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once they left. So, ta-da! New stuff.”
    â€œI 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—”
    â€œAnd red fledglings, too, only it’s not quite as strong with them,” Stevie Rae interrupted me.
    â€œAnd red fledglings,” I corrected. “They have a mind-control thing they can do with humans.”
    â€œThat 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.
    â€œThey 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?”
    â€œYeah,” Aphrodite said. “They bite.”

 
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CHAPTER SIX
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    â€œThat’s it. I’m cutting you off,” I told Aphrodite as the red fledglings erupted into laughter.
    â€œAphrodite—she crazy even when she not drunk and Imprinted,” Kramisha said. “We all used to her, though.”
    â€œBut, yes,” I continued, answering Darius through the laughter of the masses. “All of those things are true about the red fledglings.”
    â€œAnd 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.”
    â€œAll adult vampyres know when the sun rises,” Darius said.
    â€œI’ll bet it doesn’t make all vamps as sleepy as it makes me.” Stevie Rae punctuated her words with a big yawn.
    â€œNo, it usually doesn’t,” Darius said.
    â€œWell, 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.”
    â€œAgreed,” Darius said. “But I think we should set watches at the entrances to the tunnels—with your approval, Priestess, just in case.”
    â€œYeah, that’s probably smart,” I said. “Stevie Rae, are there any other entrances to the tunnels besides the one through the depot?”
    â€œZ, I thought you knew that there’re tunnels that connect to a bunch of the old downtown buildings,” Stevie Rae said. “This section is part of that system.”
    â€œBut no one comes down here and uses these particular tunnels except you guys, do they?”
    â€œWell, no, not this part of them, ’cause everyone thinks they’re old and nasty and abandoned.”
    â€œCould be because they are old and nasty and abandoned,” Aphrodite slurred sarcastically. I noticed she’d ignored the fact that I’d cut her off and started on her