Burned: A House of Night Novel Read online

  He turned to face her, and their eyes met.

  He looks exhausted, was her first thought. His arm’s bleeding again.

  She is still in pain, was his first thought. And she is filled with anger. They stared at each other silently, neither willing to speak their thoughts aloud.

  “What has happened?” he finally asked.

  “How do you know something’s happened?” she snapped back at him.

  He hesitated before speaking, obviously choosing his words carefully. “I know from you.”

  “You’re not makin’ any sense, Rephaim.” The sound of her voice speaking his name seemed to echo in the air around them, and the night was suddenly tinted with the memory of the glistening red mist that had been sent by the son of an immortal to caress Stevie Rae’s skin and call her to him.

  “That is because it does not make sense to me,” he said, his voice deep and soft and hesitant. “I know nothing about how an Imprint works; you will have to teach me.”

  Stevie Rae felt her cheeks get warm. He’s telling the truth, she realized. Our Imprint lets him know things about me! And how could he understand it? I barely do.

  She cleared her throat. “So, are you sayin’ you know something’s happened because you can sense it from me?”

  “Feel, not sense,” he corrected her. “I felt your pain. Not like before, right after you drank from me. Then your body was in pain. Your pain tonight was emotional, not physical.”

  She couldn’t stop staring at him, her shock clear on her face. “Yes, it was. It still is.”

  “Tell me what has happened.”

  Instead of answering him, she asked, “Why did you call me here?”

  “You were feeling pain. I could feel it, too.” He paused, obviously disconcerted by what he was saying, and then continued, “I wanted to stop feeling it. So I sent you strength and called you to me.”

  “How did you do it? What was that red misty stuff?”

  “Answer my question, and I will answer yours.”

  “Fine. What has happened is your daddy killed Heath, the human guy who was Zoey’s consort. Zoey saw him do it and couldn’t stop him, and that shattered her soul.”

  Rephaim continued to stare at her until it felt to Stevie Rae as if he was looking through her body and directly into her soul. She couldn’t look away, though, and the longer their gazes met, the harder it was for her to hold on to her anger. His eyes were just so human. Only their color was off, and to Stevie Rae, the scarlet within them wasn’t as alien as it should be. Truthfully, it was frighteningly familiar; it had once tinted her own eyes.

  “Don’t you have anything to say about that?” she blurted, pulling her gaze from his so that she was staring out at the empty night.

  “There is more. What is it you aren’t telling me?”

  Gathering her anger back to her, Stevie Rae met his gaze again. “Word has it your daddy’s soul is shattered, too.”

  Rephaim blinked, shock clear in his blood-colored eyes. “I don’t believe that,” he said.

  “Neither do I, but Neferet’s dumped his spiritless body on the High Council, and apparently they’re buying the story. You know what I think?” She didn’t wait for him to respond, but went on, her voice rising with her frustration and anger and fear. “I think Kalona’s followed Zoey into the Otherworld because he’s totally obsessed with her.” Stevie Rae wiped at her cheeks, brushing off the tears she thought she’d finished shedding.

  “That is impossible.” Rephaim sounded almost as upset as she felt. “My father cannot return to the Otherworld. The realm has been eternally forbidden to him.”

  “Well, obviously he figured out a way to get around being forbidden.”

  “A way to get around having been eternally banished by the Goddess of Night herself? How could that be accomplished?”

  “Nyx kicked him out of the Otherworld?” Stevie Rae said.

  “It was my father’s choice. He was once Nyx’s Warrior. Their Oath Bond was broken when he fell.”

  “Ohmygoodness, Kalona used to be on Nyx’s side?” Without consciously knowing she was doing so, Stevie Rae moved closer to Rephaim.

  “Yes. He guarded her against Darkness.” Rephaim stared out at the night.

  “What happened? Why did he fall?”

  “Father never speaks of it. I know whatever it was filled him with an anger that burned for centuries.”

  “And that’s how you were created. From that anger.”

  His gaze found her again. “Yes.”

