by P. C. Cast
“This is Stark,” I said, needing to break what was becoming an awkward silence.
“Merry meet, Stark,” she said.
“Merry meet,” he replied automatically, even though he sounded strained.
I understood how he felt, but I was getting used to vamps and fledglings staring at my weird tattoos.
“Stark, I have taken care to be certain our boat has curtains drawn and windows blackened, though sunset is within the hour and it has been snowing on and off all day, so what sun is still shining is rather wan.”
Her voice was musical and nice to listen to, so nice that it took me a moment to actually hear what she was saying.
“Boat?” I said. “How does he get to the boat?”
“Well, it’s right there, Zo.” Heath, who was sliding down the stairs with his feet up and his hands on the cold, slick rail, jerked his chin toward the side of the hangar. Cut out of the floor at one edge of the building was a large rectangular dock with a big door that reminded me of a garage closed at one end. At the other was a slick-looking black wooden boat. The top front was glass, and I could see two tall vampyres standing there by the dash. Behind them shiny wooden stairs led down into what must be the passenger area. I say “must be” because, even though there were windows along the side of the boat, they were, indeed, completely covered.
“If the sun’s behind clouds, I can stand it,” Stark said.
“So it’s true that sunlight isn’t simply uncomfortable for you? It will literally burn you?” I could hear the curiosity in her voice, and it didn’t sound pushy or “oh-my-god-you’re-such-a-freak.” She sounded honestly concerned.
“Direct sunlight would kill me,” Stark said matter-of-factly. “Setting or indirect sun would be anywhere from very dangerous to uncomfortable.”
“Interesting,” she mused.
“I guess interesting’s one way to look at it. I mostly think of it as annoying and inconvenient,” Stark said.
“Are we going to have time to shop before the High Council meeting?” Aphrodite asked.
“Ah, you must be Aphrodite.”
“Yes, merry meet, whatever. So can we shop?”
“I’m afraid you won’t have time. It will take half an hour to get to the island, then I will get you settled and, most importantly, brief you on the rules of the Council. Actually, we must be going now.” She started to shepherd us to the boat.
“Are they letting me speak before them, or am I not good enough now that I’m just a human?” Aphrodite said.
“The rule about humans has nothing to do with them not being good enough to speak before the Council,” Erce said as we moved from the wharf-like part of the hangar and boarded the boat, stepping down into a dark, luxurious cabin. “Consorts have long been allowed in the Council Chamber because of their importance to their vampyres.” She paused here to smile at Heath, who was totally, obviously human. “They are not allowed to speak before the High Council because humans do not have a say in intimate vampyre policies and issues.”
Heath sighed dramatically, smooshed himself next to me and, ignoring Stark, who was sitting on the other side of me, draped his arm possessively around my shoulders.
“I’m going to elbow the crap out of you if you don’t put your arm down and act right,” I whispered.
Heath grinned sheepishly and moved his arm, though he didn’t unsmoosh from me.
“So does that mean I can attend the almighty Council Meeting, but I have to shut up like the blood donor over there?” Aphrodite asked.
“You they have made an exception for. You may attend, and you may speak, but you’ll have to follow all the other rules of the Council.”
“Which means no shopping right now,” Aphrodite said.
“That is what it means,” Erce said.
I was impressed by her patience. Lenobia would probably have snapped Aphrodite’s head off before then for her smart-alecky attitude.
“Can all the rest of us come to the Council Meeting, too? Oh, hi and merry meet, I’m Jack,” he said.
“You are all invited to meet before the Council.”
“And what about Neferet and Kalona? Are they there also?” I asked.
“Yes, though Neferet now calls herself Nyx Incarnate, and Kalona says his true name is Erebus.”
“That’s a lie,” I said.
Erce’s smile was grim. “That, my young and unusual fledgling, is exactly why you are here.”
We didn’t say much more during the rest of the trip. The motor of the boat had kicked up and it was loud and more than a little disorienting inside the shrouded boat. It lurched a lot, and I was busy concentrating on not puking up my guts.
