I cleared my throat. "Well, I'm Zoey Redbird." I tried to sound polite and normal in a situation that didn't feel either.

"I've told y'all about Zoey. She has an affinity for all five elements, and it's through her powers that I was able to Change and we were all given our humanity back," Stevie Rae said. I noticed she was looking directly at Venus.

"Well, it wasn't just through me that happened. My friends had a lot to do with it, too." I nodded at Aphrodite, who was still drinking directly from the bottle of wine. "You guys obviously know Aphrodite. She's a human now, but let's just say she's not normal," I said, completely avoiding the subject of her fresh Imprint with Stevie Rae.

Aphrodite snorted, but didn't say anything.

"This is Erin and Shaunee, the Twins. Erin has an affinity for water, Shaunee's affinity is fire." The Twins nodded and said hi.

"Damien and Jack are a couple," I said. "Damien's affinity is air. Jack is our audiovisual guy."

"Hi," Damien said.

"Hey there," Jack said. He lifted the bag he was still carrying. "I made sandwiches. Anyone hungry?"

"Can someone explain why that dog's in here?" Venus said, totally ignoring Jack's friendly overture.

"She's here 'cause she's mine," Jack said. "She stays with me." He reached down and petted Duchess's soft ears.

"Duchess stays with Jack," I said firmly, giving Venus a hard look and thinking that I could happily strangle her with Duchess's leash before I continued with the intros. "And this is Erik Night."

"I remember you from drama class," Shannoncompton said, her cheeks turning pink. "You're really famous."

"Hi, Shannon." Erik smiled easily at her. "Nice to see you again."

"I remember you, too. You were with Aphrodite," Venus said.

"Not anymore," Aphrodite said quickly, giving Darius a look.

"Obviously. You're not a fledgling anymore," Venus said in a silky voice that sounded way too interested. "When did you Change?"

"Just a few days ago," he said. "I was on my way to the Europe an acting academy when Shekinah asked that I take Professor Nolan's place temporarily at the House of Night."

"Wow, I knew that High Priestess looked familiar. That was actually Shekinah!" Shannoncompton said. "I saw her just before she started toward that winged guy and--" She stopped talking and picked at her lip worriedly.

"And she was killed by Neferet," I bluntly finished for her.

"Was she? Do you know that for certain?" Darius asked.

"She's dead and I saw Neferet do it. I think she killed her with her mind," I said.

"Queen Tsi Sgili," Damien murmured. "It's true then."

"I need all of this explained to me," Darius said curtly.

"And this is our Son of Erebus warrior, Darius," I said.

"He's right," Stevie Rae said. "We need what happened to night explained to us."

"Not just to night's happenings," Darius said. His gaze rested on the group of unusual fledglings. "I need information if I am to protect you. I must know everything that has been going on."

"Agreed," I said, glad beyond words that we had an experienced Son of Erebus in our group.

"We could eat and talk," Jack said. When I looked at him, he gave me a big smile. "It always helps to eat with each other. A meal makes things better."

"Unless you're the meal," I heard Aphrodite mutter.

"Jack's right," Stevie Rae said. "Why don't y'all go grab some of the egg crates we have in the kitchen and some bags of chips and whatnot. Let's eat while we talk."

"Would the whatnot be more blood?" Venus said.

"Yes, it would," Stevie Rae said matter-of-factly, clearly not wanting to make a big deal out of the blood issue. "Fine. I'll go get some more," Venus said.

"Hey, while you're getting blood, grab me another bottle of wine," Aphrodite said.

"You know I'm not into charity, so you'll be paying me back," Venus said.

"I remember," Aphrodite said. "And you should remember that I pay my debts."

"Yeah, that's how you used to be, but seems you've made a change," she said.

"No shit? You mean you just now noticed I turned human?"

"Not what I was talking about. So just replace the wine," she added before leaving the room.