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Stevie Rae knew that better than the nun or Zoey ever could Not only had her life, well, actually, her death beenshe was actually a goddess, but Stevie Rae had once thought she had the right to snuff out lives according to her own needs or whiht up in that anger and violence made her feel sick She&039;d left those dark tiht and the Goddess, and that was the path she was staying on So when anyone decided a life , any life, it upset her Or at least that hat Stevie Rae told herself as she started walking across the abbey grounds, heading totally away froirlkeep it togethershe kept repeating over and over as she detoured quickly down the ditch and into the tree line, heading directly for the bloodstains she remembered all too well She found a thick, broken branch that still had a bunch of twigs attached to it, and lifted it easily, glad for the extra strength that ca the branch like a broo every so often to toss another broken branch, or once, a whole side of a collapsed holly bush, onto the telltale cri her earlier path, she turned to her left, away fro inside the fence

She hadn&039;t gone far when, just like before, Stevie Rae found a big splotch of blood Only this ti herself by hu Kenny Chesney&039;s (Baby) You Save Me, she hurriedly brushed over the bloodstains and then followed the trail of drops she knew she&039;d find, kicking ice and branches over the evidence, as the blood path led her directly to the little garden shed She stared hard at the door, sighed, and then turned aalking around the shed to the green house The door was unlocked and the handle turned easily She entered the building and paused, breathing deeply and allowing the scents of earth and growing things, mixed with the new spice of the three horses that were temporarily housed there, to soothe her senses, as the warmth of the place thawed the icy dampness that seemed to have penetrated into her soul

But she didn&039;t allow herself to rest there long She couldn&039;t She had business to take care of and notto be shrouded by clouds and ice, it was still never a coht outside, exposed and vulnerable, during the day It didn&039;t take Stevie Rae long to find what she needed The nuns obviously liked the old-school way of doing things Instead of a systeies, the sisters had buckets and dippers, watering pails with long, perforated nozzlesbaby plants, and lots of tools that were obviously as well used as they ell cared for

Stevie Rae filled a bucket with fresh water frorabbed a dipper, a feels froloves and spare pots, and then, on her way out, she paused near a tray of reen carpet She stood there chewing her lip indecisively as instinct warred with her consciousrow of thehow she knehat she knew, Stevie Rae left the green house and returned to the shed At the door she stopped and focused her attention--keyed all of her keen, predator-like ability to sense, s around

Nothing No one was outside The sleet and the late hour were keeping everyone tucked safe and war sense, she mumbled to herself She took one more look around, shifted her load so she had a free hand, and then touched the door latch Okay--okay Just get it over with Maybe he&039;s dead and you won&039;t have to deal with this great bigassed new mistake you made Stevie Rae clicked the latch down and pushed open the door Auto after the earthy si that sas and oil andscent of his blood

She&039;d left hi arden shears, fertilizer, and spare sprinkler parts She peered back there and could vaguelyShe listened hard and didn&039;t hear anything except the ice spitting against the roof Dreading the inevitableto have to face him, Stevie Rae forced herself to step into the shed and close the door firmly behind her She made her way around the mower and shelves to the creature that lay at the far end of the shed It didn&039;t look like he&039;d ed, half carried hio and literally tossed him into that back corner

He lay crumpled in on himself, curled into an aard fetal position on his left side The bullet that had torn through the upper right side of his chest, had ripped through his wing as it exited his body, utterly deci lay bloody, shattered, and useless along his side Stevie Rae also thought one of his ankles ht be broken, as it was horribly swollen and, even in the darkness of the shed, she could see it looked bruised Actually, his whole body looked pretty badly battered, which was no big surprise He had been shot out of the sky and the big old oaks at the edge of the abbey&039;s property had broken his fall enough for him not to have been killed i how badly he ounded

For all she knew his insides were as broken as his outsides looked For all she knew, he was dead He sure looked dead She watched his chest and couldn&039;t be 100 percent certain, but she didn&039;t think she saw it rising or falling with his breath He was probably dead She kept staring at hi to move closer, and unable to turn and walk away Was she batshit crazy? Why hadn&039;t she stopped to think before she&039;d dragged him in here? She stared at him He wasn&039;t hu God to let him die; he should never have been born Stevie Rae shuddered She continued to stand there as if she was frozen by the horror of what she&039;d done What would her friends say if they found out she&039;d hidden a Raven Mocker? Would Zoey turn away from her? And what repercussions would this creature&039;s presence cause with the red fledglings, all of the red fledglings? As if they didn&039;t have enough dark, evil things to deal with? The nun had been right He shouldn&039;t evoke pity in her She was going to take the towels and stuff back to the green house, go inside the abbey, find Darius and tell him that there was a Raven Mocker in the shed

Then she&039;d let the warrior do his job If he wasn&039;t dead already, Darius would take care of business It would actually be putting the bird guy out of hisbreath she hadn&039;t realized she&039;d been holding in relief at her decision, and his red eyes opened and met hers Finish itthe Raven Mocker&039;s voice eak and filled with pain, but it was clearly, absolutely, undeniably human And that was it Stevie Rae realized the reason she hadn&039;t called Dallas and the rest of them when she&039;d discovered him When he&039;d spoken before and told her to kill hiuy--one who had been hurt and abandoned and scared

She hadn&039;t been able to kill him then, and she wasn&039;t able to turn away from hih he looked like a being that shouldn&039;t be possible, he sounded like a regular guy as so desperate and in such pain that he expected the very worst to happen to hi He didn&039;t just expect the very worst to happen to hih was so horrible he couldn&039;t see any way out of it except through his own death To Stevie Rae, even though what he&039;d been through was largely of his own , that made him very, very human She&039;d been there She understood such complete hopelessness