Night World : Daughters of Darkness Chapter 9

Mary-Lynnettes hearing had gone funny. Sheheard sparrow hawks words uniform a character remembering aphrase In a bad movie. Kill them, kill them, kill them. countenance laughed In a very strange way.This is going to be re each(prenominal)y rotten for him, MaryLynnette thought, curiously dispassionate. I mean, if wewere going tolive through this, which were not, it would be really rotten for him. He was already afraidofgirls, and sort of pessimistic about life in generalwhy dont we all sit down? rowan say with astifled sigh. Weve got to figure this out.Mark threw back his head and gave another shortbark of a laugh.Why not? he said. Lets all sit down, why not?Theyre fast as whippets, Mary-Lynnette thought.If we run now, theyll catch us. But If we sit, and theyget comfortable, and I distract them-or hitthem with somethingSitl she ordered Mark briskly. rowan and kestrel moved away from the deer and sat. tirestood with her hands on her hips for a moment, so sat,too.Sitting, Mark wa s still acting punch-drunk. Hewaved the flashlight around. You girls aresomethingelse.You girls are really-Were vampires, chaw said sharply.Yeah. Mark laughed quietly to himself. Yeah, he said again.Mary-Lynnette took the flashlight away from him. She wanted control of it. And it was heavy plastic andmetal. It was a weapon.And while one layer of her foreland was thinkingShine the light in their eyesat moreover the rightmoment and whencehit oneof them another dismantle was thinkingShemeans theyrepeoplewhothinktheyre vampirespeoplewiththat weird disease that makes them anemic and one final part was sayingYou strength as well faceittheyrereal.Mary-Lynnettes conception view had been knocked rightout of the ballpark.Dont you justhate that, Mark was saying. You meet a girl and she seems pretty nice and youtell all your friends and then forwards you chouse it she turnsout to be avampire.Dont you just hate it whenthat happens?Oh. God, hes hysterical, Mary-Lynnette realized. She grabb ed his shoulder and hissed in his ear, Get agrip, now.,I dont see what the point is in talking to them,rowan tree, sparrow hawk was saying. You know what we slang todo.And Rowan was rubbing her forehead. I was thinkingwe might influence them, she said in anundertone.You know why that wont work. Kestrels voice was soft and flat.Why? harass said sharply.They followed us for a reason, Rowan saidtiredly. She nodded toward the hole. So theyvebeen suspicious for a while-for how long? She looked at Mary-Lynnette.I saw you dig the hole Tuesday night, MaryLynnette said. She nodded toward the hole. Is thatyour aunt in there? in that location was a brief silence and Rowan looked selfconscious. consequently she inclined her head slightly.Gracefully.Oh, hell, Mark said. His eyes were shut and his head was rolling on his neck. Oh,hell. Theyvegot Mrs. B. in a bag.Two days, Rowan said to wear out. Theyve suspected for two whole days. And we cant removememories that are interlaced with other thi ngs for that long. Wed never know if we got them all.Well, we could just take every(prenominal)thing for the last two days, wear down said.Kestrel snorted. And have two more people wandering around with lost time?Mary-Lynnettes mind went click. Todd Akers andVic Kimble, she said. You did something to givethem amnesia.I knew there had to be a connection.Theres no other choice for us, Kestrel said quietly to Rowan. And you know it as well as Ido.Shes not being malicious, Mary-Lynnette realized.Just practical. If a lioness or a wolf or a falcon couldtalk, it would say the same thing. We have to either kill or die its as simple as that.Despite herself, Mary-Lynnette felt something like fascination-and respect.Mark had his eyes open now. And Rowan was looking sad, so sad. Its awful, her expression said, butsomebody here is going to have to get hurt.Rowan bowed her head, then lifted it to face MaryLynnette directly. Their eyes met, held. After amoment Rowans face changed slightly and she nodded.Mary-Lynnette knew that in that instant they werecommunicating without words. individually recognizing theother as an alpha female who was willing to fightand die for her kin.Meaning they were both(prenominal) big sisters.Yes, somebodys going to get hurt, Mary-Lynnette thought. You threaten myfamily,I fight back.She knew Rowan understood. Rowan was going to really hate killing her.No, a voice said passionately, and MaryLynnette realized it