Stevie Rae

"Oh, for shit's sake! Are you telling me no one has called Zoey?" Aphrodite said.

Stevie Rae took Aphrodite by the elbow and, with a grip that was maybe firmer than technically necessary, guided her to the door in Damien's dorm room. At the doorway she paused and both girls looked back at the bed, where Damien was curled up with Duchess and his cat, Cameron. Boy, dog, and cat had finally, just minutes before, fallen into a sleep induced by grief and exhaustion.

Silently, Stevie Rae pointed her finger from Aphrodite to the hallway. Aphrodite sneered. Stevie Rae crossed her arms and planted herself.

"Outside," she mouthed, "now." Then she followed her out of the room and closed the door softly behind them. "And keep your dang voice down out here, too," Stevie Rae whispered fiercely.

"Fine. I'll keep it down. Jack is dead and no one has called Z?" she repeated her question, much less loudly.

"No. I haven't exactly had time. Damien has been hysterical. Duchess has been hysterical. The school's in a dang uproar. I'm the only effing High Priestess who isn't, supposedly, locked away in her room praying or whatever, so I've been busy handling the shit storm out here and the fact that a really nice boy just died."

"Yeah, I understand that and I'm sad, too, and all, but Zoey needs to get here and get here now. If you were too busy to do it, then you should have let one of the professors call her. The sooner she knows the sooner she'll be on her way here." Darius hurried up to them and took Aphrodite's hand.

"It was Neferet, right? That bitch killed Jack," Aphrodite asked him.

"Not possible," Darius and Stevie Rae said together. Stevie Rae flashed Aphrodite an annoyed I told you so look as Darius went on to explain. "Neferet was, indeed, in the school Council Meeting when Jack fell from the ladder. Not only did Damien see Jack fall, but another witness corroborates the time. Drew Partain was crossing the grounds when he heard the music Jack was singing to. He said he only heard part of the song because the bell clock on Nyx's Temple began chiming midnight, or at least that was why he thought he didn't hear any more of Jack's voice."

"But really that's when Jack died," Stevie Rae said, her voice gone hard and flat because that was the only way she could keep from sounding as shaky as she felt.

"Yes, the timing is right," Darius said.

"And you're sure Neferet was in the meeting then?" Aphrodite said.

"I heard the clock gonging while she was talking," Stevie Rae said.

"I still don't believe for an instant she's not behind his death," Aphrodite said.

"I'm not disagreein' with you, Aphrodite. Neferet is slicker than hen crap on a tin roof, but facts are facts. She was in front of all of us when Jack fell off that ladder."

"Okay, seriously, eew with your bumpkin analogies. And how about the whole sword thing? How the hell could it have `accidentally' "--she air quoted--"almost sliced his head off?"

"Swords should be positioned hilt down, point up. Dragon explained that to Jack. As the boy fell on the blade, the hilt was driven into the ground, impaling him. Technically, it could have been an accident."

Aphrodite wiped a shaking hand across her face. "That's horrible. Really horrible. But it was no damn accident." "I don't think any of us believe Neferet is innocent of the boy's death, but what we believe and what we can prove are two different things. The High Council has already ruled once in Neferet's favor and, basically, against us. If we go to them with more supposition and no proof of her wrongdoings, we will only discredit ourselves more," Darius said.

"I get that, but it pisses me off," Aphrodite said.

"It pisses us all off," Stevie Rae said. "Bad. Real bad."

Picking up on the unusually hard edge in Stevie Rae's voice, Aphrodite lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, and let's use some of that pissed off to kick that cow the hell outta here once and for all."

"What's your idea?" Stevie Rae said.

"First, get Zoey's vacationing butt back here. Neferet hates Z. She'll come against her--she always does. Only this time we'll all be watching and waiting and we'll get proof not even the Neferetnloving High Council will be able to ignore." Without waiting for a response from either of them, Aphrodite pulled her iPhone from her metallic Coach clutch, punched in her code, and said, "Call Zoey."

"I was gonna do that," Stevie Rae said.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're too. Damn. Late. Plus, you're too damn nice. What Z needs is a big dose of get-your-shit-together-anddo- the-right-thing. I'm the girl to feed it to her." She paused, listened, and rolled her eyes again. "It's her revolting Disney Channel?sounding Hey guys! Leave me a message and have an awesome day voice mail," Aphrodite quoted in an uber-bubbly voice. She drew a breath, waiting for the beep. And Stevie Rae grabbed the phone from her hand, speaking quickly into it.

