Awakened (13 page)

“I learned that you have allowed yourself to be spotted by fledglings from Tulsa’s House of Night.”

“Darkness called. I responded. That there were fledglings there was inconsequential to me,” Rephaim said.

“Not just fledglings—Stevie Rae was there, too. She saw you.”

“As I said before, those beings are inconsequential to me.”

“Still, it was a mistake for you to allow anyone to know you’re here, and I do not tolerate mistakes,” Neferet said.

Kalona saw her eyes begin to take on a reddish hue. Anger stirred within him. That he was in bondage to Neferet was bad enough—that his favorite son could be chastised and harangued by her was intolerable.

“Actually, my Queen, it could work in our favor that they are aware Rephaim remained in Tulsa. I am supposed to be banished from your side, so I cannot be seen here. If the local House of Night rabble hears rumors of a winged being, they will assume a Raven Mocker stalks the night and there will be no thought of me.”

Neferet raised an arched amber brow. “A point well taken, my winged love, especially as the two of you work to bring the rogue red fledglings back to me.”

“As you say, my Queen,” Kalona said smoothly.

“I want Zoey to return to Tulsa.” Neferet abruptly changed the subject. “Those fools at the House of Night tell me she refuses to leave Skye. She is not within my reach there—and I very much want her within my reach.”

“The death of the innocent should cause her to return,” Rephaim said.

Neferet’s green eyes narrowed. “And how do you know about this death?”

“We felt it,” Kalona said. “Darkness reveled in it.”

Neferet’s smile was feral. “How lovely that you felt it. That ridiculous boy’s death was pleasing. Though I am worried that it might have the opposite effect on Zoey. Instead of making her come rushing back to her weak, whining group of friends, it could fuel her decision to stay hidden away on that island.”

“Perhaps you should harm one closer to Zoey. The Red One is like a sister to her,” Kalona said.

“True, and that wretched Aphrodite has become close to her as well,” Neferet said, tapping her chin, considering.

An odd noise coming from his son drew Kalona’s attention to Rephaim. “Did you have something to add, my son?”

“Zoey is hiding on Skye. She believes you cannot reach her there, is that not true?” Rephaim asked.

“We cannot,” Neferet said, irritation making her voice hard and cold. “No one can breach the boundaries of Sgiach’s kingdom.”

“You mean like no one was supposed to be able to breach the boundaries of Nyx’s Realm?” Rephaim said.

Neferet skewered him with her emerald eyes. “Do you dare to be impertinent?”

“Make your point, Rephaim,” Kalona said.

“Father, you already breached a seemingly impossible boundary by entering Nyx’s Otherworld, even after the Goddess herself banished you. Use your connection to Zoey. Reach her through her dreams. Let her understand she cannot hide from you. That, the death of her friend, and Neferet’s return to her House of Night should be enough to coax the young High Priestess out of seclusion.”

“She is
not
a High Priestess. She is a fledgling! And the Tulsa House of Night is
mine,
not hers!” Neferet practically shrieked. “No. I have had enough of your father’s
connection
to her. It didn’t bring about her death, so I want it severed. If Zoey is to be lured from Sgiach, I will do it by using Stevie Rae or Aphrodite—or perhaps both of them. They need a lesson in showing me the proper respect.”

“As you wish, my Queen,” Kalona said, sending his son a pointed look. Rephaim met his gaze, hesitated, and then he, too, bowed his head and said softly, “As you wish…”

“Good, then that is that. Rephaim, local news reports say that there has been gang violence near Will Rogers High School. The gang is cutting throats and draining blood. I believe if we follow that
gang
we’ll find the rogue red fledglings. Do that. Discreetly.”

Rephaim didn’t speak, but he bowed his head in acknowledgment.

“And now I’m going to luxuriate in that lovely marble bathtub in the other room. Kalona, my love, I will join you in our bed very soon.”

“My Queen, did you not wish me to search for the red fledglings with Rephaim?”

“Not tonight. Tonight I need a more
personal
service from you. We have too long been apart.” She ran one red nail down Kalona’s chest and he had to force himself not to flinch away from her.

She must have seen something of his desire to avoid her touch, though, because her next words were cold and hard. “Do I displease you?”