was endure. And the next secondJade was on her feet, hands clenched, words erupting like a steam boiler exploding. No, youcantkillMark. I wontletyou.Rowan said, Jade, I know this is hard-Kestrel said, Jade, dont be a wimp-Jade was trembling, body tensed like a cat ready to fight. Her voice was louder than either of them.You just cant do itl I think -Ithink- Jade-I thinkhes my soulmateDead silence.Then Rowan groaned. Oh, dearKestrel said, Oh,sure.They were both looking at Jade. Focused on her. Mary-Lynnette thought, now.She swung the fla shlight viciously at Kestrel, wanting to take her out first, betting that Rowan would staybehind if Kestrel were hurt. But the swing never connected, Mark threw himself in front of her, slamminginto her arm.Dont hurt JadeThen everything was just a mad tangle. Arms, legs,grasping fingers, kicking feet. Jade and Mark bothyelling for it to stop. Mary-Lynnette felt the flashlight wrenched out of her hand. She found long hair, gothold of it, yanked. Someone kicked her, and pain blossomed in her ribs.Then she felt herself being dragged retracted Mark was holding her, pulling her away from thefight.Jade was lying on top of Kestrel and clutching at Rowan.Everybody was panting. Mark was almost crying.We just cant do this, he said. This is terrible.This is all wrong.Meanwhile Jade was snarling, Hes my soulmate,okay?Okay? I cant do anything with himdeadHes not your soulmate, idiot, Kestrel said in a somewhat muffled voice. She was facedown on the cover of needles. When youre soulmates, it hit s you like lightning, and you know thats the one personin the world you were meant to be with. Youdontthink youre soulmates you just know its your destinywhether you like it or not.Somewhere, deep in Mary-Lynnettes brain, something aflame in alarm. But she had more urgentthingsto worry about.Mark, get out of here, she said breathlessly. ?Run?Mark didnt even ease his grip. Why do we have to be enemies?Mark, theyre killers .You cant justify that. They killed their own aunt.Three faces turned toward her, startled. A half-fullmoon had risen above the trees, and Mary-Lynnettecould see them clearly.We didnot Jade said indignantly.What made you think that? Rowan asked.Mary-Lynnette felt her give tongue to hang open. Be causeyou buried her, for Gods sakelYes, but we found her dead.Somebody staked her, Kestrel said, brushingpine needles out of her golden hair. Probably a vampire hunter. I dont theorise youd know anythingabout that.Mark gulped. Staked her-with a stake?Well, with a picket f rom the fence, Kestrel said. She was already dead? Mary-Lynnette saidtoRowan. But then why on earth did you bury herin the backyard?It would have been disrespectful to leave her in the cellar.But why didnt you have her taken to a cemetery?Rowan looked dismayed.Jade said, Um, you havent seen Aunt Opal.Shes not looking so good, Kestrel said. Kind ofhard and stiff. You might say mummified.Its what happens to us, Rowan said almostapologetically.Mary-Lynnette slumped back against Mark, trying to get her new world view into place. Everything waswhirling.So you were just trying to hide her. But you did do something to Todd Akers and VicKim-Theyattackedus, Jade interrupted. They were thinking very bad things and they pinched ourarms.They-? Mary-Lynnette sat up suddenly. either at once she understood. Oh, my God. Those jerksWhy hadnt she thought of that? Todd and Vielast year there bad been rumors about them jumping somegirl from Westgrove. So theyd tried it on these girls, and Mary-Lynnet te gasped and then snorted with half inhaled laughter. Oh, no. Oh, I hope you got themgoodWe just bit them a little, Rowan said.I wish Id been there tosee it.She was laughing. Rowan was smiling. Kestrel was smiling barbarically. And suddenly Mary-Lynnetteknew that they werent going to fight anymore.Everybody took a deep breath and sat back and looked at one another.They do look different from normal humans, Mary-Lynnette thought, utter(a) at them in the moonlight. Itsso obvious once you know.They wereinhumanly beautiful, of course. Rowanwith her soft chestnut hair and sweet face Kestrelwithher feral sleekness and golden eyes Jade with her delicate features and her hair like starshine. LiketheThree Graces, only fiercer.Okay, Rowan said softly. We seem to have asituation here. Now weve got to figuresomethingout.We wont tell on you, Mark said. He and Jadewere gazing at each other.Weve got Romeo and Juliet on our hands here is what