“I understand.”
“Do you? I’m holding the Taser and I’m the closest to a human in this room. You look sideways at any of us, and I’m going to zap you. Sorry, Damien,” Aphrodite said.
Damien hung his head and wiped his eyes with a shaky hand. I knew what Jack had just done—just said—had shaken him to his core. I had to be strong for him. We all did.
“Yes. I understand perfectly,” Jack said.
“Good. Let’s go. We have a lot of questions and we need answers right away,” I said. “Aphrodite and Stevie Rae, please gather the professors in our dining hall and update them on everything we know so far. Lenobia, please go to the infirmary and warn them that there is a probability that they’re going to have incoming.”
“On my way, High Priestess,” Lenobia said, hurrying from the auditorium.
“Hey, don’t you want me to come to the basement with you? You might need me to deal with the cannibal.” Aphrodite gestured at Jack with the Taser.
“Thanks, but I think Stark, Damien, and I can handle it.”
“Want to take this with you?” She offered me the Taser.
“Nah, she has me,” Stark said.
“So, you want to take this, right?” Aphrodite said, rolling her eyes at Stark.
I stifled a grin. “Keep it. You never know when you might need it.”
Totally serious, Aphrodite nodded. “You’re right about that. And here’s a little secret: I enjoyed the hell out of using it.”
“Oh, Aphrodite,” Stark said. “That’s no secret.”
Jack sucked down three full glasses of blood before his eyes stopped glowing.
“Why so much?” I asked. “You seemed okay after just one glass before.”
Jack wiped his mouth delicately on the back of his sleeve, grimacing at the bloodstain on his shirt. “My hunger is more intense because I’m not eating flesh.”
“Is that how it is for all red fledglings?” Stark asked.
“Yes. And red vampyres.”
I glanced at Damien, whose hand was poised above the pad of paper on which he was supposed to be taking notes on the answers Other Jack was giving us.
“Damien, if this is too much, I can call Stevie Rae down here and she can take notes,” I said gently.
Damien shook his head. “No. I can do this. I want to do this.” He pulled his eyes from Jack and started writing.
Stark and I shared a look. He shrugged. I’d given everyone a task that took them out of the basement—except Stark and Damien. Stark refused to leave, of course. He still thought Other Jack might try to eat one of us. And I refused to make Damien leave. I hoped I hadn’t made a bad decision. Again.
“Okay, then let’s hurry and get these questions answered. Jack, I can tell you that we’ll probably have more questions later.”
“I understand,” he said.
“Okay, first, we have red fledglings and vampyres in this House of Night world, but they’re different. As you can see by Stark. Um, I don’t mean to offend you, but you and the others—though mostly the others—seem very … uh …” I paused, struggling to find a word that wouldn’t completely alienate him.
“Blood-crazy and feral like zombies,” Stark said.
“Well, yeah, that’s one way of putting it.” I gave Stark a you’re-not-helping look. “Another way is that your people seem much more driven by the blood feeding frenzy than our red fledglings and vamps.”
Other Jack nodded. “There are different levels of the feeding frenzy, but it does mostly control us reds.”
“So, you don’t retain your humanity once you’re Marked red?” Damien asked.
Other Jack’s eyes were shadowed by sadness. “By the time we make the Change, the feeding frenzy rules our lives. Some red vampyres can control it enough to function. They’re made officers in the Red Army. The rest are soldiers.”
“That sounds like all red fledglings make the Change to vampyre,” Stark said.
“They do.”
“So, you always make the Change to adult vampyre if you’re a red fledgling. Okay, what other rules apply to you? Like, can you go out in daylight?” I asked.
“No, we can’t be exposed to the sun. Not as fledglings or vampyres. It burns us up.”
“What else?” I prompted.
“Well, between sunrise and sunset red fledglings are unconscious. Red vampyres can function, but they’re very weak.”
“Wait, you mean you literally can’t stay awake?” Stark asked.
“Yes. I can feel it right now. Sunrise isn’t far away, and already my mind is getting sleepy.”
“Okay, we need to hurry up then. What else is different about you and blue vamps and fledglings?” I asked quickly.
Looking more and more exhausted, Other Jack started to tick points off his fingers. “We have to be invited inside a private dwelling to enter. Some red vampyres can use mind control, but they are the same vamps who are officers in the army. Regular red vamps can’t concentrate on anything except feeding, so they can’t control minds. We heal from wounds quickly, but we have to feed to do so. Oh, and of course, a red vampyre’s bite is contagious. I think that’s it.”
“Rewind,” I said as my stomach felt heavy and sick. “What do you mean by contagious?”
Other Jack gave me a surprised look. “You know, if a red vampyre bites a human that human will die within three days, and then within another three days if their body isn’t beheaded or burned they rise as red zombies.”
“You’re going to need to explain that better,” Stark said when all I did was stare at Jack.
“That doesn’t happen here?” Jack asked.
“No,” I said. “Being a vampyre isn’t contagious. It’s a gift from Nyx, whether you’re Marked blue or red.”
“Oh, well, being a vampyre isn’t contagious in my world, either. That’s why we call them zombies. They rise within three days, but they’re not human and they’re not vampyre. They just lust for blood and living flesh, and then they die. For good this time. Usually within a week or so. Oh, their bite is contagious, too.”
“Zombies. Literally,” I said.
Other Jack nodded. “Yep. Literally.”
“You said you heal from wounds quickly, but I noticed the red vampyres hardly flinched when my arrows struck them—until I shot them through the neck. What’s that about?” Stark said.
“We can only be killed by severing our spines or by being burned. Oh, we can starve to death, too, but that takes some time and it’s terribly painful. It’s how the Red Army disciplines soldiers. They starve them to make them do as they command.” Other Jack shuddered delicately, reminding me so much of our Jack that I had to look away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears that pooled in my eyes.
“And Neferet is the leader of both the Red and Blue Armies?” Stark asked.
“Yes.”
“Um, who exactly is she fighting?” I asked.
“It’s more like who isn’t she fighting,” Jack said. “Her armies have taken control of the middle of the US. Rebel and human strongholds are on the east and west coasts. As soon as she defeats them, she’s going to take over Europe, but she has to do away with the High Council, first. And that’s proving harder than she thought it would be.”