looked through the garden stuff, finally settling on a good, sturdy wooden-handled shovel. She came back to Rephaim, measured it against him, and in one swift motion, snapped the handle from the spade end and handed it to him. “Use this like a cane. You know, to take some of the weight off your bad ankle. You can lean on me for a little while, but once we get in the tunnel you’re gonna have to go on by yourself, so you’ll need this.”
Rephaim took the wooden handle from her. “Your strength is impressive.”
Stevie Rae shrugged. “It comes in handy.”
Rephaim took a tentative step forward, using the handle to help carry his weight, and he was actually able to walk, though Stevie Rae could see that it caused him a lot of pain. Still, he hobbled by himself to the door of the shed. There he paused and looked expectantly at her.
“First, I’m gonna wrap this around you. I’m countin’ on no one seeing us, but on the outside chance that some nosy nun is gawkin’ out a window, she’ll just see me helpin’ someone wrapped in a blanket. Or at least that’s what I hope.”
Rephaim nodded, and Stevie Rae wrapped the blanket around him, positioning it over his head and tucking it into the side of the bandage across his chest to hold it closed.
“So here’s my plan: You know about the tunnels we’ve been stayin’ in under the depot downtown, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I kinda added to them.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My affinity is for the element earth. I can control it, more or less. At least some aspects of it I can control. One of the things I recently found out I can do is to make it move—as in creating a tunnel through it. And I did that to link up the depot to the abbey.”
“It is this type of power that my father spoke of when he talked of you.”
Stevie Rae definitely didn’t want to discuss Rephaim’s horrible daddy with him, and she didn’t even want to think about why he might have been talking about her and her powers. “Yeah, well, anyway—I opened up part of the tunnel I made so I could climb out of it and come here. It’s not far from this shed. I’m gonna help you get there. Once you’re in the tunnel I want you to follow it back to the depot. There’s shelter there, and food. Actually, it’s pretty dang nice. You can get well there.”
“And why are the rest of your allies not going to find me in those tunnels?”
“First, I’m gonna seal up the one that connects the depot to the abbey. Then I’m gonna tell my friends somethin’ that’s gonna make sure they stay outta the depot tunnels for a while. And I’m hopin’ that ‘a while’ translates into enough time for you to get well and get yourself away from here before they start pokin’ around.”
“What will you tell them that will keep them from going into the tunnels?”
Stevie Rae sighed and wiped her hand across her face. “I’m gonna tell them the truth. That there’re more red fledglings—that they’re hiding in the depot tunnels—and that they are dangerous because they haven’t made the choice for good over evil.”
Rephaim was silent for several heartbeats. Finally he said, “Neferet was right.”
“Neferet! What do you mean?”
“She kept telling my father that she had allies among the red fledglings—that they could be soldiers in her cause. These red fledglings are the ones she was speaking of.”
“They must be,” Stevie Rae murmured miserably. “I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to believe they’d eventually do the right thing—choose humanity over the darkness. They just needed some time to get things straight in their heads, that’s all. I think I was wrong.”
“It is these fledglings that will keep your friends from the tunnels?”
“Kinda. Really, it’s more me that’ll keep them out. I’m gonna buy time—for you and for them.” She met his eyes. “Even if I’m wrong.” Without saying anything else, she opened the door, went to his side, lifted his arm, wrapped it around her shoulders, and the two of them stepped out into the icy dusk.
Stevie Rae knew Rephaim had to be in terrible pain as they walked haltingly from the shed toward the opening in the ground she’d created to the tunnel. But the only sound he made was his panting breath. He leaned heavily on her, and Stevie Rae was again surprised by his warmth and by the familiar feel of a guy’s arm around her shoulder, mixed with the feathered body she was helping to support. She kept glancing around them, almost holding her breath in fear that someone, like annoying gotta-prove-how-macho-I-am Erik, had slipped outside. The veiled sun was setting. Stevie Rae could feel it leaving the ice-shrouded sky. It was just a matter of time before the fledglings, vamps, and nuns started to stir.
“Come on, you’re doing good. You can make it. We gotta hurry.” She kept murmuring to him, encouraging Rephaim and trying to calm her own guilty fears.
But no one yelled after them. No one ran up to them, and in much less time than Stevie Rae had anticipated, the opening to the tunnel gaped at their feet.
“Climb down backward, with your hands and feet. It’s not far. I’ll hold on to you for most of the way to help steady you.”
Rephaim didn’t waste time or energy on words. He nodded, turned, flung the blanket off of him, and then, as Stevie Rea held on to his good arm—glad that though he was big and appeared strong and solid, he actually weighed less than she did—with her help he slowly and painfully disappeared down into the earth. Stevie Rae followed him.
In the tunnel, Rephaim leaned against the dirt wall, trying to catch his breath. Stevie Rae wished she could let him rest there, but the crawling sensation in the back of her neck was screaming that the others would be waking up and coming to look for her,
“You gotta keep going. Now. Get out of here. Go that way.” She pointed into the darkness in front of them. “It’s gonna be really dark. Sorry ’bout that, but I don’t have time to get a lamp for you. Are you okay in the dark?”
He nodded. “I have long preferred the night.”
“Good. Follow this tunnel until you come to the place where it changes from dirt to cement walls. Then turn to your right. It’s gonna be confusing ’cause the closer you get to the depot, the more tunnels there are. But stay in the main one. It’ll be lit—or at least I hope it’s still lit. Either way, if you keep goin’, you’ll find lanterns and food and rooms with beds and everything.”
“And there are dark fledglings.”
He didn’t phrase it as a question, but Stevie Rae answered him. “Yeah, there are. While the other red fledglings and I were livin’ there, they stayed away from the main tunnels and our rooms and such. I don’t know what they’re doin’ now that we’re not there and I honestly don’t know what they’ll do with you. I don’t think they’ll want to eat you—you don’t smell right. But I can’t tell for sure. They’re—” she paused, searching for the right words. “They’re different than I am—than the rest of us.”
“They are of the darkness. As I said, I am well acquainted with that.”
“All right. Well, I’m just gonna believe you’ll be okay.” Stevie Rae paused again, not knowing what to say and finally blurting out, “So, I guess I’ll see ya around sometime.”
He stared at her and said nothing.
Stevie Rae fidgeted. “Rephaim. You gotta go. Now. It’s not safe here. As soon as you’re down the tunnel a ways, I’m gonna collapse this part so that no one can follow you from here, but you still gotta hurry.”
“I do not understand why you would betray your people to save me,” he said.
“I’m not betraying anyone; I’m just not killing you!” she yelled, and then lowered her voice and continued. “Why does letting you go have to mean I betrayed my friends? Can’t it just mean that I choose life over death? Look, I chose good over evil. How is me lettin’ you live any different than that?”
“Did you not consider that choosing to save me was making a choice for what you would call evil?”
Stevie Rae looked at him for a long time before she answered. “Then let that be on your conscience. Your life is what