“Of course not. How could you possibly displease me? I will be ready and willing for you, as always.”

“And you will be in my bed, awaiting my pleasure,” she said. With a cruel smile she spun around and glided into the huge bedchamber that took up half of the palatial penthouse, closing the double doors to the bathroom with a dramatic slam that Kalona thought sounded much like a gaoler closing a prison door.

He and Rephaim remained still and silent for almost one full minute. When the immortal finally spoke his voice was rough with repressed anger.

“There is no price too great to pay to break the hold she has over me.” Kalona swiped his hand down his chest as if he could wipe away her touch.

“She treats you as if you are her servant.”

“Not for all of eternity, she will not,” Kalona said grimly.

“For now she does, though. She even commands you to stay away from Zoey, and you’ve been bound to the Cherokee maiden that shares her soul for centuries!”

The disgust in his son’s voice was mirrored by Kalona’s own thoughts. “No,” he said quietly, speaking more to himself than his son. “The Tsi Sgili may believe she commands my every move, but though she thinks herself a goddess, she is not omniscient. She cannot know everything. She will not see everything.” Kalona’s massive wings moved restlessly, mirroring his agitation. “I believe you were correct, my son. It may prod Zoey to leave the ancient Isle of Skye if she understands that even there she cannot escape her connection with me.”

“It seems logical,” Rephaim said. “The girl hides there to avoid you. Show her your powers are too great for that, whether the Tsi Sgili approves or not.”

“I do not require that creature’s approval.”

“Exactly,” Rephaim said.

“My son, take to the night’s sky and track the rogue fledglings. That will pacify Neferet. What I
truly
wish you to do is to find and watch Stevie Rae. Observe her carefully. Note where she goes and what she does, but do not capture her yet. I believe her powers are linked to Darkness. I believe she can be of use to us, but first her continuing friendship with Zoey and the House of Night has to be corroded. She must have a weakness. If we watch her long enough we will discover it.” Kalona paused, then he chuckled, though the sound was utterly humorless. “Weaknesses can be so beguiling.”

“Beguiling, Father?”

Kalona looked at his son, wondering at his odd expression. “Beguiling, indeed. Perhaps you have been so long apart from the world that you do not remember the power of a single human weakness.”

“I … I am not human, Father. Their weaknesses are difficult for me to understand.”

“Of course … of course, just find and observe the Red One. I will consider what to do with her from there,” Kalona said dismissively. “And while I await Neferet’s next
command
”—he spoke the word as a sneer, like the very voicing of it was distasteful—“I will search the realm of dreams and give Zoey—as well as Neferet—a lesson in hide-and-seek.”

“Yes, Father,” Rephaim said.

Kalona watched him open the double doors and step out onto the stone roof. Rephaim strode across the balcony to the balustrade-like wall that ringed the edge, leaped up on its flat ledge, and then opened his huge ebony wings and dropped silently, gracefully, into the night, gliding black and almost invisible against the Tulsa skyline.

Kalona envied Rephaim for a moment, wishing he, too, could leap from the rooftop of the majestic building called Mayo and glide the black, predator’s sky, hunting, searching, finding.

But no. This night there was another hunting job he would complete. It would not take him to the sky, but it would also, in its own way, be satisfying.

Terror could be satisfying.

For an instant he remembered the last time he’d seen Zoey. It was the same moment his spirit had been torn from the Otherworld and returned to his body. The terror then had been his, caused by his failure to keep Zoey’s soul in the Otherworld, thereby killing her. Darkness, under the direction of Neferet’s oath, sealed by her blood and his acceptance, had been able to control him—to seize his soul.

Kalona shuddered. He’d long trafficked with Darkness, but he had never given it dominion over his immortal soul.

The experience had not been pleasant. It hadn’t been the pain that had been so unbearable, though it had, indeed, been great. It hadn’t been the helplessness he’d known as the tendrils of the Beast had encased him. His terror had been caused by Nyx’s rejection.

“Will you ever forgive me?”
he’d asked her.

