Mark was shaking his head. "Now, look-"
"I haveto go back. Not tonight. I'm dead tired. But tomorrow. Mark, I haveto check it out before I go to Sheriff Akers."
Mark exploded.
"Before youwhat?"he shouted, loud enough to raise echoes. "What are you talking about, going to the sheriff?"
Mary-Lynnette stared. She hadn't realized how different Mark's point of view was from hers. Why, she thought, why he's ...
-240 "You wanted to check out where Mrs. B. was-so we checked where Mrs. B. was," Mark said.
"They told us where. And yousawJade. I know she's a little differentit's like you said about Mrs. B.; she's eccentric. But did she look like the kind of personwho could hurt somebody? Well, didshe?"
Why, he's in love with her, Mary-Lynnettethought. Or at least seriously in like. Mark likes a girl.
Now she was reallyconfused.
This could be so good for him-if only the girl weren't crazy. Well, maybe even if the girl wascrazyif it wasn't a homicidal craziness. Either way, Mary-Lynnette couldn't call the police on Mark's new girlfriend unless she had some evidence.
I wonder if she likes him, too? she thought. They certainly seemed to be protecting each other when I walked in.
"No, you're right," she said aloud, glad that she'd had practice lying tonight. "She doesn't look like thekind of person who could hurt somebody. I'll just let it drop."
With you. And tomorrow night when you thinkI'm starwatching, I'll sneak over there. This time bringing my own shovel. And maybe a big stick to fend off wolverines.
"Do you really think you heard a wolverine over there?" she asked, to change the subject.
"Um ...maybe." Mark was slowly losing his scowl. "It was somethingweird. Something I've never heard before. So you're going to forget all this crazy stuff about Mrs. B., right?"
"Yeah, I am." I'll be safe, mary-Lynnette was thinking. This time I won't panic, and I'll make sure they don't see me. Besides, if they were going to kill me, they would have done it tonight, wouldn't they?
"Maybe it was Sasquatch we heard yelling," Marksaid.
Chapter 6
Whydidn't we just kill her?" Kestrel asked.
Rowan and Jade looked at each other. There were few things they agreed on, but one of them was definitely Kestrel.
. "First of all, we agreed not to do that here. Wedon't use our powers-"
"And we don't feed onhumans. Or kill them," Kestrel finished the chant. "But you already used your powers tonight; you called Jade."
"I had to let her know what story I'd just toldabout Aunt Opal. Actually, I should have planned forthis earlier. I should have realized that people are going to come and ask where Aunt Opal is."
"She's the only one who's asking. If we killed her-"
"We can't just go killing people in our new home,"Rowan said tightly. "Besides, she said she had family waiting for her. Are we going to kill all of them?"
Kestrel shrugged.
"We arenotgoing to start a blood feud," Rowan said even more tightly.
"But what about influencing her?" Jade said. Shewas sitting with Tiggy in her arms, kissing the velvety black top of the kitten's head. "Making her forget she's suspicious-or making her think she saw Aunt Opal?"
"That would be fine-if it were just her," Rowansaid patiently. "But it's not. Are we going to influ enceeveryone who comes to the house? What aboutpeople who call on the phone? What about teachers?You two are supposed to start school in a couple of weeks."
"Maybe we'll just have to miss that," Kestrel said without regret.
Rowan was shaking her head. "We need a permanent solution. We need to find some reasonable explanation for why Aunt Opal is gone."
"We need to move Aunt Opal," Kestrel said flatly."We need to get rid of her."
"No, no. We might have to produce the body,"Rowan said.
"Looking likethat?"
They began to argue about it. Jade rested her chin on Tiggy's head and stared out the multipaned kitchen window. She was thinking about Mark Carter, who had such a gallant heart. It gave her a pleasantly forbidden thrill just to picture him. Back home there weren't any humans wandering around free. She could never have been tempted to break NightWorld law and fall in love with one. But here ...yes, Jade could almost imagine falling in love with Mark Carter. Just as if she were a human girl.
She shivered deliriously. But just as she was tryingto picture what human girls did when they were in love, Tiggy gave a sudden heave. He twisted out of her arms and hit the kitchen floor running. The fur on his back was up.
Jade looked at the window again.She couldn't see anything. But ...she felt ...
She turned to her sisters. "Something was out there in the garden tonight," she said. "And Icouldn't smell it."
Rowan and Kestrel were still arguing. They didn't hear her.
Mary-Lynnette opened her eyes and sneezed. She'd overslept. Sun was shining around the edges of her dark blue curtains.
Get up and get to work, she told herself. But instead she lay rubbing sleep out of her eyes and tryingto wake up. She was a night person, not a morningperson.
The room was large and painted twilight blue. Mary-Lynnette had stuck the glow-in-the-dark starsand planets to the ceiling herself. Taped onto the dresser mirror was a bumper sticker saying I BRAKEFOr ASTEROIDS.On the walls were a giant relief map of the moon, a poster from the Sky-Gazer's Almanac, and photographic prints of the Pleiades,theHorsehead Nebula, and the total eclipse of 1995.
It was Mary-Lynnette's retreat, the place to go when people didn't understand. She always felt safeinthe night.
She yawned and staggered to the bathroom, grabbing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt on the way. She was brushing her hair as she walked down the stairs when she heard voices from the living room.
-252Claudine's voice ... and a male voice. Not Mark; weekdays he usually went to his friend Ben's house.A stranger.
Mary-Lynnette peeked through the kitchen. Therewas a guy sitting on the living room couch. She could see only the back of his head, which was ash blond. Mary-Lynnette shrugged and started to open the refrigerator, when she heard her own name.
"Mary-Lynnette is very good friends with her," Claudine was saying in her quick, lightly accented voice. "I remember a few years ago she helped her fix up a goat shed."