CHAPTER 6. “Stevie Rae, this isn’t a good idea,” Dallas said as he hurried to keep up with her.

Stevie Rae

“Stevie Rae, this isn’t a good idea, ” Dallas said as he hurried to keep up with her.

“I’m not gonna be gone long, promise, ” she said, stopping as she got to the parking lot and looked around for Zoey’s little blue car. “Ha! There it is, and she always leaves the keys in it, ’cause the doors don’t lock anyway.” Stevie Rae jogged up to the Bug, opened the creaky door, and gave a victory shout when she saw the keys dangling from the ignition.

“Seriously, I wish you’d come to the Council Chamber with me and tell the vamps what you’re up to, even if you won’t tell me. Get their opinion about what’s goin’ on inside that head of yours, girl.”

Stevie Rae turned to Dallas. “Well, that’s the problem. I’m not sure what I’m doin’. And, Dallas, I wouldn’t tell a bunch of vamps stuff I wouldn’t tell you first, you gotta know that.”

Dallas rubbed a hand down his face. “I used to know that, but a lot’s happened fast, and you’re actin’ weird.”

She put her hand on his shoulder. “I just have a feelin’ that there might be somethin’ I can do to help Zoey, but I’m not gonna figure that out sittin’ up there in that room with a bunch of uptight vamps. I need to be out here.” Stevie Rae spread her arms, taking in the earth around them. “I need to use my element to think. It seems there’s somethin’ that I’m missing, but the understanding of it is just outside my reach. I’m gonna use earth to help me make that reach.”

“Can’t you do that from here? There’s lots of nice earth all over the school.”

Stevie Rae made herself smile at him. She hated lying to Dallas, but then again, she wasn’t really lying. She was really going to see if she could figure out a way to help Z, and she couldn’t do that at the House of Night. “There’re too many distractions here.”

“Okay, look, I know I can’t stop you from going, but I need you to promise me something, or I’m gonna make an ass outta myself by actually tryin’ to stop you.”

Stevie Rae’s eyes widened, and this time she didn’t have to force her smile. “You’re gonna try to kick my butt, Dallas? ”

“Well, you and I both know it’d just be me tryin’, but not succeeding, which is where the ‘make an ass outta myself’ part comes in.”

Still grinning at him, she said, “What do you want me to promise? ”

“That you won’t go back to the depot right now. They almost killed you, and you look all recovered and stuff, but they almost killed you. Yesterday. So I need you to promise you’re not going back down there to face them tonight.”

“I promise, ” she said earnestly. “I’m not goin’ down there. I told you—I want to try to figure out how to help Z, and fightin’ with those kids definitely won’t help her.”

“Swear? ”

“Swear.”

He let loose a relieved sigh. “Good. Now what am I supposed to tell those vamps about where you’ve gone? ”

“Just what I told you—that I gotta get surrounded by the earth and left alone. That I’m tryin’ to figure out something, and I can’t do it here.”

“All right. I’ll tell ’em. They’re gonna be pissed.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be back soon, ” she said, getting in Zoey’s car. “And don’t worry. I’ll be careful.” The engine had just turned over when Dallas rapped on the window. Suppressing an annoyed sigh, she cracked it.

“Almost forgot to tell ya—I overheard some of the kids talking while I was waitin’ for you. It’s all over the Internet that Z isn’t the only shattered soul in Venice.”

“What the heck does that mean, Dallas? ”

“Word is that Neferet dumped Kalona on the High Council—literally. His body is there, but his soul is gone.”

“Thanks, Dallas. I gotta go! ” Without waiting for him to reply, Stevie Rae shoved the Bug into gear and drove out of the parking lot and off the school grounds. Taking a quick right on Utica Street, she headed downtown and to the northeast, toward the rolling land on the outskirts of Tulsa that held the Gilcrease Museum.

Kalona’s soul was missing, too.

Stevie Rae didn’t for an instant believe that he’d been so wracked with grief that the immortal’s soul had ripped apart.

“Not likely, ” she muttered to herself as she navigated the dark, silent streets of Tulsa. “He’s after her.” As soon as Stevie Rae said the words aloud, she knew she was right.

So what could she do about it?

She didn’t have a clue. She didn’t know anything about immortals or shattered souls or the spirit world. Sure, she’d died, but she’d also un-died. And she didn’t remember her soul going anywhere. Trapped... It’d been black and cold and soundless, and I’d wanted to scream and scream and... Stevie Rae shuddered, clamping down on her thoughts. She didn’t remember much of that terrible, dead time—she didn’t want to. But she did know someone who understood a lot about immortals, especially Kalona, and the spirit world. According to Z’s grandma, Rephaim hadn’t been anything but a spirit until Neferet had set loose his gross daddy.

“Rephaim will know somethin’. And what he knows, I’m gonna know, ” she said resolutely, her fingers tightening on the steering wheel.

