Night World 1 (18 page)

“You girls ever been to Oregon before?”

Jade blinked and murmured a negative.

“It's got some pretty lonely places,” Vic said. “Out here, for example. Briar Creek was a gold rush town, but when the gold ran out and the railroad passed it by, it just died. Now the wilderness is taking it back.”

His tone was significant, but Jade didn't understand what he was trying to convey.

“It does seem peaceful,” Rowan said politely from the backseat.

Vic made a brief snorting sound. “Yeah, well, peaceful wasn't exactly what I meant. I meant, take this road. These farmhouses are miles apart, right? If you screamed, there wouldn't be anyone to hear you.”

Jade blinked. What a strange thing to say.

Rowan, still politely making conversation, said, “Well, you and Todd would.”

“I mean, nobody
else,
” Vic said, and Jade could feel his impatience. He had been driving more and more slowly. Now he pulled the car off to the side of the road and stopped. Parked.

“Nobody out
there
is going to hear,” he clarified, turning around to look into the backseat. Jade looked, too, and saw Todd grinning, a wide bright grin with teeth clenched on his toothpick.

“That's right,” Todd said. “You're out here alone with us, so maybe you'd better listen to us, huh?”

Jade saw that he was gripping Rowan's arm with one hand and Kestrel's wrist with the other.

Rowan was still looking polite and puzzled, but Kestrel looked at the car door on her side thoughtfully. Jade knew what she was looking for—a handle. There wasn't one.

“Too bad,” Vic said. “This car's a real junkheap; you can't even open the back doors from inside.”

He grabbed Jade's upper arm so hard she could feel pressure on the bone. “Now, you girls just be nice and nobody's going to get hurt.”

“
Y
ou see, we're both lonely guys,” Todd said from the back. “There aren't any girls our age around here, so we're lonely. And then when we come across three nice girls like you—well, we just naturally want to get to know you better. Understand?”

“So if you girls play along, we can all have fun,” Vic put in.

“Fun—oh, no,” Rowan said, dismayed. Jade knew she had caught part of Vic's thought and was trying very hard not to pry further. “Kestrel and Jade are much too young for anything like that. I'm sorry, but we have to say no.”

“I won't do it even when I
am
old enough,” Jade said. “But that isn't what these guys mean, anyway—they mean this.” She projected some of the images she was getting from Vic into Rowan's mind.

“Oh, dear,” Rowan said flatly. “Jade, you know we agreed not to spy on people like that.”

Yeah, but look what they're thinking,
Jade said soundlessly, figuring that if she had broken one rule, she might as well break them all.

“Now, look,” Vic said in a tone that showed he knew he was losing control of the situation. He reached out and grabbed Jade's other arm, forcing her to face him. “We're not here to talk. See?” He gave her a little shake. Jade studied his features a moment, then turned her head to look inquiringly into the backseat.

Rowan's face was creamy-pale against her brown hair. Jade could feel that she was sad and disappointed. Kestrel's hair was dim gold and she was frowning.

Well?
Kestrel said silently to Rowan.

Well?
Jade said the same way. She wriggled as Vic tried to pull her closer.
Come on, Rowan, he's pinching me.

I guess we don't have any choice,
Rowan said.

Immediately Jade turned back to Vic. He was still trying to pull her, looking surprised that she didn't seem to be coming. Jade stopped resisting and let him drag her in close—and then smoothly detached one arm from his grip and slammed her hand upward. The heel of her hand made contact just under his chin. His teeth clicked and his head was knocked backward, exposing his throat.

Jade darted in and bit.

She was feeling guilty and excited. She wasn't used to doing it like this, to taking down prey that was awake and struggling instead of hypnotized and docile. But she knew her instincts were as good as any hunter who'd grown up stalking humans in alleys. It was part of her genetic programming to evaluate anything she saw in terms of “Is it food? Can I get it? What are its weaknesses?”

The only problem was that she shouldn't be enjoying this feeding, because it was exactly the opposite of what she and Rowan and Kestrel had come to Briar Creek to do.

She was tangentially aware of activity in the backseat. Rowan had lifted the arm Todd had been using to restrain her. On the other side Kestrel had done the same.

