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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 knohat 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 hohtly "Besides, she said she had fa to kill all of theoing to start a blood feud," Rowan said evenher?" Jade said Shewas sitting with Tiggy in her ar the

velvety black top of the kitten’s head "Making her forget she’s suspicious-orher 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 ret

Roas shaking her head "We need a permanent solution We need to find soone"

"We need to et rid of her"

"No, no We ht 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 theabout Mark Carter, who had such a gallant heart It gave her a pleasantly

forbidden thrill just to picture hi around free She

could never have been tehtWorld law and fall in love with one But here yes, Jade

could al in love with Mark Carter Just as if she were a huirl

She shivered deliriously But just as she was tryingto picture what huave a sudden heave He twisted out of her ar The fur on

his back was up

Jade looked at theagainShe couldn’t see anything But she felt

She turned to her sisters "Soht," 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 e and painted twilight blue Mary-Lynnette had stuck the glow-in-the-dark starsand

planets to the ceiling herself Taped onto the dresserI BRAKEFOR

ASTEROIDSOn the walls were a giant relief map of the moon, a poster froraphic 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 bathroo 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 fro room

-252Claudine’s voiceand a male voice Not Mark; weekdays he usually went to his friend Ben’s

houseA 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 naood friends with her," Claudine was saying in her quick, lightly accented

voice "I reoat 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

uy said He had a lazy, careless-sounding voice "I wonder what she meant

bythat"

Mary-Lynnette, as now peering intently through the kitchen while keeping absolutely still,saw

Claudine give one of her slight, chars

"I suppose she meant the milk-every day she has fresh o 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 Noould so

questions about Mrs B?

Of course He had to be police or so FBIBut his voiceto be either, unless he was planning to infiltrate Dewitt High as a narc Mary-Lynnette edgedfarther

into the kitchen, getting a better viewThere-she could see hih her

Definitely not old enough to be FBI And much asMary-Lynnette wanted hi 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 ahtly tilted wicked eyes, and a

disarrin

Not just lazy, Mary-Lynnette decided Fatuous Bland Maybe even stupid She wasn’t iood looks unless they were the thin, brown, and interesting kind, like-well, like Jereuys who looked like bigash-blond cats-didn’t have any reason to develop their

h enough to keep a seat waret 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 toto

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 doorandso out"

Her heard was beating hard-with embarrassmentand annoyance Okay, so he must have seen her in the

at him because of the way he looked He probably had

people staring at hio away

"Don’t go yet," Claudine called "Come out here and talk for a few minutes"

No Mary-Lynnette kneas 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 re about any nephew

But then, she’d never heard much about Mrs B’s nieces either, not until they were co out Mrs B

just didn’t talk about her familymuch

So he’s her nephewthat’s why he’s askingabout her But does he know? Ishe in on it with those girls?

Or is he after thehly 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, lazythe stretch in the middle "Hi"

He offered a hand Mary-Lynnette touched it withfingers dalanced 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 caood

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 eroup And then when his hand entered her field of vision, she reached for it auto up at his face justas she touched it And This was the part that was hard

to describe

Contact

Sohappened

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 extreuely pink Her throat swelled and she could feel her heart beating there

Also not-enjoyable But soether, it made a kind of trembly dizziness like

Like what she felt when she looked at the Lagoon Nebula Or iathered into dusters

and superclusters, bigger and bigger, until size lost any

She was falling now She couldn’t see anything except his eyes And those eyes were strange, prishheavy atold, 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,"

Claudine said, in cohtly flustered tones Mary-Lynnette was snapped out of her

trance, and she reacted as if Ash had just offered her a oose instead of his hand She ju anywhere but at hi down a mine

shaft