"But three lefts do!" Dani burst out, finishing the old witch carol. Then she dissolved into laughter and led Thea to the patio.
"Let's see, they should be over there.... Oh. Oops."
Oops, Thea thought.
Vivienne and Selene were at a secluded table on the far side. Blaise was with them.
"I should have known she'd find them first thing," Thea muttered. From the way the three girls had their heads together, it looked as if trouble were brewing already.
As Thea and Dani approached the table, Blaise looked up. "Where've you been?" she said, waving a finger reproachfully. "I've been waiting to introduce you."
Everybody said hello. Then Thea sat down and studied the other two girls.
Vivienne had fox-red hair and looked tall even sitting down. Her face was animated; she seemed sparkling with energy. Selene was a platinum blond with sleepy blue eyes. She was smaller, and moved with languid grace.
Now, how do I politely say, "Please help me suppress my cousin?" Thea wondered. She could already tell it wouldn't be much use. Viv and Selene seemed to be under Blaise's spell already-they turned to her every other second as if checking for approval. Even Dani was watching Blaise with something like fascinated awe.
Blaise had that effect on people.
"So we were just talking about guys," Selene said, twirling a straw languorously in her bottle of Snapple iced tea. Thea's heart plummeted.
"Toyboys," Vivienne clarified in a lovely melodious voice. Thea felt the beginnings of a bad headache.
No wonder Blaise is smirking, she thought. These girls are just like her. She'd seen it at other schools: young witches who seemed to flirt with breaking Night World law by flaunting inhuman power over boys.
"Aren't there any of our kind of guys here?" Thea asked, as a last hope.
Vivienne rolled her eyes. "One sophomore. Alaric Breedlove, Circle Twilight. That's it. This place is a desert-no pun intended."
Thea wasn't really surprised. There were always more witch girls than guys-and nobody seemed to know why. More girls got born, more survived to grow up. And in some places the ratio was particularly unbalanced.
"So we just have to make do," Selene drawled. "But that can be fun sometimes. Homecoming dance is this Saturday, and I've got my boy all picked out."
"So," Blaise said, "have I." She glanced at Thea significantly.
And there it was. Thea felt her throat close.
"Eric Ross," Blaise said, savoring the words. "And Viv and Sel have told me allll about him."
"Eric?" Dani said. "He's the basketball star, isn't he?"
"And the baseball star," Vivienne said in her beautiful voice. "And the tennis star. And he's smart-he takes honors courses and works at the animal hospital, too. He's studying to get into U.C. Davis. To be a vet, you know."
So that's why he cared about the snake, Thea thought. And why he's got flatworms in his notebook.
"And he's so cute," Selene murmured. "He's so shy with girls-he can hardly talk around them. None of us have gotten anywhere with him."
"That's because you used the wrong methods," Blaise said, and her eyes were very smoky.
Thea's insides seemed hollow and there was a circlet of pain around her head. She did the only thing she could think of.
"Blaise," she said. She looked her cousin directly in the face, making an open appeal. "Blaise, listen. I hardly ever ask anything of you, right? But now I'm asking something. I want you to leave Eric alone. Can you do that-for me? For the sake of Unity?"
Blaise blinked slowly. She took a long drink of iced tea. "Why, Thea, you're getting all worked up."
"Ism not."
"I didn't know you cared."
"I don't. I mean-of course I don't care about him. But I'm worried about you, about all of us. I think..." Thea hadn't meant to say this, but she found the words spilling out anyway. "I think he might have some suspicions about us. This morning he told me that I seemed so different from other girls...." She managed to stop herself before she mentioned that he'd guessed she had healed him. That would be incredibly dangerous, especially since she didn't know who Vivienne or Selene might blab to.
Blaise's pupils were large. "You mean-you think he's a psychic?"
"No, no." She knew he wasn't a psychic. She'd been inside his mind, and he wasn't from any lost witch family. He didn't have any powers. He was as much a human as that snake had been a snake.
"Well, then," Blaise said. She chuckled, a rich, rippling sound. "He just thinks you're different-and that's hardly something to worry about. We want them to think we're different."
She didn't understand. And Thea couldn't explain. Not without getting herself into very hot water.
"So, if you don't mind, we'll just consider my claim staked," Blaise said courteously. "Now, let's see, what to do with the boys at the dance. First, I think we need to spill their blood."
"Spill what?" Dani said, sitting up.
"Just a little blood," Blaise told her absently. "It's going to be absolutely vital for some of the spells we'll want to do later."
"Well, good luck," Dani said. "Humans don't like blood-they're going to run like bunnies from you after that."
Blaise regarded her with a half-smile. "I don't think so," she said. "You don't understand this business yet. If it's done right, they don't run. They're scared; they're shocked; and they just keep coming back for more."
Dani looked shocked herself-and still fascinated. "But why do you want to hurt them?"
"We're just doing what comes naturally," Blaise purred.
I don't care Thea thought, it's none of my business.
She heard herself say, "No."
She was staring at a pile of squashed napkins in her hand. Out of the corner of her eye she could see
Blaise's exasperated expression. The others might not know what Thea was saying no to, but Blaise always understood her cousin.
"I asked you before if you wanted him," Blaise said. "And you said you didn't. So now you're changing your mind? You're going to play him?"
Thea stared at her wad of napkins. What could she say? I can't because I'm scared? I can't because something happened between him and me this morning and I don't know what it was? I can't because if I keep seeing him I have this feeling I might break the law, and I don't mean the one about never telling humans that we exist; I mean the other one, the one about never falling in love....