Burned

ladder while she moved with utter confidence in the complete blackness to the first of the old-timey kerosene lanterns she’d helped to hang from old railroad nails on the curved wall of the tunnel. Shelit the lantern and turned to smile at her boys, “There, that’s better, huh?”
    “Good job, girl.” Dallas grinned at her. Then he hesitated and cocked his head to the side. “Do you hear that?”
    Stevie Rae looked at Johnny B, who shook his head while he helped Kramisha down the ladder.
    “Hear what, Dallas?” Stevie Rae asked him.
    Dallas pressed his hand against the rough concrete wall of the tunnel. “
That!
” he sounded mesmerized.
    “Dallas, you ain’t makin’ no sense,” Kramisha told him.
    He looked over his shoulder at them. “I’m not sure, but I think I can hear the electrical lines humming.”
    “That’s weird,” Kramisha said.
    “Well, you have always been super good with electricity and all that kind of guy stuff,” Stevie Rae said.
    “Yeah, but it’s never been like this before. Seriously, I can
hear
the electricity humming through the cables I connected down here.”
    “Well, maybe it’s like an affinity for you, and maybe you didn’t realize it before ’cause you were down here all the time, and it just seemed normal,” Stevie Rae said.
    “But electricity ain’t from the Goddess. How can it be an affinity gift?” Kramisha said, sending Dallas suspicious looks.
    “Why can’t it be from Nyx?” Stevie Rae said. “Truthfully, I’ve known weirder things before than a fledging getting an affinity for electricity. Uh, like a white bull personifying Darkness for one.”
    “You got a point there,” Kramisha said.
    “So I could actually have an affinity?” Dallas looked dazed.
    “ ’Course you could, boy,” Stevie Rae told him.
    “If you do, then make it come in handy,” Johnny B said, helping Shannoncompton and Venus down the ladder.
    “Handy? Like how?” Dallas asked.
    “Well, can you tell from the hummin’ or whatever if those nasty red fledglings have been using electricity down here lately?” Kramisha said.
    “I’ll see.” Dallas turned back to the wall, pressed his hands againstthe concrete, and squeezed his eyes shut. Within just a few heartbeats his eyes popped open, and he gave a surprised gasp, then his gaze went straight to Stevie Rae. “Yeah, the fledglings have been using the electricity. Actually they are right now. They’re in the kitchen.”
    “Then that’s where we’re going,” Stevie Rae said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
    Stevie Rae
    “Okay, this really pisses me off.” Stevie Rae kicked at another empty liter bottle of Dr Pepper that littered the tunnel.
    “They’s nasty and trifling.” Kramisha agreed.
    “Ohmygod. If they get me dirty, I’m gonna be so pissed,” said Venus.
    “Get
you
dirty? Girl, did you see what they done to my room?” Kramisha snarled.
    “I really think we should focus,” Dallas said. He kept running a hand along the concrete wall. The closer to the kitchen area they got, the more restless he became.
    “Dallas is right,” Stevie Rae said. “First we gotta kick them outta here, and then we can worry about gettin’ our stuff back into shape.”
    “Pier One and Pottery Barn still have Aphrodite’s gold card on file,” Kramisha told Venus.
    Venus looked majorly relieved. “Well, that’ll fix this mess.”
    “Venus, you need a lot more than a gold card to fix the mess you’ve turned into.” Sarcasm shot out of the shadows of the tunnel in front of them. “Look at you—you’re all tame and boring. And I used to think you had seriously cool potential.”
    Venus, along with Stevie Rae and the rest of her fledglings, came to a halt. “I’m tame and boring?” Venus’s laugh was as sarcastic as Nicole’s voice. “So your idea of seriously cool must be ripping out people’s throats. Please. That can’t even be attractive.”
    “Hey, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Nicole said, tucking aside the blanket that had been resting across the entryway to the kitchen.
    She was framed in the doorway by lanternlight from within. She looked thinner—harder than Stevie Rae remembered her looking. Starr and Kurtis stood a little way behind her, and behind them at least a dozen red-eyed fledglings gathered, glaring at them maliciously.
    Stevie Rae took one step forward. Nicole’s mean, red-tinged eyes darted from Venus to her.
    “Oh, did you come back to play some more?” Nicole