Whydidn't we just kill her?" Kestrel asked.
Rowan and Jade looked at each other. There were few things they agreed on, but one of them was
definitely Kestrel.
. "First of all, we agreed not to do that here. Wedon't use our powers-"
"And we don't feed onhumans. Or kill them," Kestrel finished the chant. "But you already used your
powers tonight; you called Jade."
"I had to let her know what story I'd just toldabout Aunt Opal. Actually, I should have planned
forthis earlier. I should have realized that people are going to come and ask where Aunt Opal is."
"She's the only one who's asking. If we killed her-"
"We can't just go killing people in our new home,"Rowan said tightly. "Besides, she said she had family
waiting for her. Are we going to kill all of them?"
Kestrel shrugged.
"We arenotgoing to start a blood feud," Rowan said even more tightly.
"But what about influencing her?" Jade said. Shewas sitting with Tiggy in her arms, kissing the
velvety black top of the kitten's head. "Making her forget she's suspicious-or making her think she saw
Aunt Opal?"
"That would be fine-if it were just her," Rowansaid patiently. "But it's not. Are we going to influ
enceeveryone who comes to the house? What aboutpeople who call on the phone? What about
teachers?You two are supposed to start school in a couple of weeks."
"Maybe we'll just have to miss that," Kestrel said without regret.
Rowan was shaking her head. "We need a permanent solution. We need to find some reasonable
explanation for why Aunt Opal is gone."
"We need to move Aunt Opal," Kestrel said flatly."We need to get rid of her."
"No, no. We might have to produce the body,"Rowan said.
"Looking likethat?"
They began to argue about it. Jade rested her chin on Tiggy's head and stared out the multipaned kitchen
window. She was thinking about Mark Carter, who had such a gallant heart. It gave her a pleasantly
forbidden thrill just to picture him. Back home there weren't any humans wandering around free. She
could never have been tempted to break NightWorld law and fall in love with one. But here ...yes, Jade
could almost imagine falling in love with Mark Carter. Just as if she were a human girl.
She shivered deliriously. But just as she was tryingto picture what human girls did when they were in
love, Tiggy gave a sudden heave. He twisted out of her arms and hit the kitchen floor running. The fur on
his back was up.
Jade looked at the window again.She couldn't see anything. But ...she felt ...
She turned to her sisters. "Something was out there in the garden tonight," she said. "And Icouldn't smell
it."
Rowan and Kestrel were still arguing. They didn't hear her.
Mary-Lynnette opened her eyes and sneezed. She'd overslept. Sun was shining around the edges of her
dark blue curtains.
Get up and get to work, she told herself. But instead she lay rubbing sleep out of her eyes and tryingto
wake up. She was a night person, not a morningperson.
The room was large and painted twilight blue. Mary-Lynnette had stuck the glow-in-the-dark starsand
planets to the ceiling herself. Taped onto the dresser mirror was a bumper sticker saying I BRAKEFOR
ASTEROIDS.On the walls were a giant relief map of the moon, a poster from the Sky-Gazer's Almanac,
and photographic prints of the Pleiades,theHorsehead Nebula, and the total eclipse of 1995.
It was Mary-Lynnette's retreat, the place to go when people didn't understand. She always felt safeinthe
night.
She yawned and staggered to the bathroom, grabbing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt on the way. She was
brushing her hair as she walked down the stairs when she heard voices from the living room.
-252Claudine's voice ... and a male voice. Not Mark; weekdays he usually went to his friend Ben's
house.A stranger.
Mary-Lynnette peeked through the kitchen. Therewas a guy sitting on the living room couch. She could
see only the back of his head, which was ash blond. Mary-Lynnette shrugged and started to open the
refrigerator, when she heard her own name.
"Mary-Lynnette is very good friends with her," Claudine was saying in her quick, lightly accented
voice. "I remember a few years ago she helped her fix up a goat shed."
They're talking about Mrs. B.!
"Why does she keep goats? I think she told Mary-Lynnette it would help since she couldn't get out that
much anymore."
"How strange," the guy said. He had a lazy, careless-sounding voice. "I wonder what she meant
bythat."
Mary-Lynnette, who was now peering intently through the kitchen while keeping absolutely still,saw
Claudine give one of her slight, charming shrugs.
"I suppose she meant the milk-every day she has fresh milk now. She doesn't have to go to the
store. But I don't know. You'll have to ask her yourself." She laughed.
-252Not going to be easy, Mary-Lynnette thought. Now, why would some strange guy be here asking
questions about Mrs. B.?