  “Does it fill you, too? That anger and darkness?” she couldn’t stop herself from asking.

  “Wouldn’t you know if it did? Just as I know your pain? Is that not how this Imprint between us works?”

  “Well, it’s complicated. See, you’ve been kinda forced into the role of my consort since I’m the vampyre here and all. And it’s easier for a consort to sense things about their vampyre than the other way around. What I get from you is—”

  “My power,” he broke in. She didn’t think he sounded mad, just tired and almost hopeless. “You get my immortal strength.”

  “Holy crap! That’s why I healed so dang fast.”

  “Yes, and why I don’t.”

  Stevie Rae blinked in surprise. “Well, shoot. You must feel awful—you look pretty bad.”

  He made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a snort. “And you look healthy and whole again.”

  “I am healthy, but I won’t be really whole until I figure out how to help Zoey. She’s my best friend, Rephaim. She can’t die.”

  “He is my father. He can’t die, either.”

  They stared at one another, both struggling to make sense of this thing between them that drew them together even as hurt and pain and anger swirled around them, defining and separating their worlds.

  “How about this: we get you something to eat. I fix that wing again, which won’t be fun for either of us, and then we try to figure out what’s going on with Zoey and your daddy. You should know somethin’, though. I can’t feel your emotions like you can feel mine, but I can tell if you’re lyin’ to me. I am also pretty sure I could find you, no matter where you are. So if you lie to me and set up Zoey, I give you my word that I will come against you with all the power of my element and your blood.”

  “I will not lie to you,” he said.

  “Good. Let’s go inside the museum and find the kitchen.”

  Stevie Rae left the rooftop balcony, and the Raven Mocker followed her as if tethered to the High Priestess by an invisible but unbreakable chain.

  Stevie Rae

  “You could have anything in this world you desired with that power,” Rephaim said between bites of the huge sandwich she’d fixed him from the stuff that hadn’t already gone bad in the industrial refrigerators of the museum’s restaurant.

  “Nah, not really. I mean, sure, I can make one tired, overworked, and kinda dorky night security guard let us into the museum and then forget we ever existed; but I can’t, like, rule the world or anything crazy like that.”

  “It is an excellent power to wield.”

  “No, it’s a responsibility I didn’t ask for and really don’t want. See, I don’t want to be able to make humans do whatever the heck I want them to do. It’s just not right—not if I’m on Nyx’s side.”

  “Because your Goddess does not believe in giving her subjects the objects of their desire?”

  Stevie Rae stared at him for a while, twirling a curl around and around her finger before answering, thinking that he might be messin’ with her, but the red gaze that met hers was completely serious. So she took a deep breath, and explained, “Not because of that, but because Nyx believes in giving everyone free choice, and when I mess with a human’s mind and implant stuff that he has no control over, I’m takin’ away his free choice. That’s just not right.”

  “Do you really believe everyone in the world should have free choice?”

  “I do. That’s why I’m here today, talkin’
to you. Zoey gave that back to me. Then in a kinda pay-it-forward thing, I gave that same gift to you.”

  “You let me live hoping that I would choose my own path and not that of my father.”

  Stevie Rae was surprised that he had said it so freely; but she didn’t question what had prompted his honesty, she just went with it. “Yeah. I told you that when I closed the tunnel behind you and let you go instead of turning you in to my friends. You’re in charge of your life now. You’re not beholden to your daddy or anyone else.” She paused for a second and then said the rest in a big rush. “And you’ve already started down a different path by saving me on that rooftop.”

  “An unpaid life debt is a dangerous thing to carry. It was only logical that I repaid the debt that was between us.”

  “Yeah, I get that, but what about tonight?”

  “Tonight?”

  “You sent me your strength and called me to you. If you have that kind of power, why didn’t you just break our Imprint instead? That would have ended your pain, too.”

