Faye's house was one of the nicest on the street. A housekeeper let Cassie in, and she remembered Diana saying that Faye's mother was dead. There were a lot of single-parent families on Crowhaven Road.
Faye's room was a rich girl's room. Cordless phone, PC, TV and VCR, tons of CDs. Huge, lush sprawling flowers patterned everything, including a bed heaped with soft cushions and embroidered pillows. Cassie sat down on the window seat, waiting for Faye to appear. There were red candles, not lit, on the nightstand.
Suddenly the dust ruffle on the bed stirred, and out poked the face of a little orange kitten. It was followed almost immediately by a little gray one.
“Oh, you darling,” Cassie said, enchanted in spite of herself. She would never have guessed Faye was the type to keep kittens. She sat very still, and to her delight the two little creatures came all the way out. They jumped up on the window seat and ranged over her, purring like motorboats.
Cassie giggled and squirmed as one climbed her sweater and perched, precariously, on her shoulder. They were adorable kittens, the orange fluffy and spiky with baby fur, the gray sleek and tidy. Their tiny needle claws pricked her as they climbed all over her. The orange one got in her hair and poked bluntly behind her ear, and she laughed again.
He was trying to nurse, kneading his little paws against her neck. She could feel his cold little nose. The gray one was doing the same thing from the other side. Oh, what darling, darling little…
“Ouch!” she cried. “Ow-oh, don't! Get off, you! Get off!”
She pulled at the tiny bodies, trying to detach them. They were tangled in her hair and they hung on with claws-and teeth. When Cassie finally managed to pry them away, she almost threw them to the ground. Then her hands flew to her neck.
Her fingers came away wet. She stared in shock at the redness.
They'd bitten her, the little monsters. And now they were sitting on the floor and composedly licking the blood off their chops. A surge of violent revulsion passed through Cassie.
From the doorway, Faye chuckled.
“Maybe they're not getting all their vitamins and minerals from the kitten chow,” she said.
She was looking stunning this morning. Her tangled pitch-black hair was still wet and cascaded down in yards of natural curls. Her skin was damp and glowing against her burgundy robe.
I shouldn't have come, Cassie thought, feeling a wave of irrational fear. But Faye wouldn't dare to hurt her now. Diana would find out, the Circle would find out. Faye must know she couldn't get away with it.
Faye seated herself on the bed. “So how did you like the ceremony last night?” she asked casually.
I knew it. “It was fine until something went wrong,” said Cassie. Then she just looked at Faye again.
Faye laughed her rich, slow laugh. “Oh, Cassie. I like you. I really do. I saw that there was something special about you from the beginning. I know we didn't exactly get the best start, but I think that's going to change now. I think we're going to be good friends.”
Cassie was speechless a moment. Then she managed to say, “I don't think so, Faye.”
“But I think so, Cassie. And that's what counts.”
“Faye…” Somehow, after last night Cassie found she had the courage to say things she wouldn't even have dreamed of saying before. “Faye, I don't think you and I have much in common. And I don't think I even want to be good friends with you.”
Faye only smiled.
“That's too bad,” she said. “Because, you see, I know something, Cassie. And I think it's the sort of thing you'd want only a very good friend to know.”
The world rocked under Cassie's feet.
Faye couldn't be saying-oh, she couldn't be saying what Cassie thought she was. Cassie stared at the older girl, feeling something like ice congeal in her stomach.
“You see,” Faye went on, “I happen to have a lot of other friends. And they tell me things, interesting things they see and hear around the neighborhood. And you know what? Last night one of those friends saw something very, very interesting on the bluff.”
Cassie sat, her vision blurring.
“They saw two people on the bluff out near Number Twelve. And those two people were… well, shall we say they were getting very friendly themselves? Very friendly. It was pretty hot, the way I heard it.”
Cassie tried to speak, but nothing came out.
“And you'll never believe who those two people were! I wouldn't have believed it myself, except that it reminded me of a poem I'd read somewhere. Now, how did it go? Each night I lie and dream about the one-“
“Faye!” Cassie was on her feet.
Faye smiled. “I think you get the point. Diana hasn't read that particular little poem, has she? I didn't think so. Well, Cassie, if you don't want her to hear it, or to know about what happened on the bluff last night, I'd say you'd better start being my friend and fast, don't you think?”
“It wasn't like that,” Cassie said. She was hot and shaking with fury, with fear. “You don't understand at all-“
“Of course I understand. Adam is very attractive. And I always suspected that 'eternal fidelity' routine of theirs was just an act. I don't blame you, Cassie. It's very natural…”
“That isn't what happened. There's nothing between us-“
Faye smirked. “From what I hear, there was very little between you last night-sorry. No, really, I'd like to believe you, Cassie, but I wonder if Diana will see it the same way. Especially after she learns how you conveniently forgot to mention that you'd met her boyfriend over the summer-when he awakened you, I believe. How did that poem go again?”