Awakened (House of Night #8)

Rephaim

"I cannot believe you are going to do this," Kalona said, pacing back and forth across the rooftop balcony of the Mayo.

"I am doing this because it is necessary, it is time, and it is the right thing to do!" Neferet's voice rose in tempo while she spoke as if she were exploding from the inside out.

"The right thing to do! As if you're a creature of Light?" Rephaim couldn't stop the words, nor could he school his voice to sound anything but incredulous.

Neferet rounded on him. She raised her hand. Rephaim could see threads of power quivering in the air around her, absorbing into her skin, crawling beneath it. The sight made his stomach tighten as he remembered the terrible touch of those Dark threads. Automatically, he moved a step back from her.

"Are you questioning me, bird creature?" Neferet looked like she was readying herself to hurl the Darkness at him.

"Rephaim does not question you, just as I do not question you." His father moved closer to Neferet, stepping between the Tsi Sgili and him as he continued to speak with the calm voice of authority.

"We are both simply surprised." "It is what Zoey and her allies would least expect me to do. So, even though it sickens me, I will abase myself--temporarily. By doing so I make Zoey impotent. If she so much as whispers against me, she will reveal herself to be the petulant child she really is."

"I would think you would rather destroy her than humiliate her," Rephaim said.

Neferet sneered at him and spoke to him as if he were an utter fool. "I have the ability to kill her tonight, but no matter how I orchestrated it, I would be implicated. Even those dotards on the High Council would be compelled to come here--to watch me, and to interfere with my plans. No, I am not ready for that, and until I am, I want Zoey Redbird gagged and put back in her place. She is a mere fledgling; she will be treated as such from here on out. And as I am taking care of Zoey I will also be revisiting her little group of friends--especially the one who calls herself the first red High Priestess." Neferet's laughter was mocking. "Stevie Rae? A High Priestess? I intend to reveal what she really is."

"And what is that?" Rephaim had to ask, though he kept his voice level, his expression as blank as he could make it.

"She is a vampyre who has known, and even embraced, Darkness."

"Ultimately she chose Light," Rephaim said, and realized that he'd spoken much too quickly when Neferet's eyes narrowed.

"But the fact that Darkness has touched her changes her forever," Kalona said.

Neferet smiled sweetly at Kalona. "You are so very right, my Consort."

"Couldn't knowing the touch of Darkness have a strengthening effect on the Red One?" Rephaim was unable to stop himself from asking.

"Of course it has. The Red One is a powerful vampyre, if young and inexperienced, which is exactly why she could be of excellent use to us," Kalona said. "I believe there is even more to Stevie Rae than she has shown to her little friends. I saw her when she was in Darkness. She reveled in it," Neferet said. "I say we need to watch her and see what is beneath that bright, innocent exterior." Neferet enunciated the words sarcastically.

"As you wisssssh," Rephaim said, and was disgusted that the anger Neferet caused within him had him hissing like an animal.

Neferet stared at him. "I sense a change in you." Rephaim forced himself to continue to meet her eyes steadily. "In my father's absence I was closer to death and Darkness than ever before during my long life. If you sense a change within me, perhaps that is it."

"Perhaps," Neferet said slowly. "And perhaps not. Why is it that I suspect you might not be entirely pleased your father and I have returned to Tulsa?" Rephaim held himself very still so that the Tsi Sgili would not see the hate and anger that were flooding his body. "I am my father's favored son. As always, I stand beside him. The days he was absent from me were the darkest of my life."

"Really? How very terrible for you," Neferet said sarcastically. Then she dismissively turned from him to face Kalona. "Your favored son's words remind me--where are the rest of the creatures you call your children? Surely a handful of fledglings and nuns didn't manage to kill them all."

Kalona's jaw clenched and unclenched and his eyes blazed amber. Recognizing that his father was struggling to control his anger, Rephaim spoke up quickly. "I have surviving brothers. I saw them flee when you and my father were banished."

Neferet's eyes narrowed. "I am banished no more."

No more, Rephaim thought, meeting her gaze without so much as a blink, but a handful of fledglings and nuns did manage it once.

Again, Kalona drew her attention from him. "The others are not like Rephaim. They need help to hide in the city without being detected. They must have found safe places to nest farther from civilization." When he spoke, his anger only bubbled under the surface of his words and did not boil over, though Rephaim wondered at how blind Neferet had become. Did she really believe she was so powerful that she could continually bait an ancient immortal without paying the consequence of his wrath?

"Well, we're back. They should be here. They're aberrations of nature, but they do have their uses. During the daylight hours they can stay in there, far away from my bedchamber." She waved toward the lush penthouse suite. "At night they can lurk out here and await my orders."

