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Mark was stillas he rounded the backcorner of the house What was he even doinghere?
It wasn’t easy to get into the garden area frorown
rhododendron bushes and blackberry canesthat fore all around it And evenwhen he
ereenleaves, the scene in front of hiister His
ht up
Hey, wait There’sa girl here
A pretty girl Anextreht She had hiplength
white-blond hair, the color that normally onlypreschoolers have, and it was as fine as a child’s hair,too,
whipping around her like pale silk when shemoved She was smallish Little bones Her hands and feet
were delicate
She earing what looked like an oldfashioned nightshirt and dancing to what sounded like a
rent-to-own commercial There was a battereddock radio on the porch steps There was also a black
kitten that took one look at Mark and darted away into the shadows
"Baaad cred-it,nooo cred-it, dooon’t wor-ry,weee’ll take you" the radio warbled The girl
danced with her ar in astonishht, and so what if it was a cliche
As the coan, she did a twirl and saw him Shestopped,
frozen, ar and her ht Ofto seize the
dock radio, fu to find an Off switch, Mark realized Her desperation was
contagious Before he thought, Mark dropped the pruning shears and swooped in to grab the radio fro short Then he stared at the girl, who stared backide
silvery-green eyes They were both breath ing quickly, as if they’d just disarmed a bomb
"Hey, I hate country western, too," Mark said aftera irl this way before But then he’d never had a girl look scared of hiined he could see her heartbeating in the pale blue veins beneath the translucent
skin of her throat
Then, suddenly, she stopped looking terrified Shebit her lip and chortled Then, still grinning, she blinked
and sniffed
"I forgot," she said, dabbing at the corner of her eye "You don’t have the same rules we do"
"Rules about country western music?" Mark hazarded He liked her voice It was ordinary, not
celestial It made her seem more human
"Rules about any music from outside," she said "And any TV, too"
Outside what? Mark thought He said, "Uh, hi I’m Mark Carter"
"I’m Jade Redfern"
"You’re one of Mrs Burdock’s nieces"
"Yes We just ca to livehere"
Mark snorted and muttered, "You have my condolences"
"Condolences? Why?" Jade cast a darting glance around the garden
"Because living in Briar Creek is just slightly ave hi, fascinated look "You’ve lived in a ce look "Uh, actually, I just ht, then s to us," she said "It’s different from where
we come from"
"And just wheredo you come from?"
"An island It’s sort of near " She considered "The state of Maine
"’The state of Maine"’
"Yeah"
"Does this island have a nareen eyes "Well, I can’t tell youthat"
"Uh-okay" Was, shelikein her
face She looked mysteriousand innocent Maybe she had soh School would have a field day with that They weren’t very tolerant of differences
"Look," he said abruptly "If there’s ever anything I can do for you-you know, if you ever get in
trouble or so-then just tell me Okay?"
She tilted her head sideways Her eyelashes actually cast shadows in the porch light, but her expression
wasn’t coy It was straightforward and assessing,and she was looking hiure hi little dimples in her cheeks, and
Mark’s heart jumped unexpectedly
"Okay," she said softly "Mark You’re not silly, even though you’re a boy You’re a good guy,
aren’tyou?"
"Well"Mark had never been called upon to be a good guy, not in the TV sense He wasn’t
surehow he’d measure up if he were "I, u at hi to like it here" She sain,
and Mark found it hard to breathe-and then her expression changed
Mark heard it, too A wild crashing in the overgrown tangle of rhododendrons and blackberrybushes at
the back of the garden It was a weird,frenzied sound, but Jade’s reaction was out of all proportion She
had frozen, body tense andtre, eyes fixed on the underbrush She looked terrified
"Hey" Mark spoke gently, then touched hershoulder "Hey It’s all right It’s probably one of the
goats that got loose; goats can ju her head "Or a deer
When they’re relaxed they sound just like people walking"
"It’s not a deer," she hissed
"They coht You probably don’t have deer roa
aroundwhere you co," she said in a kind of whispered wail "It’s that stupid pen Everything soat "
She couldn’t she could think of in response to a stateirl
"Everything’s okay," he said softly He couldn’thelp but notice that she was cool and warm at the
sahtshirt "Why don’t I take you inside now? You’ll
be safe there"
"Leggo," Jade said ungratefully, squirled out of his arain "Stay behind me"
Okay, so sheis crazy I don’t care I think I love her
He stood beside her "Look, I’ll fight, too What doyou think it is? Bear, coyote?""My brother"
"Your" Dismay pooled in Mark She’d just stepped over the line of acceptable craziness
"Oh"
Another thrashing sound frooat Mark was just
wondering vaguely if a Roosevelt elk could have wandered down the hundred or so miles froh the air
A human scream-or, worse,almost human As it died, there was a wail that was definitely inhumanit
started out faint, and then suddenly sounded shrilland dose Mark was stunned When the drawn-out wail
finally stopped, there was a sobbing, ot his breath and swore "What in theasthat?"
"Shh Keep still" Jade was in a half-crouch, eyes on the bushes
"Jade-Jade, listen We’ve got to get inside" Desperate, he looped an ar to pick her up She was light, but she flowed like water out of his arms Like a cat that doesn’t
want to bepetted "Jade, whatever that thing is, we need agun
"I don’t" She see odd about
her diction She had her back to him and he couldn’t see her face, but her hands were clawed
"Jade,"Mark said urgently He was scared enoughto run, but he couldn’t leave her He couldn’t
No good guy would do that
Too late The blackberry bushes to the south quivered Parted Soh
Mark’s heart see Jade roughly aside
Standing in front of her to face whatever the thing in the dark was
Mary-Lynnette kicked her way through the blackberry canes Her ars were scratched, and
she could feel ripe, bright-black berries squishing against her She’d probably picked a bad place to get
through the hedge, but she hadn’t been thinking about that She’d been thinking about Mark, aboutfinding
hi away froht Let hi
else
She struggled through the last of the canes into thebackyard-and then things happened very fast The first
thing she saas Mark, and she felt a rush of relief Then a flash of surprise Mark was standing in front
of a girl, his aruard As if to protect her from Mary-Lynnette
And then, so quickly that Mary-Lynnette could barely follow theat her
And Mary-Lynnette was throwing her ar, "No, that’s irl stopped a foot away from Mary-LynnetteIt was the little silvery-haired one, of course This
dose Mary-Lynnette couldsee that she had green eyes and skin so translucent it almost looked like quartz