Burned (House of Night #7)(58)

"Well, you've been my hero. Twice."

Rephaim didn't know what to say to that. All he knew was that Stevie Rae calling him her hero made something twist deep inside him, and that something suddenly made the pain in his body and his worry for her easier to bear.

"So, come on. Let's see if I can return the favor. Again." She stood and held her hand out to him.

"I don't think I could eat right now. Some water would be good, though. I drank all that we'd brought up here before."

"I'm not takin' you to the kitchen. At least not this second. I'm takin' you outside. To the trees. Well, okay, to that really big tree by the old gazebo in the front yard to be specific."

"Why?"

"I already told you. You helped me. I think I can help you, but I gotta be closer to the earth than we are up here, and I've been thinkin' 'bout it, and I know trees have major power in them. I've kinda used it before. Actually, that may have been part of the reason I was able to call up that thing ." She shuddered, clearly remembering her invocation of Darkness, which Rephaim completely understood. Had his body not ached so badly, he would have shuddered, too.

But his body did ache. More than that. His blood felt too hot. With every beat of his heart, searing pain pumped through him, and at the spot where his wings met his spine, where the bull of Darkness had fed from him, violated him, his back was blazing agony.

And she thought a tree would fix what Darkness had wrought?

"I think I'll stay here. Rest will help. So will water. If you want to do something for me, get the water I asked for."

"Nope." Stevie Rae reached down and, with that strength that always surprised him, grabbed both of his hands and pulled him to his feet. She kept her supporting hold on him while the room pitched and rolled around him, and he thought, for one terrible moment, that he was going to collapse like a fainting girl.

Thankfully, the moment passed, and he was able to open his eyes without fear of making an even bigger

fool of himself. He looked down at Stevie Rae. She was still holding his hands. She doesn't shrink away from me in disgust. She hasn't from the first day.

"Why do you touch me with no fear?" he heard himself 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 she was 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.