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Well, she wasn’t telling huht World," Ash said in
his most lazy, careless voice
Quinn said succinctly, "How?"
It was late Monday afternoon and the sun was streah the western s of the Burdock
farht at the Briar Creek general store, a turtleneckwith
long sleeves that covered the almost-healedscars on his throat and arms His jeans werebleached white,
his hair was co the scene of his life
"She knew about a rogue olf and didn’t tellanybody about him"
"So she was a traitor And what did you do?"
Ash shrugged "Staked her"
Quinn laughed out loud
"No, really," Ash said earnestly, looking intoQuinn’s face hat he kneide, guileless
eyes-probably blue "See?"
Without taking his eyes froreen country quilt off the bundle on the
couch
Quinn’s eyebrows fleard
He stared for a moment at Aunt Opal, who had been cleaned so that you’d never know she’d ever been
buried, and who had the picket stake carefully replaced in her chest
Quinn actually sed It was the first time Ash had ever seen him falter
"You really did it," he said There was reluctant respect in his voice-and definite shock
You know, Quinn, I don’t think you’re quite as tough as you pretend After all, no matter how you try to
act like an Elder, you’re only eighteen And you’ll always be eighteen, and next year maybe I’ll be older
"Well," Quinn said, blinking rapidly "Well Well___ I have to hand it to you"
"Yeah, I just decided the best thing to do was cleanup the whole situation She was getting on,
you know"
Quinn’s dark eyes widened fractionally "I have toadmit -I didn’t think you were that ruthless"
"You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do For the family honor, of course"
Quinn cleared his throat "So-what about theolf?"
"Oh, I took care of that, too" Ash meandered over and whipped a brown-and-white quilt off
Exhibit B The as a charred and contorted corpse It had given Mary-Lynnette hysterics when Ash
insisted on pulling it out of the car, and Quinn’s nostrils quivered when he looked at it
"Sorry, it does sot a little sootyhim in the fire"
"You burned himalive?"
"Well, it is one of the traditional ht?" Ash put the
blanket back
"So, you see, everything’s taken care of No humans involved, no exterht " Quinn’s eyes were still on the quilt Ash decided the ht
"And by the way, it turns out the girls had aperfectly legiti They just
wanted to learn to hunt Nothing illegal about that,is there?"
"What? Oh No" Quinn glanced at Aunt Opal, then finally looked back at Ash "So they’re
co back now that they’ve learned it"
"Well, eventually They haven’t quite learned it yet so they’re staying"
"They’restaying?"
"Right Look, I’m the head of the familyon the West Coast, aren’t I? And I say they’re
staying"
"Ash "
"It’s about tiht World outpost in this area, don’t you think? You see what’s happened
without one You get faot to stay here and
hold down the fort"
"Ashyou couldn’t payNight People to strand the but animals to feed
on, nobody but humans to associate with "
"Yeah, it’s a dirty job, but soot to do itBesides, wasn’t it you who said it’s not good
living your whole life isolated on an island?"
Quinn stared at him, then said, "Well, I don’t thinkthis is ht Maybe in a few years they’ll appreciate the island more Then
theycan hand the job over to so to comehere"
"Well" With the battle won, and Quinn siet back to
LosAngeles as fast as possible, Ash allowed himself a
sht come visit them someday," he said
"He did a beautiful job," Rowan said that evening
"We heard it all from the kitchen You would have loved it"
Mary-Lynnette set away," Jade said, in
tertwining her fingers with Mark’s
Kestrel said to Ash, "I’d just like to be around when you explain all this to Dad"
"That’s funny," Ash said "I feel just the opposite" Everyone laughed-except Mary-Lynnette The
big far She couldn’t see anything in the
gathering darkness-in the last two days the effects of her blood exchange had faded Her senses were
ordinary huain
"You’re sure you won’t get in trouble?" sheasked Ash
"No I’ll tell our dad the truth-mostly That anoutlaolf killed Aunt Opal and that I killed
the olf And that the girls are better off here,hunting quietly and watching out for other rogues
There’s sure to be some record of the Lovett fam ily Dad can check out the history all he wants"
"A whole faly
"Ofcrazy olves," Ash said "They were as dangerous to the Night World as any va they’ve beenhere-long enough for their land to get na Creek"
"And for people to mistake them for Sasquatch," Mark said
Rowan’s brown eyes were troubled "And it wasmy fault that you didn’t know," she said to
MaryLynnette "I told you-he couldn’t be the killer I’aze and held it "Rowan, you arenotgoing to feel guilty for this You
couldn’t have realized He wasn’t killing for food like a nor to protect his
territory-and to scare us"
"And it uys didn’t have anywhere else to go"
Ash looked at Mark, then at his sisters "I have a question Is the territory around here going to be
enough foryou?"
"Of course," Rowan said, with gentle surprise
"We don’t always need tokill the ani it down pat now We can
take a little here and a little there Heck, we can even trythe goat "
"I’d rather try Tiggy," Kestrel said, and for a limmered Mary-Lynnette didn’t
say it, but she wondered soht need a bigger
territory of her own She was a lot like Jerele-ht Person
"And what about you?" Ash said, looking at et down to it, I’uy"
"I tried to take hiht," Jade interpreted "You know, just to show him But he threw up"
"I didn’t actually-"
"Yes, you did," Jade said calmly and cheerfully
Mark looked away Mary-Lynnette noticed they didn’t stop holding hands
"So I take it you’re not going to become a vampire," Ash said to Mark
"Uh, let’s just say not any time soon"
Ash turned to Mary-Lynnette "And what about the hus? Do we have that taken care of?"
"Well, I know everything that’s going on intown-by which II’lad she’s not a vampire, incidentally
Mark said, "I always knew it"
"Anyway, here’s the quick version" MaryLynnette held up a finger "One, everybody knowsthat Jereas stationmissed him yesterday and went up to check the trailer They found a lot
of weird stuff there But all they know is that he’s disappeared"