Текст книги "Burned"

Автор книги: P. C. Cast

Соавторы: Kristin Cast,P. C. Cast
сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

Chapter 6

Stevie Rae

“Stevie Rae, this isn’t a good idea,” Dallas said as he hurried to keep up with her.

“I’m not gonna be gone long, promise,” she said, stopping as she got to the parking lot and looked around for Zoey’s little blue car. “Ha! There it is, and she always leaves the keys in it, ’cause the doors don’t lock anyway.” Stevie Rae jogged up to the Bug, opened the creaky door, and gave a victory shout when she saw the keys dangling from the ignition.

“Seriously, I wish you’d come to the Council Chamber with me and tell the vamps what you’re up to, even if you won’t tell me. Get their opinion about what’s goin’ on inside that head of yours, girl.”

Stevie Rae turned to Dallas. “Well, that’s the problem. I’m not sure what I’m doin’. And, Dallas, I wouldn’t tell a bunch of vamps stuff I wouldn’t tell you first, you gotta know that.”

Dallas rubbed a hand down his face. “I used to know that, but a lot’s happened fast, and you’re actin’ weird.”

She put her hand on his shoulder. “I just have a feelin’ that there might be somethin’ I can do to help Zoey, but I’m not gonna figure that out sittin’ up there in that room with a bunch of uptight vamps. I need to be out here.” Stevie Rae spread her arms, taking in the earth around them. “I need to use my element to think. It seems there’s somethin’ that I’m missing, but the understanding of it is just outside my reach. I’m gonna use earth to help me make that reach.”

“Can’t you do that from here? There’s lots of nice earth all over the school.”

Stevie Rae made herself smile at him. She hated lying to Dallas, but then again, she wasn’t really lying. She was really going to see if she could figure out a way to help Z, and she couldn’t do that at the House of Night. “There’re too many distractions here.”

“Okay, look, I know I can’t stop you from going, but I need you to promise me something, or I’m gonna make an ass outta myself by actually tryin’ to stop you.”

Stevie Rae’s eyes widened, and this time she didn’t have to force her smile. “You’re gonna try to kick my butt, Dallas?”

“Well, you and I both know it’d just be me tryin’, but not succeeding, which is where the ‘make an ass outta myself’ part comes in.”

Still grinning at him, she said, “What do you want me to promise?”

“That you won’t go back to the depot right now. They almost killed you, and you look all recovered and stuff, but they almost killed you. Yesterday. So I need you to promise you’re not going back down there to face them tonight.”

“I promise,” she said earnestly. “I’m not goin’ down there. I told you—I want to try to figure out how to help Z, and fightin’ with those kids definitely won’t help her.”

“Swear?”

“Swear.”

He let loose a relieved sigh. “Good. Now what am I supposed to tell those vamps about where you’ve gone?”

“Just what I told you—that I gotta get surrounded by the earth and left alone. That I’m tryin’ to figure out something, and I can’t do it here.”

“All right. I’ll tell ’em. They’re gonna be pissed.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be back soon,” she said, getting in Zoey’s car. “And don’t worry. I’ll be careful.” The engine had just turned over when Dallas rapped on the window. Suppressing an annoyed sigh, she cracked it.

“Almost forgot to tell ya—I overheard some of the kids talking while I was waitin’ for you. It’s all over the Internet that Z isn’t the only shattered soul in Venice.”

“What the heck does that mean, Dallas?”

“Word is that Neferet dumped Kalona on the High Council—literally. His body is there, but his soul is gone.”

“Thanks, Dallas. I gotta go!” Without waiting for him to reply, Stevie Rae shoved the Bug into gear and drove out of the parking lot and off the school grounds. Taking a quick right on Utica Street, she headed downtown and to the northeast, toward the rolling land on the outskirts of Tulsa that held the Gilcrease Museum.

Kalona’s soul was missing, too.

Stevie Rae didn’t for an instant believe that he’d been so wracked with grief that the immortal’s soul had ripped apart.

“Not likely,” she muttered to herself as she navigated the dark, silent streets of Tulsa. “He’s after her.” As soon as Stevie Rae said the words aloud, she knew she was right.