The speed of the boat slowed, along with the tempo of the watery rolling and lurching, signaling our arrival at the island, when Darius’s voice carried above the engine noise. “Zoey!”
He and Aphrodite were sitting in one of the seats two rows behind me and I had to swivel around in my chair to see him. Stark turned around with me, so both of us got to our feet at the same time.
“Aphrodite! What’s wrong?” I hurried over to her. She was holding her head in her hands as if she was afraid it was on the verge of exploding. Darius was looking helpless. He kept touching one of her shoulders, murmuring stuff I couldn’t hear to her, and trying to get her to look at him.
“Oh, Goddess! My head is killing me. What the fuck?”
“Is she having a vision?” Erce said, coming up behind me.
“I don’t know. Probably,” I said. I got on my knees in front of Aphrodite and tried to get her to meet my eyes. “Aphrodite, it’s Zoey. Tell me what you’re seeing.”
“I’m too hot. Too damn hot!” Aphrodite was saying. Her face had become flushed and sweaty, even though it was actually cool in the boat. With wide, panicked eyes she stared around, though my guess was that she wasn’t seeing the inside of the expensive little boat.
“Aphrodite, talk to me! What is your vision showing?”
She did look at me then, and I realized that her eyes were clear and not filled with the painful blood that had started coming with each of her visions.
“I’m not seeing anything.” She gulped air, still fanning her sweating face. “It’s not a vision: It’s Stevie Rae and our damn Imprint. Some-thing’s happening to her. Something really, really bad.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Stevie Rae
Stevie Rae knew she was going to die, and this time it would be for good. She was scared, more scared even than she’d been when she’d bled out her life in Zoey’s arms surrounded by her friends. It was different this time. This time it was a betrayal and not a biological act.
The pain in her head was terrible. She reached up and felt gingerly around on the back of her head. Her hand came away soaked in her blood. Her thoughts were woozy. What had happened? Stevie Rae tried to sit up, but a terrible dizziness claimed her, and with a groan, she puked her guts up, crying at the pain the movement caused her. Then she collapsed on her side, rolling away from the vomit. That’s when her tear-blurred gaze moved to the metal cage above her, and then the sky beyond it—a sky that was getting increasingly less gray and more blue.
Her memory rushed back, and with it panic made her breath come in short little pants. They’d trapped her here and the sun was rising! Even now, even with the cage above her and the memory of their betrayal fresh in her mind, Stevie Rae didn’t want to believe it.
Another wave of nausea washed over her, and she closed her eyes, trying to regain her equilibrium. As long as her eyes were shut, she could control the horrible dizziness and her thoughts began to clear.
The red fledglings had done this. Nicole had been late for their meeting. Not like that had been all that shocking, but Stevie Rae had been pissed and sick of waiting, so she had been in the process of leaving the empty tunnels to return to the House of Night when Nicole and Starr finally came into the basement. They had been laughing and joking with each other, and had obviously just fed—their ch
eeks were still flushed and their eyes were glowing red from fresh blood. Stevie Rae had tried to talk to them. Actually, she’d tried to reason with them and get them to return to the House of Night with her.
The two red fledglings had spent a long time being sarcastic and giving jerklike excuses not to go with her: “Nah, the vamps don’t let us eat junk food and we heart us some junkies!” And “Will Rogers High School is right down the street on Fifth. If I want to go to school I’ll go there—after dark—for lunch.”
Still, she’d tried to be serious and give them good reasons for coming back to school, like not only was it their home, but there was lots of stuff about being vampyres they didn’t know—that Stevie Rae didn’t even know. They needed the House of Night.
They’d laughed at her, called her an old woman, and said they were totally cool staying at the depot, especially now that they had it to themselves.
Then Kurtis had lumbered into the basement, looking breathless and excited. Stevie Rae remembered having a bad feeling from the second she’d seen him. The truth was she’d never liked the kid. He was a big, stupid pig farmer from northeastern Oklahoma who basically thought women were one step below hogs on the redneck What You’re Worth Scale.
