Burned Chapters 23 & 24

Chapter 23

A new post? Vivi’s not dead? Shocking, I know. PCK’s hit squad were nor more effective at silencing me than the great press of Patterson’s PR team or the lone rabid fan of Paolini. I’m still here and I have some unfinished business with this so called “House of Night” series.

Over to Rephy who’s feelings anger through their warder bond. It’s growing and he worries it’s focused at him. Somehow, he focuses and can suddenly tell it’s not him but someone else.

He pitied the poor fool. Had he been a lesser being, he would have laughed sardonically and wished the hapless fellow well.

Wait, why would you have to be a lesser being to laugh “sardonically”? Are the ravens unable to laugh or only unable to laugh sardonically? Kind of ironic, considering they’re called “raven mockers” in the series. You’d think that would be the one thing they’d be good at.

Anywho, Rephy is flying around telling himself that he doesn’t need Stevie anymore. Then he starts wondering why she “rejected” him. Because you don’t have the balls to ask her out like a man? So he stops and angst about it for awhile, wondering if she saw him as a monster finally. Then he whines about how he saved her and still she ran away.

He starts going over all his positive traits like how his skin isn’t much browner than hers, because ravens are racist I guess, and how his arms are strong. He then whines how vampire satan told him that, just like Kalona, he’s chosen to champion for someone who’ll never give him what he wants. But that’s only because Stevie can’t afford the payments on a Lamborghini.

Rephaim launched himself into the sky. His wings beat up, up. He wanted to touch the moon—that crescent that symbolized the Goddess who had broken his father’s heart and set about the sequence of events that created him. Perhaps if he reached the moon, its Goddess would give him an explanation that would make sense—that would be balm to his heart, because Darkness was correct. What I seek most, Stevie Rae can never give me.

Whoa, his wings beat up, up? Rephy must be some sort of god if he can assault an intangible idea like a direction. Next week’s fight will be Rephy versus crippling self doubt followed by a title shot at fear itself. I love when you can tell the editor just said, fuck it, and started pounding single malt while she read.

As Rephy is flying along he thinks about how he’s never thought about anything but hate. Wait, what about your attachment to your father? Was that also hate or are you being a broody teen? Stevie has apparently introduced him to love and laughter and Rephy just doesn’t know how to deal with the transformation brought on by the power of love. He aims back towards her and starts flying while he feels her sadness.

It was as his wings beat the night air that Stevie Rae’s sadness changed, shifting into something that at first confused him, and then when Rephaim realized what it was, his blood boiled.

Ah, I’ve been there too Rephy. To have your sadness evolve into a Depresio-mon is annoying. All that level grinding and a wasted dark stone. Rephy is angry because he can tell Stevie is with someone else. So he lands at the depot and marches down into the darkness where he finds them.

When he finally found her, the boy was atop her, rutting against Stevie Rae, oblivious to everything else in the world. What a fool he was. Rephaim should have hurled him from her. He wanted to. The Raven Mocker in him wanted to slam the fledgling against the wall again and again until he was battered and bloody and no longer a threat.

So are they actually fucking or is Dallas just dry humping her and grunting like a tired pig? I suppose they’re actually going at it as they both jump up when Rephy cries out and Stevie, now naked, hides behind Dallas. Stevie tells Rephy he’s not supposed to be there and, revealing her stupidity, says Dallas wasn’t doing anything bad to her.

They argue and Rephy notices some darkness hanging out on the ceiling. Dallas gets angry, realizing Stevie knows Rephy and starts insulting her and PCK turns him into an asshole by having him call her a whore for no reason. Then the darkness, which no one notices aside from Rephy, merges with Dallas who then gets angrier and raises his hand at Stevie.

Dallas uses his new powers to shock Rephy, Stevie hits him with earth while saying to help Rephy because he’s hers. This makes Dallas so angry he collapses, when he gets back up he has the red “tattoos” that means he’s an adult.  Stevie walls him off from them and tries to tell Rephy it’s just the darkness playing with his mind.

Rephaim wanted to hold on to the words that linked them together, but he couldn’t. There was no time for such things. Rephaim shook his head. “No, Stevie Rae. Darkness wasn’t just messing with him. Dallas chose to embrace it.”

How again? Can you maybe put down some rules on how that works, PCK? Is the mere act of being angry the same as accepting darkness? Because that’s all it looked to me. Like Dallas was both terrified at facing a monster naked and angry that Stevie hid that from him. Or was it just because PCK’s other villain, the dreaded Nicole, needed someone to date?

