly saw Erin. "Wow. You really don't care, do you?"
"About what? About the cool crap I got for our room totally not on sale at Pier One and charged to Aphrodikey's gold card? Hell, yes. About the new stuff I just snagged from Miss Jackson's afterhours? Double hell yes I care! Alice + Olivia is the shit for the spring. I even got you a fox-lined red cashmere wrap thing that is To Die For. Oh, and I got me one, too, totally to match only in blue. We are gonna look awesome in this stuff. Perfect.
We're perfect. That's what I care about. And you, too, Twin. I care about you and you care about our stuff. You always have." Erin's tirade ran out, leaving her looking kinda sad and confused. She wiped her eyes and her MAC Wonder Woman blue mascara smeared.
"No," Shaunee said slowly. "None of that's real. And, Twin, nobody's perfect. Especially not you and me."
"What the hell is it? How could Rephaim's dad change everything?" Erin shouted.
"It's been bothering me for a while, but I didn't say anything."
"Rephaim's dad or your dad?" Erin said.
"Neither, Erin. I'm not talking about either one. I'm talking about stuff in general. Like Jack dying." Shaunee felt, really, really tired.
"I cared about Jack dying! We cried and stuff."
"No, we cried, and then you got an e-mail from Daniel e that had a link to Rue La La and we shopped," Shaunee said.
"So? I bought black shoes. Wait, no. We bought black shoes. Platforms. With pink bows and Swarovski crystals on the heels. We said it was appropriate mourning attire and that Jack would appreciate it. Then we cried some more. We did it. Both of us. How are you so much better than me if you did the same thing?"
Shaunee wondered how Erin could look like she was pleading and pissed at the same time.
"I'm not better than you. I didn't say that. Actually, you're better than me 'cause you're fine and I'm not. That's the bottom line. I'm not fine anymore.
Not with myself and I think that means not with us, either, but I don't really know-"
"I'll tell you what, Twin," Erin butted in, wiping angrily at the tears that were smearing blue across her cheeks. "When you're fine again come see me. Until then find your own room and your own stuff. I don't want a roommate, or a twin, who's not fine with me." Crying silently and ignoring the things that kept spilling from her shopping bags, Erin stomped down the tunnel, leaving Shaunee standing in a pile of glittery pillows and velvet tights.
Someone cleared her throat and Shaunee jumped. It was only when Zoey handed her a wad of semi-used Kleenexes that she realized she was bawling.
"Do ya wanta talk about it?"
"Not really," Shaunee said.
"Okay, you want to be by yourself?" Zoey asked.
"I'm not sure. But I do know one thing and it's gonna sound really bad," Shaunee said with a little hiccupy sob.
"Well, then say it fast 'cause when you say it fast it gets over with and it doesn't seem so bad."
"I want to go live back at the House of Night."
There was a heavy silence, and then Zoey asked, "Does Erin want to go with you?"
"No," Shaunee said, wiping away the last of her tears. "I'm going by myself."