I know it doesn't-but I'll make up for them, somehow.You'll see; I'll find away....
So that's telepathy, Mary-Lynnette thought. She couldfeel Ash as he said the words, feel that hemeant them with desperate earnestness-and feel that there was a lot to make up for.
I don't care. I'm going to be a creature of darkness,too. I'll do what's in my nature, with no regrets.
When Ash started to lift his head, she tightened her grip, trying to keep him there.
"Please don't tempt me," Ash said out loud, hisvoice husky, his breath warm on her neck. "If I take too much, it will make you seriously weak.I mean it, sweetheart."
She let him go. He picked up the yew stick and made a small cut at the base of his throat, tilting his head back like a guy shaving his chin.
Mary-Lynnette realized he'd never done this before. With a feeling that was. almost awe, she put her lips to his neck.
I'm drinking blood. I'm a hunter already--sort of.
Anyway, I'm drinking blood and liking it-maybe because it doesn'ttastelike blood Not like copper and fear. It tastes weird and magic and old as the stars. When Ash gently detached her, she swayed on her feet.
"We'd better go home," he said.
"Why? I'm okay."
"You're going to get dizzier-and weaker. And ifwe're going to finish changingyou into a vampire--"
"if"
"All right,when. But before we do, we need to talk. I need to explain it all to you; we have to figure out the details. Andyouneed to rest."
Mary-Lynnette knew he was right. She wanted to stay here, alone with Ash in the dark cathedral of the forest-but shedidfeel weak. Languid. Apparently it was hard work becoming a creature of darkness.
They headed back the way they had come. Mary-Lynnette could feel the change inside herself-it was stronger than when she'd exchanged blood with the three girls. She felt simultaneously weak and hypersensitive. As if every pore were open.
The moonlight seemed much brighter. She couldsee colors dearly-the pale green of drooping cedar boughs, the eerie purple of parrot-beak wildflowersgrowing out of the moss.
And the forest wasn't silent anymore. She could hear faint uncanny sounds like the soft seething of needles in the wind, and her own footsteps on moist and fungus-ridden twigs.
I can even smell better, she thought. This place smells like incense cedar, and decomposing plants,and something really wild-feral, like something from the zoo. And something hot ...burny ...
Mechanical. It stung her nostrils. She stopped and looked at Ash in alarm.
"Whatisthat?"
0He'd stopped, too. "Smells like rubber and oil...." "Oh, God, thecar, " Mary-Lynnette said. They looked at each other for a moment, then simultane ously turned, breaking into a run.
It was the car. White smoke billowed from under the closed hood. Mary-Lynnette started to go closer, but Ash pulled her back to the side of the road."I just want to open the hood-" "No. Look. There."
Mary-Lynnette looked-and gasped. Tiny tongues of flame were darting underneath the smoke. licking out of the engine.
"Claudine always said this would happen," shesaid grimly as Ash pulled her back farther, "Only I think she meant it would happen with me in it."
"We're going to have to walk home," Ash said."Unless maybe somebody sees the fire...."
"Not a chance," Mary-Lynnette said. And that'swhat you get for taking a boy out to the most isolated place in Oregon, her inner voice said triumphantly.
"I don't suppose you could turn into a bat or something and fly back," she suggested.
"Sorry, I flunked shapeshifting. And I wouldn't leave you here alone anyway."
Mary-Lynnette still felt reckless and dangerous and it made her impatient.
"I can take care of myself," she said.
Andthat was when the club came down and Ash pitched forward unconscious.
Chapter 16
After that, things happened very fast, and at the same time with a dreamy slowness. Mary-Lynnette felt her arms grabbed from behind. Something was pulling her hands together-somethingstrong. Then she felt the bite of cord on her wrists, and she realized what was happening.
Tied up-I'm going to be helpless-I've got todosomething fast....
She fought, trying to wrench herself away, trying to kick. But it was already too late. Her hands were secure behind her back-and some part of her mind noted distantly that no wonder people on cop shows yell when they're handcuffed. Ithurt. Her shoulders gave a shriek of agony as she was dragged backward up against a tree.
"Stop fighting," a voice snarled. A thick, distorted voice she didn't recognize. She tried to see who it was, but the tree was in the way. "If you relax itwon't hurt."
. Mary-Lynnette kept fighting, but it didn't make any difference. She could feel the deeply furrowedbark of the tree against her hands and back-and now she couldn't move.
Oh, God, oh, God-1 can't get away. Iwas alreadyweak from what Ash and I did-and now I can't move at all.
Then stop panicking andthink, her inner voice said fiercely. Use your brain instead of getting hysterical.
Mary-Lynnette stopped struggling. She stood panting and tried to get control of her terror.
"I told you. It only hurts when you fight. A lot of things are like that," the voice said.
Mary-Lynnette twisted her head and saw who it was.
Her heart gave a sick lurch. She shouldn't havebeen surprised, but she was-surprised and infi nitely disappointed.
"Oh, Jeremy," she whispered.
Except that it was a different Jeremy than the one she knew. His face was the same, his hair, his clothes-but there was something weird about him, something powerful and scary and ...unknowable. His eyes were as inhuman and flat as a shark's.
"I don't want to hurt you," he said in that distorted stranger's voice. "I only tied you up because I didn't want you to interfere."
Mary-Lynnette's mind was registering different things in different layers. One part said, MyGod, he's trying to be friendly, and another part said, Tointerferewith what? and a third part just kept saying Ash.
She looked at Ash. He was lyingverystill, andMary-Lynnette's wonderful new eyes that could seecolors in moonlight saw that his blond hair was slowly soaking with blood. On the ground beside himwas a club
made of yew - made of the hard yellow sapwood. No wonder he was unconscious.