"It would be logical that the people whose minds he could reach easiest would be those who were open to death and evil,"

Damien said.

"Like the Tsi Sgili," Erin said.

"Especially their queen," Shaunee said.

"Ah, c.r.a.p," I said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"Okay, let's go on to the next stanza," Damien said. Then he read: Through the hand of the dead he is free Terrible beauty, monstrous sight Ruled again they shall be Women shall kneel to his dark might "Then, of course, the couplet at the end concludes it." Damien finished it by reading: Kalona's song sounds sweet As we slaughter with cold heat "Sadly, most of the rest of it isn't too tough to figure out," Erin said. We all gawked at her. "Okay, I'll admit-under duress-that I actually learned something last semester in Poetry cla.s.s. So sue me. Anyway, except for the first line, it's just saying that he's gonna start raping and pillaging women again when he's free."

"But it's how he's set free that's described in the first line," Damien said. "Through the hand of the dead, and if we're keeping the first stanza in mind, that hand is going to cause something so b.l.o.o.d.y and nasty, it'll make the ground bleed."

"Yeah, and in the first stanza it sounds like the person who's gonna cause the ground to bleed is the Queen Tsi Sgili. If she's who we think it is, that doesn't fit here. She's not dead," I said.

"Couldn't it be just symbolism? 'Cause how does something that's already dead cause anything to bleed? It just doesn't make sense, which is yet another reason why I've never liked poetry," Aphrodite said. "Plus, let's say it's all jumbled up into one person and this Tsi Sgili is dead and she bleeds-dead people don't bleed. Or at least not for long after they're dead they don't."

"Oh! Oh, no!" I suddenly knew what the prophecy had to mean, and I sat down on the bed hard as my knees buckled.

"Zoey? What is it?" Damien asked, fanning me with the slip of paper."If you puke on my bed, I'm going to kill you," Aphrodite said.

I ignored Aphrodite and grabbed Damien's arm. "It's Stevie Rae-she was dead, and now she's undead. She bleeds. She bleeds a lot. Plus she has psychic powers, along with other major earth powers. What if she's the queen?"

"And she has a red tattoo. Just like in the story about the hot chick the Ghigua women made for Kalona," Erin said.

"That's definitely a connection," Shaunee said.

"Stevie Rae! OhmiG.o.d! Stevie Rae!" Jack said, looking even paler than I did.

"I know, honey, I know. It's a lot to take in," Damien said.

Aphrodite met my eyes. "I gotta agree with the theory that it might be Stevie Rae."

"But no. Stevie Rae was horrid when she was losing her humanity," Damien said slowly, thinking it out. "But she Changed, and now she's back to her old self. I don't think she could be the queen Tsi Sgili, because Stevie Rae is definitely not evil."

Aphrodite gave me a hard look, then said, "Look, Stevie Rae isn't the same as she used to be."

"Which is only logical because she's been through a lot," I said quickly. No matter what, I wasn't willing to believe that Stevie Rae was bad. Different, yes. But bad, no way. Then I had another thought. "You know, it really makes more sense that one of those other gross kids could be the Tsi Sgili. I mean, you even said they were still-" I stopped, finally realizing that Aphrodite was making a small Cut! gesture while Damien and the Twins stared openmouthed at me.

"Uh, yeah. Are you remembering not everyone knows about the other kids?" Aphrodite said. Then she rolled her eyes at the dumfounded looks on my friends' faces. "Well, oopsie. Hey, I'll just let Zoey handle this one. Go ahead, explain the freaks to the geeks, Z."

Ah, c.r.a.p. I forgot they don't know about the red fledglings.

I decided to be firm. Just tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth and get it over with. And if all else failed, I would burst into tears.

"Okay. Remember all those other dead kids?"

They nodded kinda woodenly at me.

"Nasty Elliot and Elizabeth No Last Name and, well, some other kids, too?"

They nodded again.

"They didn't die. They did what Stevie Rae did-only, well, different. It's really kinda awkward to explain." I hesitated, trying to find the right words. "But basically they're still alive, and their blue crescents have changed to red crescents and they live in the tunnels with Stevie Rae."

Weirdly enough, it was sweet Jack who saved me. "You mean this is more stuff you couldn't tell us 'cause you didn't want us accidentally thinking about it and having Neferet, who really isn't one of the good guys, listening in to our minds and finding out that you knew?"

"Jack, I could kiss you," I said.

"Oh, hee hees!" Jack giggled, ruffling d.u.c.h.ess's ears.

Then I looked from him to my other friends. Would the Twins and Damien discount another pa.s.sel of lies so easily? I saw the three of them share a long look.

Damien spoke first. "Neferet is behind these undead dead kids, isn't she?"

I hesitated, wanting to save them from the truth as long as possible.

"Yes." Aphrodite took the choice away from me. "Neferet is definitely behind them. That's why Zoey didn't want to tell you guys about the other kids. Neferet is dangerous, and she wanted to keep you from that danger." She paused and looked at me.

"But it's too late now. They have to know."

"Yeah," I said slowly. "You all have to know."

"Good," said Damien resolutely. He reached over and took Jack's hand that wasn't stroking d.u.c.h.ess. "It's time we knew everything. We're ready and we're not scared."

"At least not very much," Jack said.

"Yeah, you know how much we love us some good gossip," Erin said.

"And this is some prime, inside, good gossip," Shaunee said.

"Dorkamese Twins, you can't tell anybody the gossip," Aphrodite said, clearly disgusted.

"Oh, please, we know that," Shaunee said.

"Yeah, not now we can't, but in the future, this will be some wicked good gossip," Erin said.

"All right," Damien interrupted. "Tell us, Zoey."