“Yepper, I found him and bit him!” He practically crowed.
“That thing? You got to be kidding. He smelled nasty,” Nicole had said.
“Yeah, and how’d you get him to hold still while you ate him?” Starr asked.
Kurtis wiped his mouth with his sleeve. A splotch of red smeared his shirt and the scent of it hit Stevie Rae, completely shocking her. Rephaim! That was Rephaim’s blood.
“I knocked him out first. It wasn’t hard to do, with his broken wing and all.”
“What are you talkin’ about?” Stevie Rae snapped the words at Kurtis.
Bovinelike, he blinked at her. She was getting ready to grab him and shake him and maybe even have the earth open up and swallow his big, stupid ass, when he finally answered. “I’m talking about the birdboy. What’d you call ’em, Raven Mockers? One showed up here. We been chasin’ it all around the depot. Nikki and Starr got sick of messing with it and went out to chomp on some of the late night Taco Bell fourth meal feeders, but I had me a taste for chicken. So I kept after him. Had to corner him up on the roof in one of those tower things, you know, the far one over there, away from the tree.” Kurtis pointed up and to his left. “But I got him.”
“Did he taste as bad as he smelled?” Nicole’s shock and revulsion were as obvious as her curiosity.
Kurtis shrugged his beefy shoulders. “Hey, I’ll eat anything. Or anyone.”
They all dissolved into laughter. All except Stevie Rae.
“You have a Raven Mocker on the roof?”
“Yeah. Don’t know why the hell he was down here in the first place. Especially all beat up and broken.” Nicole lifted a brow at her. “Thought you said it was okay to go back to the House of Night ’cause Neferet and Kalona were gone. Looks like they left some shit behind, huh? Maybe they’re not really gone.”
“They’re gone,” Stevie Rae had said, already moving toward the door to the basement. “So none of you want to come back to school with me?”
Three heads shook silently back and forth as red-tinged eyes followed her every move.
“How about the others? Where are they?”
Nicole shrugged. “Wherever they want to be. Next time I see any of them I’ll tell ’em you said they should go back to school.”
Kurtis cracked up. “Hey, that’s great. Let’s all just go back to school! Like that’s something we really want to do?”
“Look, I gotta go. It’s almost sunrise. But I’m not done talkin’ about this with you. And you should know that I may want to bring the other red fledglings back here to live, even though we’ll officially be part of the House of Night. And if that happens y’all can either be with us and act right, or you need to leave.”
“How about this: How about you keep your pussy fledglings at school, and we’ll stay here because this is where we live now,” Kurtis said.
Stevie Rae stopped moving toward the exit. Almost as if it was second nature to her, she imagined she was a tree with roots growing down, down, down into the amazing, incredible ground. Earth, please come to me. In the basement, already underground and surrounded by her element, it was a simple thing to pull power up through her body. As she spoke, the ground rumbled and shook with the force of her irritation. “I’m only gonna say this one more time. If I bring the other red fledglings back here, this will be our home. If you act right, you can stay. If you don’t, you will leave.” She stomped her foot and the entire depot shook, sending plaster cascading from the low basement ceiling. Then Stevie Rae drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and imagining all the energy she’d called flowing out of her body and back into the earth. When she spoke again her voice sounded normal and the earth didn’t shake. “So, y’all decide. I’ll be back tomorrow night. See ya.”
Without giving them another glance, Stevie Rae hurried out of the basement, through the maze of rubble and metal grates spread haphazardly around the abandoned depot grounds to the stone stairs that led from the parking lot at railroad track level up to the street level of what used to be a thriving railway station. She had to be careful as she rushed up the stairs. It had stopped sleeting, and the sun had actually come out the day before, but night had brought falling temperatures and almost everything that had thawed had refrozen.
She reached the circle drive and the big covered entryway that used to keep Oklahoma weather from train passengers. She looked up and up and up.
