"Because I was hoping a few of you would fall off," Morgead said without emotion. "But I had no such luck. Now shut up, Val. We don't have time for all this class-reunion stuff. We've got something important to do."
Thistle's face lit up as she stepped back from Jez. "You mean a hunt?"
"He means the Wild Power," Raven said. Her one visible eye was fixed on Jez. "He's told you already, hasn't he?"
"I didn't need to tell her," Morgead said. "She already knew. She came back because Hunter Red-fern wants to make a deal with us. The Wild Power for a place with him after the millennium."
He got a reaction-the one Jez knew he expected. Thistle squeaked with pleasure, Raven laughed huskily, Pierce gave one of his cold smiles, and Val roared.
"He knows we've got the real thing! He doesn't wanna mess with us!" he shouted.
"That's right, Val; I'm sure he's quaking in his boots," Morgead said. He glanced at Jez and rolled his eyes.
Jez couldn't help but grin. This really was like old times: she and Morgead trading secret looks about Val. There was a strange warmth sweeping through her-not the scary tingling heat she'd experienced with Morgead alone, but something simpler. A feeling of being with people who liked her and knew her. a feeling of belonging.
She never felt that at her human school. She'd seen things that would drive her human classmates insane even to imagine. None of them had any idea of what the real world was like-or what Jez was like, for that matter.
But now she was surrounded by people who understood her. And it felt so good that it was alarming.
She hadn't expected this, that she would slip back into the gang like a hand in a glove. Or that something inside her would look around and sigh and say, "We're home."
Because I am not home, she told herself sternly. These are not my people. They don't really know me, either....
But they don't have to, the little sigh returned. You don't ever need to tell them you're human. There's no reason for them to find out.
Jez shoved the thought away, scrunched down hard on the sighing part of her mind. And hoped it would stay scrunched. She tried to focus on what the others were saying.
Thistle was talking to Morgead, showing all her small teeth as she smiled. "So if you've got the terms settled, does that mean we get to do it now? We get to pick the little girl up?"
"Today? Yeah, I guess we could." Morgead looked at Jez. "We know her name and everything. It's Iona Skelton, and she's living just a couple buildings down from where the fire was. Thistle made friends with her earlier this week."
Jez was startled, although she kept her expression relaxed. She hadn't expected things to move this fast.
But it might all work out for the best, she realized, her mind turning over possibilities quickly. If she could snatch the kid and take her back to Hugh, this whole masquerade could be over by tomorrow. She might even live through it.
"Don't get too excited," she warned Thistle, combing some bits of grass out of the smaller girl's silk-floss hair. "Hunter wants the Wild Power alive and unharmed. He's got plans for her."
"Plus, before we take her, we've got to test her," Morgead said.
Jez controlled an urge to swallow, went on combing Thistle's hair with her fingers. "What do you mean, test her?"
Td think that would be obvious. We can't take the chance of sending Hunter a dud. We have to make sure she is the Wild Power."
Jez raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were sure," she said, but of course she knew Morgead was right.
She herself would have insisted Hugh find a way to test the little girl before doing anything else with her.
The problem was that Morgead's testing was likely to be ... unpleasant.
"I'm sure, but I still want to test her!" Morgead snapped. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Only if it's dangerous. For us, I mean. After all, she's got some kind of power beyond imagining, right?"
"And she's in elementary school. I hardly think she's gonna be able to take on six vampires."
The others were looking back and forth between Morgead and Jez like fans at a tennis match.
"It's just as if she never left," Raven said dryly, and Val bellowed laughter while Thistle giggled.
"They always sound so-married," Pierce observed, with just a tinge of spite to his cold voice.
Jez glared at them, aware that Morgead was doing the same. "I wouldn't marry him if every other guy on earth was dead," she informed Pierce.
"If it were a choice between her and a human, I'd pick the human," Morgead put in nastily.
Everyone laughed at that. Even Jez.
The sun glittered on the water at the Marina. On Jez's left was a wide strip of green grass, where people were flying huge and colorful kites, complicated ones with dozens of rainbow tails. On the sidewalk
people were Rollerblading and jogging and walking dogs. Everybody was wearing summer clothing;
everybody was happy.
It was different on the other side of the street.
Everything changed over there. A line of pinky-brown concrete stood like a wall to mark the difference.
There was a high school and then rows of a housing project, all the buildings identically square, flat, and ugly. And on the next street beyond them, there was nobody walking at all.
Jez let Morgead take the lead on his motorcycle as he headed for those buildings. She always found this place depressing.
He pulled into a narrow alley beside a store with a dilapidated sign proclaiming "Shellfish De Lish." Val roared in after him, then Jez, then Raven with Thistle riding pillion behind her, and finally Pierce. They all turned off their motors.
"That's where she lives now; across the street," Morgead said. "She and her mom are staying with her aunt. Nobody plays in the playground; it's too dangerous. But Thistle might be able to get her to come down the stairs."
"Of course I can," Thistle said calmly. She showed her pointed teeth in a grin.
"Then we can grab her and be gone before her mom even notices," Morgead said. "We can take her back to my place and do the test where it's private."
Jez breathed once to calm the knot in her stomach. "Ill grab her," she said. At least that way she might be able to whisper something comforting to the kid. "Thistle, you try to get her right out to the sidewalk.