cheeks, but his voice didn’t shake. He sounded calm and sure of himself. “I got here as soon as I could. I am sorry you had to be like this for so long, but you know the problem I have during the sunlight. I’m not really myself.” He tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob instead. He cleared his throat and wiped his eyes, saying, “It’s not as bad as your problem with the sun, though.” He reached out like he meant to touch her cheek, but flinched at the rawness and blisters. Instead he rested his hand on her chest, over her heart. “Hey, I need you to wake up now,” he repeated, his tears falling faster and faster.
Kalona pushed past us to stand beside his son. “Rephaim, you must make her drink from you. You are bonded to her, and within your veins pulses the strength of immortals. Only you can heal her.”
Rephaim looked up at his dad. “She’s not conscious. She won’t wake up.”
“Then you must force her to drink.”
Rephaim nodded. He lifted the hand he’d been pressing over Stevie Rae’s heart and bit himself. Hard. Right on his wrist.
I didn’t need to see the blood seeping through the bite. I could smell it. It was super weird. In a way it was kinda stinky, like mold or newly dug-up dirt, but there was something else in it, too, that reminded me of dark chocolate and spices and a cool, moonlit breeze in the middle of a sweltering summer night.
“Wow, that’s bizarre smelling,” Stark murmured.
I didn’t say anything because I couldn’t stop my mouth from watering. All I could do was watch in envy as Rephaim leaned forward and gently cradled Stevie Rae’s head while he pressed his bleeding wrist to her slack lips.
“Drink, Stevie Rae. You have to,” Rephaim pleaded.
Stevie Rae didn’t react at all. Rephaim’s blood ran from the corners of her mouth and pooled scarlet against the white hospital sheets, looking delicious … irresistible…
“Zoey! Help her.”
I realized I’d been staring, spellbound, at Rephaim’s blood when Kalona’s voice jerked me back to myself. “H-how?” I stuttered.
Thanatos answered for him. “Call spirit. Have it strengthen and infill her. Her body will heal if her spirit awakens so that she may drink from her mate.”
“Of course—I understand, sorry.” I cleared my throat and drew a deep breath, ignoring the new rush of blood scent that filled my lungs. “Spirit, come to me!” I felt better when my favorite element responded—more myself—more in control. Grounded again, I commanded, “Go to Stevie Rae. Fill her and strengthen her so that she comes back to us!” My hair lifted as spirit left me and poured into Stevie Rae. Immediately, she took a deep breath, coughing as blood choked her. And then her eyes opened and she clamped her hands around Rephaim’s arm, sucking from his wrist—drinking deeply.
“Not so much that she weakens you.” Kalona put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “She will need to drink from you again, and often, until she is completely healed, and you must be strong enough for her to do so.”
Rephaim nodded and gently put his hand over Stevie Rae’s. “Stevie Rae, you have to stop. You can have more later.”
I saw her eyes when she looked up at him. They were red-tinged. Her expression was feral.
“Uh-oh,” Stark said. He and Kalona tensed at the same time, but Thanatos’s voice was like balm, soothing the tension in the room.
“Let her be. Stevie Rae is a vampyre—a High Priestess. Trust her. She will find herself.”
And, sure enough, Stevie Rae blinked several times and her eyes faded back to normal. She pushed Rephaim’s wrist from her mouth, wiping blood from her lips and looking like she was going to cry. “Did I hurt you? I’m so sorry, Rephaim!”
“Shhh,” he soothed, pulling her into his arms. “You would never hurt me.”
Suddenly she sat back, staring up at Rephaim. I was amazed to see that her skin was already less boiled looking. “You saved me! When you were a raven!”
“You needed me. I could feel your pain. I came to you.”
Shaunee had already told us her version of what had happened, but hearing it from Rephaim was surreal. I mean, the kid was a bird during the day. He wasn’t supposed to be anything
“You’re the most wonderful guy in the universe!” Stevie Rae smiled love and joy at him. “Do you remember it?”
Rephaim wiped tears from his eyes and smiled back at her. This time he was able to lightly touch her red cheek. “I only remember that you needed me and then the raven’s anger.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me,” she said. Then she turned her attention to Thanatos. “Dallas tried to kill me
“Oh, Goddess!” Shaunee said. “I knew he was mad when he came back by Erin’s pyre, but I didn’t know he was crazy.”
“He’s not crazy,” Stevie Rae said. “He’s mean.”
“And he’s powerful,” Thanatos added. “Capture him,” she ordered Kalona. “Bring him to me. The High Council may have turned from us, but Death can still judge and can still mete out justice.”
Kalona fisted his hand over his heart in acknowledgment of her command. As he strode from the room Stark said, “I’m going with him.”
“Do so, and be sure you don’t allow the immortal to kill Dallas. I want him returned to me very much alive,” Thanatos said.
“Yes, High Priestess.” Stark bowed quickly to her and then to me before hurrying after Kalona.
“My red fledglings,” Stevie Rae said. “Are they all okay?”
Thanatos nodded. “Kalona and Aurox guarded them while they slept peacefully during the day.”
“And Darius went directly to the basement to join Aurox as soon as Shaunee told us what had happened,” Aphrodite said.
I was surprised to hear Aurox’s name. Now was definitely not the time to mention it, but hadn’t he been super drunk and then passed out all day?
“So it was just Shaunee and Stevie Rae who were his targets?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Shaunee said. “He seemed pissed at all of us. Well, I mean all of Zoey’s circle. I think he blames us for Erin rejecting the Change.”
“Yeah, he told me he was just beginning his payback by killing Shaunee and me,” Stevie Rae said, leaning against Rephaim like she was absorbing strength from his touch.
“That’s ridiculous,” Aphrodite said. “If anyone’s to blame it’s Neferet.”
“We made more convenient targets,” Shaunee said.
“No one is going to be targeted again—not while Death reigns as High Priestess here,” Thanatos said. “But until Kalona and Stark find Dallas we will all be on high alert.” She turned to me. “Zoey, I know we have all had concerns about the fledglings sleeping in one place together, but I am going to command that you and your circle—along with your Prophetesses—rest with the red fledglings. That gives us two lines of protection. The first will be Darius and the Sons of Erebus Warriors. The second will be your circle itself.”
“You just mean Stevie Rae’s red fledglings, right?” I said. “Dallas has that whole other group who follow him.”
“And are equally as hateful,” Stevie Rae added. “Just last night that little red fledgling, Nicole, you know the one who helped Lenobia save the horses when the stable caught fire?” Thanatos nodded and Stevie Rae continued. “Well, she officially left Dallas’s group and swore herself to me—basically because of how hateful Dallas and his group are.”
I was opening my mouth to agree with Stevie Rae—no way did I want to be stuck in a basement with those jerks Dallas called friends—but Thanatos spoke first.
“When my judgment of Dallas is finished, there will be no fledglings who follow him.” Her voice was like ice.
I wondered how Thanatos thought she was going to get the jerk red fledglings to be nice, but she had, like, a zillion years of experience and was super powerful. Who knew what kind of magickal vampyre stuff she could have up her sleeve? I hoped it was something uber mean. The truth was that after what had happened tonight, I was done being patient with anyone who wanted to hurt my friends or me—and if that meant Thanatos was going
