Rephaim flew right over the gates of the House of Night. He was traveling fast, but that was exactly what he needed; to get there quickly. He looked down at his beloved Stevie Rae, so limp and lifeless in his arms. She looked dead already, but he knew better.

He took a hard right, beating his wings as fast as he possibly could. Back when Kalona was ruling the school, Rephaim had made a mental map of the place. He knew it like the back of his hand; the only question was if he could make it in time.

A piercing scream filled the night. Some girl had spotted Rephaim. In a minute he felt a thousand young eyes on him, following his every movement. He felt their fear and picked at that energy, using it to his advantage and propelling himself foreword; always faster. Would they know he was only trying to help their friend, or would they shoot him out of the sky again? The thought made Rephaim wince.

More screams. What had he been thinking? They would never even let him in. Not even to save her, all because of what he was. All of this was because of what he was. Now what? What was his plan now? He had no clue. Coming around one more bend, Rephaim saw his target: the huge glass windows that showed out from the infirmary. He didn’t even think. With a few more powerful beats Rephaim sent himself flying through in an explosion of glass and splintering wood. Right before impact, he tucked Stevie Rae safely into himself, bringing his wings around tightly to shield her from the shards of flying glass. He tucked, rolled and landed before a group of astonished female vampyres.

They all sat there for a moment, taking each other in. Everything moved so slowly to Rephaim. Stevie Rae’s head lolled off to the side, and he cupped it to his chest. One of the vampyres screamed like a wild banshee. Now what? What did he say? All Rephaim could think to do was look at his Stevie Rae lovingly, then back up to the vampyres pleadingly. The screamer stopped for a moment. It must have been his eyes. He hoped they could see what he wanted them to see there. But their reaction was taking too long. They didn’t understand yet. Stevie Rae was dying and they were just standing there, wasting precious seconds.

“Please,” he finally said softly. They all shied back, fear etched in their faces. “Please!” the Raven Mocker stood from his crouch, shaking bloody bits of glass off himself. All the women all took a step back from him. He could understand. What they saw was a monster. He looked down to Stevie Rae once again, realizing that he was keeping her from being saved just by being what he was. He had to make them understand.
Understand what?
Another vampyre burst through the door and gasped at the scene before it, but Rephaim paid no mind.
Understand that they do not need to fear you.

“Save her. Please,” he begged, holding her out to them. The new vampyre looked to him with suspicious eyes, and then let the fear drain from her face.

“Well, you ladies heard him. Let’s get to it!” the brave nurse spoke up. Rephaim wanted to speak to them- to tell them not to be afraid- but he couldn’t find words.

He placed her safely on one of the many empty beds in the room as instructed, and took a few steps back so the women could fix her. They said a few words about realigning her neck and giving her blood. Suddenly, a breath-taking pain reached Rephaim, and he collapsed to his knees, grabbing his own neck. “Stevie Rae!” he screamed, feeling all of her pain through their Imprint. “You’re hurting us! You are hurting us!” The Raven Mocker cried out, withering on the floor. Usually, he could take pain. He was taught to, but this pain was like none he’d ever felt before. The nurses just continued what they were doing. It’s going to help Stevie Rae, something told him. It is just pain. You can deal with that. But could you deal with losing her?

He honestly didn’t know.
It seemed like forever before the pain subdued into a mild, sleep-like prickling. Rephaim just lie there on the floor, trying to get his wits back together.

“Will she live?” he asked the youngest medicine woman as she walked by him. She had a sweet face, much like Stevie Rae’s, only with curly blue tattoos framing it. However, her eyes were full of sorrow (the fear seemed to have evaporated from all of the nurses’ faces. Either they hid it well or Rephaim was no longer a threat to them, he didn’t know).

“I’m sorry,” she said sweetly. “Probably not. But… you never know. Nyx is also the goddess of miracles.” She tried to smile.

