Home > Daughters of Darkness (Night World #2)(12)

Daughters of Darkness (Night World #2)(12)
Author: L.J. Smith

Hurt her? Mary-Lynnette didn't know what he wastalking about, and didn't want to. This girl was as weirdly beautiful as the others, and something abouther eyes-hey weren't ordinary green, but almost silvery-made Mary-Lynnette's skin rise ingoose pimples.

"Hello," Jade said.

"Hello. Okay, Mark, c'mon. We've got to go. Like right now."

She expected him to agree immediately. He wasthe one who hadn't wanted to come, and now herehe was with his most dreaded phobia, a girl. But instead he said, "Did you hear that yelling? Could you tell where it came from?"

"What yelling? I was inside. Come on." MaryLynnette took Mark's arm, but since he was as strongas she was, it didn't do any good. "Maybe I heardsomething. I wasn't paying attention." She'd been looking desperately around the Victorian living room,babbling out lies about how her family knew where she'd gone tonight and expected her back soon. How her father and stepmother were such good friends of Mrs. Burdock's and how they were just waiting at home to hear about Mrs. B.'s nieces. She still wasn't sure if that was why they'd let her go. But for somereason, Rowan had finally stood up, given MaryLynnette a grave, sweet smile, and opened the front door.

"You know, I bet it was a wolverine," Mark was saying to Jade excitedly. "A wolverine that came down from Willamette Forest."

Jade was frowning. "A wolverine?" She considered. "Yeah, I guess that could have been it. I've never heard one before." She looked at MaryLynnette. "Is that what you think it was?"

"Oh, sure," Mary-Lynnette said at random. "Definitely a wolverine." I should ask where her aunt is, she thought suddenly. It's the perfect opportunity to catch her in a lie. I'll ask and then she'llsay something-anything, but not that her aunt'sgone up north for a little vacation on the coast. And then I'll know.

She didn't do it. She simply didn't have the courage. She didn't want to catch anyone in a lie anymore;

she just wanted to get out.

"Mark, please ..."

He looked at her and for the first time seemed tosee how upset she was. "Uh-okay," he said. And to Jade: "Look, why don't you go back inside now?You'll be safe there. And maybe-maybe I could come over again sometime?"

Mary-Lynnette was still tugging at him, and now, to her relief, he began to move. Mary-Lynnette headed for the blackberry bushes that she'd trampled coming in.

"Why don't you go through there? It's like apath," Jadesaid,pointing. Mark immediately swerved, taking Mary-Lynnette with him, and she saw a comfortable gap between two rhododendron bushes at the back of the garden. She would never have seen it unless she knew what to look for.

As they reached the hedge, Mark turned to glance behind him. Mary-Lynnette turned, too.

From here, Jade was just a dark silhouette againstthe porch light-but her hair, lit from behind, looked like a silver halo. It shimmered around her. MaryLynnette heard Mark draw in his breath.

"You both come back sometime," Jade said cordially. "Help us milk the goats like Aunt Opal said. She gave us very strict orders before she went on vacation."

Mary-Lynnette was dumbfounded.

She turned back and reeled through the gap, her head spinning. When they got to the road she said, "Mark, what happened when you got into the garden?"

Mark was looking preoccupied. "What do you mean what happened? Nothing happened."

"Did you look at the place that was dug up?"

"No," Mark said shortly. "Jade was in the gardenwhen I got there. I didn't get a chance to look at anything."

"Mark ... was she there the whole time? Jade?Did she ever go in the house? Or did either of the other girls ever come out?"

Mark grunted. "I don't even know what the othergirls look like. The only one I saw was Jade, and she was there the whole time." He looked at her darkly. "You're not still on this Rear Windowthing, are you?"

Mary-Lynnette didn't answer. She was trying to gather her scattered thoughts.

I don't believe it. Butshe said it. Orders about the goats. Before her aunt went on vacation.

But Rowan didn't know about the goats before I told her. I'd swear she didn't know. And I was so sure she was winging it with the vacation business....

Okay, maybe I was wrong. But that doesn't mean Rowan was telling the truth. Maybe they didfigure the story out before tonight, and Rowan's just a lousy actress. Or maybe ...

0 "Mark, this is going to sound crazy ... but Jade didn't have, like, a cellular phone or anything, did she?"

Mark stopped dead and gave Mary-Lynnette a long, slow look that said more dearly than wordswhat he thought of this. "Mary-Lynnette, what'swrongwith you?"

"Rowan and Kestrel told me that Mrs. B. is on vacation. That she suddenly decidedto take a vacation just when they arrived in town."

"So? Jade said the same thing."

"Mark, Mrs. B. has lived there for ten years, and she's nevertaken a vacation. Never. How could shetake one starting the same day her nieces come to live with her?"

"Maybe because they can house-sit for her," Mark said with devastating logic.

It was exactly what Rowanhad said. MaryLynnette had a sudden feeling of paranoia, like someone who realizes that everyone around her is a pod person, all in on the conspiracy. She had been aboutto tell him about the goats, but now she didn't want to.

Oh, geta gripon yourself, girl. Even Mark is beinglogical The least you can do isthink about this rationally before you run to Sheriff Akers.

The fact is, Mary-Lynnette told herself, brutally honest, that you panicked. You got afeelingaboutthose girls for some reason, and then you forgot logic completely. You didn't get any kind of hard evidence.

You ran away.

She could hardly go to the sheriff and. say that shewas suspicious because Rowan had creepy feet.

There's no evidence at all. Nothing except ... She groaned inwardly.

"It all comes down to what's in the garden," shesaid out loud.

Mark, who had been walking beside her in frowning silence, now stopped. "What?"

"It all comes back to that again," Mary-Lynnettesaid, her eyes shut. "I should have just looked at thatdug-up place when I had the chance, even if Jadesaw me. It's the only real evidence there is ...so I've got to see what's there."

   
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