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Rule Nu with hu in the house

Jez stood at the outdoor faucet, icy-cold water splashing over her hands She was scrubbing- carefully-a

long, slie as sharp as glass When it was clean, she

slipped it into her right knee-high boot Then she daubed water over several stains on her T-shirt and

jeans and scrubbed theernail Finally she whipped out a pocket mirror and exairl who looked back didn’thuntress who had leaped from tree to

tree in Muir Woods Oh, the features were the saht of cheekbone, the curve of chin They

had even fined out a bit because she was a year older The red flag of hair was the sah

noas pulled back in an attempt to tame its fiery disorder The difference was in the expression,

which was sadder and wiser than Jez had ever iined she could be, and in the eyes

The eyes weren’t as silvery as they had been, not as dangerously beautiful But that was only to be

expected She had discovered that she didn’t need to drink blood as long as she didn’t use her vampire

powers Human food kept her alive-andabout the eyes They were scarily vulnerable, even to Jez No matter how she tried to

, they had the wounded look of a deer that knows it’s going to die and

accepts it Sometimes she wondered if that was an omen

Well No blood on her face She shoved the mirror back in her pocket She was mostly presentable, if

extremely late for dinner She turned the faucet off and headed for the back door of the loeeping

ranch house

Everyone looked up as she ca at the oak table with the white triht The TV was blaring cheerfully from the fa

tacos and leafing through theface that looked almost

as medieval as Jez’s entle, worried dream somewhere Now he

waved an envelope at Jez and

gazed at her reproachfully, but he couldn’t say anything because his mouth was full

Aunt Nana a diet Coke She was small, with dark shiny hair and eyes that

turned to crescents when she smiled She opened her mouth and frowned at Jez, but couldn’t say

anything, either

Ricky, as ten, had carroty hair and expressive eyebrows He gave Jez a big smile that showed

chewed-up taco in his mouth and said, "Hi!"

Jez smiled back No matter what she did, Ricky was there for her

Claire, as Jez’s age, was sitting pri bits of taco with her fork She looked like a smaller

version of Aunt Nan, but with a very sour expression

"Where have you been?" she said "We waited dinner almost an hour for you and you never even

called"

"Sorry," Jez said, looking at all of them It was such an incredibly normal family scene, so completely

typical, and it struck her to the heart

It was over a year since she had walked out of the Night World to find these people, her mother’s

relatives It was eleven and a halfabout

her except that she was his orphaned niece and that her father’s faiven up on her All these months, she had lived with the Goddard family- and she still didn’t fit in

She could look human, she could act human, but she couldn’t be huot his ry I think

I’ll just go do my homework"

Uncle Jim called, "Wait a minute," after her, but it was Claire who slammed down her napkin and

actually followed Jez through the hall to the other side of the house

"What do you mean, ’Sorry’? You do this every day You’re always disappearing; half the tiht, and then you don’t even have an explanation"

"Yeah, I know, Claire" Jez answered without looking back "Illtry to do better"

"You say that every time And every time it’s exactly the same Don’t you realize that my parents worry

about you? Don’t you even care?"

"Yes, I care, Claire"

"You don’t act like it You act like rules don’t apply to you And you say sorry, but you’re just going to

do it again"

Jez had to keep herself fro at her cousin She liked everyone else in the

family, but Claire was a royal pain

Worse, she was a shrewd royal pain And she was right; Jez was going to do it again, and there was no

way she could explain

The thing was, vampire hunters have to keep weird hours

When you’re on the trail of a va tea

theet them cornered in some crack house

where there aren’t little kids to get hurt, you don’t think aboutdinner You don’t stop in the

the undead to phone home

Maybe I shouldn’t have becoht But it’s a little late to change now, and

soot to protect these stupid- these innocent huht World

Oh, well

She’d reached the door of her bedroo at her cousin, she sio work on your Web page, Claire?" Then she opened the door and glanced inside

And froze

Her room, which she had left in military neatness, was a shambles The as wide open Papers

and clothes were scattered across the floor And there was a very large ghoul standing at the foot of the

bed

The ghoul opened its ly at Jez

"Oh, very funny," Claire was saying, right behind her "Maybe I should help you with your horeat in che ni it in Claire’s face, pressing the little knob in

the handle to lock it

"Hey!" Now Claire sounded really mad "That’s rude!"

"Uh, sorry, Claire!" Jez faced the ghoul What was it doing here? If it had followed her hoht World

knehere she was "You know, Claire, I think I really need to be alone for a little while-I can’t talk

and doits reaction

Ghouls were semi-vampires They hat happened to a huet

quite enough vae to beco They

had very little mind, and only one idea in the world: to drink blood, which they usually did by eating as

much of a huhoul was a new one, about teeks dead It was male and looked as if it had been a

body-builder, although by noasn’t so as of

deco, its cheeks were chip froood

As Jez edged closer, she suddenly realized that the ghoul wasn’t alone She could now see around the

foot of the bed, and there was a boy lying on the carpet, apparently unconscious The boy had light hair

and ruhoul was stooping over hiers

"I don’t think so," Jez told it softly She could feel a dangerous s on her face She reached

into her right boot and pulled out the dagger

"What did you say?" Claire shouted fro, Claire Just getting out -she

needed all the height she could get

The ghoul turned to face her, its lackluster bugeyes on the dagger Itsound around

its swollen tongue Fortunately that was all the noise it couldthe door "Did you lock this? What are you doing in there?"

"Just studying, Claire Go away" Jez snapped a foot toward the ghoul, catching it under the chin She

needed to stun it and stake it fast Ghouls weren’t s and

going This one could eat the entire Goddard fary at dawn

The ghoul hit the wall opposite the bed Jez ju herself between it and the boy on the

floor