The Goddess’s response had cut him more deeply than had Stark’s Guardian claymore:
“If you are ever worthy of forgiving you may ask it of me. Not until then.”
But the most terrible blow had been delivered with her next words.
“You will pay my daughter the debt you owe her, and then you will return to the world and the consequences awaiting you there, knowing this, my fallen Warrior, your spirit, as well as your body, is forbidden entrance to my realm.”

Then she had abandoned him to the clutches of Darkness, banishing him again without a second glance. It was worse than the first time. When he’d fallen it had been his choice, and Nyx had not been cold and uncaring. It had been different the second time. The terror the finality of that banishment caused would haunt him for an eternity, just as would that last, bittersweet glimpse he’d had of his Goddess.

“No. I will not think of it. This has long been my path. Nyx has not been my Goddess for centuries, nor would I want to return to my life as her Warrior, forever second to Erebus in her eyes.” Kalona spoke to the night sky, staring after his son, and then he closed the door on the cold January night and with it, once again, closed his heart to Nyx.

With renewed purpose the immortal strode through the penthouse, past the stained glass windows, gleaming wood bar, the dangling light fixtures, and the velvet furnishings, and into the lush bedchamber. He glanced at the closed double doors to the bathing room, through which he could hear water running, filling the huge tub in which Neferet so loved to luxuriate. He could smell the scent she always added to the steaming water, oil that was a mixture of night-blooming jasmine and clove made especially for her at the Paris House of Night. The scent seemed to slither under the door and fill the air around him like a smothering blanket.

Disgusted, Kalona turned and retraced his steps through the penthouse. With no hesitation he went to the closest set of glass doors that led to the rooftop, opened them, and gulped in the clean, cold night air.

She would have to come to him, seek him out, find him here, under the open sky, when she deigned to stoop so low as to actually look for him. She would punish him for not being in her bed, awaiting her pleasure as if he were her whore.

Kalona growled.

It was not so long ago that, drawn by his power, she had been enthralled with him.

He wondered briefly if he would decide to enslave her to him when he broke her hold over his soul.

The thought gave him some pleasure. Later. He would consider it later. Now time was short and he had much to accomplish before he had to, once again, placate Neferet.

Kalona walked to the thick stone railing that was ornate as well as strong. He spread his huge, dark wings, but instead of leaping from the rooftop and tasting the night air, the immortal lay on the stone floor, closing his wings over him, cocoon-like.

He ignored the coldness of the stone beneath him and felt only the strength of the limitless sky above and the ancient magicks that floated free and alluring within the night.

Kalona closed his eyes and slowly … slowly … breathed in and then out. As the breath left him Kalona also released all thoughts of Neferet. When he drew in his next breath he pulled, within his lungs his body and his spirit, the invisible power that filled the night over which his immortal blood gave him authority. And then he drew to him thoughts of Zoey.

Her eyes—the color of onyx.

Her lush mouth.

The strong stamp of her Cherokee foremothers that informed her features and so reminded him of that other maiden whose soul she shared and whose body had once captured and comforted him.

“Find Zoey Redbird.” The fact that Kalona pitched his voice low made it no less commanding as he conjured from his blood and the night a power so ancient it made the world seem young. “Take my spirit to her. Follow our connection. If she is in the Realm of Dreams, she cannot hide from me. Our spirits know each other too well. Now go!”

This leave-taking of his spirit was nothing like what had befallen him when Darkness, bidden by Neferet, had stolen his soul. This was a gentle lifting—a pleasurable sensation of flight that was familiar and enjoyable. It wasn’t sticky tentacles of Darkness he followed, but instead the swirling energy that hid in the folds between the currents of the sky.

Kalona’s released spirit moved swiftly and with purpose to the east at a speed not comprehensible by the mortal mind.

He hesitated briefly when he reached the Isle of Skye, surprised that the protective spell Sgiach had laid on the island so long ago could give even him pause. She was, indeed, a powerful vampyre. He thought what a pity it was that she had not answered his call instead of Neferet.

Then he wasted no more time on idle thoughts and his spirit swatted away Sgiach’s barrier and let himself float down, slowly but resolutely, toward the vampyre queen’s castle.

His spirit was given pause once more as it passed the grove that grew lush and deep and close to the castle of the Great Taker of Heads and her Guardians.