They hear the Beetle being driven off and Stevie worries. She decides to go to Rephy’s hiding place with him and call Krammy to tell her Dallas has gone crazy. He gathers his blankets form the closest her was using as a “nest” and joins her in the basement. As he lays down near her he understands why his father is insane. He tells himself that if Stevie had turned him away like Nyx did to Kalona, he would have gone crazy and he doesn’t want to live in a world without Stevie.

Chapter 24

Now over to Stark who is having a hell of a time recreating an arc reactor with a box of scraps even though he’s not living in a cave. Just like Rephy said he doesn’t want to live in a world without Stevie, so does Stark say he doesn’t want to live in a world without Zoey.

Hi, PCK, Vivi here with another stupid question. Why is he so attached to Zoey again? Look, I get that he’s young and I expect him to mistake hormones for feelings. But she’s done nothing to warrant that kind of devotion from him. I’m not even sure she’s kissed him. If they’d at least done that, you could excuse it a litte. Just saying “soul mates”, which I’m sure will be the given, is an excuse, not a reason.

“Why do you want Zoey back?” Sgiach asked him.

Because he’s pretty sure the only way his dick will get wet is if she doesn’t die? Stark says because he loves her and Sgiach, which seems an awful lot like a euphemism for bitch, says that she senses darkness has touched him. I love conversations full of non sequiturs. ‘Why do you want a burger?’ ‘Because I like them.’ ‘You seem like you’ve been a fan of eighties music.’ ‘It’s okay.’ ‘Who’s your favorite Dexter villain?’ ‘I don’t…’ ‘I once watched a wall dry after I painted it.’

Stark says yes, but he chooses to be near Zoey and thus choses light. They warn him that when Zoey comes back she’ll be changed and that might mean she doesn’t love him. Don’t worry Stark, if she doesn’t, PCK will foist you off onto someone who’s better like with Erik. Though you’ll have new negative traits created from whole cloth and slapped onto you. Aprho says that Stark will be fine regardless and what’s to know why they care so much. Sqiach says that one person can have a powerful impact.

“And this world doesnae need another powerful Warrior who fights on the side of Darkness.”

“I know that, and I’ll never fight for Darkness again,” Stark said grimly. “I watched Zoey’s soul shatter because of a single act, so I understand about that, too.”

Another? Does darkness have a lot of “warriors”? Because it looks like they really only, maybe sort of, have Kalona. That and some assorted raven mooks which are basically the Imperial Storm troopers of this universe and they’re half as effective. I don’t believe for a second that a bunch of ravens could kill that many Jawas. And when did Stark fight for “Darkness” again? Or are we counting that time he was under Neferet’s control?

Sqiach, who’s now being referred to as Queen Sgiach, says to remember that willpower and integrity are stronger than love and tells everyone to raise the “Seol ne Gigh”. We’re given a basic description, its intricated and grooved and big enough to allow a “grown vampyre to lie on its flat surface.” Are vampires different sizes than humans now? Because that seems like an unnecessary detail otherwise. Why not just a full grown adult or, hell, just an adult?

They tell him to lie down as he’ll be the sacrifice for his quest. They’ll make him bleed and the black bull will take him to the “otherworld” and the rest is up to him. Aprho tells them to hold on while she pulls out cedar and other herbs that Grandma told her to burn. Sgiach just rolls her eyes and says it can’t hurt. Aphro says that Mcvampy has to make him a shaman before he goes and this is what he tells them.

“Well, ma wee queen. I’ll be telling yer friend this: when a soul wants to truly know what it is to be good, and I do mean purely good for unselfish reasons, that is when the basest of our nature gives in to the desire fer love and peace and harmony. That surrender is a powerful force.”

So once Stark decides to be good for goodness sake he’ll complete his class change. They finally get to the part where Mcvampy starts the sacrifice process which involves slashing Stark up and across like a turkey. It hurts worse than dying and Mcvampy starts telling him not to fight it, just to let go. He ends up detached from his body and finds finds the black bull. It charges and Stark leaps up, grabbing the horns and landing on his back.

The bull drops him off in a clearing where there’s a sword in the ground. Unfortunately for him, a little elvish kid has the three medallions and he can’t draw it out. Or he does and then wipes the clean blade on his jeans then suddenly comes face to face with himself. His other self declares that he will fight and win against himself and kick his ass.

And that’s where PCK drops us, as if there’s a real concern for what happens to Stark. Let me guess, when we come back to him they’ll fight and Stark will have to surrender and let his other self win. I hope that’s the case because I don’t want to see what PCK thinks makes an exciting sword fight.