Todd was fighting, his voice thunderstruck. “Hey—hey, what are you—”

Rowan bit.

“What are you doing?”

Kestrel bit.

“What the freak are you doing? Who are you? What the freak are you?”

He thrashed wildly for a minute or so, and then subsided as Rowan and Kestrel mentally urged him into a trance.

It was only another minute or so before Rowan said “That's enough.”

Jade said,
Aw, Rowan
…

“That's
enough.
Tell him not to remember anything about this—and find out if he knows where Burdock Farm is.”

Still feeding, Jade reached out with her mind, touching lightly with a tentacle of thought. Then she pulled back, her mouth closing as if in a kiss as it left Vic's skin. Vic was just a big rag doll at this point, and he flopped bonelessly against the steering wheel and the car door when she let him go.

“The farm's back that way—we have to go back to the fork in the road,” she said. “It's weird,” she added, puzzled. “He was thinking that he wouldn't get in trouble for attacking us because—because of something about Aunt Opal. I couldn't get what.”

“Probably that she was crazy,” Kestrel said unemotionally. “Todd was thinking that he wouldn't get in trouble because his dad's an Elder.”

“They don't have Elders,” Jade said, vaguely smug. “You mean a governor or a police officer or something.”

Rowan was frowning, not looking at them. “All right,” she said. “This was an emergency; we had to do it. But now we're going back to what we agreed.”

“Until the next emergency,” Kestrel said, smiling out the car window into the night.

To forestall Rowan, Jade said, “You think we should just leave them here?”

“Why not?” Kestrel said carelessly. “They'll wake up in a few hours.”

Jade looked at Vic's neck. The two little wounds where her teeth had pierced him were already almost closed. By tomorrow they would be faint red marks like old bee stings.

Five minutes later they were on the road again with their suitcases. This time, though, Jade was cheerful. The difference was food—she felt as full of blood as a tick, charged with energy and ready to skip up mountains. She swung the cat carrier and her suitcase alternately, and Tiggy growled.

It was wonderful being out like this, walking alone in the warm night air, with nobody to frown in disapproval. Wonderful to listen to the deer and rabbits and rats feeding in the meadows around her. Happiness bubbled up inside Jade. She'd never felt so free.

“It is nice, isn't it?” Rowan said softly, looking around as they reached the fork in the road. “It's the real world. And we have as much right to it as anybody else.”

“I think it's the blood,” Kestrel said. “Free-range humans are so much better than the kept ones. Why didn't our dear brother ever mention that?”

Ash, Jade thought, and felt a cold wind. She glanced behind her, not looking for a car but for something much more silent and deadly. She realized suddenly how fragile her bubble of happiness was.

“Are we going to get caught?” she asked Rowan. Reverting, in the space of one second, to a six-year-old turning to her big sister for help.

And Rowan, the best big sister in the world, said immediately and positively,
“No.”

“But if Ash figures it out—he's the only one who might realize—”

“We are not going to get caught,” Rowan said. “Nobody will figure out that we're here.”

Jade felt better. She put down her suitcase and held out a hand to Rowan, who took it. “Together forever,” she said.

Kestrel, who'd been a few steps ahead, glanced over her shoulder. Then she came back and put her hand on theirs.

“Together forever.”

Rowan said it solemnly; Kestrel said it with a quick narrowing of her yellow eyes. Jade said it with utter determination.

As they walked on, Jade felt buoyant and cheerful again, enjoying the velvet-dark night.

The road was just dirt here, not paved. They passed meadows and stands of Douglas fir. A farmhouse on the left, set back on a long driveway. And finally, dead ahead at the end of the road, another house.

“That's it,” Rowan said. Jade recognized it, too, from the pictures Aunt Opal had sent them. It had two stories, a wraparound porch, and a steeply pitched roof with lots of gables. A cupola sprouted out of the rooftop, and there was a weather vane on the barn.

A real weather vane, Jade thought, stopping to stare. Her happiness flooded back full force. “I love it,” she said solemnly.

Rowan and Kestrel had stopped, too, but their expressions were far from awed. Rowan looked a hairs-breadth away from horrified.

“It's a wreck,” she gasped. “Look at that barn—the paint's completely gone. The pictures didn't show that.”

