Burned

said.
    “Yeah, you might die if you’re around vamps,” Johnny B said.
    “But you for sure will die if you
not
around them,” Kramisha said, with more than a hint of smugness in her tone. “But you know ’bout that ’cause y’all already died once. Wanna do it again?”
    “So y’all need to choose,” Stevie Rae said, still holding up her glowing fists.
    “We sure as hell ain’t choosing you for our High Priestess!” Nicole spat the words at her. “And neither would any of you if you knew the truth about her.” With a Cheshire cat smile, she spoke the words Stevie Rae had feared most anyone hearing. “I’ll bet she didn’t tell you she saved a Raven Mocker, did she?”
    “You’re a liar,” Stevie Rae said, meeting Nicole’s red gaze steadily.
    “How did you know there’s a Raven Mocker in Tulsa?” Dallas said.
    Nicole snorted. “He was here. Your precious High Priestess’s scent was all over him because
she saved his life
. He’s how we trapped her on the roof. She went up there to save him
again
.”
    “That’s bullshit!” Dallas shouted. He pressed his palm against the cement wall. Stevie Rae felt her hair lift in a sudden rush of static electricity.
    “Wow, you really have them fooled.” Nicole said mockingly.
    “That’s it. I’m done with this,” Stevie Rae said. “Make your choice. Now. Light or Darkness, which will it be?”
    “We already made our choice.” Nicole’s hand went up under her baggy shirt and came out with a snub-nosed gun, which she aimed at the middle of Stevie Rae’s head.
    Stevie Rae felt one instant of terror, and then she heard cocking sounds and her stunned gaze went from Nicole’s gun to the two Kurtis and Starr had raised and pointed at Dallas and Kramisha.
    That
pissed off Stevie Rae, and everything kicked into fast-forward.
    “Protect them, earth!” Stevie Rae cried. Spreading wide her arms and releasing her fists, she imagined the power of earth, chrysalis-like, enclosing them. The air around her glowed a soft, mossy green. And as the barrier manifested, Stevie Rae saw the oily Darkness that was clinging to the ceiling shiver and then dissipate completely.
    Dallas yelled, “Ah, hells no. You’re not pointing that thing at me!” Closing his eyes and concentrating, Dallas pressed both of his hands against the side of the tunnel wall. There was a crackling sound. Kurtis yelped and dropped his gun. At the same instant, Nicole screamed—a raw, primal sound that was more like the roar of an enraged animal than something that should have come from a fledgling, and she squeezed the trigger.
    The gunshots were deafeningly loud. The sound echoed painfully over and over until Stevie Rae lost count of how many real shots there were and how many were just an avalanche of sound, smoke, and sensation.
    Stevie Rae didn’t hear the screams of the rogue fledglings as the bullets ricocheted off the earth barrier and slammed into their bodies, but she saw Starr fall and watched the terrible blossom of red that bloomed from the side of her head. Two other red-eyed kids slumped to the ground, too.
    Pandemonium broke loose, and the unwounded fledglings in the kitchen pushed and shoved and climbed over each other as they fought to get to the narrow entrance that led up to the main depot building above.
    Nicole hadn’t moved. She was holding the empty gun, looking wild-eyed and still pulling the trigger when Stevie Rae yelled, “No! You’ve done enough!” Acting on an instinct totally allied to the earth, Stevie Rae clapped her glowing hands together in front of her. With a tearing sound, a raw, gaping hole opened in the far end of the kitchen, where before there had only been the curving side of the tunnel. “You need toleave here and never come back.” Like an avenging goddess, Stevie Rae hurled earth at Nicole and Kurtis and the others who still stood with them, sending a wave of power washing through the kitchen. It lifted all of them and hurled them into the newly opened tunnel. While Nicole snarled curses at her, Stevie Rae calmly waved her hand. In a voice magnified by her element, she said, “Lead them away from here and close behind them. If they don’t go, bury them alive.”
    Stevie Rae’s last sight of Nicole was of her screaming at Kurtis and telling him to get his big ass moving.
    Then the tunnel sealed, and all was quiet.
    “Come on,” Stevie Rae said. Not giving herself time to think about what she was walking into, she strode into