Hunted (House of Night #5)(16)

I stifled a sigh and ignored Imprinted Drunk Vision Girl. "But then again, on the `what we do know' side is the fact that we're pretty safe down here. We have food and shelter and whatnot." At least I hoped we were okay down here. I patted the bed I was sitting on, which really did have some cute light green linens on it. "Hey, speaking of the `and whatnot.' How did you guys get this stuff down here?" I asked Stevie Rae. "Not that I'm trying to be mean, but this bed and your table and fridges and other things are a serious improvement over the dirty rags and other grossness I saw down here a month or so ago."

She gave me her cute Stevie Rae smile and said, "That's mostly thanks to Aphrodite."

"Aphrodite?" I asked, lifting my brows and staring at her along with everyone else.

"What can I say? I've become the poster child for do-gooders. Thank god I'm attractive," Aphrodite said and then belched like a guy. "Oops, scusa," she slurred.

xw[ "Scusa?" Jack said.

"Italian, dork," Aphrodite said. "Broaden your g*y horizons."

"So what does Aphrodite have to do with the stuff you have down here?" I interrupted what was sure to become some serious bickering.

"She bought this stuff. Actually, it was her idea," Stevie Rae said.

"Scusa?" I said, not even trying to stifle my grin.

"I stayed down here for two days. Did you expect me to live in a hovel? Not hardly. Have credit cards, will decorate. I think that's on my family crest along with a very dry martini," she said. "There's a Pottery Barn in Utica Square right down the street. They deliver. So does Home Depot, which is also not far from here, although I wasn't aware of that until one of the red freaks enlightened me because I do not shop at appliance stores."

"They're not freaks," Stevie Rae said.

"Oh, bite me," Aphrodite said.

"She already has," Venus said.

Aphrodite glared woozily in her direction, but before she could get out a drunken retort, the kid called Dallas said, "I knew the Home Depot was there." My friends and I looked at him. He shrugged. "I'm good at building things."

"Home Depot and Pottery Barn delivered down here?" Erik said.

"Well, not technically," Stevie Rae said. "But they do deliver to the Tribune Lofts which are practically next door. And with a little, uh, friendly persuasion they brought the stuff here and then totally forgot once they left. So, ta-da! New stuff."

"I still don't understand. How could the humans have been persuaded to come down here?" Darius said.

I sighed. "Something you should know about red vampyres--"

"And red fledglings, too, only it's not quite as strong with them," Stevie Rae interrupted me.

"And red fledglings," I corrected. "They have a mind-control thing they can do with humans."

"That sounds a lot meaner than it is," Stevie Rae assured Darius quickly. "I just tweaked the delivery guys' memories. I didn't mind-control them. We don't go in for using our powers to be all hateful and stuff." She gave the group of red fledglings a look. "Right?" The group muttered "Right," but I noticed Venus didn't say anything, and Kramisha glanced around the room guiltily.

"They can control the minds of humans. They cannot bear direct sunlight. Their powers of recovery are excellent. They need to commune with the earth to feel truly comfortable," Darius said. "Am I leaving anything else out?"

"Yeah," Aphrodite said. "They bite."

Chapter Six

"That's it. I'm cutting you off," I told Aphrodite as the red fledglings erupted into laughter.

"Aphrodite--she crazy even when she not drunk and Imprinted," Kramisha said. "We all used to her, though."

"But, yes," I continued, answering Darius through the laughter of the masses. "All of those things are true about the red fledglings."

"And the one red vampyre." Stevie Rae sounded tired but proud. "Oh, and I can also tell you that sunrise was exactly"--she paused, cocking her head like she was listening to crickets-- "sixty-three minutes ago."

"All adult vampyres know when the sun rises," Darius said.

"I'll bet it doesn't make all vamps as sleepy as it makes me." Stevie Rae punctuated her words with a big yawn.

"No, it usually doesn't," Darius said.

"Well, it makes me real sleepy," she said. "Especially today, which I bet has somethin' to do with that stupid arrow that used to be stickin' through me."

Since Stevie Rae had mentioned it, I was feeling majorly exhausted again now that my jolt o' blood had worn off. I looked around at our mixed group of red and blue and saw dark circles under eyes and lots of stifled yawns. Kalona and the problems at the House of Night nagged at my mind, as well as my increasingly strong feeling that everything was not as it seemed with the red fledglings, but I was too tired to deal with all of it.

Wishing I could burst into tears, I cleared my throat, refocused, and said, "How about we all get some sleep? We're fairly safe here, and there's really nothing any of us can do about what's going on upstairs when we're so tired we're all practically asleep on our feet."

"Agreed," Darius said. "But I think we should set watches at the entrances to the tunnels--with your approval, Priestess, just in case."