Destined

Rephaim nodded. “That’s fair.”

“Hey, Damien!” One of the red fledglings, an unusually small boy, hurried up to them, giving Rephaim a look, then adding a quick, “Hey, Rephaim.”

“Hi, Ant,” Damien said.

Rephaim nodded, uncomfortable with the whole greeting process.

“I heard you had fencing this hour. Me, too!”

“I do,” Damien said. “Rephaim and I were just—” He paused and Rephaim watched several emotions pass his face, ending with embarrassed. He sighed heavily before saying, “Um, Rephaim, Dragon Lankford is the fencing professor.”

Then Rephaim understood.

“That’s, uh, not good,” Ant said.

“He may still be at the school Council Meeting,” Damien said hopefully.

“I think it best that I stay here, whether Dragon is absent or not. If I come with you it will only cause…” Rephaim’s voice ran out because all he could think of were words like: chaos, trouble, and disaster.

“Unpleasantness.” Damien filled in the silence for him. “It would probably cause unpleasantness. Maybe you should skip fencing for today.”

“Sounds smart,” Ant said.

“I’ll wait for you.” Rephaim motioned vaguely to the tree-filled area around them. They weren’t far from one of the school walls where, just inside the stone façade there was a particularly large oak under which sat a wrought iron bench. “I’ll be sitting there.”

“Okay, I’ll come by and get you after class. The next hour is Spanish. Professor Garmy is nice. You’ll like her,” Damien said as he and Ant started toward the field house.

Rephaim nodded and waved and made himself smile because Damien kept glancing worriedly over his shoulder at him. When the two fledglings were finally out of sight, Rephaim walked to the bench and sat heavily down.

He was glad for the time alone, when he could be unguarded—could let his shoulders slump and not worry about having others stare at him. He felt like such an outlander! What had he been thinking when he’d said he wanted to be normal, to go to school like everyone else? He wasn’t like everyone else.

But she loves me. Me. Just as I am, Rephaim reminded himself, and thinking it made him feel a little better—a little lighter of spirit.

Then, because he was alone, he said it aloud.

“I am Rephaim, and Stevie Rae loves me just the way I am.”

“Rephaim! No!”

The whispery, semi-human voice came from the branches of the oak. With a terrible sense of dread Rephaim looked up to see three Raven Mockers, three of his brothers, perched there staring down at him in shock and disbelief.

CHAPTER FOUR

Zoey

Okay, I know I’m a teenager and all, but I suck at using Skype. Actually, I’m kinda moronic about technology in general. Casting a circle—yep. Communing with any of the five elements—definitely. Figuring out how to synch my iPhone with a new computer—uh, probably not. Just thinking about tweeting gave me a headache and made me really miss Jack.

“Here, it ain’t that hard. You just gotta click that.” Kramisha reached over my shoulder and snagged the magic mouse. “And then that, and that’s it. We’s all on Skype and the camera’s workin’ now.”

I looked up to see Stevie Rae and everyone else, including Dragon, Lenobia, and Erik all gawking at me.

Stevie Rae, at least, grinned and mouthed a quick, “Easy-peasy.”

“What exactly is the point behind—” Dragon began, but Neferet’s entrance to the Council Room cut him off. And, thankfully, it was at that moment that the commanding voice of the Leader of the Vampyre High Council carried clear and strong through Damien’s computer.

“Merry meet, Zoey Redbird,” Duantia said. “I am pleased to speak with you again.”

I fisted my hand over my heart and bowed respectfully. “Merry meet, Duantia. Thank you for making time for this call.”

“Merry meet, Duantia,” Neferet said, stepping up beside me and bowing formally. I saw her shoot a quick, questioning look at Dragon before she smiled silkily and continued. “I must apologize. I knew nothing about this call. I was only expecting a simple school Council Meeting.” Then she skewered me with her emerald eyes. “Are you responsible for this, Zoey?”

“Yeah, definitely. I would have told you earlier, but you just now got here,” I said, smiling and sounding super cheerful. Before Neferet could respond I turned my attention to Duantia. “I wanted to make sure the High Council heard all the details about Nyx’s amazing appearance at the school yesterday and,” I paused, nodding to Neferet as if I was including her, “I knew Neferet would be eager to share with you as well.”

“Actually, we know very little, which is one of the reasons I was looking forward to this call.” Duantia looked from me to Neferet. “I tried to contact you during the day, after I instructed Dragon to allow the red fledglings and Zoey’s group to begin attending classes today, but I could not reach you, High Priestess.”

I could feel Neferet bristle, but she only said, “I was secluded in deep prayer.”

“All the more reason for this call,” Duantia said.

“What Nyx did was a miracle.” I gestured for Stevie Rae to come into camera range. “This is Stevie Rae, the first Red High Priestess.”

Stevie Rae fisted her hand over her heart and bowed deeply. “I’m real pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

“Merry meet, Stevie Rae. I have heard much of you and the red fledglings. And, of course, I have already met the Red Warrior, Stark. Nyx is, indeed, generous with her miracles.”

“Um, thank you, but, well, us bein’ red and all isn’t the miracle.” Stevie Rae glanced at me and added, “Well, at least it’s not the miracle Zoey’s talkin’ ’bout.” She cleared her throat and then said, “Nyx’s miracle has to do with my Consort, Rephaim.”

Duantia’s eyes widened. “Is that not the name of one of the creatures called Raven Mocker?”

“Yes.” Dragon’s voice was as hard as his face. “It is the name of the creature who killed my Anastasia.”

“I do not understand,” Duantia said. “How could that abomination be called Consort?”

Quickly, before Neferet could chime in something awful I started babbling, “Rephaim used to be a Raven Mocker, and Dragon is right, back then he did kill Anastasia.” I glanced up at Dragon, but it was real hard to meet his eyes. “Rephaim asked Nyx’s forgiveness for that.”

“And for everything bad he’d done when he was Kalona’s son,” Stevie Rae added.

“Blanket forgiveness is—”

Neferet began, but I cut her off saying, “Blanket forgiveness is a gift that can be given by our Goddess, which is exactly what she did last night,” I said. Then I looked at Stevie Rae. “Tell the High Council Leader what you did.”

Stevie Rae nodded and swallowed hard, then she said, “A few weeks ago I found Rephaim almost dead. He’d been shot from the sky. I didn’t turn him in.” She looked from the computer screen and Duantia up to Dragon and said pleadingly, “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone or do anythin’ wrong.”

“That abomination killed my mate,” Dragon said. “The same night he was shot from the sky and should have died.”

“Professor Lankford, please allow the Red High Priestess to continue her confession,” Duantia said.

I saw Dragon’s jaw clench and his lip lift slightly in a sneer, but Stevie Rae’s words drew my attention back to her.

“Dragon’s right. Rephaim would have died that night if I hadn’t saved him. I didn’t tell anyone about him. Well, except my momma, and that was later. Anyway, I took care of him instead. I saved his life. And then he saved my life in return—twice. Once from the white bull of Darkness.”