"I didn't mean that. I meantwhy, " Mary-Lynnettesaid, but she knew why already. She watched rednessbead in the wake of the twig as Rowan drew it across her wrist.
Exchange blood, Rowan had said.
Mary-Lynnette gulped. She didn't look at markand Kestrel.
I'll do it first and then he'll see it's not so bad, shetold herself. I can do this, I can do this.... It's so wecan stayalive.
Rowan was looking at her, offering her wrist.
Copperbloodfear, Mary-Lynnette thought, feeling queasy.
She shut her eyes and put her mouth to Rowan'swrist.
Warmth. Well-being. And a taste not like copper, but like something rich and strange. Later, she'd al ways grope for ways to describe it, but she could onlythink of things like: well, a little bit like the way vanilla bean smells, and a little bit like the way silk feels, and a little bit like the way a waterfall looks. It was faintly sweet.
Afterward, she felt as if she could run up mountains.
"Oh, boy," Mark said, sounding giddy. "If you could bottle that stuff, you'd make millions."
"It's been thought of before," Kestrel said coolly. "Humans hunting us for our blood."
"Talk later," Rowan said firmly. "Blood-tie now."
Kestrel's mind was gold. With brilliant knifelikeedges sending glitters in every direction.
"Okay, Jade," Rowan said. "Mark. Enough, you guys. Let go of each other now."
Mary-Lynnette saw that she was physically pullingMark and Jade apart. Mark was wearing a silly smile, and Mary-Lynnette felt the tiniest stab of envy. What would it be like to see the mind of somebody you were in love with?
Jade's mind was silver and lacy, an intricate filigreed sphere like a Christmas ornament. And by the time Mary-Lynnette sat back from drinking Jade's blood, she felt light-headed and sparkling. As if she had a mountain stream in her veins.
"All right," Rowan said. "Now we share the sameblood." She held out a hand, and Jade and Kestrel did the same. Mary-Lynnette glanced at Mark, then they each reached out, all their hands meeting like spokes in a wheel.
"We promise to be kin to you, to protect and defend you always," Rowan said. She nodded to Mary-Lynnette.
"We promise to be kin to you," Mary-Lynnetterepeated slowly. "To protect and defend you always."
"That's it," Rowan said simply. "We're family."
Jade said, "Let's go home."
They had to finish burying Aunt Opal first. MaryLynnette watched as Rowan scattered pine needles over the grave.
"You inherit our blood feuds, too," Kestrel told Mary-Lynnette pleasantly. "Meaning you have to help us find out who killed her."
"I've been trying to do that all along."
They left the deer where it was. Rowan said,"There are already lots of scavengers around here. It won't be wasted."
Yep, that's life, Mary-Lynnette thought as they leftthe clearing. She glanced behind her-and for justan instant she thought she saw a shadow there anda glint of greenish-orange eyes at her own eye level. It was much too big for a coyote.
She opened her mouth to tell the others ... and the shadow was gone.
Did I imagine that? I think my eyes are goingfunny. Everything seems too bright.
All her senses seemed changed-sharpened. Itmade it easier to get out of the woods than it had been getting in. Mark and Jade didn't walk hand inhand-that would have been impractical-but Jade looked back at him frequently. And when they got to rough spots, they helped each other.
"You're happy, aren't you?" Mary-Lynnette said softly when she found herself beside Mark.
He gave a startled, sheepish grin, white in the moonlight. "Yeah. I guess I am." After a minute hesaid, "It's like-I don't know how to describe it, butit's like I belong with Jade. She reallysees me. I mean, not the outside stuff. She sees me inside,andshe likes me. Nobody else has ever done that .. .except you."
"I'm happy for you."
"Listen," he said. "I think we should start looking around for you. There are lots of guys around here-"
Mary-Lynnette snorted. "Mark. If I want to meeta guy, I'll meet a guy. I don't need any help."
He gave the sheepish grin again. "Sorry."
But Mary-Lynnette was thinking. Ofcourseshe'd like to find somebody who would accept her completely, who would share everything with her. That was everybody's dream. But for how many people did it come true?
And there weren'tlots of guys around here....She found herself thinking of Jeremy Lovett again. His dear brown eyes ...
But she couldn't hold the picture. It kept dissolving--.to her horror-into eyes that flashed blue andgold and gray, depending on the way they caught the light.
Oh, God,no. Ash was the last person who would understand her. And she didn't want to share a bus seat with him, much less her life.
"What I want to know is who madeyou guys vam pires," Mark said. They were sitting on oversize, overstuffed Victorian furniture in the living room at Burdock Farm. Rowan had a fire going in the fireplace. "Was it the old lady? Your aunt?"
"It wasn't anybody," Jade said, looking affronted."We're not made vampires. We're the lamia."
She pronounced it LAY-mee-uh.
Mark looked at her sideways. "Uh-huh. Andwhat's that?"
"It's us. It's vampires that can have babies, and eat,and drink, and get old if we let ourselves, and livein families.Thebest kind of vampires."
"It's a race of vampires, basically," Kestrel said."Look, there are two different kinds of vampires, okay? The kind who start out as humans and are changed when a vampire bites them, and the kindthat are bornvampires. That's the kind we are. Our line goes back-well, let's say a long way."