"He was what saved me in the circle!" Stevie Rae shouted back at Dallas. "If he hadn't shown up, that white bull would've drained me dry."

Her words didn't faze the boy. "You've been keeping this thing a secret. You've been lyin' to everybody!"

"Well, heck, Dallas! I didn't know what else to do!"

"You lied to me, you whore!"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Stevie Rae slapped him. Hard.

Dallas staggered back half a step. "What the f**k has he done to you?"

"You mean besides savin' my life twice? Nothin'!" she yelled.

"He's messed your head up completely!" Dallas yelled. The Darkness above them poured down from the ceiling, like it had suddenly found a weak point in a dam. It slicked around Dallas, covering his head and shoulders, swirling around his waist with a sickening familiarity that reminded Rephaim of razor-edged snakes. But Darkness didn't cut Dallas. Instead, he seemed oblivious to the glistening blackness that now coated him.

"I'm in charge of my own mind. He hasn't done anything to me," Stevie Rae said. Her eyes widened, like she finally noticed the Darkness. She took a step back from the boy, like she didn't want to be tainted by what was touching him. "Dallas, listen to me. Think. You know me. This isn't what it seems."

Rephaim could see the change come over Dallas. It was that withdrawal from him that did it - that coupled with the influence of the Darkness that encased him. Totally incensed, the fledgling screamed,

"He's made you a goddamned whore and a liar! You need some sense knocked into you, girl!" Dallas lifted his hand like he was going to hit Stevie Rae.

Rephaim didn't hesitate. He leaped, closing the space between him and the boy, knocking him away from Stevie Rae and taking his place in front of her.

"Don't hurt him!" Stevie Rae was saying as she grabbed Rephaim's arm and kept him from making another strike against the boy. "He's just freaked-out. He wouldn't really hurt me."

Rephaim let her pull him back. Turning to her, he said, "I think you underestimate the boy."

"She damn sure does," Dallas said grimly.

Rephaim didn't know where the pain came from. He only knew the bright white heat of it. His body convulsed. His back bowed in agony. Dimly, through a graying veil, he could see Dallas, eyes glowing with a scarlet hue that was impossibly bright, holding one of the wires that protruded from the wall.

"Rephaim!" Stevie Rae cried.

She started to reach for him, but then Rephaim saw her pull back. Instead, she ran to Dallas.

"Stop it! Let him go," she told the boy, pulling on his arm.

His blood red eyes skewered her. "I'm gonna fry him. And then whatever weird control he has over you is gonna be gone. You and me can be together, and I won't tell anyone shit about what happened here, long as you're my girl."

With a detached sense of understanding, Rephaim noted that Darkness was no longer present on the boy's body. It had soaked into him - it had claimed him. It augmented whatever strength the fledgling wielded.

Rephaim felt sure Dallas was going to kill him.

"Earth, come to me. I need you."

He heard Stevie Rae's words through the flickering of his consciousness, like she was candlelight trying to reach him through a gale wind. With a mighty effort, Rephaim focused his vision on her. Their eyes met, and her words came to him, suddenly clear and strong and sure.

"Protect him from Dallas because Rephaim belongs to me."

She made a motion toward Rephaim, like she was hurling something at him - and she was. A green glow slammed into his body, throwing him backward and breaking whatever it was that Dallas had been channeling into him. Breathing hard, he lay on the ground, crumpled in a heap, as he absorbed what was becoming the familiar, gentle touch of healing earth.

Dallas turned to Stevie Rae.

"You just said that thing belongs to you."

The fledgling's voice was like death. Rephaim pressed himself against the ground, opening his shocked body to the earth, willing it to enter him - to heal him enough so that he could reach Stevie Rae.

"Yeah. He does. It's hard to explain, and I get that you're pissed. But Rephaim belongs to me." Her eyes skirted Dallas and met his again. "And I guess I belong to him, weird as that sounds."

"It doesn't sound weird. It sounds f**king sick."

Before Rephaim could get to his feet, Dallas pointed a finger at her. There was a deafening crack, and Stevie Rae was suddenly standing in the middle of a glowing green circle. Her brow was furrowed, and she shook her head slowly back and forth. "You tried to shock me? You really wanted to hurt me, Dallas?"