“Jack?”
“No. That boy was sacrificed by Neferet to pay her debt to Darkness for imprisoning me and forcing my spirit to the Otherworld.” Kalona’s voice was bitter—his anger just barely under control. “That is why I know Aurox’s conception must have been the result of a death—as was my torment. Look to the sacrifice and you may discover evidence against Neferet. Causing her destruction would be more possible were she at odds with the High Council.”
“I’ll tell Rephaim.”
“Thank you, Shaunee.” Kalona said the words slowly, hesitantly, as if he was unused to the taste of them. “And tell him I said I wish him well.”
“Okay, I will. Hey, uh, I think you should get a cell phone.”
The winged immortal’s brows went up. “Cell phone?”
“Yeah, how’s Rephaim supposed to call you if he needs to talk to his dad?”
Shaunee thought Kalona almost smiled. “I do not have a cell phone.”
“I guess going to the AT&T store is pretty much not an option for you.”
“No.” His lips tilted up even as he shook his head. “I’m not sure what I would do with my wings.”
“Very true,” she said. “Uh, how about a laptop? You could be on Skype.”
“I do not have a laptop, either. Young fledgling, I am living in the woods on a ridge southwest of Tulsa with a flock of creatures who should not exist in the modern world. I do not have, as you would say, computer access.”
Shaunee was nonplused. “I could get you a laptop. All you need is one of those remote satellite connection things and a power source, and you’ll have Internet anywhere—even in the woods southwest of Tulsa. You can find electricity, can’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So if I got you the computer stuff, would you call your son?”
There was no hesitation Shaunee could see. “Yes,” he said.
“Okay, good. Take this.” She reached into the little chain mail Rebecca Minkoff shoulder purse that was her current favorite, pulled out her iPhone and threw it to Kalona. The immortal caught it without even blinking. “I’ll call you when I have the laptop and stuff.”
“That’s very generous of you.”
“Don’t get emotional,” she said blandly. “My parents have money. I’ll just spend some of it. It’s no big thing.”
“I wasn’t speaking of the money. I was speaking of the generosity of the friendship you are showing to my son.”
Shaunee shrugged. “He’s a friend of a friend—that’s all. And don’t get me wrong. I want my phone back.”
“Yes, of course,” Kalona said. Then he really smiled and Shaunee thought she’d never seen anything so amazing and joyful and totally beautiful. “Thank you, Shaunee. This time I mean it with my whole being—and that is, indeed, rare for me.”
“You’re welcome. Just be nice to Rephaim. He deserves a good dad.”
Kalona met her gaze and she felt him look through her eyes to her heart and soul. “As do you, my fledgling friend. Fare-thee-well.” Then Kalona turned and left her, exiting through the broken doors. Shaunee could hear the beat of his massive wings as he lifted into the dark evening sky.
For a long time afterward she stood there, heating the pile of broken tiles with her flame, and thinking …
“Twin, really. No blood coughing? You’re absolutely
“Twin. Seriously. I’m fine.”
“No. If you’re not dying then what the hell is wrong with you? You gave Kalona
There was a shocked silence as the entire group that Shaunee had finally managed to get together, Erin, Zoey, Stevie Rae, Rephaim, Damien, Aphrodite, Darius, and Kramisha, paused to let the echoes of Erin’s almost- shriek bounce from the tunnel walls of the kitchen.
“Well, Twin.” Shaunee’s voice sounded small and uber-calm in the wake of Erin’s tantrum. “Like I just explained to everyone, I was upstairs and Rephaim’s dad was there, too ’cause he was trying to wait around and see his kid. He told me to tell Rephaim the stuff I said. I gave him my phone so that I could actually call him and then trade it for the laptop I’m getting for him ’cause he can’t go to the Apple store with those wings. Then he flew away, as per usual. That’s it. I’m totally okay. The end.”
“Can’t he hide them wings inside one of the long black goth/cowboy coats?” Kramisha asked.
“I don’t think so. They’d probably hang out of the bottom of it. Plus, he’d look, like, deformed and all humpy and probably call all sorts of unwanted attention to himself,” Damien said.
“Seriously. The unwanted attention would be wearing something that’s totally circa 1999 and unattractive,” Aphrodite said absently as she pawed through the Miss Jackson’s bag at her feet.
“Well, whether it’s fashion or fear, logically speaking, I suppose he does need Shaunee to get the laptop for him,” Damien concluded.
“He said that he wished me well?” was the first thing Rephaim asked after Shaunee had made her big Kalona announcement to all of them.
“Yeah.” Shaunee smiled at Rephaim.
“Kalona also had information about Aurox, or at least he had an idea of where we should begin in finding out his origin,” Darius said. “Zoey, I think—”
“My mom could have been the sacrifice. I know.”
Shaunee blinked and then felt like she was gonna be sick. She hadn’t even thought of Z’s mom when Kalona had been talking about the sacrifice of someone close to them! Jack was the first person who had popped into her mind, and then there had been all that other stuff to think about. She shook her head and interrupted something Darius was saying about rituals and such.
“Z, I’m really sorry.”
Zoey’s face was like a question mark. “You don’t need to be sorry. You just told us what happened. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, I did. I didn’t even think about your mom being killed a few days ago. I was thinking about my own dad stuff and everything. I’m really sorry,” she repeated.
Zoey’s smile was as friendly and forgiving as it always was. “That’s okay, Shaunee. It’s not your fault that what’s going on with Rephaim and Kalona has you upset.”
“Yeah, Shaunee. We’re all trying to do the best that we can. Sometimes that’s not so easy,” Stevie Rae said, taking Rephaim’s hand in hers. “Thanks for standing up for Rephaim and caring. I ’preciate it.”
“As do I,” Rephaim said.
“Oh. Hey. No big thing. Yeah, I just—” Shaunee began, but Erin interrupted her in what sounded almost like a sarcastic play on their usual finish-each-other’s-sentence habit.
“Yeah, I just gotta go put away the loot I got from Miss Jackson’s and hang the new bead curtain I got from Pier 1. Later, everyone.” Erin scooped a bunch of bags from the floor and hurried from the kitchen.
Totally confused, Shaunee watched her leave, feeling like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to cry or scream.
“Go on.” Zoey had come up beside her and was speaking quietly while Damien and Darius started to discuss the difference between cleansing and funeral rituals, and if there was a way that either of them could maybe be tweaked to turn into a tell-us-who-killed-her ritual.
“What?”
“Go on and talk to Erin. If anyone has any more questions about what happened I’ll come find you. I don’t want this to mess up your friendship,” Z said, glancing at Stevie Rae. “BFF’s are super important. We all need to remember that.”
“Okay, thanks.” Shaunee slipped from the room and hurried down the tunnel toward the very cool tunnel
