Hunted (House of Night) Chapter 10:
Now that Heath is here, things really begin to take interesting and unexpected turns:
‘Heath?’ Erik didn’t sound nearly as pleased. He grabbed my arm so I couldn’t run past him. He frowned, still managing to stay protectively in front of me. ‘You mean your human boyfriend?’
Who could have ever imagined that one day Erik would still feel jealous of Heath and make sassy remarks about him. Wild!
You’ll never believe what happens next:
‘Hey, aren’t you that Erik guy? Zo’s fledgling ex-boyfriend?’ Heath said. He ignored the three stairs that emptied into the basement and jumped lightly down, looking every inch (and I do mean at least six feet tall with kinda curly, sandy, blond-brown hair and the cutest eyes and guy dimples you have ever seen) the star quarterback he was. Yes, I’ll admit it freely, my high-school boyfriend was a cliché, but at least he was an adorable one.
‘Boyfriend.’ Erik’s voice was flint. ‘Not ex. Just like vampyre, not fledgling.’
I personally couldn’t have predicted that Heath would just ignore three whole stairs and display his physical prowess by jumping lightly down to Zoey and Heath! He may not be a vampyre like Erik, but this guy is no joke. Zoey’s sure got her work cut out for her.
Heath is not happy to hear they’re back together, but while giving Erik sass, he is quickly distracted by Zoey’s cool, new tattoos. Don’t be so easily led astray, Heath, it’s what Erik wants!
‘Yeah, well, I figured you were okay. I mean, I thought even though that blood thing between us broke, I’d still know if something bad happened to you.’ He’d said the words ‘blood thing’ with a sexy emphasis that had Erik stirring beside me. ‘
Is there any way he could have said ‘blood thing’ that wasn’t sexy. I mean, come on, let’s be honest, those are some sexy, sexy words.
Anyway, Zoey’s phone call to Heath had left him confused, so he wants to know what’s going on. Erik is none too pleased to hear about this phone call, though. I am confused about the timelines in this book since I think Zoey was actually flashing back for the first few chapters, but wasn’t she still single when she called Heath to warn him?
Also, a call to warn Heath his life might be endangered feels like it would be OK even if she and Erik were back together when she called. Zoey agrees with me and refuses to let Erik make her feel bad about this even though she is sympathetic to his jealousy since she has obviously given him reasons to feel that way.
Zoey starts to fill Heath in on what’s going on, but he and Erik first decide it’s time to bicker despite the fact the world might be in grave danger.
‘You can’t handle the same things we can handle. Try remembering that I had to help save your stupid human ass from a bunch of vamp ghosts just a couple months ago.’
‘Zoey saved me, not you! And I’ve been handling Zoey for about a zillion years longer than you’ve even known her.’
‘Yeah? How often has your stupid human ass put her in danger since she’s been Marked?’
Maybe if he says ‘stupid human ass’ one more time it will finally pack the punch its intended to and Heath will run sobbing from the tunnels, never to be seen again.
Heath tells them that in addition to the storms, there is some strange and terrifying gang activities going on by a group calling themselves “Mockers” who killed a bunch of people…hey wait just a minute! All this happened near the House of Night! HOLY SHIT KALONA AND THE RAVEN MOCKERS HAVE ALREADY BECOME TO MOST FEARED GANG IN TOWN? Just kidding, Neferet has just brainwashed everyone to cover up what’s really going on.
Zoey explains how dangerous the Raven Mockers are and tells Heath what happened to her grandma. Apparently, Heath was tight with Grandma and had visited her with Zoey countless times over the years. Reading House of Night reminds me so much of the episode of Rick and Morty where parasites use fake memories to infiltrate the family, and they’re like, “Don’t you remember all these good times and barbecues and family adventures??? How could I not be real!”.
It never sounded like Heath and Zoey had that kind of relationship – it seemed very superficial and like it took place only in the confines of the school/school related activities. But now the Casts are trying to be like, “But, yeah, totally remember how actually Heath was SO important to Zoey and she always loved him and felt super close to him based on none of the evidence we gave you in the first book especially?”
When Erik and Zoey describe Kalona, there is a strange moment where Zoey defends Kalona:
‘He has wings. Big black ones,’ Erik said. ‘But he’s not a good guy, and everything we know about him says he’s always been evil.’
‘No, he hasn’t.’ Okay, my mouth said that, but I really hadn’t meant it to.
Or at least I think we’re meant to understand she’s defending him/this is evidence of Kalona getting in her head already. Erik and Heath are just like, “Let’s just go with evil, okay?”
They turn on the radio just in time to listen to the emergency news bulletin about the gangs in full again, also this:
‘We have one more community announcement: All House of Night staff and students have been recalled to the school due to the impending weather. Again, all House of Night staff and students have been asked to return to school. Stay tuned for updates. We return you to our scheduled programming.’
This is not suspicious at all, we repeat, this is not suspicious at all and Neferet is definitely totally chill and not evil.
Zoey even explains everything Neferet’s involvement to Heath, which at this point feels like the least dangerous piece of information to be giving him, but Erik starts in again about how they shouldn’t be telling him this. Zoey rightfully points out that secrets seem to always get her in trouble and protect no one, so she’s going to just give him all the info. Even Erik is like, “Yup that tracks, go on.”
After they finish recapping basically the entire rest of the plot, Zoey and Erik agree it’s time for Heath to get out of there and try to go home/somewhere away from vampyres since he might not be safe around the red fledglings or with them if Kalona and Neferet are after them.
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