So what could she do about it?

She didn’t have a clue. She didn’t know anything about immortals or shattered souls or the spirit world. Sure, she’d died, but she’d also un-died. And she didn’t remember her soul going anywhere. Trapped . . . It’d been black and cold and soundless, and I’d wanted to scream and scream and . . . Stevie Rae shuddered, clamping down on her thoughts. She didn’t remember much of that terrible, dead time—she didn’t want to. But she did know someone who understood a lot about immortals, especially Kalona, and the spirit world. According to Z’s grandma, Rephaim hadn’t been anything but a spirit until Neferet had set loose his gross daddy.

“Rephaim will know somethin’. And what he knows, I’m gonna know,” she said resolutely, her fingers tightening on the steering wheel.

If she had to, Stevie Rae would use the power of their Imprint, the power of her element, and every bit of power inside her body to get information from him. Ignoring the sick, terrible, guilty way it made her feel to think of fighting Rephaim, she gave the Bug more gas and turned down Gilcrease Road.

Stevie Rae

She didn’t have to wonder where she’d find him. Stevie Rae just knew. The front door to the old mansion had already been forced open, and she slipped inside the dark, cold house, following his invisible trail up and up. She didn’t need to see the balcony door ajar to know he was outside. She knew he was there. I’ll always know where he is, she thought gloomily.

He didn’t turn to face her right away, and she was glad. Stevie Rae needed the time to try to get used to the sight of him again.

“So, you came,” he said, still without facing her.

That voice—that human voice. It struck her again, as it had the first night she’d heard it.

“You called me,” she said, trying to keep her voice cool—trying to hold on to the anger she felt at what his horrible daddy had caused.

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 some-thin’, 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 7

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 the 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.”

“Can you sense the spirit world?”

“I can,” he said, meeting her gaze without faltering. “Would you have me give myself up to your Vampyre High Council?”

Stevie Rae chewed her bottom lip. Would she? It would be giving Rephaim’s life for Zoey’s, and maybe even her own because she’d have to go with him, and there was no way the mega-powerful vamps on the High Council wouldn’t be able to tell they were Imprinted. She would die for Zoey—of course she would. But it’d be nice if she didn’t have to. Plus, it’s not like Zoey would want her to die. Well, it also wasn’t like Zoey would want her to have saved and then Imprinted with a Raven Mocker. Heck, no one would want that. Goddess knows she didn’t even want it. Well, not most of the time anyway.

“Stevie Rae?”

She jolted out of her inner argument to see Rephaim studying her. “Would you have me give myself to your Vampyre High Council?” he repeated solemnly.

“Only as our last option, and if you go, that means I go, too. And, heck, the High Council probably wouldn’t even believe anything you tell them. But you said all we need is someone who is good with the spirit realm, like good enough that they can sense the Darkness and spirit stuff, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there’s a whole gaggle of powerful vamps on the High Council. One of them has to be able to do that.”

He cocked his head to the side. “It would be unusual for a vampyre to have the ability to sense the dark forces the Tsi Sgili is wielding. That is one reason Neferet has been able to keep up her charade for so long. Truly being able to identify hidden Darkness is a singular skill. Sensing such evil is difficult unless you are familiar with it.”

“Yeah, well, the High Council vamps are supposed to be all that. One of them has to be able to do it.” She spoke with much more confidence than she felt. Everyone knew the High Council vamps were chosen because of their honor and integrity and basically their all-around goodness, which didn’t so much go with being familiar with Darkness. She cleared her throat. “Okay, well, I gotta go back to the House of Night and make a call to Venice,” she said firmly. Then her gaze went to his arm and the wing held limp in stained bandages behind it. “You’re hurting pretty bad, huh?”

He gave a short nod.

“Okay, well, are ya done eatin’?”

He nodded again.

She swallowed hard, remembering the shared pain of bandaging that broken wing before. “I need to go find the medical supplies. Sadly, they’ll probably be in that security office I sent the dorky guard to, which means I’m gonna have to zap his little pea brain again.”

