Hellbender - Dana Cameron Page 0,64

was intimidated by Representative Nichols in a personal way that even the Makers couldn’t match. She stood up to Senator Knight like she didn’t even care, and she went to the worst-case scenarios without batting an eye. She had a scary handle on all the angles of the situations, the situations that I was responsible for putting in front of her.

“I hate that I make you feel like this,” I said. “I hate that I don’t have the bandwidth to fix this right now. We both need a lot of time, and now is not exactly ideal. Can you wait? Just a little?”

“Not really.”

I shook my head sadly. “Okay. Then we’re done.”

“Wait—what?” His face was the picture of distress. “That’s not what I wanted!”

“Right, it’s not the answer you wanted, but it gives you certainty. You can have that much; I can do that for you.”

“Why are you doing this, Zoe?” The pain on his face made my heart contract.

“Doing what?”

And then I realized what he meant.

I’d changed. I’d become a different person. Will thought I was being petulant, giving him an ultimatum or something, and I’d been decisive and sincere, making a mature offer that hurt me to even think about.

“I’m not doing what you think, Will—aaahhh!” A blast of chaos in my head, confusion that didn’t feel Fangborn, didn’t feel human . . .

“What? We’re doing this again?”

“No—ah, shit.” I clutched my head. “It’s the ravens. I’m seeing through their eyes. Jason . . . the oracle is in some kind of trouble.”

As I ran into the kitchen area, Jason doubled over so hard, so fast, I thought he was going to knock himself out on his own knee. A second later, he slammed backward with equal violence. Jack and Jill were shrieking and flapping around him, darting, talons out at anyone who got too close.

Another Cousin I didn’t know had tears streaming down her face. When she saw me, she screamed. “Get a lid on it, Zoe! If you can’t use your powers properly, don’t!” She ran from the room.

I stood shocked, and Jason finally staggered up, groaning. The birds however did not settle, hovering over him protectively and, if I didn’t know better, squawking with concern. When Jason leaned back against the wall, Jack and Jill hopped on the floor near him. Then when he spoke to them, they returned to their perches, shrugging and shaking out their feathers nervously.

“Goddamn, Zoe,” he said with a hoarse voice. “What the fuck are you up to?”

“Me? Nothing.” I got him a glass of water and would have given it to him, but Jack swooped at me, cawing a warning. “Okay, okay. I won’t get too close.”

I set the glass on the floor and then got down on my knees and shoved it carefully toward Jason. His fingers brushed against it, almost knocking the glass over, and I got an even better idea of just how freaked out he and the ravens were. They shuffled a bit but stayed quiet—my posture was too submissive to suggest I was going to be any threat—and Jason drank deeply, sighing. His head tilted back against the wall and his face relaxed. This was the first time I’d seen him without his sunglasses on and his coat buttoned up. His red hair hung lankly, heavy with sweat, and his face struck me as surprisingly young. I slowly sat back on my heels, intensely aware that the two giant birds were eying me suspiciously.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Um, what happened?”

“I got this overwhelming urge to . . . do what you said.” He turned toward me. “And you said it wasn’t you?”

“No.” I had no idea what he was on about. “Even if I could do that, why would I want to?”

“Everyone knows about your crazy vampire powers and how they’re not quite normal. This was beyond a vampiric compulsion. It was . . . an order, something I felt from the depth of my being. It felt like . . . It felt the way that you fangs-and-fur folks describe the Call to Change. It felt like there was no way I’d want to ignore it, even if I could.”

“Whoa. Okay, well, I didn’t do it.” I thought a moment. “What did it say?”

“Say?”

“Was it a voice, my voice, commanding you?” I asked, desperate to know if I was somehow broadcasting unintentionally. “Was it a sudden urge to give me a pedicure? What form did this command take?”

Jason burst out laughing, which