weve got, Mary-Lynnette said toRowan.But Kestrel was speaking to Rowan, too. No matterwhatthey promise, how do we know we can believe them?Rowan considered, eyes roving around the clearing. Then she let out a long breath and nodded.Theres only one way, she said. Blood-tie.Kestrels eyebrowsflew up. Oh, really?What is it? Mary-Lynnette asked.A blood-tie? Rowan looked helpless. Well, its akinship ceremony, you know. WhenMary-Lynnette just looked at her, she went on It makes our families related. Its like, one of ourancestors did it with a family of witches.Witches, Mary-Lynnette thought. Oh gosh. Sowitches are real, too. I wonder how many other thingsare real that I dont know about?Vampires dont unremarkably get along with witches, Rowan was saying. And HunterRedfern-thats ourancestor-had a real blood feud going with themback in the sixteen hundreds.But then he couldnt have kids, Jade said gleefully. And he needed a witch to help or thewholeRedfern familywould end with him. So he had to apologize and do a kinship ceremony. And thenhe ha d all daughters.Ha ha.Mary-Lynnette blinked. Ha ha?So, you see, were part witch. All the Redfern are, Rowan was explaining in her gentle teachingvoice.Our father used to say thats why were so disobedient, Jade said. Because its in our genes .Because in witchfamilies, womenare in charge.Mary-Lynnette began to like witches. Ha ha, shesaid. Mark gave her a skittish sideways look.The point is that we could do a ceremony like that now, Rowan said. It would make us familyforever. We couldnt betray each other.No problem, Mark said, still looking at Jade.Fine with me,Jade said, and gave him a quick, fierce smile.But Mary-Lynnette was thinking. It was a serious thing Rowan was talking about. You couldnt dosomething like this on a whim. It was worse than adopting a puppy it was more like getting married. Itwas a lifetimeresponsibility. And even if these girls didnt kill humans, they killed animals. With their teeth.But so did people. And not always for food. Wasit worse to drink deer blood th an to make baby cowsinto boots?Besides, strange as it seemed, she felt dose to the three sisters already. In the last couple of minutesshedestablished more of a relationship with Rowanthan she ever had with any girl at school. bewitchment andrespect had turned into a weird kind of instinctive trust.And besidethat, what other real choice was there? Mary-Lynnette looked at mark, and then atRowan.She nodded slowly.Okay.Rowan turned to Kestrel.So Im supposed to decide, am I? Kestrel said.We cant do it without you, Rowan said. Youknow that.Kestrel looked away. Her golden eyes were narrowed. In the moonlight her profile was absolutely undefiled against the darkness of trees. It would mean we could never go home again. Make ourselves kinto vermin? Thats what theydsay.Whos vermin? Mark said, jolted out of his communion with Jade.Nobody answered. Jade said, with odd dignity, Icant go home, anyway. Im in love with an Outsider.And Im going to tell him about the Night World. SoIm dead no matte r what. Mark was opening hismouth-to protest that Jade shouldnt take such arisk forhim,Mary-Lynnette thought-when Jade addedabsently, And so is he, of course.Mark shut his mouth.Rowan said Kestrel, weve come too far to go back.Kestrel stared at the woods for another minute orso. Then suddenly she turned back to the others,laughing. There was something wild in her eyes.All right, lets go the whole way, she said. Tell them everything. Break every rule. We might aswell.Mary-Lynnette felt a twinge. She hoped she wasntgoing to regret this. But what she said was Just howdo we do this-ceremony?Exchange blood. Ive never done it before, but its simple.It might be a little bit strange, though, Jade said because youll be a little bit vampiresafterward.A little bit what? Mary-Lynnette said, her voice emergent in spite of her.Just a little bit. Jade was measuring out tiny bitsof air between her index finger and thumb. Adrop.Kestrel cast a look skyward. Itll go away in a few days, she said heav ily, which was whatMaryLynnette wanted to know.As long as you dont get yourself bitten by a vampire again in the meanwhile, Rowan added.Otherwise, its perfectly safe. Honestly.Mary-Lynnette and Mark exchanged glances. Not to discuss things, theyd gone beyond that now. Justto brace themselves. Then Mary-Lynnette took a deep breath and flicked a bit of fern off her knee.Okay, she said, feeling lightheaded but determined. Were ready.