"Against their character," Ash finished for her, bleakly. "Yeah, I know."
Mary-Lynnette stopped walking. She stared at him."You havenot readPrideand Prejudice, " she said flatly.
"Why not?"
"Because Jane Austen was a human."
He looked at her inscrutably and said, "How do you know?"
Good point.Scary point. How could she really knowwho in human history had been human? Whatabout Galileo? Newton? T ycho Brahe?
"Well, Jane Austen was a woman,"shesaid, retreating to safer ground. "And you're a chauvinist pig-,'
"Yes, well, that I can't argue."
Mary-Lynnette started walking again. He followed."So now can I tell you how, um, ardently I loveand admire you?"
Another quote. "I thought your sisters said youpartiedall the time."
Ash understood. "I do," he said defensively. "Butthe morning after partying you have to stay in bed. And if you're in bed you might as well read something They walked.
"After all, weare soulmates," Ash said. "I can't becompletely stupid or I'd be completely wrong for you."
Mary-Lynnette thought about that. And about thefact that Ash sounded almost-humble. Which he had certainly never sounded before.
She said, "Ash ...I don't know. I mean-weare wrong for each other. We're just basically incompatible.
Even if I were avampire, we'd be basically incompatible."
"Well." Ash whacked at something with his yew branch. He spoke as if he half expected to be ignored.
"Well, about that ... I think I couldpossibly change your mind."
"About what?"
"Being incompatible. I think we could be sort offairly compatible if . . ."
"If?" Mary-Lynnette said as the silence dragged on."Well, if you could bring yourself to kiss me."
"Kissyou?"
"Yeah, I know it's a radical concept. I was pretty sure you wouldn't go for it." He whacked at another tree. "Of course humanshave been doing it for thousands of years."
Watching him sideways, Mary-Lynnette said, "Would you kiss a three-hundred-pound gorilla?" He blinked twice. "Oh, thank you.""I didn't mean you looked like one.""Don't tell me, let me guess. I smell like one?"Mary-Lynnette bit her lip on a grim smile. "I mean you're that much stronger than I am. Would you kissa female gorilla that could crush you with one squeeze`? When you couldn't do anything about it?"He glanced at her sideways. "Well, you're notexactly in that position, are you?"
Mary-Lynnette said, "Aren't I? It looks to me as ifI'd have to become a vampire just to deal with youon an equal level." Ash said, "Here."
Hewasofferingher theyew branch.Mary Lynnette stared at him.
"You want to give me your stick."
"It's not a stick, it's the way to deal withme onan equal level." He put one end of the branch againstthe base of his throat, and Mary-Lynnette saw that it was sharp.She reached out to take the other end and found the stick was surprisingly hard and heavy.
Ash was looking straight at her. It was too dark to see what color his eyes were, but his expression was unexpectedly sober.
"One good push would do it," he said. "First here and then in the heart. You could eliminate the problem of me from your life."
Mary-Lynnette pushed, but gently. He took a step back. And another. She backed him up against a tree, holding the stick to his neck like a sword.
"I actually meant only if you were really serious,"Ash said as he came up short against the cedar's bare trunk. But he didn't make a move to defend himself."And the truth is that you don't even need a spear like that. A pencil in the right place would do it."
Mary-Lynnette narrowed her eyes at him, swirlingthe yew stick over his body like a fencer getting the range.
Then she removed it. She dropped it to the ground. "You really have changed," she said.
Ash said simply, "I've changed so much in the lastfew days that I don't even recognize myself in the mirror."
"And you didn't kill your aunt.""You're just now figuring that out?"
"No. But I always wondered just a bit. All right, I'll kiss you."
It was a little awkward, lining up to get the position right. Mary-Lynnette had never kissed a boy before.
But once she started she found it was simple.
And... now she saw what the electric feeling ofbeing soulmates was for. All the sensations she'd felt when touching his hand, only intensified. And not unpleasant. It was only unpleasant if you were afraidof it.
Afterward, Ash pulled away. "There. Yousee,"he said shakily.
Mary-Lynnette took a few deep breaths. "I supposethat's what it feels like to fall into a black hole."
"Oh. Sorry."
"No, I mean-it was interesting." Singular, shethought. Different from anything she'd ever felt before. And she had the feeling thatshe would be different from now on, that she could never go back andbe the same person she had been.
So who am I now? Somebody fierce, I think.Somebody who'd enjoy running through the dark ness, underneath stars bright as miniature suns, and maybe even hunt deer. Somebody who can laugh atdeath the way the sisters do.
I'll discover a supernova and I'll hiss when somebody threatens me. I'll be beautiful and scary and dangerous and of course I'll kiss Ash a lot.
She was giddy, almost soaring with exhilaration.
I've always loved the night, she thought. And I'll finally belong to it completely.
"Mary-Lynnette?" Ash said hesitantly. "Did you likeit?"
She blinked and looked at him. Focused.
"I want you to turn me into a vampire," she said.
It didn't feel like a jellyfish sting this time. It wasquick and almost pleasant like pressure being released.
And then Ash's lips were on her neck, and that wasdefinitely pleasant. Warmth radiated from his mouth.
Mary-Lynnette found herself stroking the back of his neck and realized that his hair was soft,as nice to touch as cat's fur.
And his mind...was every color of the spectrum. Crimson and gold, jade and emerald and deep violetblue. A tangled thorn-forest of iridescent colors that changed from second to second.
Mary-Lynnette wasdazzled.
And half frightened. There was darkness in among those gemlike colors. Things Ash had done in the past ... things she could sense he was ashamed of now. But shame didn't change the acts themselves.