"Z, it's me, not Aphrodite. I need you to call me the second you get this. It's important." She hit the end button to hang up and squared off against Aphrodite. "Okay, let's get somethin' real straight. Just because I try to be a decent human being, it does not mean I'm too nice. It's bad enough what happened to Jack. Learnin' 'bout it in a message is super, super bad. Plus, I don't think it's a good idea to freak Zoey out like that, 'specially so soon after her soul being shattered."

Aphrodite snatched the iPhone from Stevie Rae. "Look. We do not have time to tiptoe around Zoey's feelings. She needs to put on her big-girl High Priestess panties and deal."

"No, you look." Stevie Rae stepped forward and into Aphrodite's personal space, making Darius automatically move closer to her. "Z doesn't need to put on High Priestess panties. She is one. But she's been through losin' someone she loves. That's somethin' you obviously just don't get. Watchin' out for her feelings right now isn't about babyin' her. It's about bein' her friend. Sometimes all of us just need a little protection from our friends." She glanced at Darius, shaking her head. "No, that doesn't mean you need to protect Aphrodite from me. Jeeze, Darius, what's wrong with you?"

Darius caught and held her gaze. "For a moment your eyes flashed red."

Stevie Rae made sure her expression didn't change. "Yeah, well, I'm not surprised. Watchin' Neferet walk away without paying any consequences for what happened to Jack has been pretty hard for me to take. You'd feel the same way if you'd been here and saw it go down."

"I imagine I would, but my eyes would not glow red," Darius said.

"Die and un-die and then talk to me 'bout that," Stevie Rae said. She turned to Aphrodite. "I have stuff I gotta do while Damien is sleepin'. Are you and Darius gonna stay here and keep an eye on him? Not for one hot second do I believe Neferet is really locked away in her room praying to Nyx for the rest of the night like she wants everyone to believe."

"Yeah, we'll stay," Aphrodite said.

"If he wakes up, be nice," Stevie Rae said.

"Don't be a jerk. Of course I'll be nice." "Good. I'll be back pretty soon, but if you need a break, call the Twins and they'll relieve you."

"Whatever. Goodbye."

"Bye." Stevie Rae hurried down the hallway, feeling Darius's questioning gaze following her with an intensity that was a physical weight. I have to stop letting Darius make me feel guilty! she told herself roughly. I haven't done anything wrong. So what if my eyes glow red when I'm pissed? It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I've Imprinted with Rephaim. I left him. Tonight I ignored him. Yeah, I have to find him and ask what the hell he knows about what happened to Jack, but not because I want to. Because I have to. She told that big ol' lie silently to herself, and was so distracted by her thoughts that she almost ran smack into Erik.

"Hey, uh, Stevie Rae. Is Damien okay?"

"Well, what do you think, Erik? His boyfriend who he loved just died in a real horrible way. No, he's not okay. But he is sleepin'. Finally."

"You know, you don't have to be like that. I really am worried about him, and I cared about Jack, too."

Stevie Rae took a good look at Erik. He did look like crap, which was totally unusual for pretty-boy Erik. And he'd obviously been crying. Then she remembered that he'd been Jack's roommate, and also had been real sweet about standing up for Jack when that asshole Thor tried to pick on him for being gay. "Sorry," she said, touching Erik's arm. "I'm just upset 'bout all this, too. I got no reason to be a B to you. Here, I'll start over." She took a breath and smiled sadly. "Damien's sleepin' right now, but he's not okay. He'll be needin' friends like you when he wakes up. Thanks for askin' and thanks for bein' here for him."

Erik nodded and squeezed her hand briefly. "Thanks back at you. I know you don't like me much, what with the stuff that went down between Zoey and me, but I really am Damien's friend. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." Erik paused, glancing up and down the hallway, as if to be sure they were alone, and then he took a step closer to Stevie Rae and lowered his voice. "Neferet had something to do with this, didn't she?" Stevie Rae's eyes widened in surprise. "What makes you say that?"

"I know she's not what she pretends to be. I've seen her be her real self, and it's not pretty."

"Yeah, well, you're right. Neferet's real self isn't pretty. But just like me you saw that she was right in front of us when Jack died."

"Still, you think she's behind this." It wasn't a question, but Stevie Rae nodded a silent yes answer.

"I knew it. This House of Night sucks. I was right to say yes to the L.A. House of Night."

Stevie Rae shook her head. "So that's it? That's what you do when you know somethin' evil is happening? You run away."

