House Of Night Chosen | Page 3

my eyes.

"And the Twins and I would have been pissed because she
would have insisted we all wear those pointed birthday hats with the
elastic string that pinches your chin." He shuddered in not-sopretended horror. "God, they're so
unattractive."

I laughed and felt a little of the tightness in my chest begin
to loosen. "There's just something about Stevie Rae that makes me
feel good." I didn't realize that I'd used the present tense until
Damien's teary smile faltered.

"Yeah, she was great," he said, with an extra emphasis on
the was while he looked at me like he was worried about my sanity.

If only he knew the whole truth. If only I could tell him.

But I couldn't. If I did it would get either Stevie Rae or me,
or both of us, killed. For good this time.

So instead I grabbed my obviously worried friend's arm and
started pulling him toward the stairs that would lead us down to the
public rooms of the girls' dorm and my waiting friends (and their

dorky presents).

"Let's go. I'm feeling the need to open presents," I lied
enthusiastically.

"Ohmygod! I can not wait for you to open mine!" Damien
gushed. "I shopped for it forevah!"

I smiled and nodded appropriately as Damien went on and
on about his Quest for the Perfect Present. Usually he isn't so
overtly gay. Not that the fabulous Damien Maslin isn't actually gay.
He totally is. But he's also a tall, brown-haired, big-eyed cutie who
looks like he'd be excellent boyfriend material (which he is—if
you're a boy). He's not a fluttery-acting gay kid, but get the boy
talking about shopping and he definitely shows some girlish
tendencies. Not that I don't like that about him. I think he looks cute
when he gushes about the importance of buying really good shoes, Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)

and right then his babbling was soothing. It was helping me to get
ready to face the bad presents that (sadly) waited for me.

Too bad it couldn't help me face what was really bothering
me.

Still talking about his Shopping Quest, Damien led me
though the main room of the dorm. I waved at the various clumps of
girls clustered around the pods of flat-screen TVs as we headed to
the little side room that served as a computer lab and library.
Damien opened the door and my friends broke into a totally off-key
chorus of "Happy Birthday to You." I heard Nala hiss and from the
edge of my vision watched her back from the doorway and trot
away down the hall. Coward, I thought, even though I wished I
could escape with her.

Song over (thankfully), my gang swarmed me.

"Happy-happy!" said the Twins together. Okay—they're not
genetically twins. Erin Bates is a very white girl from Tulsa and
Shaunee Cole is a lovely caramel-colored girl of Jamaican-
American descent who grew up in Connecticut, but the two are so
freakishly alike that skin tone and region make absolutely no
difference. They're soul twins, which is way closer than mere
biology.

"Happy birthday, Z," said a deep, sexy voice I knew very,
very well. I stepped out of the twin sandwich and walked into the
arms of my boyfriend, Erik. Well, technically, Erik is one of my two
boyfriends, but the other is Heath, a human teenager I dated before I
was Marked and I'm not supposed to be dating him now, but I kinda
sorta accidentally sucked his blood and now we're Imprinted and so
he's my boyfriend by default. Yes, it's confusing. Yes, it makes Erik
mad. Yes, I expect him to dump me any day because of it.

"Thanks," I murmured looking up at him and getting trapped
all over again in his incredible eyes. Erik is tall and hot, with
Superman dark hair and incredibly blue eyes. I relaxed in his arms,
a treat I hadn't allowed myself much of during the past month, and
temporarily basked in his yummy smell and the sense of security I
felt when I was close to him. He met my gaze and, just like in the

movies, for a second everyone else went away and it was just us.
When I didn't move out of