Chosen Chapter 17

Since Zoey has sworn recently, she has to pay penance. At least, according to PCK. For swearing is something that imperfect people do and Zoey is as close to perfection as the author herself. Now Zoey isn’t able to use the common swears that sitcoms in the 50s were scared to touch.

Erik was going to be so dang pissed at me. The Twins had been perched on their favorite chairs staring at a Spider-Man 3 DVD as I hurried out of the kitchen clutching my can of brown pop and the canvas bag full of blood.

Dang? Really, PCK? Does Zoey have to keep it under a certain number of swears lest she be considered impure or what? Because I don’t think anyone at the school will gut her for saying damn. They’ll do that because Zoey is a snotty brat who abuses her powers/position.

Naturally, Zoey’s servants are waiting for the chance to comfort her. They say they already heard about her finding the body and go to pat her on the back while offering a mug of cocoa. They take great pains to assure Zoey that they’re worried about her and she can talk to them anytime she needs. Zoey pretends that it was very traumatic so they don’t suspect that she’s a member of the lizard people merely wearing the skin of a vampire.

Zoey then has to tell us how guilty she feels for lying to her friends and how her gut twists and blah blah blah. You know Zoey, she’s always trying to do the right thing. As long as it means she doesn’t have to give up control of anybody or anything serious like that. She panicks about how they’d react if they caught her in a lie and how they might not want to be friends. Silly, Zoey. They don’t have a choice in the matter.

Zoey makes her exit by telling them she’s got to go see Heath. They says she’s hard on her exboyfriends. Which would be true if Zoey had any exboyfriends to speak of. Currently it’s just a list of boyfriends she doesn’t want to dump because they ‘re hot and/or an excellent source of iron. They ask what they should tell her boyfriend and Zoey has a moment where she forgets which one they’re talking about.

“Your boyfriend, Erik I’m-So-Damn-Fiiiine Night.” Erin gave me a look that said she thought I’d lost my mind.

Zoey remembers that no one knows about her secret boyfriend yet. Her servants ask if she’s feeling okay, because they’re fine and never mind them. Zoey assures them that she’s fine and not succumbing to Dracul’s Alzheimer’s. Then they wonder if Erik will bring over some hot friends because they don’t mind getting the second rate leavings of Zoey. Zoey’s servants readily agree to lie to Erik for her and then continue to talk about how they’re going to manipulate the boys into holding them by claiming to be traumatized. Good to know Zoey is merely the worst of them.

Zoey is then ready to sneak off of campus and she runs into someone. Because PCK can’t think of a better way for Zoey to meet new people. She literally runs into Darius one of the “sons of erebus”. He’s big and muscular and formal but he doesn’t do anything for her libido in spite of being a man like Loren. Though Darius has just arrived at the school he’s already heard all about Zoey and is honored to meet the blessed Zoey. He says that no one will harm the school while he breathes and blah blah Klingon bullshit, blah. He calls Zoey “little priestess” and tells her not to worry for her safety.

“My brother warriors are posted all over the school grounds. You may rest safely, little priestess,” he smiled at me. Little priestess? Please. The kid had to have just Changed recently.

Says the fledgling who hasn’t been a vampire more than a couple of months. Zoey says she’s going to visit her pony and brush it’s hair and feed it sugar cubes. Then she starts telling us how much it sucks that there is extra security floating around. How ever will Zoey sneak away to feast on Heath? Zoey also says that they’re cute but that doesn’t matter when it comes to sneaking away. Zoey starts having an anxiety attack before the author intervenes.

And then the soft voice was in my head, telling me to think … be calm…

Whew! Zoey almost had to use her wits to get herself out of this mess. There’s nothing I hate more than a protagonist who uses skill and intelligence to solve problems. I much prefer when they stumble ass-first into the deus ex machina.Yes, Nyx—aka PCK—is guiding Zoey to the solution. I guess this means that it’s Nyx’s will that Zoey date Heath and keep him under mind control. “And just like that” Zoey knows exactly what to do.