"What can one vampyre do against Neferet? The High Council reinstated her; they're on her side."

"One vampyre can't do much. A whole bunch of us joining together can."

"A few kids and a vamp here and there? Against a powerful High Priestess and the High Council? That's insanity."

"No, what's insanity is steppin' aside and lettin' the bad guys win."

"Hey, I have a life waiting for me--a good one, with a kick-ass acting career, fame, fortune, all that stuff. How can you blame me for not wanting to get mixed up in the Neferet mess?"

"You know what, Erik? All I'm gonna say to you is this: evil wins when good folks do nothing," Stevie Rae said.

"Well, I'm technically doing something. I'm leaving. Hey, did you ever think about this--what if all the good folks leave and evil gets bored playing all by itself and goes home, too?"

"I used to think you were the coolest guy I'd ever met," she said sadly. Erik's blue eyes glinted with humor and he beamed his one-hundred-watt smile at her. "And now you know I am?"

"Nope. Now I know you're a weak, selfish boy who's gotten almost everything he ever wanted just 'cause of his looks. And that's not cool at all." She shook her head at his stunned look and began walking away. Over her shoulder she called back, "Maybe someday you'll find somethin' you care about enough to stand up for."

"Yeah, and maybe someday you and Zoey will figure out it's not really your job to save the world!" he shouted after her.

Stevie Rae didn't so much as glance back at him. Erik was a tool. The Tulsa House of Night would be better without his weak butt dragging them down. The going was going to get really tough, and that meant the tough needed to get going--and the sissies needed to get gone. Just like John Wayne, it was time to rally the troops.

"And, hell no, it's not weird that my troops include a Raven Mocker," Stevie Rae muttered to herself as she hurried out to the parking lot and Z's Bug. "I'm not really gonna rally him. I'm just gonna get info from him. Again." Purposefully, she shut her mind to what had happened between her and Rephaim last time she'd "just needed information from him."

"Hey, Stevie Rae, you and me gotta--" Not pausing in her rush to the car, Stevie Rae held up a hand and cut Kramisha off. "Not now. I don't have time."

"I'm just sayin' that--"

"No!" Stevie Rae shouted her frustration at Kramisha, who stopped and stared at her.

"Whatever it is you want to be sayin' to me, it can keep. I don't like soundin' mean to you, but I have things I have to do and exactly two hours and five minutes until the sun comes up to do them in." Then she left Kramisha standing in her dust as she jogged the final few feet to the Bug, started it, put it into gear, and practically peeled out of the student parking lot. It took her exactly seven minutes to get to the Gilcrease grounds. She didn't drive the car up there. The ice storm had been cleaned up and the electric gate was working again, so everything was shut up tightly. Stevie Rae pulled the Bug off the side of the road behind a big tree. Automatically cloaking herself with the power she filtered from the earth, she went directly to the ramshackle mansion.

The door was no problem. No one had bothered to relock it yet. Actually, as she made her way through the old house and up to the rooftop, she detected very little change from the last time she'd been there.

"Rephaim?" she called his name. Her voice sounded eerie and too loud in the cold, empty night. The door to the closet where he'd made his nest was open, but he wasn't crouched within. She went out onto the rooftop balcony. That, too, was empty. The entire place was deserted. But she'd known he wasn't here since she'd stepped onto the museum grounds. Had Rephaim been here she would have felt him, just like she'd felt him earlier when he'd been at the House of Night, watching her.

Their Imprint connected them--as long as it was there, unbroken, it would tie them together.

"Rephaim, where are you now?" she asked the silent sky. And then Stevie Rae's thoughts slowed and rearranged themselves, and she had the answer; she'd had it all along. All she'd had to do was to get her pride and her hurt and her anger out of the way and the answer was there, waiting. Their

Imprint connected them--as long as it was there, unbroken, it would tie them together. She didn't have to find him. Rephaim would find her.

Stevie Rae sat down in the middle of the roof and faced north. She drew a long, deep breath and let it out. With her next breath she concentrated on drawing in all of the scents of the earth surrounding her. She could smell the cold dampness of the winter-bare boughs, the crispness of the frozen ground, the richness of the Oklahoma sandstone that littered the grounds. Drawing the earth's strength with her breath, Stevie Rae said, "Find Rephaim. Tell him to come to me. Tell him I need him." Then she released the earth power with her exhalation. Had her eyes been open, Stevie Rae would have seen the green glow that hovered around her. She would have also seen that as it rushed off into the night to do her bidding, it was shadowed by a scarlet glow.