"You mean my orders." Kalona hadn't raised his voice, but the power that rumbled through it drew prickles of gooseflesh up and down Rephaim's arms. "My sons only obey me. They are bound to me through blood and magick and time. I alone control them."

"Then I assume you can control getting them here?"

"Yes."

"Well, summon them or have Rephaim herd them here, or whatever it is you do. I can't be expected to take care of everything."

"As you wish," Kalona said, echoing Rephaim's earlier statement.

"Now I'm going to go abase myself before a school full of lesser beings because you did not keep Zoey Redbird from returning to this realm." Her eyes looked like green ice. "And that is why you now obey only me. Be here when I return." Neferet left the balcony. Her long cloak should have caught in the door she slammed behind her, but at the last moment it rippled and skittered closer to the Tsi Sgili's body, lapping around her ankles like a sticky pool of tar.

Rephaim faced his father, the ancient immortal he'd been serving faithfully for centuries. "How can you allow her to speak to you like that? To use you like that? She called my brothers aberrations of nature, but it is she who is the true monster!"

Rephaim knew he shouldn't have spoken to his father like that, but he couldn't help himself. Seeing the proud and powerful Kalona being ordered around like a servant was unbearable. As Kalona approached Rephaim braced himself for what was surely to come. He'd seen his father's wrath unleashed before--he knew what to expect. Kalona unfurled his great wings and loomed over his son, but the blow Rephaim expected did not come. Instead when he met his father's gaze he saw despair and not anger.

Looking like a fallen god, Kalona said, "Not you, too. I expected her disrespect and disloyalty; she betrayed a goddess to free me. You, though, you I never believed would turn on me."

"Father! I have not!" Rephaim said, putting from his mind all thoughts of Stevie Rae. "I simply cannot bear the way she treats you."

"That is why I must discover a way to break that accursed oath." Kalona made a wordless sound of frustration and paced over to the balustraded stone railing, staring out into the night. "If only Nyx had stayed out of the battle with Stark. Then he would have remained dead and I know in my soul Zoey would never have found the strength to return to this realm and her body, not with two of her lovers dead."

Rephaim followed his father to the railing. "Dead? You killed Stark in the Otherworld?"

Kalona snorted, "Of course I killed that boy. He and I battled. He could not possibly have defeated me, even if he did manage to become a Guardian and wield the great Guardian claymore."

"Nyx resurrected Stark?" Rephaim said, incredulous. "But the Goddess doesn't interfere with human choice. It was Stark's choice to defend Zoey against you."

"Nyx did not resurrect Stark. I did."

Rephaim blinked in shock. "You?"

Kalona nodded and continued to stare out at the night sky, not meeting his son's gaze as he spoke in a strained voice as if he had to force each word from his throat. "I killed Stark. I believed Zoey would retreat then and remain in the Otherworld with the souls of her Warrior and mate. Or perhaps her spirit would shatter forever and she would be a wandering Caoinic Shi'." Kalona paused and then added, "Though I did not wish the latter on her. I do not hate her as does Neferet." To Rephaim it seemed his father was talking aloud to himself more than speaking to him, so when Kalona went silent he was silent and patient, not wanting to interrupt him, waiting for him to continue.

"Zoey is stronger than I anticipated." Kalona continued speaking to the night. "Instead of retreating or shattering, she attacked." The winged immortal chuckled at the memory. "She skewered me with my own spear and then ordered me to return Stark's life to repay the life debt I owed for killing that boy of hers. I refused, of course."

Unable to stay silent, Rephaim blurted, "But life debts are powerful things, Father."

"True, but I am a powerful immortal. Consequences that govern mortals do not apply to me."

Rephaim's thoughts, like a cold wind, whispered through his mind: Perhaps he is wrong. Perhaps what is happening to Father is part of the consequences he has considered himself too powerful to pay. But Rephaim knew better than to correct Kalona, so he simply continued, "You refused Zoey, and then what happened?"

"Nyx happened," Kalona said bitterly. "I could refuse a childlike High Priestess. I could not refuse the Goddess. I could never refuse the Goddess. I breathed a sliver of my immortality into Stark. He lived. Zoey returned to her body and managed to rescue her Warrior from the Otherworld, too. And I am under the control of a Tsi Sgili who I believe to be utterly mad." Kalona looked at Rephaim. "If I do not break this bondage she may take me into madness with her. She has a connection with Darkness that I have not so much as sensed in centuries. It is as powerful as it is seductive and dangerous."