Zoey calls ”silence and invisibility”, which is more than she does for her family, and steps into the courtyard. In this book alone, we have Zoey using her powers to smack her “friends” and sneak out to make out with Heath. Compared to Zoey, Aphrodite was showing incredible discretion with her powers. Yet I don’t see another vampire being appointed by Nyx to oust Zoey. Zoey slinks along telling herself no one can see or hear her which works as long as no one looks at her.

I could sense the presence of the Sons of Erebus, but I didn’t look around. I didn’t allow my concentration to falter. Instead I kept up my internal prayer turned spell turned magic. I moved like the wisp of a thought or a secret, undetectable and hidden in layers of silence and fog, mist and magic. My body shivered. It seemed I actually floated, and when I glanced down at myself I saw only a shadow within fog within shadow. This must have been what Bram Stoker described in Dracula. Instead of startling me, the thought strengthened my concentration and I felt myself become even less substantial. Moving like a dream, I found the lightning-damaged tree and climbed up its broken trunk and out onto the thick branch that rested against the wall as if I was weightless.

Wait, I though Bram Stoker was wrong and full of lies? I am so confused. Either way, I’m pretty sure that when Dracula went to visit a teen, he wasn’t pretending he was the good guy. At the very least he was probably honest about wanting to use her like a juice box. And we never had to read Dracula’s monologue about wanting to break up with one girl but finding her too cute and lacking the guts to do it.

Zoey gets to the tree and climbs up to the wall, finding the rope Aphro promised would be there. Instead of getting her hands dirty, and possibly blistered, Zoey commands wind to carry her down. No really, she says  “Come to me air and spirit. Like midnight mist, carry me to earth.” As if Zoey can’t just climb down on her own. If I were air, I’d knock her down to the ground as a reminder that you don’t use power like that for frivolous things.

Zoey laughs and enjoys the feeling of powers. Then she looks at herself in a mirror and tells us how her skin is iridescent and blah blah blah. She’s reminded of Loren telling her she’s a god among demigods and that he might have been right. So she stares at her reflection for a bit and wonders if Loren and them are “star crossed lovers” and debates leaving Erik.

After all, I really wasn’t like other fledglings.

True, Zoey. You have an ego large enough to wrestle with Eragon’s. Zoey decides she has to accept how different she is, because we know how hard it’s been for her, and that she needs to be with someone special. Special in this case doesn’t mean Erik. Though I have no idea what makes Loren special excepting a few extra years on Erik. I guess immortals like Zoey don’t have time to wait a few years. Zoey applies some concealer and walks down to Starbucks.  On the way there, she runs into Heath who runs over and hugs her, telling Zoey he missed her.

“Heath, you were supposed to wait for me at Starbucks.” Yeah, on their little patio sidewalk area that would be busy with caffeine-aholics and definitely not intimate.

‘You don’t want to make me mad, do you Heath? Otherwise I might have to put you in the cornfield with Stepdad.’ Heath says he felt her coming and couldn’t wait, that they’re imprinted and that it’s him and her. Zoey says they need to talk and suggest they go back to Starbuck and chat over a few drinks. Heath says they can’t because the “bitch squad” is there.

“Bitch squad?”

“Yeah, that’s what me and Josh and Travis call Kayla and Whitney and Lindsey and Chelsea and Paige.”

Zoey asks since when has Kayla started hanging out with “those hateful sluts” and Heath says since she became a vampire. Poor Zoey, everyone is against her and she hasn’t a chance in the world. It turns out they saw Heath and followed him because everything revolves around Zoey in some fashion and Kayla is smart enough to take advantage of it.

Zoey doesn’t want to see them and Heath offers to walk her back to school. She says that’s a bad idea with the murder that just happened and Heath makes sure she’s okay. Zoey says they can go as far as the park nearby and Heath is fine with that. Heath then asks what happened in the tunnels and Zoey wants to know if he can remember. It’s fuzzy but it was bad and he says that he remembers’ glowing eyes and Zoey’s eyes don’t glow, they shine. This impresses Zoey and says he loves when she drinks from him. PCK leaves us hanging with Zoey wanting to eat him. Which means next chapter will have some improbable reason for her not to.