Jade sat in the wing chair, holding Tiggy upsidedown on her lap, petting his stomach. He was purring but
mad. She stared down into indignant, glowing green eyes.
"The other goat," Kestrel announced from the doorway, saying the word as if it were something
not mentioned in polite society, "is just fine. So you can let the cat out."
Jade didn't think so. There was somebody crazy inBriar Creek, and she planned to keep Tiggy safe
where she could see him.
"We're not going to have to feed on the goat, are we?" Kestrel asked Rowan dangerously.
"Of course not. Aunt Opal did because she was tooold to hunt." Rowan looked preoccupied as
she answered.
"I like hunting," Jade said. "It's even better thanI thought it would be." But Rowan wasn't listening
she was biting her lip and staring into the distance. "Rowan, what?"
"I was thinking about the situation we're in. You and Mark, for one thing. I think we need to talk
about that."
Jade felt reflexive alarm. Rowan was in one of herorganizing moods-which meant you could blink and
find that she'd rearranged all your bedroom furnitureor that you were moving to Oregon. "Talk about
what?" she said warily.
"About what you two are going todo. Is he going to stay human?"
"It's illegal to change him," Kestrel put in pointedly.
"Everything we've done this week is illegal,"Rowan said. "And if they exchange blood again well,
it's only going to take a couple of times. Do you want him a vampire?" she asked Jade.
Jade hadn't thought about it. She thought Mark was nice the way he was. But maybehe would wantto be
one. "What are you going to do with yours?" she asked Ash, who was coming slowly downstairs.
"My what?" He looked sleepy and irritable.
"Your soulmate. Is Mary-Lynnette going to stayhuman?"
"That's the other thing I've been worrying about," Rowan said. "Have you thought at all, Ash?"
"I can't think at this hour in the morning. I don'thave a brain yet."
"It's almost noon," Kestrel said scornfully.
"I don't care when it is. I'm still asleep." He wandered toward the kitchen. "And you don't need to
worry," he added, looking back and sounding more awake. "Because I'm not doinganythingwith the girl
and Jade's not doing anything with the brother. Because we're goinghome."He disappeared.
Jade's heart was beating hard. Ash might act frivolous, but she saw the ruthlessness underneath. She
looked at Rowan.
"Is Mary-Lynnettereally his soulmate?"
Rowan leaned back, her brown hair spreading likea waterfall on the green brocade of the couch. "I'm
afraid so."
"But then how can he want to leave?"
"Well ..." Rowan hesitated. "Soulmates don't always stay together. Sometimes it's too much-the
fire and lightning and all that. Some people just can'tstand it."
Maybe Mark and I aren't really soulmates, Jade thought. And maybe that's good. It sounds painful.
"Poor Mary-Lynnette," she said.
A dear voice sounded in her mind:Whydoesn'tanybody say "Poor Ash"?
"Poor Mary-Lynnette," Jade said again.
Ash reappeared. "Look," he said and sat down onone of the carved mahogany chairs. "We need to get
things straight. It's not just a matter ofme wanting you to come home. I'm not the only one who knows
you're here."
Jade stiffened.
Kestrelsaid, almost pleasantly,"Youtold somebody?"
"I was staying with somebody when the family called to say you were missing. And he was there
when I realized where you must have gone. He also happens to be an extremely powerful telepath. So
just consider yourself lucky I convinced him to let me try to get you back."
Jade stared at him. She did consider herself lucky. She also considered it strange that Ash would go to
such trouble for her and Rowan and Kestrel-for any bodybesides Ash. Maybe she didn't know her
brother as well as she thought.
Rowan said, very soberly, "Who was it?"
"Oh, nobody." Ash leaned back and looked moodily at the ceiling. "Just Quinn."
Jade flinched. Quinn ... that snake .He had a heart like a glacier and he despised humans. He was the
sort to take Night World law into his own hands if he didn't think it was being enforced properly.
"He's coming back on Monday to see if I've takencare of the situation," Ash said. "And if I
haven't,we're all dead-you, me, and your little human buddies."
Rowan said, "So we've got until Monday to figuresomething out."
Kestrel said, "If he tries anything on us, he's in fora fight."
Jade squeezed Tiggy to make him growl.
Mary-Lynnette had been sleeping like a stone-buta stone with unusually vivid dreams. She dreamed
about stars brighter than she'd ever seen and starclouds shimmering in colors like the northern lights. She
dreamed about sending an astronomical telegram to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to register her claim for
discovering a new supernova. About being the firstto see it with her wonderful new eyes, eyes thatshe
saw in a mirror-were all pupil, like an owl's or a cat's....
Then the dream changed and she was an owl, swooping down in a dizzying rush from a hollow Douglas
fir. She seized a squirrel in her talons andfelt a surge of simple joy. Killing felt so natural. All she had to
do was be the best owl she could be, and grab food with her feet.