The building was just creepy-looking. That’s all there was to it. Z liked to describe it as something out of Gotham City. Stevie Rae thought it was more like Blade Runner meets Amityville Horror. Not that she didn’t heart the tunnels under the building, but there was something about the stone exterior with its weird mixture of art deco and machine design that creeped her out.
Of course, some of her freaky feeling could have been because the sky was already starting to shift from black to gray with the coming dawn. In retrospect, that should have stopped her. She should have turned around, gone back down the stairs, climbed into the car she’d borrowed from the school, and driven to the House of Night.
Instead, she’d stepped squarely into her fate and, as Z would have said, then the poopie hit the fan.
She knew there were circular stairs inside the main part of the depot that led up to each tower room—she’d done lots of exploring during the weeks she’d lived there. But no dang way was she going back inside that building and taking a chance that some random red fledgling wouldn’t be tucked into bed and would see her—and question her—and find out the truth.
Plan B led her to a tree that at one time had obviously been decorative, but had long since overgrown its concrete circle so that its roots had broken through the ground below in the parking lot, exposing lots of frozen earth and allowing it to grow taller than it should have. Without its leaves, Stevie Rae didn’t have a clue what kind of tree it was, other than the kind that was tall enough that its branches brushed the roof of the depot, near the first of the two towers that faced out from the roof on the front side of the building, and that was tall enough for her.
Moving quickly, Stevie Rae went over to the tree and jumped to grab the branch closest to her head. She scrambled up the slick, bare bough, shimmying along it until she got to the main part of the tree. From there she made her way up and up, silently thanking Nyx for her red vampyre enhanced strength ’cause if she’d been a normal fledgling, or maybe even vamp, she’d never have been able to make the treacherous climb.
When she was as high up as she could go, Stevie Rae gathered herself and then jumped onto the roof of the building. She didn’t waste time looking in the first of the towers. Pig boy had said Rephaim was in the one farthest from the tree. She jogged across the roof to the other end of the building and then climbed the short distance up so
she could look down into the circular space.
He was there. Crumpled in the corner of the tower, Rephaim lay unmoving and bleeding.
Without hesitation, Stevie Rae threw her legs over the stone ridge and then dropped the four feet or so into the room.
He’d been curled up in a ball, his good arm cradling his bad one in its dirty sling. Down the outside of his arm she could see that someone had slashed his skin, which is obviously where Kurtis had fed from him, though he hadn’t bothered to close the cut, and the odd, off smell of his inhuman blood filled the little chamber. The bandage that had immobilized his wing had come loose and it was a torn pile of bloody towels half draping his body. His eyes were closed.
“Rephaim, hey, can you hear me?”
At the sound of her voice his eyes instantly opened. “No!” he said, struggling to sit up. “Get out of here. They’re going to trap—”
Then there had been a terrible pain in the back of her head, and she remembered falling into blackness.
“Stevie Rae, you have to wake up. You have to move.”
She finally felt the hand that was shaking her shoulder and recognized Rephaim’s voice. Carefully she opened her eyes, and the world didn’t pitch and roll, though she could feel her heartbeat throbbing in her head.
“Rephaim,” she rasped. “What happened?”
“They used me to trap you,” he said.
“You wanted to trap me?” Her nausea was a little better, but Stevie Rae’s mind felt like it was working in slow motion.
“No. What I wanted was to be left alone to heal and make my way back to my father. They gave me no choice.” He stood up, moving stiffly, bent at the waist because of the metal grate that made a low, false ceiling. “Move. You have little time. The sun is already rising.”
Stevie Rae looked up at the sky and saw the soft pastels of pre-dawn that she used to think were so pretty. Now the lightening sky filled her with absolute terror. “Oh, Goddess! Help me get up.”
Rephaim grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, where she stood unsteadily beside him, bent like he was. Drawing a deep breath, she raised her hands, gripped the cold metal of the grate, and pushed. It rattled a little, but didn’t really move.