“You could sense his brain was small?”

“Did ya see how high-waisted his pants were? No one under the age of eighty with a big brain wears grandpa pants pulled all the way to their underarms. Pea brain, I’m just sayin’.”

Then, surprising both of them, Rephaim laughed.

I like the sound of his laughter. And before her own brain could clue her mouth in to being quiet, she smiled, and said, “You should laugh more. It’s nice.”

Rephaim didn’t say anything, but Stevie Rae couldn’t decipher the odd look he gave her. Feeling kinda uncomfortable, she hopped down from her kitchen stool, and said, “Well, I’m gonna go get the first-aid stuff, fix up your wing as best I can, get food and things together for you, and then go back and start making some super long-distance calls. Hang here. I’ll be right back.”

“I’d prefer to come with you,” he said, standing carefully while he held his arm against his side.

“It’d probably be easier on you if you just stayed here,” she said.

“Yes, but I’d prefer to be with you,” he said quietly.

Stevie Rae felt a weird little jolt deep inside her at his words, but she shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, and said, “ ’Kay, suit yourself. But don’t whine if it hurts you to walk around.”

“I do not whine!” The look he gave her was so filled with guy pride that it was her turn to laugh as they left the kitchen, side by side.

Stevie Rae

Driving home, Stevie Rae should have been thinking about Zoey and devising her next plan of attack. But that was easy. She’d call Aphrodite. No matter what tragedies were going on in the world, Aphrodite would have her pointy little nose in the middle of everything, especially since it had to do with Zoey.

So Stevie Rae’s next step in her Save Z Plan was already figured out, leaving her mind wide open to think about Rephaim.

Resetting that dang wing had been awful. She still felt the phantom ache of it all through her right shoulder and her back. Even after she’d found the jar of numbing lidocaine and spread that all down his wing and his messed-up arm, she could still feel the deep, sick pain of its brokenness. Rephaim hadn’t said one word during the entire ordeal. He’d turned his head away from her, and right before she touched his wing, he’d said, “Would you do that talking thing you do while you bandage it?”

“Just exactly what talkin’ thing do you mean?” she’d asked.

He’d glanced over his shoulder, and she could have sworn there was a smile in his eyes. “You talk. A lot. So go ahead and do it. It’ll give me something more annoying to think about than the pain.”

She’d harrumphed at him, but he’d made her smile. And she did talk to him the entire time she’d cleaned, bandaged, and reset his badly broken wing. Actually, she’d babbled in big bursts of verbal diarrhea, saying nothing and everything as she rode the tide of pain with him. When she was finally done, he’d followed her, slowly, silently, back to the abandoned mansion, and she’d tried to make the closet more comfortable by stuffing in blankets she’d grabbed from the museum’s staff lounge.

“You need to go. Don’t worry about this.” He’d taken the last blanket from her and then practically collapsed into the closet.

“Look, I put the sack of food right here. It’s stuff that won’t go bad. And remember to drink lots of the water and juice. Hydrating’s good,” she’d said, feeling suddenly worried about leaving him looking so weak and tired.

“I will. Go.”

“Fine. Yeah. I’m going. I’ll try to get back here tomorrow, though.”

He’d nodded wearily.

“All right. ’Kay. I’m outta here.”

She’d turned to go when he said, “You should talk to your mother.”

She’d stopped like she’d run into a John Deere. “Why in the world would you say somethin’ ’bout my mama?”

He’d blinked at her a couple times like she’d confused him, paused, and finally answered with: “You talked about her while you bandaged my wing. You don’t remember?”

“No. Yes. I guess I wasn’t really paying attention to the stuff I was sayin’.” She’d automatically rubbed her own right arm. “I mostly just moved my mouth while I hurried to get the job done.”

“I listened to you instead of the pain.”

“Oh.” Stevie Rae hadn’t known what to say.

“You said she believes you are dead. I just . . .” He trailed off, seeming as confused as if he were trying to decipher an unfamiliar language. “I just thought you should tell her you live. She would want to know, wouldn’t she?”