AN: Thank you to Nyx's Reincarnation for pointing out to me that I had been spelling "fledgling" wrong throughout this whole story. I don't know how, but all through reading the books I had read it "fledging" instead of "fledgling". Go me!

Chapter 10: Conversations

I was sitting on my bed in mine and Aphrodite's room. She wasn't back yet. I wasn't sure where she had gone after dinner, but the events from last night were still swirling around my brain. I cradled my phone in my hands. I had contemplated calling Jason numerous times, but I stopped myself every time. I had slept the day away without any trouble–surprisingly. I had figured I'd be tossing and turning all night, thinking about the ugly scene between Jason and me, Stevie Rae, and what had happened with Loren–er…Professor Blake and I, but I had slept like a baby.

So, here I was, sitting on my bed with Oscar curled in my lap. I was sad. I had barely wanted to leave my room today, but I had made it through my classes. Poetry with Professor Blake was awkward to say the least, but he had still acted completely normal around me. I hadn't gone to his class at lunch to get help with my homework like I sometimes would. Instead I sat with Zoey, Erik, Damien and the twins in the dining hall. The table was very quiet, and I could feel the sadness and tension in the air between us. My friends and I had all been very quiet and hadn't spoken much. Stevie Rae's death was still very fresh in each of our minds. I could tell Zoey was the most upset. Stevie Rae had been her best friend.

With a jolt I realized I hadn't thought of my best friend at all since I had got here. I glanced at the clock. 5 AM. No way would Leslie be awake now. She'd still be asleep for sure, and I wasn't going to call her–I really shouldn't have, but I needed my best friend. On a whim I decided to call her. Hopefully her phone would be off so I wouldn't wake her and it'd just go to voicemail.

As I suspected, it went straight to her voicemail. Apparently luck was on my side after such a shitty night. I kept my message short and simple.

"Hey Leslie, it's Jess, I just wanted to call to see what's up…maybe we could…" I hesitated, trying to decide exactly what to say. "Maybe we could go to that bakery at Utica Square that we both love with those super awesome cupcakes? I miss you. Anyway, I gotta go. Call me whenever."

I hung up. That had been harder than I had anticipated. Why had it felt so hard to talk to her? I mean, I hadn't even spoken directly to her, and I could barely get the words out. I also realized that I had only talked to my mom once since I had arrived here. I wouldn't call her now, she never turned off her phone and I didn't want to wake her, but I made a mental note to call her tonight when I woke up.

Aphrodite coming into the room interrupted my thoughts. I looked up to see her looking super pale and her eyes were bloodshot. Her hands were shaking, and I soon realized that not just her hands were shaking–her whole body was.

"What's wrong?" I asked as she shakily made her way to her bed and sat heavily on it.

"Water…I…I need water," she said hoarsely. Her voice was barely a whisper.

I got off my bed and went into the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle for her. I opened it and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she muttered, taking a big gulp.

"What did you see?" I asked, recognizing the signs that she had just had a vision.

"Stevie Rae…" she trailed off.

My brow furrowed. "Aphrodite, how could you have had a vision of Stevie Rae? She died last night, we all saw it."

Slowly, she turned to meet my eyes. "She's one of them."

"Them?" I repeated–then the realization dawned on me. "Those fledglings in the tunnels….that's what you mean."

She nodded slowly. "Stevie Rae is–or at least she will be–one of them."

"What else did you see?" I asked.

"I saw…" she hesitated, her brow furrowed. "I don't…I don't know if I can tell you."

"What?" I asked.

"The vamps…they're crazy intuitive. If they read your mind…" she trailed off.

"It's Neferet, isn't it?" I whispered. "On my first day here, you warned me about her. This is about that, isn't it?" She nodded slowly, and looked back down to her water bottle to take another swig, but didn't say anything so I continued. "Aphrodite…I don't think she can read my mind."

Her head snapped up to meet my gaze. "What?"

"You warned me about her on my first day here," I repeated. "Wouldn't she have plucked that out of my head earlier? And wouldn't she have acted on it by now?"

She hesitated. "You might be right. That must mean something. If the vamps can't read you, Zoey, and me, then that must be important."

"They can't read Zoey's mind either?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Nope, and Neferet hasn't been able to read my mind from the day I got here. Drove her crazy. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Neferet is behind all this. She's basically convinced everyone that Nyx has abandoned me. Everyone thinks that I don't have visions anymore."

"But I know she hasn't," I said.

"Zoey does too," she said. "Remember when that bridge almost collapsed last week? I told Zoey about me having a vision of it and she stopped it from happening. None of the other vamps clued into it. And obviously if no one has said anything to you about that, the vamps can't read your mind either.

"But Prof. Nolan might be able to. She seems to be able to read me well. I'm sure she knows that Jason and I may or may not have Imprinted….and sometimes it feels like we're actually mentally communicating. It's weird."

Aphrodite shrugged. "Nolan probably just knows you better and can sense when something's bothering you. She's not stupid, obviously she'd assume something between you and Jason had happened. She'd probably expect you to talk to her about it."

"She knows about Neferet," I said suddenly.

"What?" Aphrodite asked sharply.

I told her about how Prof. Nolan had helped me find out where to go to find Jason when he had been taken and about when she came to our room to talk to us about what happened. I remembered the look she gave me when I had been about to talk about how she had helped us find him.

Aphrodite was quiet as I recounted my story to her.

"Hmmm…that does sound like she knows something about Neferet," Aphrodite said thoughtfully.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

She met my eyes evenly. "It could mean big trouble for Nolan." I didn't like that. Aphrodite had almost sounded scared for Prof. Nolan. I felt scared for her. Noticing how quiet I was, Aphrodite asked, "Do you have an affinity?"

"What?" I asked.

"Like, for earth, spirit, water, et cetera? Do you have one?"

"Not as far as I know. I haven't tried, though."

"Tonight, after class, we need to talk to Zoey," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"We need to find out if you have an element affinity."