“Don’t give him false hope, Delilah,” a sharp voice cut in. Rephaim didn’t even roll over to look at the speaker. “Chances are, she’ll be gone in, at most, the next twenty-four hours.” A small, undignified whimper escaped Rephaim’s throat. “Maybe you should be on your way, now.” Disgust was thick in the woman’s voice. The thought of leaving Stevie Rae made him sick to his stomach.

“Please-” he began to plead again. Where had he even learned that word from? He’d never really used it before. Rephaim found himself looking right into the young girl- Delilah’s- eyes. Pity showed through, and she looked to her mentor.

“Please? Can’t he stay for twenty four hours? He obviously has some sort of… humanity in him if he cares for the Priestess. And it’s not like he can really much of a threat. It can be our little secret, ya know? Nothing leaves the infirmary.” The word that stuck out to him most was humanity. Was it possible the other vampyres could see it, too? And not only Stevie Rae? Did he, Rephaim the Raven Mocker, have some humanity inside of him?

“Absolutely not!” the woman’s voice seemed to radiate more authority than before, all without her raising her pointed voice. “It’s a trick! I can smell it.”

“It really is not. You have my word. I will leave as soon as… right after…” Rephaim couldn’t get the words out right. His mouth was suddenly dry. “I will not be a problem at all. I swear on my father’s immortality, as well as mine.” Delilah was pleading with the woman behind him as much as he was, only with her eyes. After a moment of silence, he heard the woman sigh.

“All right. All right. Fine. But if anything happens, anything at all, it’s on your hands, Delilah. And as for you,” he felt her words directed at him. “If anything happens, I’m telling Dragon you’re here. Trust me; he will deal with you happily. Now, where are we supposed to be hiding him, exactly?”

“The basement,” Rephaim said quickly, sitting up. “It’s where Stevie Rae will heal quickest… where she will be most comfortable,” he corrected himself. He refused to let himself really think about what he might lose in the next twenty four hours. He simply lifted his Priestess off the bed and carried her carefully down the basement stairs without another word.
**
“I brought blankets and a pillow. And it’s time to feed her,” Delilah said from behind a stack of cloth. Rephaim looked up from the corner of the small basement, where he cradled Stevie Rae like a baby in his arms. “And from now on, we’ll rest her flat. We don’t want to have to reset her neck again.” Rephaim felt his eyes widen.

“Of course not.” He laid her down on the earth beside him and took the stack from the woman. She was just few years older than Stevie Rae, but she was an old soul. Knowledge just pulsed through her like Rephaim had seen only few times before. He pat out a smooth surface in the dirt then laid out blankets and pillows and finally placed Stevie Rae comfortably on top. It seemed like a million years ago he’d done the same thing in the basement of the museum he’d called home for the past few weeks. Where would he go when Stevie Rae…?
No.
He wouldn’t think of it. Not now. Later. There was plenty of time later.

Delilah pulled out a bag of red liquid from her pocket and tore it open with her teeth. He was about to ask what it was when the smell hit him.

“What are you going to do with that?” he asked her curiously.

“Feed the Priestess,” she replied simply.

“Out of a bag?” he countered, disgusted.

“Have any other ideas?” she snapped.

“Yessss,” He said almost reluctantly. He didn’t like the idea of being small Stevie Rae’s prey, or ‘consort’ as he’d heard them say before, but his blood seemed to heal her… especially the last life or death situation she had been in with him! How could he have forgotten? His blood was the key! He could save her right here and now!

Quickly, Rephaim slashed open his forearm to reveal a nice trickle of fresh blood.

“Oh, boy, that does not smell right,” Delilah protested, pinching her nose.

“I know that. She said the same thing the first time.” He excitedly placed the stream of blood to her soft mouth.He always was infatuated with her mouth. A low, long, undignified moan gurgled up Rephaim’s throat, and he closed his eyes.

“Wait, you two are Imprinted.” It was a statement, not a question. “Is that even possible?”