Of course. He had to be police or something. FBI.But his voice made her wonder. He sounded too
young to be either, unless he was planning to infiltrate Dewitt High as a narc. Mary-Lynnette edgedfarther
into the kitchen, getting a better view.There-she could see him in the mirror.
Disappointment coursed through her.
Definitely not old enough to be FBI. And much asMary-Lynnette wanted him to be a keen-eyed, quick
witted, hard-driving detective, he wasn't. He was only the handsomest boy she'd ever seen in her life.
He was lanky and elegant, with long legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed under the coffee
table. He looked like a big amiable cat. He had deancut features, slightly tilted wicked eyes, and a
disarming lazy grin.
Not just lazy, Mary-Lynnette decided. Fatuous. Bland. Maybe even stupid. She wasn't impressed by
good looks unless they were the thin, brown, and interesting kind, like-well, like Jeremy Lovett for
instance. Gorgeous guys-guys who looked like bigash-blond cats-didn't have any reason to develop their
minds. They were self-absorbed and vain. With IQs barely high enough to keep a seat warm.
And this guy looked as if he couldn't get awake orserious to save his life.
I don't care what he's here for. Ithink I'll go upstairs.
it was then that the guy on the couch lifted onehand, wiggling the fingers in the air. He half-turned. Not
far enough actually to look at Mary-Lynnette,but far enough to make it dear he was talking to
somebody behind him. She could now see his profilein the mirror. "Hi, there."
"Mary-Lynnette, is that you?" Claudine called.
"Yes." Mary-Lynnette opened the refrigerator doorand made banging noises. "Just getting some
juice. Then I'm going out."
Her heard was beating hard-with embarrassmentand annoyance. Okay, so he must have seen her in the
mirror. He probably thought she was staring at him because of the way he looked. He probably had
people staring at him everywhere he went. So what, big deal, go away.
"Don't go yet," Claudine called. "Come out here and talk for a few minutes."
No. Mary-Lynnette knew it was a childish and stupid reaction, but she couldn't help it. She banged a
bottle of apricot juice against a bottle of Calistoga sparkling water.
"Come meet Mrs. Burdock's nephew," Claudine called.
Mary-Lynnette went still.
She stood in the cold air of the refrigerator, lookingsightlessly at the temperature dial in the back. Then
she put the bottle of apricot juice down. She twisted a Coke out of a six-pack without seeing it.
What nephew? I don't remember hearing about any nephew.
But then, she'd never heard much about Mrs. B.'s nieces either, not until they were coming out. Mrs. B.
just didn't talk about her familymuch.
So he's her nephew. . . that's why he's askingabout her. But does he know? Ishe in on it with those girls?
Or is he after them? Or .. .
Thoroughly confused, she walked into the living room.
"Mary-Lynnette, this is Ash. He's here to visit withhis aunt and his sisters," Claudine said. "Ash,
this isMary-Lynnette. The one who's such good friends with your aunt."
Ash gotup, all in one lovely, lazy motion. Just like a cat, including the stretch in the middle. "Hi."
He offered a hand. Mary-Lynnette touched it withfingers damp and cold from the Coke can, glanced up
at his face, and said "Hi."
Except that it didn't happen that way.
If happened like this: Mary-Lynnette had her eyeson the carpet as she came in, which gave her a good
view of his Nike tennis shoes and the ripped kneesof his jeans. When he stood up she looked at his
T-shirt, which had an obscure design-a black floweron a white background. Probably the emblem of
some rock group. And then when his hand entered her field of vision, she reached for it automatically,
muttering a greeting and looking up at his face justas she touched it. And This was the part that was hard
to describe.
Contact.
Somethinghappened.
Hey, don't I know you?
She didn't. That was the thing. She didn't know him-but she felt that she should. She also felt as if
somebody had reached inside her and touched herspine with a live electric wire. It was extremely not
enjoyable. The room turned vaguely pink. Her throat swelled and she could feel her heart beating there.
Also not-enjoyable. But somehow when you put it alltogether, it made a kind of trembly dizziness like ...
Like what she felt when she looked at the Lagoon Nebula. Or imagined galaxies gathered into dusters
and superclusters, bigger and bigger, until size lost any meaning and she felt herself falling.
She was falling now. She couldn't see anything except his eyes. And those eyes were strange, prismlike,
changing color like a star seen throughheavy atmosphere. Now blue, now gold, now violet.
Oh, take this away. Please, I don't want it.
"It's so good to see a new face around here, isn'tit? We're very boring out here by ourselves,"