"Oh, no," Rashel said. "There is absolutely no way I'm going to wear those things."
"But it'll be perfect, see? You won't be able to walk normally."
"No, and I won't be able to run, either."
"But you aren't going there to run. You're going to talk and dance and stuff." Hands on her hips, she
shook her head. "I don't know, Rashel, you really need somebody to go there with you, to help you with
this stuff...."
Daphne stopped and her eyes narrowed. She stared at the mirror for a moment, then she nodded.
"Yeah. That's it. There's no other choice," she said, expelling her breath. She turned to face Rashel
squarely. "I'll just have to go with you myself."
"What?"
"You need somebody with you; you can't do this all alone. And there's nobody better than me. I'll go
with you and this time we'll both get chosen."
Rashel sat on the bed. "I'm sorry; this time you 're crazy. You're the last person the vampires would ever
choose. You know all about them."
"But they don't know that," Daphne said serenely. "I told everybody at school today that I didn't
remember anything that happened from Sunday on. I had to tell them something, you know. So I said
that I never got to meet Quinn; that I didn't know what happened to me, but I woke up last night alone
on this street in Mission Hill."
Rashel tried to think. Would any of the vampires believe this story?
The answer surprised her. They just might. If Daphne had begun to come out of the mind control while
she was in the truck... if she had jumped out and started running, only to become fully conscious a little
while later.. .. Yes. It could work. The vampires would assume that she'd have amnesia for the whole
period she was in a trance, and maybe for a little before. It could work....
"But it's too dangerous," she said. "Even if I let you go to the club with me, I could never let you get
chosen."
"Why not? You already said I must be resistant to their mind-control thingy, right?" Daphne's blue eyes
were sparking with energy and her cheeks were flushed. "So that makes me perfect for the job. I can do
it. I know I can help you."
Rashel stood helplessly. Take this fluffy bunny of a girl to a vampire enclave? Let her get sold as a slave
to bloodsucking monsters? Ask her to fight ruthless snakes like Quinn? "I like to work alone," she said in
a hard voice. Daphne folded her arms over her chest, refusing to be intimidated. "Well, maybe it's time
you tried something different. Look, I've never met anyone like you. You're so independent, so
adventurous, so--amazing. But even you can't do everything by yourself. I know I'm not a vampire
hunter, but I'd like to be your friend. Maybe you should try trusting a friend this time."
Her eyes met Rashel's, and at that moment she didn't look like a fluffy bunny, but like a small, confident,
and intelligent young woman.
"Besides, it was me who got kidnapped," Daphne said, shrugging. "Don't you think I should get to pay
them back a little?"
Rashel caught herself almost grinning. She couldn't help liking this girl, or feeling a glow of warmth at her
praise. But still... She drew in a careful breath and watched Daphne closely. "And you're not scared?"
"Of course I'm scared. I'd be stupid not to be. But I'm not so scared I can't go."
It was the right answer. Rashel looked around the cluttered lacy room and nodded slowly. At last she
said, "Okay, you're in. Tomorrow's Saturday. We'll do it tomorrow night."
Chapter 9
How long since he'd identified with humans?
That had all stopped the day he stopped being human himself. Not at the moment he'd stopped being
human, though. At first all his anger had been for Hunter Redfern....
Waking up from the dead was an experience you don't forget. For Quinn, it happened in the Redfern
cabin on a husk mattress in front of the fire.
He opened his eyes to see three beautiful girls leaning over him. Garnet, with her wine-colored hair
shining in the ruby light, Lily with her black hair and her eyes like topaz, and Dove, his own Dove,
brown-haired and gentle, with anxious love in her face.
That was when Hunter informed him that he'd been dead for three days.
"I told your father you'd gone to Plymouth; don't tell him otherwise. And don't try to move yet; you're
too weak. We'll bring in something soon and you can feed." He stood behind his daughters, his arms
around them, all of them looking down at Quinn. "Be happy. You're one of us now."
But all Quinn felt was horror-and pain. When he put his thumbs to his teeth, he found the source of the
pain. His canine teeth were as long as a wildcat's and they throbbed at the slightest touch.
He was a monster. An unholy creature who needed blood to survive. Hunter Redfern had been telling
the truth about his family, and he'd changed Quinn into one of them.
Insane with fury, Quinn jumped up and tried to get his hands around Hunter's throat.
And Hunter just laughed, fending off the attack easily. The next thing Quinn knew, he was running down
the blazed trail in the forest, heading for his father's house. Staggering and stumbling down the trail,
rather. He was almost too weak to walk.
Then suddenly Dove was beside him. Little Dove who looked as if she couldn't outrun a flower. She
steadied him, held him up, and tried to convince him to go back.
But Quinn could only think of one thing: getting to his father. His father was a minister; his father would
know what to do. His father would help.
And Dove, at last, agreed to go with him.
Later Quinn would realize that of course he should have known better.
They reached Quinn's home. At that point, if Quinn was afraid of anything, it was that his father wouldn't
believe this wild story of bloodthirst and death. But one look at Quinn's new teeth convinced his father of
everything.
He could recognize a devil when he saw one, he said.
And he knew his duty. Like every Puritan's, it was to cast out sin and evil wherever he found it.