“I could not stop her. The black bull manifested and Light banished Darkness, protecting the Red One,” he said honestly. “I have been here since, regaining my strength and, when I felt that you had returned to this realm, I have been awaiting you.”
Kalona stared at his son. Rephaim met his gaze steadily.
Kalona nodded slowly. “It is good that you awaited me here. There is much that is left undone in Tulsa. This House of Night will soon belong to the Tsi Sgili.”
“Neferet has returned, too? Is the High Council not holding her?”
Kalona laughed. “The High Council is made up of naïve fools. The Tsi Sgili blamed me for recent events, and has punished me by publically lashing me and then banishing me from her side. The Council has been pacified.”
Shocked, Rephaim shook his head. His father’s tone was light, almost humorous, but his look was black—his body weakened and wounded. “Father, I do not understand. Lashed? You allowed Neferet to—”
With immortal speed, Kalona’s hand was suddenly around his son’s throat. The huge Raven Mocker was lifted off the ground as if he weighed no more than one of his slim, black feathers.
“Do not make the mistake of believing that because I have been wounded I have also become weak.”
“I would not do that.” Rephaim’s voice was little more than a choked hiss.
Their faces were close together. Kalona’s amber eyes blazed with angry heat.
“Father,” Rephaim gasped. “I meant you no disrespect.”
Kalona dropped him, and his son crumpled at his feet. The immortal lifted his head and threw his arms wide as if he would take on the heavens. “She still imprisons me!” he shouted.
Rephaim drew in air and rubbed his throat, then his father’s words penetrated the confusion in his mind and he looked up at him. The immortal’s face was twisted as if in agony—his eyes were haunted. Rephaim slowly got to his feet, and approached him carefully. “What has she done?”
Kalona’s arms fell to his sides, but his face remained open to the sky. “I pledged to her my oath that I would destroy Zoey Redbird. The fledgling lives. I broke my oath.”
Rephaim’s blood felt cold. “The oathbreaking held a penalty.”
He didn’t phrase it as a question, but Kalona nodded. “It did.”
“What is it you owe Neferet?”
“She holds dominion over my spirit for as long as I am immortal.”
“By all the gods and goddesses, we are both lost then!” Rephaim couldn’t stop the escaping words.
Kalona turned to him and his son saw that a sly glint had replaced the rage in his eyes. “Neferet has been immortal for less than a breath of this world’s time. I have been so for uncountable eons. If there is one lesson I have learned over several lifetimes, it is that there is nothing that is unbreakable. Nothing. Not the strongest heart, not the purest soul—not even the most binding of oaths.”
“You know how to break her dominion over you?”
“No, but I do know that if I give her what she most desires, she will be distracted while I discover how to break the oath I made her.”
“Father,” Rephaim said hesitantly, “there are always consequences for an oathbreaking. Will you not simply incur another if you break this second oath?”
“I cannot think of a consequence I would not gladly pay to rid myself of Neferet’s domination.”
The cold, deadly anger in Kalona’s voice caused Rephaim’s throat to go dry. He knew when his father got like this, the only thing he could do was to agree with him, to aid him in whatever he sought, to ride the storm silently, mindlessly, at Kalona’s side. He was used to Kalona’s volatile emotions.
What Rephaim was not used to was feeling resentful of them.
Rephaim could sense the immortal’s gaze studying him. The Raven Mocker cleared his throat and said what he knew his father expected to hear. “What is it that Neferet most desires and how do we give it to her?”
Kalona’s expression relaxed a little. “The Tsi Sgili most desires lording power over humans. We give it to her by helping her begin a war between vampyres and humans. She means to use the war as an excuse for the destruction of the High Council. With them gone, vampyre society will be in disarray and Neferet, using the title of Nyx Incarnate, will rule.”
“But vampyres have become too rational, too civilized, to war with humans. I think they would withdraw from society before they would fight.”
“True enough for most vampyres, but you’re forgetting the new breed of bloodsucker the Tsi Sgili created. They do not seem to have the same scruples.”
“The red fledglings,” Rephaim said.
“Ah, but they aren’t all fledglings, are they? I hear another of the boys has Changed. And then there is the new High Priestess, the Red One. I am not so sure she is as dedicated to Light as is her friend Zoey.”
Rephaim felt like a giant fist was closing around his heart. “The Red One evoked the black bull—the manifestation of Light. I do not think she can be swayed from the Goddess’s path.”
“You said she also conjured the bull of Darkness, did you not?”
“I did, but from what I observed she did not call upon Darkness intentionally.”
Kalona laughed. “Neferet has told me that Stevie Rae was quite different when she first was resurrected. The Red One reveled in Darkness!”
“And then she Changed, like Stark. They’re both committed to Nyx now.”
“No, what Stark is committed to is Zoey Redbird. I do not believe the Red One has formed any such attachment.”
Carefully, Rephaim remained silent.
“The more I think on it, the more I like the idea. Neferet gains power if we use the Red One, and Zoey loses someone close to her. Yes, that pleases me. Very much.”
Rephaim was trying to sift through the mixture of panic and fear and chaos in his mind and conjure a response that might distract Kalona from his pursuit of Stevie Rae when the air around them rippled and changed. Shadows within shadows appeared to quiver briefly but ecstatically. His questioning eyes went from the Darkness lurking in the corners of the rooftop, to his father.
Kalona nodded and smiled grimly. “The Tsi Sgili has paid her debt to Darkness; she has sacrificed the life of an innocent who could not be tainted.”
Rephaim’s blood pounded in his ears, and for an instant he was savagely, incredibly afraid for Stevie Rae. And then he realized
“Who is it Neferet has killed?” Rephaim was so distracted by relief, he spoke the words without thinking.
“What possible difference could it make to you who the Tsi Sgili sacrificed?”
Rephaim’s mind refocused on the here and now swiftly. “I am simply curious.”
“I feel a change in you, my son.”
Rephaim met his father’s gaze steadily. “I came close to death, Father. It was a sobering experience. You must remember that I only share a measure of your immortality. The rest of me is human and, therefore, mortal.”
Kalona nodded briefly in acknowledgment. “I do forget that you are weakened by the humanity within you.”
“Mortality, not humanity. I am not humane,” he said bitterly.
Kalona studied him. “How did you manage to survive your wounds?”
Rephaim looked away from his father and answered as truthfully as possible. “I am not entirely sure how or even why I survived.”
“The how is not important. The why is obvious—you survived to serve me, as you have done your entire life.”
“Yes, Father,” he said automatically. Then, to cover the hopelessness even he could hear in his voice, he added, “And in serving you I must tell you that you and I cannot remain here.”
Kalona raised his brow questioningly. “What is it you are saying?”
“This place,” his arm swept around them to take in Gilcrease grounds. “There are too many humans present
