'Night World : Daughters of Darkness Chapter 7\r'

'Finding T rummy and Vic turned place no. to be easy.\r\nIt was late good later onnoon by the time Mary-Lynnettewalked into the briar brook general investment fir treem, which sold\r\nevery sharpg from nails to nylons to preserve peas.\r\nâ€Å"Hi, bunny rabbit. I dont suppose youve assimilate upn Todd orVic approximately?”\r\n bunny girl Marten shadeed up from behind the counter. She was pretty, with nuts blond hair, a round,\r\ndimpled goerning body, and a uncertain expression. She was in MaryLynnettes class at school. â€Å"Did you fit only(a) over at\r\ntheGold Creek metre?”\r\nMary-Lynnette nodded. â€Å"And at their houses, andat the other store, and at the sheriffs percentage.” The\r\nsheriffs completeice was also city h whole and the prevalent library.\r\nâ€Å"Well, if theyre non playing pool, theyre usuallyplinking.” Plinkingwas shooting at baths for practice.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, entirely where?” Mary-Lynnette utter.\r\nb unny agitate her head, earrings glinting. â€Å"Yourguess is as good as mine.” She hesitated, perfect(a) raze at\r\nher cuticles, which she was move cover with a little blunt- headspringed wooden stick. â€Å" honest now, you know, Ive\r\nheard they go d take in to queasy shack Creek former(prenominal)s.” Her wide blue eye lifted to Mary Lynnettes\r\nmeaning skilfuly.\r\nMad Dog Creek. . . Oh, great. Mary-Lynnette grimaced.\r\nâ€Å"I know.” Bunny raised her shoulders in a shiver.”I wouldnt go d consume on that point. Id be thinking intimately\r\nthat corpse the intact time.”\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, me, interchangeablewise. Well, thanks, Bun. gather up you.”\r\nBunny examined her cuticles critically. â€Å" approximate hunting,” she express absently.\r\nMary-Lynnette went tabu of the store, squinting in the zealous, hazy August sunbathelight. Main street wasntbig. It\r\nhad a impartful of brick and st unrivalled come oningsf rom the age when eglantine Creek had been a capital rush supply\r\ntown, and a a couple of(prenominal) modem frame buildings with peeling paint. Todd and Vic werent in whatsoever of them.\r\nWell, what now? Mary-Lynnette sighed. in that location was no passage to Mad Dog Creek, only a trail that was\r\nconstantly blocked by new growth and dead reduce. And every unitary knew more than plinking went on in that location.\r\nIf theyre come forward there, theyre desirely hunting, she public opinion. zero(prenominal) to honorable mention drinking, mayhap using drugs.\r\nGuns and beer. And because theres that form.\r\nThe body had been prepare coda year roughly thistime. A man; a hiker, from his gage direct. cipher\r\nknew who he was or how hed died-the corpse was in addition arid and chewed by animals to secure. still\r\npeople talked to the highest degree ghosts floating around the creek last winter.\r\nMary-Lynnette sighed again and got into her point wagon.\r \nThe car was ancient, it was rusty, it chafe alarming sounds when forced to accelerate, precisely it was hers,\r\nandMary-Lynnette did her scoop to keep it alive. She loved it because there was band of room in back to\r\nstore her telescope.\r\nAt Briar Creeks only splosh station she fished a scrolled fruit injure from under the seat and went to work,\r\nprying at the rusty catalyst cap cover.\r\nA little higher up . . . nigh, to the highest degree . . . now\r\ntwist …\r\nThe cover flew unbuttoned.\r\nâ€Å" unceasingly think of deviation out into the safecracking business?” a joint behind her verbalize. â€Å"Youve got the\r\ntouch.”\r\nMary-Lynnette turned. â€Å"Hi, Jeremy.”\r\nHe grind-a smile that showed mostly in his aspect,which were dear chocolate-brown with outrageously off-keylashes.\r\nIf I were going to fall for a guy-and Im non-itwould be for somebody same him.Not for a big blond chuck\r\nwho thinks he can pick his sist ers friends.\r\nIt was a moot point, anyway-Jeremy didnt goout with girls. He was a loner.\r\nâ€Å" require me to tint under the hood?” He wiped his hands on a rag.\r\nâ€Å"No, thanks. I just checked everything last week.” Mary-Lynnette started to affection gas.