“And the porch,” Kestrel said helpfully. “It's falling to pieces. Might go any minute.”

“The work,” Rowan whispered. “The work it would take to fix this place up…”

“And the money,” Kestrel said.

Jade gave them a cold look. “Why fix it? I like it. It's different.” Rigid with superiority, she picked up her luggage and walked to the end of the road. There was a ramshackle, mostly fallen-down fence around the property, and a dangerous-looking gate. Beyond, on a weed-covered path, was a pile of white pickets—as if somebody had been planning to fix the fence but had never got around to it.

Jade put down the suitcase and cat carrier and pulled at the gate. To her surprise, it moved easily.

“See, it may not look good, but it still works—” She didn't get to finish the sentence properly. The gate fell on her.

“Well, it may not work, but it's still ours,” she said as Rowan and Kestrel pulled it off her.

“No, it's Aunt Opal's,” Kestrel said.

Rowan just smoothed her hair back and said, “Come on.”

There was a board missing from the porch steps, and several boards gone from the porch itself. Jade limped around them with dignity. The gate had given her a good whack in the shin, and since it was wood, it still hurt. In fact, everything seemed to be made of wood here, which gave Jade a pleasantly alarmed feeling. Back home, wood was revered—and kept out of the way.

You have to be awfully careful to live in this kind of world, Jade thought. Or you're going to get hurt.

Rowan and Kestrel were knocking on the door, Rowan politely, with her knuckles, Kestrel loudly, with the side of her hand. There wasn't any answer.

“She doesn't seem to be here,” Rowan said.

“She's decided she doesn't want us,” Kestrel said, golden eyes gleaming.

“Maybe she went to the wrong bus station,” Jade said.

“Oh—that's it. I bet that's it,” Rowan said. “Poor old thing, she's waiting for us somewhere, and she's going to be thinking that we didn't show up.”

“Sometimes you're not completely stupid,” Kestrel informed Jade. High praise from Kestrel.

“Well, let's go in,” Jade said, to conceal how pleased she was. “She'll come back here sometime.”

“Human houses have locks,” Rowan began, but this house wasn't locked. The doorknob turned in Jade's hand. The three of them stepped inside.

It was dark, even darker than the moonless night outside, but Jade's eyes adjusted in a few seconds.

“Hey, it's not bad,” she said. They were in a shabby but handsome living room filled with huge, ponderous furniture. Wood furniture, of course—dark and highly polished. The tables were topped with marble.

Rowan found a light switch, and suddenly the room was too bright. Blinking, Jade saw that the walls were pale apple green, with fancy woodwork and moldings in a darker shade of the same green. It made Jade feel oddly peaceful. And anchored, somehow, as if she belonged here. Maybe it was all the heavy furniture.

She looked at Rowan, who was looking around, tall graceful body slowly relaxing.

Rowan smiled and met her eyes. She nodded, once. “Yes.”

Jade basked for a moment in the glory of having been right twice in five minutes—and then she remembered her suitcase.

“Let's see what the rest of the place is like,” she said hastily. “I'll take the upstairs; you guys look around here.”

“You just want the best bedroom,” Kestrel said.

Jade ignored her, hurrying up a wide, carpeted flight of stairs. There were lots of bedrooms, and each one had lots of room. She didn't want the best, though, just the farthest away.

At the very end of the hall was a room painted sea-blue. Jade slammed the door behind her and put her suitcase on the bed. Holding her breath, she opened the suitcase.

Oh. Oh,
no.
Oh,
no
…

Three minutes later she heard the click of the door behind her, but didn't care enough to turn.

“What are you
doing
?” Kestrel's voice said.

Jade looked up from her frantic efforts to resuscitate the two kittens she held. “They're
dead
!” she wailed.

“Well, what did you expect? They need to breathe, idiot. How did you expect them to make it through two days of traveling?”

Jade sniffled.

“Rowan told you that you could take only one.”

Jade sniffled harder and glared. “I
know.
That's why I put these two in the suitcase.” She hiccuped. “At least Tiggy's all right.” She dropped to her knees and peered in the cat carrier to make sure he
was
all right. His ears were laid back, his golden eyes gleaming out of a mass of black fur. He hissed, and Jade sat up. He was fine.