Burned

relief. That would make her strong enough to get out of the circle and find her way to safety.
    “
I’d forgotten the sweetness of immortal blood.
” The bull’s decayed breath washed over Rephaim. “
The vampyre’s blood held only a hint of this. I believe I will drink and drink from you, son of Kalona. You did, indeed, borrow power from Darkness tonight, so you have a greater debt to pay than just hers.
”
    Rephaim refused to look at the creature. Held captive by the cutting threads, his body was lifted and turned so that his cheek pressed against the earth. He kept his gaze focused on Stevie Rae as the bull stood over him and began to drink from the wound at the base of his bleeding wings.
    Agony like he’d never before felt assaulted his body. He didn’t want to scream. He didn’t want to writhe in pain. But he couldn’t help it. Stevie Rae’s eyes were all that kept him tethered to consciousness as Darkness fed from him, violating him over and over again.
    When Stevie Rae stood, lifting her arms, Rephaim thought he was hallucinating because she looked so strong and powerful and so very, very angry. She clutched something in her hand—a long braid that was smoking.
    “I did it before. I’ll do it again.”
    Stevie Rae’s voice came to him as if from a long way off, but it sounded strong, too. Rephaim wondered why the bull didn’t hear her and stop her, but the creature’s moans of pleasure and the piercing pain that radiated from his back gave Rephaim the answer. The bull didn’t consider Stevie Rae a threat, and he was fixated on consuming the intoxicating blood of immortality.
Let him keep taking from me; let her escape,
Rephaim prayed silently to whichever of the gods might deign to hear him.
    “My circle’s unbroken,” Stevie Rae was speaking quickly and clearly. “Rephaim and this disgusting bull came at my command. So I command again, through the power of the earth, I call the
other
bull. The one who fights this one, and I’ll pay whatever I have to, just get this thing off my Raven Mocker!”
    Rephaim felt the creature above him pause in his feeding as a bolt of light speared through the smoky blackness in front of Stevie Rae. He saw Stevie Rae’s eyes go wide and, miraculously, she smiled and then laughed.
    “Yes!” she spoke joyously. “I’ll pay your price. And, dang! You’re so black and beautiful!”
    Still standing over him, the white bull growled. Tendrils began snaking from the darkness around Rephaim and slithering toward Stevie Rae. Rephaim opened his mouth to shout a warning, but Stevie Rae stepped directly into the shaft of light. There was a sound like a thunderclap, and then another blinding flash. From the middle of the bright explosion stepped an enormous bull, as black as the first was white. But this creature’s darkness wasn’t like that of the inky shadows that cringed away from it. This bull’s coat was the black of a midnight sky filled with the radiance of diamond stars—deep and mysterious and beautiful to behold.
    For an instant, the black bull’s gaze met Rephaim’s, and the RavenMocker gasped. He’d never seen such kindness in his life; he’d never even known such kindness could exist.
    “Do not let her have made the wrong choice.”
The new voice in his mind was as deep as the first bull’s had been, but filled with a wealth of compassion.
“Because whether you are worthy or not, she has paid the price
.”
    The black bull lowered his head and charged the white bull, hurling it off Rephaim’s body. There was a deafening crash as the two met, and then a silence so deep it, too, was deafening.
    The tendrils dissipated like dew from the summer sun. Stevie Rae was on her knees, reaching for him, when the smoke vanished, and the fledgling ran into the circle, knife raised and ready.
    “Get back, Stevie Rae! I’m gonna fucking kill it!”
    Stevie Rae touched the ground, and murmured, “Earth, trip him. Hard.”
    Over Stevie Rae’s shoulder, Rephaim saw the ground rise up right in front of the boy’s feet, and the wiry fledgling fell down face-first—hard.
    “Can you fly?” she whispered.
    “I think so,” he murmured back.
    “Then get back to the Gilcrease,” she said urgently. “I’ll come to you later.”
    Rephaim hesitated. He didn’t want to leave her so soon after they’d been through so much together. Was she really well, or had Darkness taken too much from her?
    “I’m okay. Promise,” Stevie Rae told him softly as if