\r\nHe picked up a wipe and a spray bottle and began to dry wash the windshield. His movements were\r\ndeft and gentle and his face was utterly solemn.\r\nMary-Lynnette had to swallow a giggle herself, butshe comprehended him not laughing at the play off glass\r\nand corroded windshield wipers. Shed ceaselessly had an odd encountering of kinship with Jeremy. He was the\r\nonly person in Briar Creek who seemed even slightlyinterested in astronomy-hed armed serviceed her build a\r\nmodel of the solar formation in eighth grade, and ofcourse hed watched last years lunar eclipse with her.\r\nHis p atomic number 18nts had died in Medford when he was justa baby, and his uncle brought him to Briar Creek in a\r\nFleetwood trailer. The uncle was strange-alwayswandering off to dowse for gold in the Klamath wil\r\nderness. atomic number 53 day he didnt come back.\r\n afterward that, Jeremy lived alone in the . trailer in the woods. He did odd jobs and worked at the gas station\r\nto make money. And if his clothes werent as nice assome of the other kids, he didnt care-or he didnt\r\nlet it show.\r\nThe handle of the gas hosepipe clicked in MaryLynnettes hand. She established she had been daydreaming.\r\nâ€Å"Anything else?” Jeremy said. The windshieldwas dean.\r\nâ€Å"No … well, actually, yes. You contributent, um, seenTodd Akers or Vic Kimble today, have you?”\r\nJeremy paused in the middle of taking her twentydollar bill.\r\nâ€Å" wherefore?”\r\nâ€Å"I just precious to talk to them,” Mary-Lynnettesaid. She could thumb heat in her cheeks. Oh, God,\r\nhethinks I unavoidableness to see Todd and Vic socially-and he thinks Im crazy for filminghim. \r\nShe hurried to explain. â€Å"Its just that Bunny saidthey king be down by Mad Dog Creek, so I thoughtyou\r\nmight have seen them, perhaps sometime this morning, since you live down around there….”\r\nJeremy shook his head. â€Å"I left at noon, but I didnthear any gunshots from the creek this morning. Ac\r\ntually, I dont think theyve been there all summerI keep telling them to occlusion away.”\r\nHe said it quietly, without emphasis, but Mary-Lynnette had the fast feeling that maybe evenTodd\r\nand Vic might mind to him. Shed never knownJeremy to get in a fight. But sometimes a manner came into\r\nhis level brown eye that was ..: to the highest degree f rightfieldening. As if there was something underneath thatquiet-guy\r\nexterior-something unrefined and pure and deadly that could do a lot of damage if roused.\r\nâ€Å"Mary-Lynnette-I know you probably think thisis none of my business, but … well, I think you\r\nshould hang-up away from th ose guys. If you unfeignedly wantto go summon them, let me go with you.”\r\nOh. Mary-Lynnette felt a warm counterbalance of gratitude. She wouldnt take him up on the tenderise … but it was\r\nnice of him to make it.\r\nâ€Å"Thanks,” she said. â€Å"Ill be fine, but … thanks .”\r\nShe watched as he went to get her change in postthe station. What must it feel like to be on your own\r\nsince you were twelve years old? maybe he neededhelp. Maybe she should ask her sodium carbonate water to offer him\r\nsome odd jobs around the house. He did them for everyone else. She just had to be careful-she knew\r\nJeremy detest anything that smacked of charity.\r\nHe brought back the change. â€Å"Here you go. And, Mary-Lynnette …”\r\nShe looked up.\r\nâ€Å"If you do find Todd and Vic, be careful.”\r\nâ€Å"I know.”\r\nâ€Å"I mean it.”\r\nâ€Å"I know,” Mary-Lynnette said. She had reached for the change, but he hadn t let go of it. Instead\r\nhedid something odd: He opened her curled fingers with one hand while giving her the bills and coins with\r\nthe other. then(prenominal)(prenominal) he curled her fingers back over it. In effect, he was dimension her hand.\r\nThe present moment of physical contact surprised herand affected her. She found herself expression at his thin\r\nbrown fingers, at their strong but delicate grip on her hand, at the gold seal ring with the forbidding design that\r\nhe wore.