Chapter 13
We switch over to Stevie who’s getting yelled at by Aprho. Aphro can’t believe nobody has called Zoey. To be fair, when the master is away, no slave is eager to hear fresh orders. It’s not just Zoey who’s getting a vacation here.
Stevie Rae took Aphrodite by the elbow and, with a grip that was maybe firmer than technically necessary, guided her to the door in Damien’s dorm room. At the doorway she paused and both girls looked back at the bed, where Damien was curled up with Duchess and his cat, Cameron. Boy, dog, and cat had finally, just minutes before, fallen into a sleep induced by grief and exhaustion.
How firm is technically necessary, PCK? How many Pascals are you supposed to use to drag around a standard Aphrodite anyways? They wander away from the room and Aprho asks how can it be that Jack has been killed and no one called Zoey? Easy, don’t touch the phone. The longer she stays away the more likely someone else, say Stevie, will take over the role of protagonist.
Stevie says that it’s pointless to bother Zoey with these pointless details. Aphro says that it must have been Neferet that killed him. Darius appears and says that’s not possible because people saw her at the council and there was a witness that saw Jack fall onto the sword. Again, because everyone in this universe has suddenly forgotten that magic is real.
Look, PCK, you can’t have your chracters suffer from random bouts of amnesia like this. Just because they aren’t directly aware of what kind of illusions can be done, doesn’t mean they aren’t aware of the possibility. I’m pretty sure they know, from Zoey, that memories can be tampered with. At the very least, Darius should be a bit suspicious. If only because Neferet’s alibi is so airtight.
Everyone agrees that they think Neferet is guilty but they can’t prove it. Aphro then calls Zoey and Stevie snatches the phone away to leave a message. She tells Zoey to call her because it’s important and hangs ups. She tells Aphro that telling Zoey about Jack’s death via voicemail would be “super, super bad”. You should tell her by text message. ‘Hay Zo! Jack’s dead 😦 Come back soon.’
Aphrodite snatched the iPhone from Stevie Rae. “Look. We do not have time to tiptoe around Zoey’s feelings. She needs to put on her big-girl High Priestess panties and deal.”
Other than the name brand dropping, I can’t disagree with anything in that sentence. Zoey’s supposed to be a high priest, a leader of vampires, and an overall authority figure. That means not being a mollycoddled pussy who can’t handle bad news. Stevie then gets mad and says that Zoey is a high priest and she’s been through a lot and Aphro doesn’t understand. Which is a perfectly petulant, teen thing to say. Darius then recoils because Stevie’s eyes glow red.
Stevie storms off and runs into Erik, who wants to know how Damien is doing. Stevie tells us he’s clearly been crying and is very sad. Erik says it must have been Neferet, Stevie asks how he knows and Erik says that he’s seen the real her. He says he’s glad he decided to leave to L.A. Stevie then chides him about leaving when it gets tough. Which is easy for her to say being as she can bury people alive.
PCK continues their smear campaign against Erik by having Stevie call him a coward and a wuss. Stevie says he’s gotten everything he’s wanted in life by being good looking and he’s no longer the cool person she thought he was. Also, evil triumphs when good people do nothing or some variation on that old chestnut.
Which isn’t really fair to Erik by any means. Non of Zoey’s slaves are without some sort of ability which can and will help them in fighting. Even the non powered folks, like Darius and Dragon, are masters of a weapon. Erik is, in this universe anyway, a master actor. Which is great if you plan on subterfuge and sabotage but Zoey hasn’t the brains for that kind of thing.
Stevie then leaves and drives out to the mansion that Rephy has his nest at. She hangs around looking for him and wondering where she can find him. Then Stevie decides that, because they’re bonded, that he’ll be forced to find her. Because these bonds are totally fair.
Chapter 14
Over to Rephy who’s been flying around and avoiding going back to Kalona and Neferet. He suddenly gets a call from Stevie across the bond. It’s nice that it only works one way and Rephy can’t call Stevie to him. He flies off in her direction because he’s her slave and that’s totally cool while thinking about how her last words to him.
He remembered Stevie Rae’s last words to him.… When you decide your heart matters as much to you as it does to me, come find me again. It should be easy. Just follow your heart…
Because it was so long ago that I’m shocked that he still remembers it verbatim. If it had only been a few days ago then that would seem silly and childish. Definitely not befitting a being who’s a thousand plus years old like Rephy.
Rephy starts to think how they can’t be together and tells himself to shut up. He says he’ll find a way to find balance and make it work. Then it’s over to Stevie who’s waiting for her loyal falcon to return at her signal. He lands and she’s overcome with joy when he says he heard the call and came. Lucky for him he had a wad of spare tissue tucked in his fanny pack.
They hug then and hold each other. They exchange pleasantries and then begin talking about Jack’s death. Has someone replaced my book with a copy of Twilight? Because we’re back to Meyer’s favorite padding method of having one thing happen then everyone talk about it for seventy chapters.
We get it, PCK. Jack died and everyone was really sad about it. Nobody cares. He was a flat, lifeless character you created to fill a quota and convince your fans that you’re an open minded person. He had less personality than Zoey and she could be swapped out with Bella and no one would notice. If anything, I’m glad he’s dead. It means there’s one less person Zoey can order to fetch her drinks and massage her feet.
Rephy explains that Neferet killed him to pay darkness. All stuff we know, thanks for that again PCK. Rephy then says that dawn is coming and she should go. Stevie asks if he’s going to tell her about Kalona. Rephy says Kalona is his father, Stevie argues he’s bad and Rephy says he’s still his father.
Rephy does say he’ll help her as long as it doesn’t mean betraying Kalona. Stevie’s fine with that and then gets a phone call from Zoey. Stevie says she has to take it as Zoey still doesn’t know about Jack. Rephy tells her to get Zoey back as she’s the only one who can stand against Neferet.
Stevie answers the phone and tells Zoey to hold on a second. Stevie and Rephy continue to babble on about shit we already know. Kalona was lashed buy darkness, he wants to be free of Neferet and no one should find out about their bond.
Rephy also tells her he found the rogue undeadlings and to stay away. Stevie asks him not to tell Neferet about them but he says he can’t avoid it. Rephy tells Stevie that he should stay away from them so they don’t get the chance to kill her again.
After wasting enough paper to make a box of tissue, they say their goodbyes. Rephy flies off and Stevie tells Zoey to brace herself because she has some shocking news. Does this mean the rest of the book will be Zoey crying and attending Jack’s funeral?
Vivisector's Writ 