  He stopped eating, and his scarlet gaze locked with hers. “Don’t make me into something I’m not. I have spent centuries in darkness. I lived with evil as my bedfellow. I am tied to my father. He is filled with an anger that might very well burn up this world, and if he returns, I am destined to be at his side. See me as I am, Stevie Rae. I am a nightmare creature given life through anger and rape. I walk among the living, but I’m ever separate, ever different. Not immortal, not man, and not beast.”

  Stevie Rae let his words sink into her veins. She knew he was being completely, nakedly honest with her. But there was more to him than this machine of anger and evil he’d been created to be. She knew it because she’d been witness to it.

  “Well, Rephaim, how ’bout you just consider that you might be right.”

  She saw the understanding register in his blood-colored eyes. “Which means I might also be wrong?”

  She shrugged. “I’m just sayin’.”

  Without speaking, he shook his head and went back to eating. She smiled and continued to make herself a turkey sandwich. “So,” she said, slapping mustard on white bread. “What’s your theory about why your daddy’s soul’s turned up missing?”

  His gaze locked with hers, and the one word he uttered made her blood run cold.

  “Neferet.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Stevie Rae

  “Dallas told me Neferet dumped Kalona’s spiritless body on the High Council.”

  “Who is Dallas?” Rephaim asked.

  “Just a guy I know. So it looks like Neferet turned in Kalona even though they’re supposed to be together and all.”

  “Neferet seduces my father and pretends to be his mate, but the only thing she really cares for is herself. Where he is filled with anger, she is filled with hatred. Hatred is a more dangerous ally.”

  “So you’re sure Neferet would betray Kalona to save herself?” Stevie Rae asked.

  “I am certain Neferet would betray anyone to save herself.”

  “What does she gain by turning in Kalona, especially if he’s all soulless and stuff?”

  “By giving him over to the High Council, she takes suspicion from herself,” he said.

  “Yeah, that makes sense. I know she wants Zoey dead. And she doesn’t care about Heath at all. Actually, Neferet would be cool with the fact that seeing Kalona about to kill Heath made Zoey throw the power of spirit at him and that not being able to stop Kalona caused her soul to shatter. Apparently, that’s just a half step away from death.”

  Rephaim’s eyes were suddenly sharp on hers. “Zoey attacked my father with the element spirit?”

  “Yeah, that’s what Lenobia and Dragon told me.”

  “Then he has been gravely wounded.” Rephaim looked away and didn’t say anything else.

  “Hey, you need to tell me what you know,” Stevie Rae said earnestly. When he didn’t speak, she sighed, and continued, “Okay, here’s my truth. I came here tonight ready to force you to talk to me about your daddy and the Otherworld and all that; but now that I’m here and actually talkin’ to you, I don’t want to force you.” Hesitantly, she touched his arm. His body jerked when her fingers met his skin, but he didn’t pull away. “Can’t we work together on this? Do you really want Zoey dead?”

  His eyes found hers again. “I have no reason to wish your friend’s death, but you do wish my father harm.”

  Stevie Rae blew out a breath of frustration. “How about this—how about I compromise in what I want. What if I told you I just want Kalona to leave all of us alone?”

  “I don’t know if that could ever be possible,” Rephaim said.

  “But it is possible for me to wish it. Right now, Zoey and Kalona are soulless. Now, I know your daddy’s an immortal, but it can’t be a good thing that his body’s just a shell.”

  “No, it is not a good thing.”

  “So let’s work together to see if we can get both of them back, and deal with what happens next when next actually happens.”

  “I can agree to that,” he said.

  “Good!” She squeezed his arm before taking her hand from him. “You said Kalona’s wounded. What did you mean?”

  “His body can’t be killed, but if his spirit is damaged, he is physically weakened. That is how A-ya was used to entrap him. His spirit was clouded with emotions for her. It confused and weakened him, and his body became vulnerable.”

  “And that’s how Neferet was able to dump him in front of the High Council,” Stevie Rae said. “Zoey hurt his spirit, so his body is vulnerable.”

  “There has to be more to it than that. Unless he’s held captive, as A-ya had him within the earth, Father would begin to recover almost instantly. As long as he’s free, he can heal his spirit.”