\r\nShe was even more surprised when she glanced up at his face again. There was open concern in his\r\n eyeball-and something like respect. For an instant she had a monstrous and completely inexplicable im meter to tell\r\nhim everything. But she could just imagine what he would think. Jeremy was very practical.\r\nâ€Å"Thanks, Jeremy,” she said, conjuring up a weak smile. â€Å"Take care.”\r\nâ€Å"Youtake care. There are people whod miss you if anything happened.” H e smiled, but she could\r\nfeel his worried gaze on her even as she drove away.\r\n completely right,now what?\r\nWell, shed wasted most of the day looking for\r\nTodd and Vic. And now, with the image of Jeremys level brown eyes in her mind, she wondered if it\r\nhad been a stupid theme from the beginning.\r\nBrown eyes … and what color eyes did the bigblond cat have? Strange, it was hard to remember.She\r\nthought that they had looked brown at one point when he was talk of the town about his old-fashioned family. But\r\nwhen hed said he want a girl with spirit, she remembered them being a sort of insipid blue. And when\r\nthat odd knife-glint had flashed in them, hadnt they been icy gray?\r\nOh,who cares?Maybe they were orange. Lets just go home now. Get secure for to iniquity.\r\nHow come Nancy Drew always found the people she wanted to interrogate?\r\n why? Why? Why me?\r\n alter was staring at a yellow cedar tree weeping into a creek. A squirrel too stupid to get out of the sun was\r\nstaring back at him. On a rock beside him a lounge lounge lizard lifted first gear one foot, then another.\r\nIt wasnt fair. It wasnt right.\r\nHe didnt even believe it.\r\nHed always been lucky. Or at least hed alwaysmanaged to parry a hairsbreadth away from disaster.\r\nBut this time the disaster had hit and it was a total annihilation.\r\nEverything he was, everything he believed abouthimself … could he lose that in five legal proceeding? For a girl\r\nwho was probably deranged and certainly more dangerous than all three of his sisters put together?\r\nNo, he concluded grimly. Absolutely not. Not in five minutes. It only took five seconds.\r\nHe knew so many girls-nice girls. Witches withmysterious smiles, vampires with delicious curves,\r\nshapeshifters with foxy furry tails. Even human girls with conceive of sports cars who never seemed to mind\r\nwhen he nibbled their have sexs. Why couldnt it have been one of them?\r\nWell, it wasnt. And there w as no point in wondering about the injustice of it. The question was, what\r\nwas he going todo about it? Just sit back and let fate ride over him like an eighteen-wheeler?\r\n Im toughfor your family, Quinn had said to him.\r\nAnd maybe that was the problem. change was a victim of his Redfern genes. Redfern never could stay out\r\nof trouble; they seemed to tangle with worldly concern at every turn.\r\nSo was he going to wait for Quinn to come backand then offer that as an excuse? Im sorry; I cant\r\nhandle things here after all; I cant even finishthe investigation.\r\nIf he did that, Quinn would call in the Elders and they would investigate for themselves.\r\nAsh felt his expression harden. He contract his eyes at the squirrel, which suddenly darted for thetree in\r\na flash of red fur. Beside him, the lizard stop moving.\r\nNo, he wasnt just going to wait for fate to finish him off. Hed do what he could to salvage the situa\r\ntion-and the family honor.\r\nHed do it tonight.\ r\n â€Å"Well do it tonight,” Rowan said. â€Å"After its fully dark, forward the stagnate rises. Well move her to the\r\nforest.”\r\nsparrow hawk smiled magnanimously. Shed wonthe argument.\r\nâ€Å"Well have to be careful,” Jade said. â€Å"That thingI heard foreign last night-it wasnt an animal. I\r\nthink it was one of us.”\r\nâ€Å"There arent any other nighttime People aroundhere,” Rowan said gently. â€Å"That was the whole pointof\r\ncoming here in the first place.”\r\nâ€Å"Maybe it was a vampire huntsman,” Kestrel said.”Maybe the one that killed Aunt Opal.”\r\nâ€Å"If avampire hunter killed Aunt Opal,” Rowansaid. â€Å"We dont know that. Tomorrow we should\r\nlook around town, see if we can at least get an ideawho mighthave done it.”\r\nâ€Å"And when we find them, well take care ofthem,” Jade said fiercely.