"I know you and the girls did a blood-tie ceremony. It was illegal, but that's beside the point.
You're part of the reason they don't want to leavehere."
Mary-Lynnette opened her mouth to point out thatthey didn't want to leave because life had been unbearable for them in the Night World, but Ash hurried on. "But maybe if you were-like us, we could work something out. I could take the girls back to the island, and then in a few months I could get them out again. We'd go someplace where nobodywould know us. Nobody would suspect there was anything irregular about you. The girls would be free,and you'd be there, so there's no reason they shouldn't be happy. Your brother could come, too."
Mary-Lynnette turned around slowly. She examined Ash. The sun brought out hidden warm tonesin his hair, making it a shimmering blond somewherebetween Jade's and Kestrel's. His eyes were shadowed, some dark color. He stood lanky and elegantas ever, but with one hand in his pocket and a pained expression on his face.
"Don't frown; you'll spoil your looks," she said. "For God's sake, don't patronize mel" he yelled.
Mary-Lynnette was startled. Well. Okay.
"I think," she said, more cautiously but with emphasis to let him know that she was the one with a right to be upset, "that you are suggesting changing me into a vampire."
The corner of Ash's mouth jerked. He put his other hand in his pocket and looked away. "That was the general idea, yes."
"So that your sisters can be happy."
"So that you don't get killed by some vigilante like Quinn."
"But aren't the Night People going to kill me just the same if you change me?"
"Only if they findyou," Ash said savagely. "And if we can get away from here clean, they wouldn't.Anyway, as a vampire you'd have a better chance of fighting them."
"So I'm supposed to become a vampire and leave everything I love here so your sisters can be happy."
Ash just stared angrily at the roof of the building across the street. "Forget it."
"Believe me, I wasn't even thinking about it in the first place."
"Fine." He continued to stare. All at once Mary-Lynnette had the horrible feeling that his eyes were wet.
And I've cried I don't know how many times inthe last two days-and I only used to cry when thestars were so beautiful it hurt. There's somethingwrongwith me now. I don't even know who I am anymore.
There seemed to be something wrong with Ash, too.
"Ash ..."
He didn't look at her. His jaw was tight.
The problem is that there isn't any tidy answer, Mary-Lynnette thought. "I'm sorry," she said huskily, trying to shake off the strange feelings that hadsuddenly descended on her. "It's just that everything's turned out so ... weird.I never asked for any of this." She swallowed. "I guess you never askedfor it, either. First your sisters running away ...and then me. Some joke, yeah?"
"Yeah." He wasn't staring off into the distance anymore. "Look ... I might as well tell you.I didn't ask for this, and if somebody had said last week that I'd be in ... involved ...with a,human, I'd have knocked his head off. I mean, after howls of derisive laughter. But."
He stopped. That seemed to be the end of his confession:but.Of course, he didn't really need to say more. Mary-Lynnette, arms folded over her chest, stared at a curved piece of glass on the ground and tried to think of other phrases that started with in.Besides the obvious. She couldn't come up with any.
She resisted the impulse to nudge the glass with her foot. "I'm a bad influence on your sisters."
"I said that to protect you. To try and protect you.""I can protect myself."
"So I've noticed," -he said dryly. "Does that help?"
"You noticing? No, because you don't really believe it. You'll always think I'm weaker than you, softer ...even if you didn't say it, I'd know you were thinking it."
Ash suddenly looked crafty. His eyes were as greenas hellebore flowers. "If you were a vampire, you wouldn't be weaker," he said. "Also, you'd know what I was really thinking." He held out his hand.
"Want a sample?"
Mary-Lynnette said abruptly, "We'd better get back. They're going to think we've killed each other."
"Let them," Ash said, his hand still held out, but Mary-Lynnette just shook her head and walked away.
She was scared. Wherever she'd been going with Ash, she'd been getting in too deep. And she wondered how much of their conversation had been audible around front.
When she rounded the corner, her eyes immediately went to Jeremy. He was standing with Kestrel by the gas pump. They were dose together, and forjust an instant Mary-Lynnette felt something like startled dismay.
Then her inner voice asked, Are you insane? You can't be jealous over him while you're worrying whether he's jealous over you, and meanwhile worrying about what to do with your soulmate.... It's good if he and Kestrel like each other.
"I don't care; I can't wait anymore," Jade was saying to Rowan on the sidewalk. "I've got to find him."
"She thinks Tiggy's gone home," Rowan said, seeing Mary-Lynnette. Ash went toward Rowan.
Kestrel did, too. Somehow Mary-Lynnette was left beside Jeremy.
Once again, she didn't know the etiquette. Sheglanced at him-and stopped feeling awkward. He was watching her in his quiet, level way.
But then he startled her. He threw a look at thesidewalk and said, "Mary-Lynnette, be careful."
"What?"
" Be careful. "It was the same tone he'd used whenwarning her about Todd and Vic.
Mary-Lynnette followed his gaze ... to Ash.