They won't be able to connect them to the missing people."
"Poor old Aunt Opal," Jade said, still cheerful."But she helped us in the end, didn't she?"
Mary-Lynnette looked at her. Yes, there it is, shethought. The silver in the eyes when you laugh about death. Jade is a true Night Person, too.
"She did help. And I'm going to miss her," she said out loud.
Kestrel said, "So everything is taken care of."
"Seems like it." Ash hesitated. "And Quinn is waiting down the road. I_ told him it would only takea couple hours to finish making arrangements and say goodbye."
There was a silence.
"I'll see you off," Mary-Lynnette said at last.
They went together to the front door. When theywere outside in the twilight Ash shut the door be hind them.
"You still can come with me, you know."
"With you and Quinn?"
"I'll send him away. Or I'll go and come back tomorrow and get you. Or I'll come back and stay...."
"You need to go tell your father about this. Make everything right with him, so it's safe for your sisters. You knowthat."
"Well, I'll come back afterthat,"Ash said, with an edge of desperation to his voice.
Mary-Lynnette looked away. The sun was gone. Looking east, the sky was already the darkest purple imaginable. Almost black. Even as she watched, a starcame out. Or-not a star. Jupiter.
"I'm not ready yet. I wish I were."
"No, you don't," Ash said, and he was right, of course. She'd known ever since she sat there by theroad, crying while her car burned. And althoughshe'd thought and thought about it since then, sitting in her darkened room, there was nothing she coulddo to change her own mind.
She would never be a vampire. She just wasn't cutout for it. She couldn't do the things vampires hadto do-and stay sane. She wasn't like Jade or Kestrelor even Rowan with her pale sinewy feet and her instinctive love of the hunt. She'd looked into the heart of the Night World . . .and she couldn't join it.
"I don't want you to be like that," Ash said. "Iwant you to be likeyou. "
Without looking at him, Mary-Lynnette said, "Butwe're not kids. We can't be like Jade and Mark, and just hold hands and giggle and never think about the future."
"No, we're only soulmates, that's all. We're onlydestined to be together forever...."
"If we've got forever, then you can give me time," Mary-Lynnette said. "Go back and' wander a little. Take a look at the Night World and make sure youwant to give it up "I know that already."
"Take a look at humans and make sure you wantto be tied to one of them."
"And think about the things I've done to humans, maybe?"
Mary-Lynnette looked at him directly. "Yes."
He looked away. "All right. I admit it. I've got a lot to make up for...."
Mary-Lynnette knew it. He'd thought of humansas vermin-and food. The things she'd seen in hismind made her not want to picture more.
"Then make up for what you can," she said, although she didn't dare really hope that he would.
"Take time to do that. And giveme time to finish growing up. I'm still in high school, Ash."
"You'll be out in a year. I'll come back then."
"It may be too soon."
"I know. I'll come back anyway." He smiled ironically. "And in the meantime I'll fight dragons, just like any knight for his lady. I'll prove myself. You'll be proud of me."
Mary-Lynnette's throat hurt. Ash's smile disappeared. They just stood looking at each other.
It was the obvious time for a kiss. Instead, they just stood staring like hurt kids, and then one ofthem moved and they were holding on to each other. Mary-Lynnette held on tighter and tighter, her face buried in Ash's shoulder. Ash, who seemed to have lost it altogether, was raining kisses on the back of her neck, saying, "I wish I were a human. I wishI were."
"No, you don't," Mary-Lynnette said, seriously unsteady because of the kisses.
"I do. I do."
But it wouldn't help, and Mary-Lynnette knew he knew it. The problem wasn't simply what he was, it was what he'd done-and what he was going to do. He'd seen too much of the dark side of life to be a normal person. His nature was already formed, and she wasn't sure he could fight it.
"Believe in me," he said, as if he could hear her.
Mary-Lynnette couldn't say yes or no. So she did the only thing she could do-she lifted her head. Hislips were in the right place to meet hers. The electric sparks weren't painful anymore, she discovered? and the pink haze could be quite wonderful. For a time everything was warm and sweet and strangelypeaceful.
And then, behind them, somebody knocked on thedoor. Mary-Lynnette and Ash jumped and separated.They looked at each other, startled, emotions still tooraw, and then Mary-Lynnette realized where she was. She laughed and so did Ash.
"Come out," they said simultaneously.
Mark and Jade came out. Rowan and Kestrel werebehind them. They all stood on the porch-avoiding the hole. They all smiled at Ash and Mary-Lynnette in a way that made Mary-Lynnette blush.
"Goodbye," she said firmly to Ash.
He looked at her for a long moment, then looked at the road behind him. Then he turned to go.
Mary-Lynnette watched him, blinking away tears.She still couldn't let herself believe in him. But there was no harm in hoping, was there? In wishing. Evenif wishes almost never came true....
Jade gasped. "Look!"
They all saw it, and Mary-Lynnette felt her heartjump violently. A bolt of light was streaking acrossthe darkness in the northeast. Not a little wimpyshooting star-a brilliant green meteor that crossedhalf the sky, showering sparks. It was right above Ash's path, as if lighting his way.