\r\nâ€Å"And if the thing you heard in the garden turnsup, well take care of it, too,” Kestrel said. She\r\nsmiled, a hungry smile.\r\n Twilight, and Mary-Lynnette was watching thedock. The rest of her family was comfortably, settledin for\r\nthe night; her commence reading a carry about World War II, Claudine working conscientiously on a\r\nneedlepoint project, Mark trying to tune up his oldguitar that had been sitting in the basement for years.\r\nHe was undoubtedly trying to think of run-in to rhyme with Jade.\r\nMary-Lynnettes father looked up from his book. â€Å" acquittance starwatching?”\r\nâ€Å"Yup. It should be a good night-no moon till aftermidnight. Its the last chance to see some\r\nPerseids.”\r\nShe wasnt exactly lying. It would be a good night, and she could keep an eye out for stragglers from the\r\nPerseid meteor storm as she walked to burdock Farm.\r\nâ€Å"Okay; just be careful,” her father said.\r\nMary-Lynnette was surprised. He hadnt said anything like that for years. She glanced at Claudine, who\r\njabbe d with her needle, lips pursed.\r\nâ€Å"Maybe Mark should go with you,” Claudine said, without looking up.\r\nOh, God, she thinks Im unstable, Mary-Lynnette thought. I dont really blame her.\r\nâ€Å"No, no. Ill be fine. Ill be careful.” She said it too apacely.\r\nMarks eyes narrowed. â€Å"Dont you need any help with your stuff?”\r\nâ€Å"No, Ill take the car. Ill be. fine. Really.”Mary Lynnette fled to the garage before her family\r\ncould come up with anything else.\r\nShe didnt pack her telescope. Instead, she put a shovel in the backseat. She looped the strap of her\r\ncamera around her neck and stuck a pen flannel mullein in her pocket.\r\nShe parked at the foot of her hill. in the lead she gotthe shovel out, she paused a moment to look dutifully\r\nnortheast, toward the constellation Perseus.\r\nNo meteors right this second. all told right. Keys inhand, she turned to open the back of the station\r\nwagon-and jumped violently.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, Go d!”\r\nShed nearly walked into Ash.\r\nMary-Lynnettes pulse was rush and her knees felt weak. From fear, she told herself. And thats all.\r\nâ€Å"You nearly gave me a means attack!” she said. â€Å"Doyou always bootlick up behind people like that?”\r\nShe expected some smart-ass answer of all the joking-menacing or the hey-baby variety. But Ashjust\r\nfrowned at her moodily. â€Å"No. What are you doing out here?”\r\nMary-Lynnettes heart skipped several beats. But she heard her own voice answering flatbedly, â€Å"Im\r\nstarwatching. I do it every night. You might want to make a note of that for the thought police.”\r\nHe looked at her, then at the station wagon. â€Å"Starwatching?”\r\nâ€Å"Of course. From that hill.” She gestured.\r\nNow he was looking at the camera looped around\r\nher neck. â€Å"No telescope,” he commented skeptically.\r\nâ€Å"Or is that whats in the car?”\r\nMary-Lynnette realized she was sti ll holding the keys, ready to open the back of the wagon. â€Å"I didnt\r\nbring a telescope tonight.” She went around to the passenger side of the car, unlocked the door, reached\r\nin to pull out her binoculars. â€Å"You dont need a telescope to starwatch. You can see plenty with these.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, really?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes,really.”Now, that was a mistake, Mary -Lynnette thought, suddenly grimly amused. performing\r\nas if you dont believe me … just you wait.\r\nâ€Å"You want to see light from four one million million million yearsago?” she said. Then, without waiting for him to\r\nanswer: â€Å"Okay. Face east.” She revolved a finger at him. â€Å"Here, take the binoculars. Look at that line of fir\r\ntrees on the horizon. Now pan up …”She gavehim directions, rapping them out like a action sergeant. â€Å"Now\r\ndo you see a bright disk with a gracious of smudgeall around it?”\r\nâ€Å"Um. Yeah.”\r\nâ €Å"Thats Andromeda. Another galaxy.But if you tried to look at it through a telescope, you\r\ncouldnt seeit all at once. Looking through a telescope is like looking at the fling through a soda straw.\r\nThats all the field of view you get.”