Tempted

hastily. “I was just thinkin’, that’s all. You know, about good and evil and the choices we make. So I thought that maybe some of the Raven Mockers might be able to choose, too.”
    “If they had that ability they made the choice for evil long ago,” Lenobia said.
    “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. Okay, well, I better get. I’ll come back around and see you before dawn.”
    “I’ll look forward to meeting with you. May Nyx be with you, Priestess. And blessed be.”
    “Blessed be.” Stevie Rae hurried from the stables, as if distance from the words she’d spoken could distance her from her guilt. What had she been thinking when she said that stuff about Rephaim to Lenobia? She needed to keep her mouth shut and forget about him.
    But how could she forget about him when there was a chance she was going to see him again when she went back to the depot?
    She shouldn’t have sent him there. She should have figured something else out. Or she should have turned him in!
    No. No, it was too late to think about that. Now all Stevie Rae could do was damage control. First, contact the red fledglings. Then, deal with the Rephaim issue. Again.
    Of course he might not be an issue. The fledglings might not have found him. He didn’t smell like food, and he wasn’t in any shape to attack them. He was probably hiding down in the darkest cubbyholed tunnel, licking his wounds. Or he could be dead. Who knows what would happen to a Raven Mocker if a nasty infection set in.
    Stevie Rae sighed and pulled her phone from the pocket of her hoodie. Praying the reception was back up in tunnels, she text messaged Nicole:

I need to see u tonite

    She didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

Busy. Won’t be bk til dawn.

    She frowned at her phone and responded.

Get bk be4.

    She’d started to pace by the time Nicole managed to text her back.

Be there @ 6.

    Stevie Rae wanted to grind her teeth together. Six o’clock was only an hour and a half before dawn. Dang it! Nicole pissed her off so bad. She was really the biggest problem down there. The rest of the kids were just followers. Not very nice, but not like her. Stevie Rae remembered Nicole from before she’d died. She’d been a mean girl then, and that hadn’t changed. Actually, it’d gotten worse. So what Stevie Rae needed to do was to get to Nicole. If she turned her back on the darkness, then the rest of the kids would probably follow her.

OK.

    Stevie Rae texted. Then she added,

Anything weird going on?

    She held her breath, waiting for her phone to chime. Nicole would tell her if she’d found a Raven Mocker. She’d probably think Rephaim was cool. Or maybe she’d just kill him right off, without thinking anything. Either way, she’d blab it to Stevie Rae—it would make her feel all powerful and in charge.

Just looking for food. Live food. Wanna join us?

    Stevie Rae knew it would do no good whatsoever to remind Ni-cole they shouldn’t be eating people. No, not even homeless people or bad drivers (who they liked to follow and then grab as they got out of their cars). She just texted back:

No. See u @ 6.
Hahahahahaha

    Stevie Rae stuck her phone back in her pocket. It was going to be a long night, especially that hour and a half between six and dawn.

Rephaim

    “So that’s the plan, birdboy. Are you up for this?” Unannounced and uninvited, the red fledgling leader, Nicole, had come into Stevie Rae’s room, which Rephaim had claimed as his own, kicked the bed to wake him, and then started talking about her plan to trap Stevie Rae on the roof of a building.
    “Even if, close to sunrise, you could lure the Red One to the roof of a building, how do you plan to hold her there?”
    “The first part is simple because it’s not just any building. It’s this building. There’re two round towers up there, all nicey-nice with decoration and crap when this place was actually something, back in the day. They’re open to the sky ’cause it’s
the roof
. We found a big metal grill we can chain over the top of one of them. No way can she get out. She’s strong, but she can’t break metal. Plus, all the way up there there’s no earth for her to reach. She’ll be trapped, and when the sun comes up she’ll fry like a hamburger.”
    “Why would she be on the roof, even if it is the roof of this building?”
    “That’s even simpler. She’ll be there ’cause you’re gonna get her up there.”
    Rephaim didn’t speak until he could control his shock,