Burned

asking before he could stop the words.
    She gave a little laugh. “Rephaim, I don’t think you could swat a fly right now. Besides that—you’ve saved my life twice, and we’re Imprinted. I’m definitely not scared of you.”
    “Perhaps the question should have been why do you touch me with no repulsion?” Again, the words came almost without his permission. Almost.
    Her brow furrowed like before, and he decided he liked to watch her think.
    Finally, she shrugged, and said, “I don’t imagine it’s possible for a vampyre to be repulsed by someone they’re Imprinted with. I mean, I was Imprinted with Aphrodite before I drank your blood, and there was a time when she seriously grossed me out—she just wasn’t very nice. At all. Actually, she’s still not very nice. But she kinda grew on me after we Imprinted. Not in a sexual way, but I wasn’t grossed out by her anymore.”
    Then Stevie Rae’s eyes widened like she realized all of what she’d said, and the word “sexual” seemed to be a tangible presence in the room.
    She let loose of his hands as if they burned her.
    “Can you walk downstairs by yourself?” Her voice sounded strange and abrupt.
    “Yes. I’ll follow you. If you really think a tree can help.”
    “Well, it won’t be long before we find out if what I think means anything.” Stevie Rae turned her back on him and headed for the stairs. “Oh,” she said, without looking at him, “thank you for saving me. Again. You—you didn’t have to this time.” Her words were hesitant, like shewas having trouble picking exactly what she wanted to say to him. “He said he wasn’t going to kill me.”
    “There are things worse than death,” Rephaim said. “What Darkness can take from someone who walks with Light can change your soul.”
    “And what about you? What did Darkness take from you?” she asked, still not looking at him, as they reached the bottom floor of the old mansion, but she slowed down so that he could keep up with her more easily.
    “He didn’t take anything from me. He just filled me with pain and then fed on that pain mixed with my blood.”
    They’d reached the front door, and Stevie Rae paused, looking up at him. “Because Darkness feeds on pain and Light feeds on love.”
    Her words tripped a mental switch inside him, and he studied her more closely.
Yes,
he decided,
she is keeping something from me.
“What price did Light demand from you for saving me?”
    Stevie Rae was unable to meet his eyes again, which gave him an odd, panicky feeling. He thought she wasn’t going to answer him at all, but finally, in a voice that sounded almost angry, “Do you want to tell me about everything that bull demanded from you when he was feeding from you, and standing over you, and basically molesting you?”
    “No,” Rephaim answered without hesitated. “But the other bull—”
    “No,” Stevie Rae echoed him. “I don’t want to talk about it, either. So let’s just forget it and go on from here. Well, and let’s hope I can fix some of this pain Darkness left inside you.”
    Rephaim walked with her out onto the icy front lawn, which was pathetic in its dilapidation and a sad, broken reflection of its opulent past. As Rephaim followed her, moving slowly to try to compensate for the terrible pain that was making him so weak, he wondered about the payment Light could have demanded from Stevie Rae. Clearly, it was something unnerving—something that made Stevie Rae reluctant to speak of it.
    He kept stealing glances at her when he thought she wouldn’t notice.She appeared healthy and totally recovered from her brush with Darkness. Actually, she looked strong and whole and completely normal.
    But, as he was all too aware, appearances could easily deceive.
    Something was wrong—or at the very least, something about the debt she’d paid Light made her uncomfortable.
    Rephaim was so busy trying to be stealthy about studying her that he almost ran into the tree she’d stopped beside.
    She looked at him and shook her head. “You’re not foolin’ me. You feel too crappy to be sneaky, so stop gawking at me. I’m fine. Jeeze, you’re worse than my mama.”
    “Have you talked to her?”
    Stevie Rae’s frown deepened. “I haven’t exactly had a lot of free time the past couple days. So, no, I haven’t talked to my mama.”
    “You should.”
    “I’m not gonna talk about my mama right now.”
    “As you wish.”
    “And you don’t need to use that tone with