“Not as red fledglings. Never.”
“That’s weirder than boobs on a boar,” Stevie Rae said.
“Goddess, give me strength.” Aphrodite rolled her eyes to the heavens.
“Let’s go back to the dream,” I said. “You were looking for Grandma and you tripped and fell. Then you woke up.”
“Yeah, I was in a cave-thing when I woke up, only it was only my soul and not my body. My body was all crumpled back where I’d tripped, and I remember my head was bleeding, too. This woman’s voice was calling for me and I floated around, following it. At first I thought it was you, G-ma, because it was singing in Cherokee, but it wasn’t. Zo, real weird stuff happened. Like, I could see the color of words and sounds.”
My skin felt all tingly. “Laughter is birthday-cake-frosting blue.”
Other Kevin looked shocked. “How did you know?”
“Keep talking.”
“Okay, um, I followed the voice and there she was—the goddess. She was sitting by a little stream.” Other Kevin’s gaze went far away and the corner of his lips lifted sweetly, making him look like a little boy again. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. She called me ‘u-we-tsi.’”
“Son,” Grandma said with a smile.
Other Kevin nodded. “I’m not as good as Zo with the Cherokee, but I do know that one. Nyx called me ‘u-we-tsi’ and told me I’m special. That my power is in the uniqueness of my combined blood of ancient Shamans and of the modern world. She said that I would be her eyes and ears in a world that is struggling to find the balance between good and evil. Then she said something I’ll never forget. I even had it tattooed around my arm.” He rolled up the sleeve of his T-shirt so that we could see the cursive script tattooed around his bicep. I knew what they would say before Grandma read them aloud.
“Darkness does not always equate to evil, just as light does not always bring good.”
“Then Nyx kissed me. Right here.” He pointed to the filled-in red crescent Mark on his forehead. “When I woke up I’d made the Change.”
No one said a word.
Kevin’s gaze went around the table. He sighed and leaned back, running his fingers through his dark, tousled hair, food forgotten. “I knew you’d think I was crazy.”
“Ohmygoodness, Other Kevin is his world’s Zoey!” Stevie Rae blurted.
Kevin stared at me and together we said, “Ah, hell.”
28
Other Kevin
“The same dream. You’re telling me you and I had the same dream.” Kevin couldn’t stop staring at his sister.
“What I’m telling you is that it wasn’t a dream at all. It happened to me. Almost exactly like you described, only I actually went to Grandma’s farm the day I was Marked because Mom and the step-loser refused to take me to the House of Night. Instead they thought they’d pray over me.” Kevin and Z rolled their eyes together. “Wait, what happened when I was Marked in your world?”
“You picked me up from school. We freaked about your Mark, and then I went to the House of Night with you.”
“I didn’t go home?”
“Nope. We didn’t figure there was any reason to, and we were right because when I was Marked I had already come home first. I was, um, pretty upset. You’d died, Zo.”
G-ma squeezed his hand. “That must have been very difficult for you.”
“It was awful. For you, too, G-ma.”
“Did Mom take you to the House of Night?” Zo asked.
“Are you kidding? She and the step-loser wanted to start the prayer chain. I snuck out and called the red line.”
“What’s the red line?” Stevie Rae asked.
“It’s the emergency line for the House of Night if you get Marked red. You just hit 7-3-3 from any phone and someone will come pick you up. That’s what I did, and they took me to the depot with the rest of the red fledglings. And that’s about it.” He sat back and waited for whatever would happen next.
“You won’t hear me say this very often, but Stevie Rae’s right—you are your world’s Zoey,” Aphrodite said.
“I agree,” said G-ma Redbird.
“Yes,” said the tall Native kid called Rephaim who was with Stevie Rae.
“Yep,” Stark said.
Then everyone just stared at Kevin.
“Hey, what’d we miss?”
Two guys hurried up to the table. The taller of the two had a cool blue tattoo that looked like the wings of an Egyptian god. The other was a red fledgling Kevin didn’t recognize. They were holding hands. The blue vampyre was saying, “Those red fledglings are finally relaxing a little, so we were able to get away. Lenobia, Travis, and Professor P are sitting with them in the cafeteria. I really feel bad for them. They’re super messed up.”
On their heels was a gorgeous black girl whose blue tattoo was two phoenixes rising from flames. “Yeah, but that’s nothing compared to this kid’s red vamp friends. Erik’s with them. They won’t even leave their room. Um, could I have a cookie?” she said as everyone slid around to make room for the three of them and Zo made more introductions.
“Kevin, this is Damien—his affinity is for air. And Other Jack. He’s from your world. In this world he and Damien were together, and then our Jack was killed.”
“But now I have him back.” The Damien vampyre looked at Jack with so much love that it seemed an intrusion to watch.
“And I have him back,” Jack said, putting his head on Damien’s shoulder.
“Yeah, and this is Shaunee. Her affinity is for—”
“Fire, I bet,” Kevin said.
“Smart and handsome. I already like him,” said Shaunee.
“Guys, this is my brother, Other Kevin.”
“Hi,” Kev said. “So, it’s still bad with Marc and Dave?”
“Real bad,” said the fire vampyre. “Got any words of wisdom that might help us help them?”
Kevin looked down. He was so damn torn. On one hand he was amazingly, incredibly happy that his sister was alive. On the other was the past, and the men downstairs who might never be able to get over it.
“I wish I did,” he said slowly. “Time. And support. Talk to them, like Zo’s been talking to me.” He glanced up, smiling sadly at his sister. “Like I’m normal. Like I’m not a monster.”