If she had to, Stevie Rae would use the power of their Imprint, the power of her element, and every bit of power inside her body to get information from him. Ignoring the sick, terrible, guilty way it made her feel to think of fighting Rephaim, she gave the Bug more gas and turned down Gilcrease Road.

Stevie Rae

She didn’t have to wonder where she’d find him. Stevie Rae just knew. The front door to the old mansion had already been forced open, and she slipped inside the dark, cold house, following his invisible trail up and up. She didn’t need to see the balcony door ajar to know he was outside. She knew he was there. I’ll always know where he is, she thought gloomily.

He didn’t turn to face her right away, and she was glad. Stevie Rae needed the time to try to get used to the sight of him again.

“So, you came, ” he said, still without facing her.

That voice—that human voice. It struck her again, as it had the first night she’d heard it.

“You called me, ” she said, trying to keep her voice cool—trying to hold on to the anger she felt at what his horrible daddy had caused.

He turned to face her, and their eyes met.

He looks exhausted, was her first thought. His arm’s bleeding again.

She is still in pain, was his first thought. And she is filled with anger. They stared at each other silently, neither willing to speak their thoughts aloud.

“What has happened? ” he finally asked.

“How do you know something’s happened? ” she snapped back at him.

He hesitated before speaking, obviously choosing his words carefully. “I know from you.”

“You’re not makin’ any sense, Rephaim.” The sound of her voice speaking his name seemed to echo in the air around them, and the night was suddenly tinted with the memory of the glistening red mist that had been sent by the son of an immortal to caress Stevie Rae’s skin and call her to him.

“That is because it does not make sense to me, ” he said, his voice deep and soft and hesitant. “I know nothing about how an Imprint works; you will have to teach me.”

Stevie Rae felt her cheeks get warm. He’s telling the truth, she realized. Our Imprint lets him know things about me! And how could he understand it? I barely do.

She cleared her throat. “So, are you sayin’ you know something’s happened because you can sense it from me? ”

“Feel, not sense, ” he corrected her. “I felt your pain. Not like before, right after you drank from me. Then your body was in pain. Your pain tonight was emotional, not physical.”

She couldn’t stop staring at him, her shock clear on her face. “Yes, it was. It still is.”

“Tell me what has happened.”

Instead of answering him, she asked, “Why did you call me here? ”

“You were feeling pain. I could feel it, too.” He paused, obviously disconcerted by what he was saying, and then continued, “I wanted to stop feeling it. So I sent you strength and called you to me.”

“How did you do it? What was that red misty stuff? ”

“Answer my question, and I will answer yours.”

“Fine. What has happened is your daddy killed Heath, the human guy who was Zoey’s consort. Zoey saw him do it and couldn’t stop him, and that shattered her soul.”

Rephaim continued to stare at her until it felt to Stevie Rae as if he was looking through her body and directly into her soul. She couldn’t look away, though, and the longer their gazes met, the harder it was for her to hold on to her anger. His eyes were just so human. Only their color was off, and to Stevie Rae, the scarlet within them wasn’t as alien as it should be. Truthfully, it was frighteningly familiar; it had once tinted her own eyes.

“Don’t you have anything to say about that? ” she blurted, pulling her gaze from his so that she was staring out at the empty night.

“There is more. What is it you aren’t telling me? ”

Gathering her anger back to her, Stevie Rae met his gaze again. “Word has it your daddy’s soul is shattered, too.”

Rephaim blinked, shock clear in his blood-colored eyes. “I don’t believe that, ” he said.

“Neither do I, but Neferet’s dumped his spiritless body on the High Council, and apparently they’re buying the story. You know what I think? ” She didn’t wait for him to respond, but went on, her voice rising with her frustration and anger and fear. “I think Kalona’s followed Zoey into the Otherworld because he’s totally obsessed with her.” Stevie Rae wiped at her cheeks, brushing off the tears she thought she’d finished shedding.

“That is impossible.” Rephaim sounded almost as upset as she felt. “My father cannot return to the Otherworld. The realm has been eternally forbidden to him.”

“Well, obviously he figured out a way to get around being forbidden.”

“A way to get around having been eternally banished by the Goddess of Night herself? How could that be accomplished? ”

“Nyx kicked him out of the Otherworld? ” Stevie Rae said.

“It was my father’s choice. He was once Nyx’s Warrior. Their Oath Bond was broken when he fell.”

“Ohmygoodness, Kalona used to be on Nyx’s side? ” Without consciously knowing she was doing so, Stevie Rae moved closer to Rephaim.

“Yes. He guarded her against Darkness.” Rephaim stared out at the night.

“What happened? Why did he fall? ”

“Father never speaks of it. I know whatever it was filled him with an anger that burned for centuries.”

“And that’s how you were created. From that anger.”

His gaze found her again. “Yes.”