  “Well, obviously Neferet grabbed him before he was healed. She’s so dang evil, she probably zapped the crap outta him with that scary darkness she carries around with her and then—”

  “That’s it!” He stood in excitement, then grimaced from the pain in his wing. Rubbing his wounded arm, he sat back down, holding it close to him. “She continued the attack on his spirit. Neferet is Tsi Sgili. It is through using the dark forces in the spirit realm that she gains power.”

  “She killed Shekinah without even touching her,” Stevie Rae remembered.

  “Neferet touched the High Priestess but not with her hands. She manipulated the threads from deaths she is responsible for, sacrifices she’s made, and dark promises she means to keep. That power is what killed Shekinah, and that is the power she wielded against my father’s already weakened spirit.”

  “But what’s she doing with him?”

  “Holding his body captive and using his spirit for her own means.”

  “Which makes her look like one of the good guys to the High Council. I’ll just bet she’s bein’ all ‘Oh, poor Zoey’ and ‘I don’t know what Kalona was thinking’ to their faces.”

  “The Tsi Sgili is very powerful. Why would she put on that pretense to your Council?”

  “Neferet doesn’t want to let them know how evil she is ’cause she wants to rule the dang world. She might not be ready to take on the Vampyre High Council and the human world. Yet. So she can’t let the Council know she’s cool with Zoey being almost dead, even though she’s glad.”

  “Father doesn’t want Zoey dead. He simply wants to possess her.”

  Stevie Rae gave him a hard look. “Some of us think being possessed against our will is worse than death.”

  He snorted. “You mean like being Imprinted by accident?”

  Stevie Rae frowned at him. “No, that’s not what I mean at all.”

  He snorted again and kept rubbing his arm.

  Still frowning, she continued, “But what you’re sayin’ is that Kalona didn’t mean for what he did to Heath to cause Zoey’s soul to shatter?”

  “No, because that would most likely lead to her death.”

  “Most likely?” Stevie Rae pounced on t
he words. “Does that mean it’s not one hundred percent certain Z’s gonna die. ’Cause that’s what the vamps are sayin’.”

  “Vampyres aren’t thinking with the mind of an immortal. No death is ever as certain as mortals believe. Zoey will die if her spirit doesn’t return to her body, but it is not impossible for her spirit to become whole again. It would be difficult, yes, and she would need a guide and a protector in the Otherworld, but—” His words broke off, and Stevie Rae saw shock in his eyes.

  “What?”

  “Neferet is using my father to ensure Zoey’s spirit doesn’t return. She trapped his body while he was wounded and commanded his soul to do her bidding in the Otherworld.”

  “But you said Kalona was kicked out of there by Nyx. How could he go back?”

  Rephaim’s eyes widened. “His body was banished.”

  “And his body’s still in this realm! It’s his spirit that’s returned,” Stevie Rae finished for him.

  “Yes! Neferet has forced him to return. I know my father well. He would never skulk back to Nyx’s Otherworld. He has too much pride. He would only return if the Goddess herself asked it of him.”

  “How do you know that for sure? Maybe he’s going after Zoey because he finally gets it that she’ll never be with him, and, like a scary, psycho stalker, he’d rather see her dead than with someone else. That could’ve pissed him off bad enough that his pride could handle a little skulkin’.”

  Rephaim shook his head. “Father will never believe Zoey won’t eventually choose him. A-ya did, and part of the maiden still lives within Zoey’s soul.” He paused, and before Stevie Rae could ask her next question, added, “But I know how you can be certain. If Neferet is using him, she will have Father’s body bound by Darkness.”

  “Darkness? You mean like the opposite of light?”

  “In a way that is what it is. It’s hard to define because that type of pure evil is ever-changing, ever-evolving. The Darkness of which I speak is sentient. Find someone who can perceive beings from the spirit realm, and that person should be able to see the chains the Tsi Sgili formed to bind Father, if they are there at all.”