Rowan said, "Jade, I know this is hard-"Kestrel said, "Jade, don't be a wimp-"
Jade was trembling, body tensed like a cat ready to fight. Her voice was louder than either of them.
"You just can't do itl I think -Ithink-" "Jade-"
"I thinkhe's my soulmate!"
Dead silence.
Then Rowan groaned. "Oh, dear..."
Kestrel said, "Oh,sure."
They were both looking at Jade. Focused on her. Mary-Lynnette thought, now.
She swung the flashlight viciously at Kestrel, wanting to take her out first, betting that Rowan would stay behind if Kestrel were hurt. But the swing never connected, Mark threw himself in front of her, slamming into her arm.
"Don't hurt Jade!"
Then everything was just a mad tangle. Arms, legs,grasping fingers, kicking feet. Jade and Mark both yelling for it to stop. Mary-Lynnette felt the flashlight wrenched out of her hand. She found long hair, got hold of it, yanked. Someone kicked her, and pain blossomed in her ribs.
Then she felt herself being dragged backward Mark was holding her, pulling her away from thefight.
Jade was lying on top of Kestrel and clutching at Rowan.
Everybody was panting. Mark was almost crying.
"We just can't do this," he said. "This is terrible.This is all wrong."
Meanwhile Jade was snarling, "He's my soulmate,okay?Okay? I can't do anything with himdead!"
"He's not your soulmate, idiot," Kestrel said in a somewhat muffled voice. She was facedown on the carpet of needles. "When you're soulmates, it hits you like lightning, and you know that's the one person in the world you were meant to be with. Youdon'tthink you're soulmates; you just know it's your destiny whether you like it or not."
Somewhere, deep in Mary-Lynnette's brain, something stirred in alarm. But she had more urgentthings to worry about.
"Mark, get out of here," she said breathlessly. ?Run!?
Mark didn't even ease his grip. "Why do we have to be enemies?"
"Mark, they're killers .You can't justify that. They killed their own aunt."
Three faces turned toward her, startled. A half-fullmoon had risen above the trees, and Mary-Lynnette could see them clearly.
"We didnot!" Jade said indignantly.
"What made you think that?" Rowan asked.Mary-Lynnette felt her mouth hang open. "Be cause you buried her, for God's sakel"
"Yes, but we found her dead."
"Somebody staked her," Kestrel said, brushingpine needles out of her golden hair. "Probably a vampire hunter. I don't suppose you'd know anything about that."
Mark gulped. "Staked her-with a stake?"
"Well, with a picket from the fence," Kestrel said. "She was already dead?" Mary-Lynnette said toRowan. "But then why on earth did you bury her in the backyard?"
"It would have been disrespectful to leave her in the cellar."
'But why didn't you have her taken to a cemetery?"Rowan looked dismayed.
Jade said, "Um, you haven't seen Aunt Opal."
"She's not looking so good," Kestrel said. "Kind ofhard and stiff. You might say mummified."
"It's what happens to us," Rowan said almostapologetically.
Mary-Lynnette slumped back against Mark, trying to get her new world view into place. Everything was whirling.
"So... you were just trying to hide her. But ... you did do something to Todd Akers and Vic
Kim-"
"Theyattackedus," Jade interrupted. "They were thinking very bad things and they pinched our arms."
"They-?" Mary-Lynnette sat up suddenly. All at once she understood. "Oh, my God. Those jerks!"
Why hadn't she thought of that? Todd and Vielast year there bad been rumors about them jumping some girl from Westgrove. So they'd tried it on these girls, and ...
Mary-Lynnette gasped and then snorted with half inhaled laughter. "Oh, no. Oh, I hope you got them good "We just bit them a little," Rowan said.
"I wish I'd been there tosee it."
She was laughing. Rowan was smiling. Kestrel was grinning barbarically. And suddenly Mary-Lynnette knew that they weren't going to fight anymore.
Everybody took a deep breath and sat back and looked at one another.
They do look different from normal humans, Mary-Lynnette thought, staring at them in the moonlight. It's so obvious once you know.
They wereinhumanly beautiful, of course. Rowanwith her soft chestnut hair and sweet face; Kestrelwith her feral sleekness and golden eyes; Jade with her delicate features and her hair like starshine. Likethe Three Graces, only fiercer.
"Okay," Rowan said softly. "We seem to have asituation here. Now we've got to figure somethingout."
"We won't tell on you," Mark said. He and Jadewere gazing at each other.
"We've got Romeo and Juliet on our hands here is what we've got," Mary-Lynnette said to Rowan.
But Kestrel was speaking to Rowan, too. "No matterwhatthey promise, how do we know we can be lieve them?"
Rowan considered, eyes roving around the clearing. Then she let out a long breath and nodded.
"There's only one way," she said. "Blood-tie."
Kestrel's eyebrowsflew up. "Oh, really?"
"What is it?" Mary-Lynnette asked.
"A blood-tie?" Rowan looked helpless. "Well, it's akinship ceremony, you know." When Mary-Lynnette just looked at her, she went on: "It makes our families related. It's like, one of our ancestors did it with a family of witches.:'
Witches, Mary-Lynnette thought. Oh ...gosh. Sowitches are real, too. I wonder how many other things are real that I don't know about?