Awakened

“The Tsi Sgili fed him to Darkness. She need not have been present. She needed only to have marked him as her sacrifice and then let loose the threads of Darkness to follow through with the actual killing. She didn’t have to witness the death.”

“How do I prove she was responsible?”

“You ca

“Damn it! I’m so dang mad I could spit nails! Neferet keeps gettin’ away with all of this awful crap. She keeps wi

For a moment, Rephaim touched her shoulder and she allowed herself to lean into his hand, to take comfort in the contact with him. Then he pulled back from her and said, “All that anger. All that frustration and sadness. I felt it from you earlier tonight, too, and I thought—” He hesitated, obviously trying to decide whether to keep speaking.

“What?” she asked softly. “You thought what?”

He met her eyes again. “I thought it was me you hated. Me you were so angry at. I heard you, too. You told the Sword Master tainted, unredeemable Darkness lurked outside. You were looking straight at me when you said it.”

Stevie Rae nodded. “Yeah, I saw you, and I knew if I didn’t say somethin’ to get Dragon and Damien outta there, they were go

“Then you were not talking about me?”

It was Stevie Rae’s turn to hesitate. She sighed. “I was seriously pissed and scared and upset. I wasn’t thinkin’ ’bout my words. I was just reacting ’cause I was freaked.” She paused again and then added, “I didn’t mean nothin’ against you, but Rephaim, I do need to know what’s goin’ on with Kalona and Neferet.”

Rephaim turned and walked slowly to the edge of the rooftop. She followed him and stood beside him as they stared out at the quiet night.

“It’s almost dawn,” Rephaim said.

Stevie Rae shrugged. “I got about half an hour before the sun rises. It’ll only take ten minutes or so to get back to the school.”

“You should leave now and not take any chances. The sun can cause you too much damage, even with my blood inside you.”

“I know. I’ll go pretty soon.” Stevie Rae sighed. “So, you’re not go

He turned to look at her again. “What would you think of me if you knew I betrayed my father?”

“He’s not a good guy, Rephaim. He’s not worth your protection.”

“But he is my father,” Rephaim said.

Stevie Rae thought Rephaim sounded exhausted. She wanted to take his hand, to tell him it’d be okay. But she couldn’t. How the heck was it going to be okay with him on one side and her on the other? “I can’t fight against that,” she finally said. “You’re go

“My father is bound to her!” Rephaim blurted.

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t kill Zoey, so he didn’t fulfill his oath to Neferet, and now the Tsi Sgili holds dominion over his immortal soul.”

“Oh, great! So Kalona is like a loaded gun Neferet is holding.”

Rephaim shook his head. “He should be, but my father does not serve others well. He chafes uneasily under her command. I believe the analogy would be more accurate if you said that Father is like a misfiring loaded gun Neferet is holding.”

“You’re go

“I will not betray him.”

“Okay, fine. I get that. But does that mean you can’t help me?”

Rephaim stared at her silently so long she thought he wasn’t going to answer, and she was trying to formulate another question in her head when he finally said, “I want to help you, and I will as long as it doesn’t mean betraying my father.”

“That’s a lot like the first deal you and I made, and that didn’t end up so bad, did it?” she asked, smiling up at him.

“No, not so bad.”

“And, really, aren’t we all basically against Neferet?”

“I am,” he said firmly.

“And your daddy?”

“He wants to be rid of her control.”

“Well, that’s practically the same thing as bein’ on our side.”

“I can’t be on your side, Stevie Rae. You have to remember that.”

“So you’d fight against me?” She met his gaze squarely.

“I could not hurt you.”

“Well, then—”

“No,” he interrupted. “Not being able to hurt you is different than fighting for you.”

“You’d fight for me. You already have.”

Rephaim grabbed her hand, squeezing it as if through touch he could make her understand him. “I’ve never fought my father for you.”

“Rephaim, do you remember that boy we saw in the fountain?” She changed his grip on her hand and threaded her fingers with his.

He didn’t speak. He only nodded.

“You know he’s inside you, don’t you?”

Again, Rephaim nodded, this time slowly and hesitantly.

“That boy inside you is your mama’s son. Not Kalona’s. Don’t forget about her. And don’t forget about that boy and what he’d fight for, too. Okay?”

Before Rephaim could reply, Stevie Rae’s phone rang with Miranda Lambert’s “Only Prettier.” She dropped Rephaim’s hand and groped in her pocket for it, saying “That’s Z’s ringtone! I have to talk to her. She doesn’t know about Jack yet.”

Before she could press the answer button, Rephaim’s hand caught hers. “Zoey needs to return to Tulsa. That’s one way all of us can fight Neferet. The Tsi Sgili hates Zoey, and her presence here will be a distraction.”

“A distraction from what?” Stevie Rae asked just before she hit the answer button and spoke quickly into the phone, saying, “Z, hang on. I gotta tell you something important but I need a sec.”

Zoey’s voice came through the line sounding like she was talking from the bottom of a well. “No problem, but call me back, ’kay? I’m seriously roaming.”

“Will do in two shakes of a dead cat’s tail,” Stevie Rae said.

“Do you know how gross that sounds?”

Stevie Rae smiled into the phone. “Yep and bye.”

“You mean yuck and bye. Talk to you in a sec.”

The line disco

“My father wishes to discover a way to sever the bonds that tie him to Neferet. To do so, he’ll need her to be distracted. Her obsession with Zoey is an excellent distraction, as is her desire to use the rogue red fledglings in her war with humans.”

Stevie Rae’s brows went up. “There isn’t any war going on between vampyres and humans.”

“If Neferet’s will is done, there will be.”

“Okay, well, we’ll have to be sure that doesn’t happen. Looks like Z really does need to get home.”

“They want to use you, too,” Rephaim blurted.

“Huh? Who’s they? Me? For what?”

Rephaim looked away from her and spoke very quickly. “Neferet and Father. They don’t believe you’ve firmly chosen the way of the Goddess. They think you could be persuaded to move to the side of Darkness.”

“Rephaim, there is not even one tiny small chance of that. I’m not perfect. I have my issues. But I chose Nyx and Light when I regained my humanity. I’m never go

“I have never doubted that, Stevie Rae, but they do not know you as I do.”

“And Neferet and Kalona can never find out about us, either, can they?”

“It would be very bad if they did.”

“Very bad for you or for me?”

“For both of us.”

Stevie Rae sighed. “Okay, so I’ll be careful.” She touched his arm. “You be careful, too.”

He nodded. “You should start back. Call Zoey as you drive. Dawn is too close.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” she said, but neither of them moved.