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Stevie Rae
The night was freezing for a human. Almost as cold as it was a few nights ago when the ice storm took place. It might have even been cold for a fledgling. But, being a red vampyre, Stevie Rae found she was practically imune to it. Huh. Well, pity she couldn't have been imune to the sun. Then she wouldn't feel like she did that time her mama took her and her brothers to the beach when she was seven. Stevie Rae had no idea it was going to be so hot, and didn't put on enough sun screen. She got so burned that the skin on her back started to peel off.
Now she felt just the same. The cream that the nurse had put on her back and hands had really helped, and apparently as a red vampyre she could heal real quick, too. A wind blew, cooling Stevie Rae's back. Damn, that felt good. Suddenly Stevie Rae had a longing for her friend Damien, who could make her feel like that for hours on end. She realised for the first time how much she really missed her friends. Especially Z, her BFF. Why had she kept Rephaim from her? If she had just let him die ...
But no, she couldn't think like that, especially now she was Imprinted with him. And she was sure he was good deep down, where it counts. He had just been misled by his father.
"Mee-uf-ow!" Stevie Rae looked down from where she was sitting on the east wall to find Nala yowling at her.
"Hey there, Nal. I'll bet you're missin' Zoey too, huh?"
The chubby little cat, who wa surprisingly light on her feet, hopped up the tree and waslked slowly across the branch so she could sit beside Stevie Rae.
"Don't worry, girl. She'll be back real soon, I promise. She just has to sort some things out." Then, suddenly, the feeling Stevie Rae had had while in the infirmary came back, even worse. Earlier she had just shrugged it off but now it was screaming at her.
"Somethin's wrong." Stevie Rae said to Nala. Then she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and hit the first number on speed dial. It rang a few times before Zoey answered. "Stevie Rae?" she asked, her voice husky.
"Zoey? Are y'all okay?"
"No, not really."
"I knew it! What happened?"
"Well, first of all the meeting thing went badly and they all seem to believe Kalona instead of us."
Stevie Rae sucked in a sharp breath. "How can they believe him?"
"Oh, he can be very convincing," Zoey muttered. "So anyway, I was in a bad mood and said some mean things to Stark and then he went away 'cause he said Kalona had got to my head and then Kalona killed Heath."
"What? Omigod!"
"I know. And now Stark's blaming himself."
Good, it's his fault, Stevie Rae thought furiously. "Any more news?"
"Stark and I are both in hospital."
"What? How could you not tell me til now?" Stevie Rae asked, though she really only cared that Zoey was unwell. That damn Stark, thinking he was the big cheese. Lives were lost because of him.
"The other stuff was more important. I'm kinda weak at the moment and my Mark isn't filled in and added to anymore. And Neferet has some kind of hold over Stark."
"Uh, Z, that's kind of important. How are you supposed to be all special when you're just an average fledgling now? And how can Stark be your Warrior when there's still some evil left in him?"
"He's not evil!" Zoey immediately defended him. "It's not his fault! She's the one who woke him up. Who knows, she could have control over you, too."
"She doesn't have control over me." Stevie Rae was positive.
"You don't know that," Zoey continued. "Stark didn't. What makes you so special?"
"I'm the red vampyre High Priestess." As she said the words, she knew she was right. "The first one, at that. So she can't touch me."
Zoey was silent. "You have a point. Anyway, I gotta go. I'm supposed to be sleeping."
"Oh, sorry, Z. By the way, Nal says hi."
"Aww. Take care of her, would ya? I'll be back soon enough."
"Yeah, don't worry, Nala's fine. See you soon, Z."
As she hung up the phone, Stevie Rae felt a sharp pain in her wing. Onlt she didn't have a wing. That darn Imprint! She felt sorry for Rephaim, though. She kinda understood how he was feeling. He had to trust people he was trained to hate, and was left alone by the people he thought cared about him. Yeah, Stevie Rae could sort of relate to that.