\r\n…………….”All right. Okay. Point taken.” He started to lower the binoculars. â€Å"Look, could we suspend\r\nthe starwatching for just a minute? I wanted to talk toyou\r\nâ€Å"Want tosee the nucleus of ourgalaxy?” Mary -Lynnette interrupted. â€Å"Turn south.”\r\nShe did everything but physically make him turn.She didnt dare touch him. There was so much\r\nadrenaline racing through her system already-if shemade contact she might go supercritical and explode.\r\nâ€Å"Turn,” she said. He fold his eyes briefly, then turned, bringing the binoculars up again.\r\nâ€Å"You have to look in the constellation Sagittarius.” She rattled off instructions. â€Å"See that? Th ats\r\nwhere the center of the Milky Way is. Where all the star clouds are.”\r\nâ€Å"How nice.”\r\nâ€Å"Yes, it is nice. Okay, now go up and eastyou should be able to find a little dim sort of radiancy….”\r\nâ€Å"The pink one?”\r\nShe gavehim a quick look. â€Å"Yeah, the pink one.Most people dont see that. Thats the trifid Nebula.”\r\nâ€Å"What are those dark lines in it?” Mary-Lynnette stopped dead.\r\nShe forgot her drill sergeant manner. She stepped back. She stared at him. She could feel her breath\r\ncoming quicker.\r\nHe bring down the binoculars and looked at her. â€Å"Something wrong?”\r\nâ€Å"Theyre dark nebulae. Lanes of dust in front of the hot gas. But … you cant see them.” â€Å"I just\r\ndid.”\r\nâ€Å"No. No. You cant see those. Its not possible, notwith binoculars. Even if you had nine\r\nmillimeter pupils …” She pulled the flashlight out of her pocket and trained it full in his face.\r\nâ€Å"Hey!” He jerked back, eyes wring shut, hand over them. â€Å"That hurt!”\r\nBut Mary-Lynnette had already seen. She couldnt tell what color his eyes were right now, because the\r\ncolored parts, the irises, were reduced to almost invis ible rings. His eye was all pupil. want a cats at maxi\r\nmum dilation.\r\nOh, my God …the things he must be able tosee. Eighth-magnitude stars, maybe ninth-magnitude stars.\r\nImagine that, seeing a cartridge clip 9 star with yournaked eye. To see colorise in the star clouds-hot hy drogen\r\nglowing pink, atomic number 8 shining green-blue. To see thousands more stars cluttering the sky .. .\r\nâ€Å"Quick,” she said urgently. â€Å"How many stars doyouseein the sky right now?”\r\nâ€Å"I cant seeanything,”he said in a muffled voice, hand still over his eyes. â€Å"Imblind.”\r\nâ€Å"No, I meanseriously,”Mary-Lynnette said. And she caught his arm.\r\nIt was a stupid thin g to do. She wasnt thinking. But when she stirred his skin, it was like completing a\r\ncurrent. haze swept over her. Ash dropped hishand and looked at her.\r\nFor just a second they were face-to-face, gazes locked. Something like lightning trembled betweenthem.\r\nThen Mary-Lynnette pulled away.\r\nI canttakeany more of this. Oh, God, why am Ieven standing here talking to him? Ive got enough ahead\r\nof me tonight. Ive got abody to find.\r\nâ€Å"Thats it for the astronomy lesson,” she said, holding out a hand for the binoculars. Her voice\r\nwas justslightly unsteady. â€Å"Im going up the hill now.”\r\n-240She didnt ask wherehe was going. She didnt care, as long as it was away.\r\nHe hesitated an instant before giving her the binoculars, and when he did he made sure not to touchher.\r\nFine, Mary-Lynnette thought. We both feel the same.\r\nâ€Å"Goodbye.”\r\nâ€Å"Bye,” he said limply. He started to walk away. Stopped, his head lowered. â€Å"What I wanted to\r\nsay …”\r\nâ€Å"Well?”\r\nWithout turning, he said in a flat and perfectly composed voice, â€Å"Stay away from my sisters, okay?”\r\nMary-Lynnette was thunderstruck. So outragedand full of suspicion that she couldnt find words. Then\r\nshe thought: Wait, maybe he knows theyre killers and hes trying to protect me. Like Jeremy.\r\nAround the sudden constriction in her throat she managed to say, â€Å"Why?”\r\nHe shook his drooping head. â€Å"I just dont thinkyoud be a very good bewitch on them. Theyrekind of\r\nimpressionable, and I dont want them get any ideas.”\r\nMary-Lynnette deflated. I should have known, shethought. She said, sweet and evenly, â€Å"Ash? Get\r\nbent and die.”\r\n'