"You should kill Zoey." Rephaim spoke the words slowly, haltingly, hating himself for every syllable because he knew the pain Zoey's death would cause Stevie Rae.

"I have, of course, already considered that." Rephaim held his breath when Kalona paused. "And I have come to believe that if I kill Zoey Redbird it would be an open affront to Nyx. I have not served the Goddess in many ages. I have done things she would view as"-- Kalona paused again, this time struggling with his words--"unforgivable. But I have never taken the life of any priestess in her service."

"Do you fear Nyx?" Rephaim asked.

"Only a fool does not fear a goddess. Even Neferet avoids Nyx's wrath by not killing Zoey, though the Tsi Sgili does not admit so to herself."

"Neferet is so swollen with Darkness that she no longer thinks rationally," Rephaim said.

"True, but just because she is irrational that does not mean she isn't clever. For instance, I believe she may be correct about the Red One--she could be used or perhaps even turned from the path she has chosen." Kalona shrugged. "Or she can continue to stand with Zoey and be destroyed when Neferet comes against her."

"Father, I do not believe it is simply that Stevie Rae stands with Zoey. I believe she stands with Nyx, too. Is it logical to assume Nyx's first red High Priestess would be special to the Goddess, and therefore should she remain untouched like Zoey?"

"I see validity in your words, my son." Kalona nodded his head in solemn agreement. "If she does not turn from the path of the Goddess, I will not harm the Red One. Instead of me, Neferet will be incurring Nyx's wrath if she destroys Stevie Rae."

Rephaim maintained a tight control on his voice and expression. "That is a wise decision, Father."

"Of course there are other ways of hindering a High Priestess without killing her."

"What do you plan to do to hinder the Red One?" Rephaim asked.

"I do not plan to do anything to the Red One until Neferet manages to coerce her from her path, and then I will either direct her powers or step aside while Neferet destroys her." Kalona waved away the question. "I was thinking of Zoey. If Zoey can be persuaded to come against Neferet publically, the Tsi Sgili will be completely distracted. You and I can focus on breaking my bond to her."

"But, as Neferet said, after tonight if Zoey speaks against her she will be admonished and discredited. Zoey is wise enough to know that. She won't publically clash with Neferet."

Kalona smiled. "Ah, but what if her Warrior, her Guardian, the one person on this earth she trusts above all others, begins to whisper to her that she shouldn't allow Neferet to get away with her evil deeds? That she must fulfill her role as High Priestess, no matter the supposed consequences, and stand up to Neferet."

"Stark would not do that."

Kalona's smile widened. "My spirit can enter Stark's body."

Rephaim gasped. "How?"

Still grinning, Kalona shrugged his broad shoulders. "I do not know. I have not experienced this ever before."

"So this is more than entering the realm of dreams and finding a sleeping spirit?"

"Much more. Stark was completely awake and I followed a connection I believed would lead me to Aya in the realm of dreams, if Zoey had been sleeping. The connection took me to Stark--into Stark. I believe he sensed something, but I do not believe he knew it was me." Kalona cocked his head, considering. "Perhaps my ability to mingle my spirit with his is a result of the sliver of my immortality I breathed within him."

... Immortality I breathed within him. His father's words swirled around and around in Rephaim's mind. Something was there--something they were both missing. "Have you never shared your immortality with another being?" Kalona's smile faded. "Of course not. My immortality is not a power I would willingly share with another."

And suddenly what had been niggling at the edge of Rephaim's thoughts burst into understanding. No wonder Kalona had appeared different since he'd returned from the Otherworld. It all made sense now.

"Father! What was the exact wording of the oath you swore to Neferet?"

Kalona frowned at his son, but he recited the oath: "If I failed in my sworn quest to destroy Zoey Redbird, fledging High Priestess of Nyx, Neferet shall hold dominion over my spirit for as long as I am an immortal." Excitement coursed through Rephaim's body. "And how do you know Neferet actually has dominion over your spirit?"

"I did not destroy Zoey; she must have dominion over me."

"No, Father. If you shared your immortality with Stark, you are no longer completely an immortal, just as Stark is no longer completely a mortal. The conditions of the oath do not exist, nor did they ever. You are not truly bound to Neferet."

"I am not truly bound to Neferet?" Kalona's expression shifted from disbelief to shock, and finally to joy.

"I do not believe you are," Rephaim said.

"There is only one way to be certain," Kalona said.

Rephaim nodded. "You must openly disobey her."

"That, my son, will be a pleasure."

As he watched his father throw his arms back and shout joyously to the sky, Rephaim knew that tonight would change everything, and no matter what he had to figure out a way to be sure Stevie Rae was safe.