“Obviously, it is,” he whispered, not even opening his eyes as he shifted so she could take more from him. It had been like this before for him, but he hadn’t let it show. He was too confused; to full of pride for the emotion it made him feel. This time, he embraced it.

“That explains a lot.”

“Like what?” he asked, opening one eye so he could focus a bit more. It was difficult to when he was feeling this…good.

“Like why you refuse to leave her. Why we hurt you when we were working on her. Why you probably even brought her here. If you’re scared, it’s okay. When she dies, it’ll hurt a little, but then that just… it. You’re free.” A broiling anger ran through Rephaim’s blood. Free? How dare she say their Imprint was an imprisonment!

“I brought her here because I love her.” His statement was sharp and devastatingly true. He expected the young girl to be taken aback, but she just looked at him with her large, intelligent eyes.

“I knew you were different. I could sense it.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s the power Nyx has given me. I sense what kind of person somebody is… you, you’re different than your brothers. They have no person inside of them, no humanity, but you…” it was Rephaim who was the one caught off guard.

“I have humanity?” she just nodded. Rephaim felt the slightest glimmer of hope; maybe he could one day fit into Stevie Rae’s world without being hidden. The hope was crushed almost immediately by his common sense; nobody would except him long enough to see he had humanity inside of him. He was a monster to them, and that was all he’d ever be. All he wanted was to be able to love her the way she deserved to be loved. The way any human could love her. The way Dallas had loved her.

“You should stop now,” the woman said to him.

“Why? I feel… so… good,” he gasped out, suddenly feeling ashamed that Delilah had been there the entire time to see.
Ashamed. Another human feeling. What was happening to him? Why did he keep thinking and feeling these things that only humans were meant to feel? He wasn’t human, and he never would be! He was his father’s son, a Raven Mocker, a monster. He was no human.

“She’ll suck ya dry,” Delilah said, bringing him back to what was happening before him.
“But she is not better yet.”
“She may never get better. You seriously need to stop.” Rephaim drew his arm away from her, cradling it close. His happiness faded, he began to see more clearly.
She may never get better. His stomach dropped out of his body. His everything dropped out of his body. There was nothing except Stevie Rae, and she was leaving him, too.

“Don’t leave me, Stevie Rae. You can’t. You….” Rephaim’s breath caught. It came in heavy, laborious heaves and chokes. Suddenly, something wet fell just beneath his eyes and drooled down his face off his beak.

“You’re… you’re crying,” Delilah said, almost astonished.

“I’ve never… before,” he coughed, trying to control it.

“You really do love her.” All Rephaim could do was a small nod before collapsing into Stevie Rae, burying his face into her. It was a long while before he realized that Delilah had left him in peace to fall to pieces. It was a while longer before he could even think straight, but when Rephaim finally noticed Stevie Rae’s cold bumps, he crawled under the cover and pressed himself to her to keep her warm. He did what he could to keep her comfortable, all the while thinking about everything.

What was it about this girl that could make him this way? This crazy? This in love? It was only months before that he ruled at the right hand of his father, but with one bullet to the chest everything had changed. She had him begging for death, but instead she revived him. She risked her life to reach him; she found a good home for him. Stevie Rae brought him food, was his nurse, showed him love and broke his heart, and he only had one regret. If he could relive his entire existence all over again, instead of killing the innocent and doing the wills of his father, he would spend it searching for Stevie Rae.

“Is that true?” a wispy voice called out from the thick darkness of the basement. Only now it wasn’t quite as dark. Something from behind him illuminated it with an eerie glow, casting long shadows over the entire place. He cautiously turned over to face the speaker, and was stunned. He had never seen anything so beautiful, so powerful and so real in his entire lifetime. He had only heard rumors of Her striking beauty before, and only heard horror stories of being in Her presence by his father, but Rephaim never imagined that he would come face to face with the goddess.

“Nyx,” he breathed, and bowed before her.

“Rephaim,” she smiled. “I have been waiting to meet you for quite some time now.”