I tossed the bag toward Spider-Man, who reacted like it had fal en out of the sky but stil caught it before it hit the ground. Everyone was buzzing about the scent. Riley clapped his hands together twice.

"Okay, so there's the dessert I was talking about. The girl wil be with the yel ow-eyes. And whoever gets to her first gets dessert. Simple as that."

Appreciative growls, competitive growls.

Simple, yes, but... wrong. Weren't we supposed to be destroying the yel ow-eyed coven? Unity was supposed to be the key, not a first-come, first-served prize that only one vampire could win. The only guaranteed outcome from this plan was one dead human. I could think of half a dozen more productive ways to motivate this army. The one who kil s the most yel ow-eyes wins the girl. The one who shows the best team cooperation gets the girl. The one who sticks to the plan best. The one who fol ows orders best. MVP, etc. The focus should be on the danger, which was definitely not the human.

I looked around at the others and decided that none of them were fol owing the same train of thought. Raoul and Kristie were glaring at each other. I heard Sara and Jen arguing in whispers about the possibility of sharing the prize.

Wel, maybe Fred got it. He was frowning, too.

"And the last thing," Riley said. For the first time there was some reluctance in his voice. "This wil probably be even harder to accept, so I'l show you. I won't ask you to do anything I won't do. Remember that - I'm with you guys every step of the way."

The vampires got real stil again. I noticed that Raoul had the ziplock back and was gripping it possessively.

"There are so many things you have yet to learn about being a vampire," Riley said. "Some of them make more sense than others. This is one of those things that won't sound right at first, but I've experienced it myself, and I'l show you." He deliberated for a long second. "Four times a year, the sun shines at a certain indirect angle. During that one day, four times a year, it is safe... for us to be outside in the daylight."

Every tiny movement stopped. There was no breathing. Riley was talking to a bunch of statues.

"One of those special days is beginning now. The sun that is rising outside today won't hurt any of us. And we are going to use this rare exception to surprise our enemies."

My thoughts spun around and turned upside down. So Riley knew it was safe for us to go out in the sun. Or he didn't, and our creator had told him this "four days a year" story. Or... this was true and Diego and I had lucked into one of those days. Except that Diego had been out in the shade before. And Riley was making this into some kind of solstice-y seasonal thing, while Diego and I had been safe in the daylight just four days ago. I could understand that Riley and our creator would want to control us with the fear of the sun. It made sense. But why tel the truth - in a very limited way - now?

I would bet it had to do with those scary dark-cloaks. She probably wanted to get a jump on her deadline. The cloaked ones had not promised to let her live when we kil ed al the yel ow-eyes. I guessed she would be off like a shot the second she'd accomplished her objective here. Kil the yel ow-eyes and then take an extended vacation in Australia or somewhere else on the other side of the world. And I'd bet she wasn't going to send us engraved invitations. I would have to get to Diego quick so we could bail, too. In the opposite direction from Riley and our creator. And I ought to tip Fred off. I decided I would as soon as we had a moment alone.

There was so much manipulation going on in this one little speech, and I wasn't sure I was catching it al . I wished Diego were here so we could analyze it together.

If Riley was just making up this four-days story on the spot, I guess I could understand why. It's not like he could have just said, Hey, so I've lied to you for your whole lives, but now I'm telling the truth. He wanted us to fol ow him into battle today; he couldn't undermine whatever trust he'd earned.

"It's right for you to be terrified at the thought," Riley told the statues. "The reason you are al stil alive is that you paid attention when I told you to be careful. You got home on time, you didn't make mistakes. You let that fear make you smart and cautious. I don't expect you to put that intel igent fear aside easily. I don't expect you to run out that door on my word. But..."

He looked around the room once. "I do expect you to follow me out."

His eyes slid away from the audience for just the teensiest fraction of a second, touching very briefly on something over my head.

"Watch me," he told us. "Listen to me. Trust me. When you see that I'm okay, believe your eyes. The sun on this one day does have some interesting effects on our skin. You'l see. It won't hurt you in any way. I wouldn't do anything to put you guys in unnecessary danger. You know that."

He started up the stairs.

"Riley, can't we just wait - ," Kristie began.

"Just pay attention," Riley cut her off, stil moving up at a measured pace. "This gives us a big advantage. The yel oweyes know al about this day, but they don't know that we know."

As he was talking, he opened the door and walked out of the basement into the kitchen. There was no light in the wel -shaded kitchen, but everyone stil shied away from the open doorway. Everyone but me. His voice continued, moving toward the front door. "It takes most young vampires a while to embrace this exception - for good reason. Those who aren't cautious about the daylight don't last long."

I felt Fred's eyes on me. I glanced over at him. He was staring at me urgently, as if he wanted to take off but had nowhere to go.

"It's okay," I whispered almost silently. "The sun's not going to hurt us."

You trust him? he mouthed back at me.

No way.

Chapters 13

Fred raised an eyebrow and relaxed just slightly. I glanced behind us. What had Riley been looking at?

Nothing had changed - just some family pictures of dead people, a smal mirror, and a cuckoo clock. Hmm. Was he checking the time? Maybe our creator had given him a deadline, too.

"'Kay, guys, I'm going out," Riley said. "You don't have to be afraid today, I promise."

The light burst into the basement through the open door, magnified - as only I knew - by Riley's skin. I could see the bright reflections dance on the wal .

Hissing and snarling, my coven backed into the corner opposite from Fred's. Kristie was in the very back. It looked like she was trying to use her gang as a kind of shield.