Her voice was soft, but once again, everybody looked around. The street was still deserted.
"There's no vampire hunter around here," Jeremy said flatly.
"Then there's a vampire," Jade said in an excited whisper. "There has to be, because of the way Aunt Opal was killed. And the goat."
"The goat . . . ? No, don't even tell me. I don't wanttoknow." Jeremy swung Mary-Lynnette's hood shut. He looked at her and said quickly, "Everything's fine in there. You should get the oilchanged sometime." Then he turned to Rowan. "I'm sorry about your aunt. But if thereis a vampirearound here, it's somebody staying hidden. Really hidden. Same if it's a vampire hunter."
"We already figured that out," Kestrel said. MaryLynnette expected Ash to chime in, but Ash was staring across the street broodingly, his hands in hispockets, apparently having given up on the conversation for the moment.
"You haven't seen anything that could give you a due?" Mary-Lynnette said. "We were going to lookaround town."
He met her eyes directly. "If I knew, I'd tell you." There was just the slightest emphasis on the last word.
"If I could help you, I would."
"Well, come along for the ride. You can put your head out of the window," Ash said, returning to life.
That did it. Mary-Lynnette marched over, grabbedhim by the arm, and said to the others, "Excuse us."
She hauled him in a series of tugs to the back of the gas station. "You jerk!"
"Oh, look...................
"Shut upl"She jabbed a finger at his throat. It didn't matter that touching him set off electrical explosions.
It just gave her another reason to want to kill him. She found that the pink haze was a lot like anger when you kept shouting through it.
"You have to be the center of every drama, don't you? You have to be the center of attention, and act smart, and mouth off l"
"Ow," Ash said.
"Even if it means hurting other people. Even if itmeans hurting somebody who's only had rotten breaks all his life. Well, not this time."
"Ow "Rowan said you guys think all werewolves are low class. And you know what that is? Where I come from, they call that prejudice. And humans have it, too, andit is not a pretty picture. It's about the most hateful thing in the world. I'm ashamed to even stand there while you spout it off." Mary-Lynnette realized she was crying. She also realized that Mark and Jade were peering around the edge of the gas station.
Ash was flat against the boarded-up window, armsup in a gesture of surrender. He looked at a loss for words and ashamed. Good, Mary-Lynnette thought.
"Should you keep poking him that way?" Mark said tentatively. Mary-Lynnette could see Rowan andKestrel behind him and Jade. They all looked alarmed.
"I can't be friends with anybody who's a bigot,"she said to all of them. She gave Ash a jab for emphasis.
"We're not," Jade said virtuously."Wedon't be lieve that stupid stuff."
"We really don't," Rowan said. "And Mary-Lynnette-our father is alwaysyellingat Ash for visiting the wrong kind of people on the Outside. Belonging to a dub that admits werewolves, havingwerewolves for friends. The Elders all say he's too liberal about that."
Oh. "Well, he's got a funny way of showing it," Mary-Lynnette said, deflating slightly.
"I just thought I'd mention that," Rowan said."Now we'll leave you alone." She herded the others back toward the front of the station.
When they were gone, Ash said, "Can I move now, please?" He looked as if he was in a very bad mood.
Mary-Lynnette gave up. She felt tired, suddenlytired and emotionally drained. Too much had happened in the last few days. And it kept happening, it never let up, and ... well, she was tired, that's all.
"If you'd go away soon, it would be easier," shesaid, moving away from Ash. She could feel her headsag slightly.
"Mary-Lynnette . . ." There was something inAsh's voice that she'd never heard before. "Look it's not exactly a matter of me wanting to go away.There's somebody else from the Night World coming on Monday. His name is Quinn. And if my sistersand I don't go back with him, the whole town is in trouble. If he thinks anything irregular is going onhere ... You don't know what the Night Peoplecan do."
Mary-Lynnette could hear her heart beating distinctly. She didn't turn back to look at Ash.
"They could wipe Briar Creek out. I mean it. They've done things like that, to preserve the secret.
It's the only protection they have from your kind."
Mary-Lynnette said-not defiantly, but with simpleconviction, "Your sisters aren't going to leave."
"Then the whole town's in trouble. There's a roguewerewolf, three renegade lamia, and a secret vampirekiller wandering around somewhere-not to mention twohumans who know about the Night World. This is a paranormal disaster area."
A long silence. Mary-Lynnette was trying very hard not to see "things from Ash's point of view. Atlast she said, "So what do you want me to do?"
"Oh, I don't know, why don't we all have a pizza party and watch TV?" Ash sounded savage. "I
haveno idea what to do," he added in more normal tones."And you'd better believe I've been thinking about it. The only thing I can come up with is that the girlshave to go back with me, and we all have to lie through our teeth to Quinn."
Mary-Lynnette tried to think, but her head was throbbing.
"There is one other possibility," Ash said. He saidit under his breath, as if he wouldn't mind if she pretended not to hear him.
Mary-Lynnette eased a crick in her neck, watchingblue-and-yellow images of the sun on her shut eyelids. "What?"