“Does it fill you, too? That anger and darkness? ” she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Wouldn’t you know if it did? Just as I know your pain? Is that not how this Imprint between us works? ”

“Well, it’s complicated. See, you’ve been kinda forced into the role of my consort since I’m the vampyre here and all. And it’s easier for a consort to sense things about their vampyre than the other way around. What I get from you is—”

“My power, ” he broke in. She didn’t think he sounded mad, just tired and almost hopeless. “You get my immortal strength.”

“Holy crap! That’s why I healed so dang fast.”

“Yes, and why I don’t.”

Stevie Rae blinked in surprise. “Well, shoot. You must feel awful—you look pretty bad.”

He made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a snort. “And you look healthy and whole again.”

“I am healthy, but I won’t be really whole until I figure out how to help Zoey. She’s my best friend, Rephaim. She can’t die.”

“He is my father. He can’t die, either.”

They stared at one another, both struggling to make sense of this thing between them that drew them together even as hurt and pain and anger swirled around them, defining and separating their worlds.

“How about this: we get you something to eat. I fix that wing again, which won’t be fun for either of us, and then we try to figure out what’s going on with Zoey and your daddy. You should know some-thin’, though. I can’t feel your emotions like you can feel mine, but I can tell if you’re lyin’ to me. I am also pretty sure I could find you, no matter where you are. So if you lie to me and set up Zoey, I give you my word that I will come against you with all the power of my element and your blood.”

“I will not lie to you, ” he said.

“Good. Let’s go inside the museum and find the kitchen.”

Stevie Rae left the rooftop balcony, and the Raven Mocker followed her as if tethered to the High Priestess by an invisible but unbreakable chain.

Stevie Rae

“You could have anything in this world you desired with that power, ” Rephaim said between bites of the huge sandwich she’d fixed him from the stuff that hadn’t already gone bad in the industrial refrigerators of the museum’s restaurant.

“Nah, not really. I mean, sure, I can make one tired, overworked, and kinda dorky night security guard let us into the museum and then forget we ever existed; but I can’t, like, rule the world or anything crazy like that.”

“It is an excellent power to wield.”

“No, it’s a responsibility I didn’t ask for and really don’t want. See, I don’t want to be able to make humans do whatever the heck I want them to do. It’s just not right—not if I’m on Nyx’s side.”

“Because your Goddess does not believe in giving her subjects the objects of their desire? ”

Stevie Rae stared at him for a while, twirling a curl around and around her finger before answering, thinking that he might be messin’ with her, but the red gaze that met hers was completely serious. So she took a deep breath, and explained, “Not because of that, but because Nyx believes in giving everyone free choice, and when I mess with a human’s mind and implant stuff that he has no control over, I’m takin’ away his free choice. That’s just not right.”

“Do you really believe everyone in the world should have free choice? ”

“I do. That’s why I’m here today, talkin’ to you. Zoey gave that back to me. Then in a kinda pay-it-forward thing, I gave that same gift to you.”

“You let me live hoping that I would choose my own path and not that of my father.”

Stevie Rae was surprised that he had said it so freely; but she didn’t question what had prompted his honesty, she just went with it. “Yeah. I told you that when I closed the tunnel behind you and let you go instead of turning you in to my friends. You’re in charge of your life now. You’re not beholden to your daddy or anyone else.” She paused for a second and then said the rest in a big rush. “And you’ve already started down a different path by saving me on that rooftop.”

“An unpaid life debt is a dangerous thing to carry. It was only logical that I repaid the debt that was between us.”

“Yeah, I get that, but what about tonight? ”

“Tonight? ”

“You sent me your strength and called me to you. If you have that kind of power, why didn’t you just break our Imprint instead? That would have ended your pain, too.”

He stopped eating, and his scarlet gaze locked with hers. “Don’t make me into something I’m not. I have spent centuries in darkness. I lived with evil as my bedfellow. I am tied to my father. He is filled with an anger that might very well burn up this world, and if he returns, I am destined to be at his side. See me as I am, Stevie Rae. I am a nightmare creature given life through anger and rape. I walk among the living, but I’m ever separate, ever different. Not immortal, not man, and not beast.”

Stevie Rae let his words sink into her veins. She knew he was being completely, nakedly honest with her. But there was more to him than this machine of anger and evil he’d been created to be. She knew it because she’d been witness to it.

“Well, Rephaim, how ’bout you just consider that you might be right.”

She saw the understanding register in his blood-colored eyes. “Which means I might also be wrong? ”

She shrugged. “I’m just sayin’.”

Without speaking, he shook his head and went back to eating. She smiled and continued to make herself a turkey sandwich. “So, ” she said, slapping mustard on white bread. “What’s your theory about why your daddy’s soul’s turned up missing? ”

His gaze locked with hers, and the one word he uttered made her blood run cold.

“Neferet.”