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.
But if he's bleeding he's not dead-oh, God, please,he can'tbe dead-Rowan said that only staking and burning kill vampires....
"I have to take dare of him," Jeremy said. "And then I'll let you go, I promise. Once I explain everything, you'll understand."
Mary-Lynnette looked up from Ash to the strangerwith Jeremy's face. With a shock, she realized what he meant by "take care of." Three words that were just part of life to a hunterto a werewolf.
So now I know about werewolves. They're killers and I was right all along. I was right and Rowan was wrong.
"It'll only take a minute," Jeremy said-and hislips drew back.
Mary-Lynnette's heart seemed to slam violently inside her chest. Because his lips went farther up than any human's lips could. She could see his gums, whitish-pink. And she could see why his voice didn't sound like Jeremy's-it was his teeth.
White teeth in the moonlight. The teeth from herdream. Vampire teeth were nothing compared to this.
The incisors at the front were made for cutting fleshfrom prey, the canines were two inches long, the teeth behind them looked designed for slicing and shearing.
Mary-Lynnette suddenly remembered-somethingVic Kimble's father had said three years ago. He'd said that a wolf could snap off the tail of a full-grown cow clean as pruning shears. He'd been complaining that somebody had let a wolf-dog crossbreed looseand it was going after his cattle....
Except that of course it wasn't a crossbreed, Mary-Lynnette thought. It was Jeremy. I saw him everyday at school-and then he must have gone hometo look like this. Tohunt.
Just now, as he stood over Ash with his teeth all exposed and his chest heaving, Jeremy looked completely, quietly insane.
"But why?" Mary-Lynnette burst out."Whydo youwant to hurt him?"
Jeremy looked up-and she got another shock. His eyes were different. Before she'd seen them flash white in the darkness. Now they had no whites at all. They were brown with large liquid pupils. Theeyes of an animal.
So it doesn't need to be a full moon, she thought. He can change anytime.