Awakened

can they?”
    “It would be very bad if they did.”
    “Very bad for you or for me?”
    “For both of us.”
    Stevie Rae sighed. “Okay, so I’ll be careful.” She touched his arm. “You be careful, too.”
    He nodded. “You should start back. Call Zoey as you drive. Dawn is too close.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I know,” she said, but neither of them moved.
    “And I must get back,” he said, as if trying to convince himself.
    “Wait, you aren’t staying here anymore?”
    “No. The ice storm has passed and there are too many humans about the grounds now.”
    “Well, where are you?”
    “Stevie Rae, I cannot tell you that!”
    “Because you’re with your daddy, right?” When he didn’t speak she continued. “Hey, it’s not like I didn’t already know it was totally b.s. when Neferet announced the whole hundred-lashes-and-banish-Kalona-for-a-century punishment.”
    “She did have him lashed. The threads of Darkness cut him one hundred times.”
    Stevie Rae shivered, remembered how awful just the touch of one of those threads had been. “Well, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” She met Rephaim’s eyes. “But the part about him being banished from Neferet’s side for a century is b.s., right?”
    Rephaim gave a quick, almost imperceptible nod.
    “And you won’t tell me where you’re stayin’ because that’s where your Kalona’s stayin’, too?”
    He gave another slight nod.
    She sighed again. “So if I need to see you I gotta go lurk around some scary old building somewhere or somethin’?”
    “No! You stay safe and in public places. Stevie Rae, if you need me come here and call me as you did tonight. Promise me that you won’t go out trying to find me,” he said, giving her arm a little shake.
    “Okay, okay. I promise. But this worried-about-you thing goes both ways. Rephaim, I know he’s your daddy, but he’s also into some bad stuff. I just don’t want him to take you down with him. So be careful, ’kay?”
    “I will be careful,” he said. “Stevie Rae, tonight I saw the rogue red fledglings. They are making their nest at Will Rogers High School. Dallas has joined them.”
    “Rephaim, please don’t tell Kalona and Neferet.”
    “Why, so you can show them kindness and humanity and they can have another opportunity to kill you?” he shouted at her.
    “No! Just ’cause I try to be nice doesn’t mean I’m stupid or weak. Jeeze, what is it with you and Aphrodite? I wouldn’t run off to talk to them all alone. Heck, Rephaim, I wouldn’t try to reason with them at all. I already proved that won’t work. Whatever I’d do would be with Lenobia and Dragon and Z, at the very least. Basically, I just don’t want them joining Neferet, so I don’t want her to know ’bout them.”
    “It is too late. It was Neferet who put me on their trail tonight. Stevie Rae, I’m asking you to stay away from the rogue reds. They mean nothing but doom for you.”
    “I’ll be careful. I already told you I would. But I’m a High Priestess and the red fledglings are my responsibility.”
    “The ones who have chosen Darkness are not your responsibility. And Dallas is no longer a fledgling. He is not your responsibility.”
    Stevie Rae’s smile was crooked. “Are you jealous of Dallas?”
    “Do not be ridiculous. I simply don’t want to see you hurt again. Stop changing the subject.”
    “Hey, Dallas isn’t my boyfriend anymore,” she said.
    “I know that.”
    “Are ya sure?”
    “Yes. Of course.” He shook himself and his wings unfurled. Stevie Rae’s breath caught as she watched him. “Call your Zoey as you drive back to the safety of the school. I will see you again soon.”
    “Stay safe, ’kay?”
    He turned to her and cupped her face in his hand. Stevie Rae closed her eyes and stood there, taking comfort and strength from his touch. Too soon it was gone. Too soon he was gone. She opened her eyes to watch his majestic wings beat against the night air and lift him higher, higher, until he disappeared into the barely discernable lightening of the eastern sky.
    Rephaim had been right. It was too close to dawn for comfort. Stevie Rae hit redial as she hurried through the deserted mansion and back to the Bug.
    “Hey, Z. It’s me. I got some hard stuff to tell you, so brace yourself…”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

    Zoey

    “Z? Are you still there? Are you okay? Say somethin’.”
    The worry in Stevie Rae’s voice made me wipe the snot and tears from my face with the sleeve of my