I took a deep breath and told them everything. All about the first time I thought I'd seen "ghosts," which had ended up being that nasty Elliot kid and Elizabeth No Last Name (whom I'd had to zap with fire and make really, really dead to get Heath out of the tunnels) when they were actually undead. I told them about the tunnels and what happened when I rescued Heath. I told them about Stevie Rae, all about her. I even told them about Stark maybe coming back undead.

When I was finished, there was a long shocked silence from my friends."Wow," Jack said. He looked at Aphrodite. "So you're the only one she could tell about all this stuff because for whatever reason vamps can't read your mind?"

"Yes," she said. I could see Aphrodite draw herself up and pull that cold, haughty look over her that meant she was readying herself for them to turn on her-to tell her that now that they knew everything she wouldn't be needed anymore.

"That must have been hard, especially when we were being so mean to you," Jack said.

Aphrodite blinked in surprise.

"Yeah," Damien said. "Sorry about some of the stuff I said. You were being a good friend to Zoey, even when we weren't."

"Ditto," said Shaunee.

"Sadly, ditto here, too," said Erin.

Aphrodite looked utterly stunned. I grinned and sneaked her a quick wink. I didn't say it out loud, but it definitely looked like she was becoming one of the nerd herd.

"So, now that you guys know everything, we have a lot of work to do," I said. I had everyone's attention. "Like Stevie Rae said, we gotta make sure if Stark wakes up, he doesn't do it with Neferet there all waiting to make him into her minion."

"Ugh," Shaunee said.

"It's so d.a.m.n gross, 'cause he was so d.a.m.n fine," Erin said.

"He might still be fine," Jack said. Then he gasped and covered d.u.c.h.ess's ears. "And if you're going to talk about him I think we should either just call him J.S. or spell his name. You know, out of respect for d.u.c.h.ess."

I looked into d.u.c.h.ess's brown eyes. For a moment I got trapped there, and I swear I saw pain and loss and a deep, limitless kindness.

"Okay, we'll just use his initials," I said, relieved because maybe if I just used Stark's initials, I wouldn't think about that it was really him we were discussing, and then I wouldn't remember how much we'd connected right before he died.

"So, instead of trying to s.n.a.t.c.h, uh, J.S.'s body and hiding it in Z's closet or wherever, I, of course, had a much better idea."

Aphrodite paused to be sure she had everyone's attention. "I got a nanny cam."

"Oh, cool!" Jack said. "I saw that on Dr. Phil the other day. G.o.d, it was just awful. Some horrid and, may I say, fat, poorly dressed nanny was caught by one of them shaking the c.r.a.p out of some poor little kid."

"Then you know about them?" Aphrodite said.

"Yep," he said.

"Good. You need to sneak down to the morgue. Install the camera, and then bring the remote monitor back to Zoey. Think you can handle that?" Aphrodite said.

Jack blanched. "The morgue? As in where they keep dead bodies?"

"Don't think of it like that," I said quickly. "J.S. might just be sleeping, only without the breathing part."

"Oh," Jack said, looking totally unconvinced.

"Can you do it?" I asked, unbelievably relieved that I knew nothing about electronics and this couldn't be my job.

"Yes. I can do it. I promise," Jack said resolutely, hooking an arm around d.u.c.h.ess's neck.

"Good, then that problem is dealt with." At least until he woke up, if he woke up, but I was hoping I had a couple of days before I had to deal with all the ramifications of that. Actually, it was hard for me to think about Stark at all, so I hastily changed the subject. "We need to get back to the prophecy. I'm really worried that the line that says 'through the hand of the dead' is talking about Stevie Rae."

"I still don't think Stevie Rae would be involved in raising this fallen angel," Damien said.

"But there are more of those other new kind of vampyres, right?" Jack said.

"Well, not really more of the vamps," I explained. "Stevie Rae is the only one who has completely gone through the Change. But there are quite a few fledglings."

"It makes more sense that it would be one of them," Damien said.

"Yeah, Stevie Rae is not gonna get mixed up with a bad guy," Erin said.

"Nope, not a chance," Shaunee agreed.

Aphrodite just looked at me. She and I didn't say anything.

"But Zoey said the other kids are, well, gross," Jack said.

"They are," Aphrodite said. "They're like"-she paused, and then her eyes lit up-"they're like blue collar workers. Eesh."

"Aphrodite, there is nothing wrong with blue collar workers," I said, completely exasperated.

"Huh? I hear your words, but you're making no sense."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, the truth is that in actuality, the red fledglings might be disgusting only in Aphrodite's weird world. I haven't seen any of them since Stevie Rae Changed, and she's told me that they're under control and have their humanity back, so I'm going to try to withhold judgment."

"Well, whether they're really gross or just being cla.s.s-stereotyped by Gossip Girl, I think we need to keep an eye on them,"

Damien said. "We need to know what they're doing. Who they're talking to. What they're thinking. If we know all of that, we'll also know if this demon guy is trying to contact one of them and use him for his nefarious means.""Nef-what?" Shaunee said.

"Arious-who?" Erin said.

"It means 'wicked in the extreme,' " Jack whispered to the Twins.

"Well, then it's a good thing that Stevie Rae and her red fledglings are coming to the ritual tomorrow," I announced.

My friends gaped at me.

I looked at Aphrodite. She sighed. "I don't have an earth affinity anymore," she admitted. Then she reached up and with the back of her hand wiped it across her forehead, smearing the fake sapphire crescent tattoo she'd drawn there. "I'm not a fledgling anymore. I'm human again."

"Well, she's not exactly a normal human," I added. "She still has visions, as is obvious by the prophecy she just copied for us. She's also still really important to Nyx." I smiled at Aphrodite. "I heard the G.o.ddess say so."

"Okay, that's majorly freaky!" Jack said.

"It's totally queer," Shaunee said.