But then a shadow fell over her from somewhereabove. And in the dream she felt a terrible sick real
ization-that even hunters could be hunted. And that something was after her....
She woke up disoriented-not as towhere shewas, but as to who she was. Mary-Lynnette or a hunter
being chased by something with white teeth in themoonlight? And even when she went downstairs, she
couldn't shake off the sick feeling from her dream.
"Hi," Mark said. "Is that breakfast or lunch?"
"Both," Mary-Lynnette said, sitting down on the family room couch with her two granola bars.
Mark was watching her. "So," he said, "have you been thinking about it, too?"
Mary-Lynnette tore the wrapper off a granola bar with her teeth. "About what?"
" Youknow."
Mary-Lynnette did know. She glanced around to make sure Claudine wasn't in earshot." Don't think
about it."
"Why not?" When she didn't answer, he said,"Don't tell me you haven't been wondering what it
would be like. To see better, hear better, be telepathic...and live forever. I mean, we could see the year
three thousand. You know, the robot wars, colonizing other planets.... Come on, don't tell me you'renot
even a little curious."
All Mary-Lynnette could think of was a line from a Robert Service Poem: Andthe skies of nightw re
alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame... .
"I'm curious," she said. 'But there's no point in wondering. They do things we couldn't do-they
kill"
She put down her glass of milk as if she'd lost herappetite. She hadn't, though-and wasn't that the
problem? She ought to be sick to her stomach at just the thought of killing, of drinking blood from a
warm body.
Instead, she was scared. Of what was out there inthe world-and of herself.
"It'sdangerous,"she said aloud to Mark. "Don'tyousee? We've gotten mixed up in this Night
World-and it's a place where bad things can happen. Not just bad like flunking a class. Bad like ..."
... white teeth in the moonlight ...
"Like getting lolleddead," Mary-Lynnette said. "And that's serious, Mark. It's not like the
movies."
Mark was staring at her. "Yeah, but we knew that already." His tone said "What's the big deal?"
And Mary-Lynnette couldn't explain. She stood up abruptly. "If we're going over there, we'd better get
moving," she said. "It's almost one o'clock."
The sisters and Ash were waiting at Burdock Farm.
"You and Mark can sit in the front with me," MaryLynnette told Jade, not looking at Ash. "But I
don't think you'd better bring the cat."
"The cat goes," Jade said firmly, getting in. "OrI don't."
Mary-Lynnette put the car in gear and pulled out.
As they came in sight of the small duster of buildings on Main Street, Mark said, "And there it is,
downtown Briar Creek in all its glory. A typical Friday afternoon, with absolutely nobody on the streets."
He didn't say it with his usual bitterness. MaryLynnette glanced at him and saw that it was Jade he was
talking to. And Jade was looking around with genuine interest, despite the cat's claws embedded in her
neck.
"Somebody'son the streets," she said cheerfully. "It's that. boy Vic. And that other one, Todd.
And grown-ups."
Mary-Lynnette slowed as she passed the sheriff'soffice but didn't stop until she reached the gas station at
the opposite corner. Then she got out and looked casually across the street.
Todd Akers was there with his father, the sheriff and Vic Kimble was there with his father. Mr. Kimble
had a farm east of town. They were all getting into the sheriff's car, and they all seemed very excited.
Bunny Marten was standing on the sidewalk watching as they left.
Mary-Lynnette felt a twinge of fear. This is what it's like when you have a terrible secret, she thought.
You worry about everything that happens, and wonder if it's got something to do with you, if it's going to
get you caught.
"Hey, Bunnyl" she called. "What's going on?"
Bunny looked back. "Oh, hi, Mare." She walkedunhurriedly-Bunny never hurried-,acrossthe street.
"How're you doing? They're just going to check out that horse thing."
"What horse thing?"
"Oh. . .didn't you hear?" Bunny was looking behind Mary-Lynnette now, at Mark and the four
strangers who were getting out of the station wagon. Suddenly her blue eyes got rounder and she
reached up to fluff her soft blond hair.
Now, I wonder who she's just seen, Mary-Lynnettethought ironically. Who could it be?
"Hi" Ash said.
"We didn't hear about the horse thing," MaryLynnette said, gently prompting.
"Oh... um, one of Mr. Kimble's horses cut his throat on barbed wire last night. That's what
everybody was sayingthis morning. But just now Mr.Kimble came into town and said that he didn't think
it was barbed wire after all. He thinks ... somebody did it on purpose. Slashed its throat and left it todie."
She hunched her shoulders in a tiny shiver.. Theatrically, Mary-Lynnette thought.
"You see?" Jade said. "That's why I'm keeping my eye on Tiggy."
Mary-Lynnette noticed Bunny eyeing Jade. "Thanks,Bun."
"I've got to get back to the store," Bunny said,but she didn't move. Now she was looking at
Kestreland Rowan.
"I'll walk you there," Ash said gallantly. Withwhat, Mary-Lynnette thought, must be his usual