Secret Vampire (28 page)

And that would be the end of Poppy.

Maybe that wasn't the way they did it, maybe they
executed criminals some other way in the Night
World. But it wouldn't be pleasant, whatever it was.

And I won't make
it
easy
for you!
Poppy thought. She
thought it directly at Ash, throwing all of her anger
and grief and betrayal at him. Instinctively. Like a
kid shouting in a temper tantrum.

Except it had an effect shouting usually didn't.

Ash flinched. He almost lost his grip on her arms.

It was only a momentary weakening, but it was
enough for Poppy's eyes to widen.

I hurt him.
I
hurt
him!

She stopped struggling physically in that same in
stant. She put all her concentration, all her energy,
into a mental explosion. A thought-bomb.

LET GO OF ME YOU ROTTEN VAMPIRE CREEP!

Ash staggered. Poppy did it again, this time making
her thought a fire hose, a high-power jetstream
bombardment.

LET G000000000000!

Ash let go. Then, as Poppy ran out of steam, he
tried in a
fumbling
way to reach her again.

"I don't think so," a voice as cold as steel said.
Poppy looked into the anteroom and saw James.

Her heart lurched violently. And then, without
consciously being aware of moving, she was in his
arms.

Oh, James, how did you
find
me?

All he kept saying was
Are you all right?

"Yes," Poppy said finally, aloud. It was indescrib
ably good to be with him again, to be held by him.
Like waking up from a nightmare to see your mother
smiling. She buried her face in his neck.

"You're sure you're all right?"

"Yes. Yes."

"Good. Then just hang on a moment while I kill this guy and we'll go."

He was absolutely serious. Poppy could feel it in his thoughts, in every muscle and sinew of his body.
He wanted to murder Ash.

She lifted her head at the sound of Ash's laugh.
"Well, it ought to be a good fight, anyway," Ash
said.

No, Poppy thought. Ash was looking silky and dan
gerous and in a very bad mood. And even if James could beat him, James was going to get hurt. Even
if she and James fought him together, there was going to be some damage.

"Let's just go," she said to James. "Quick." She
added silently,
I
think he wants to keep us around until
somebody from the party gets here.

"No, no," Ash said, in gloatingly enthusiastic tones.
"Let's settle this like vampires."

"Let's not," said a breathless familiar voice. Poppy's
head jerked around. Climbing over the railing of the
balcony, dusty but triumphant, was Phil.

"Don't you
ever
listen?" James said to him.

"Well, well," Ash said. "A human in an Elder's
house. What
are
we going to do about that?"

"Look, buddy," Phil said, still breathless, brushing
off his hands. "I don't know who you are or what
horse you rode in on. But that's my
sister
there you're messing with, and I figure I've got the first right to knock your head off."

There was a pause while Poppy, James, and Ash all looked at him. The pause stretched. Poppy was
aware of a sudden, completely inappropriate impulse to laugh. Then she realized that James was fighting
desperately not to crack a smile.

Ash just looked Phil up and down, then looked at
James sideways.

"Does this
guy
understand
about vampires?" he
said.

"Oh, yeah," James said blandly.

"And he's going to knock my head in?"

"Yeah," Phil said, and cracked his knuckles.

"What's so surprising about that?"

There was another pause.
_Poppy
could feel minute

tremors going through James. Choked-back laughter.
At last James said, admirably sober,
"Phil
really feels
strongly about his sister."

Ash looked at
Phil
once more, then at James, and
finally at Poppy. "Well ... there are three of you," he said.

"Yes, there are," James said, genuinely sober now. Grim.

"So I guess you do have me at a disadvantage. All
right,
I give
up." He lifted his hands and then
dropped them. "Go on, scram. I won't fight."

"And you won't tell on us, either," James said. It
wasn't a request.

"I wasn't going to anyway," Ash said. He had on
his most innocent and guileless expression. "I know
you think I brought Poppy here to expose her, but I really wasn't going to go through with it. I was just
having fun. The whole thing was just a joke."

"Oh, sure," Phil said.

"Don't even bother lying," James said.

But Poppy, oddly, wasn't as certain as they were.
She looked at Ash's wide eyes-his wide violet
eyes-and felt doubt slosh back and forth inside her.

It was hard to read him, as it had been hard all
along. Maybe because he always meant everything
he said at the time he said it--or maybe because he
never
meant anything he said. No matter which,, he was the most irritating, frustrating, impossible person
she'd ever met.

"Okay, we're going now," James said. "We're going
to walk very quietly and calmly right through that little
room and down the hall, and we're not going to stop
for
anything-Phillip.
Unless you'd rather go back down
the way you came up," he added.

Phil shook his head. James gathered Poppy in his
arm again, but he paused and looked back at Ash.

"You know, you've never really cared about anyone," he said. "But someday you will, and it's going
to hurt. It's going to hurt-a lot."

Ash looked back at him, and Poppy could read
nothing in his ever-changing eyes. But just as James
turned again, he said, "I think you're a lousy
prophet. But your girlfriend's a good one. You might
want to ask her about her dreams sometime."

James stopped. He frowned. "What?"

"And you, little dreamer, you might want to check out your family tree. You have a very loud yell." He smiled at Poppy engagingly. "Bye now."

James stayed for another minute or so, just staring
at his cousin. Ash gazed serenely back. Poppy
counted heartbeats while the two of them stood
motionless.

Then James shook himself slightly and turned
Poppy toward the anteroom. Phil followed right on their heels.

They walked out of the house very quietly and
very calmly. No one tried to stop them.

But Poppy didn't feel safe until they were on the
road.

"What did he mean with that crack about the family tree?" Phil asked from the backseat.

James gave him an odd look, but answered with a
question. "Phil, how did you know where to find
Poppy in that house? Did you see her on the
balcony?"

"No, I just followed the shouting."

Poppy turned around to look at him.
James said, "What shouting?"

"The
shouting. Poppy shouting. 'Let go of me you
rotten vampire creep."'

Poppy turned to James. "Should
he
have been able
to hear it? I thought I was just yelling at Ash. Did
everybody at the party hear?"

"No."

"But, then--"

James cut her off. "What dream was Ash talking
about?"

"Just a dream I had," Poppy said, bewildered. "I
dreamed about him before I actually met him."

James's expression was now
very
peculiar. "Oh,
did you?"

"Yes. James, what's this all about? What did he
mean, I should check my family tree?"

"He meant that you-and Phil
aren't human after all. Somewhere among your ancestors there's
a witch."

CHAPTER 16

You have
got
to be kidding," Poppy said.

Phil just gaped.

"No. I'm perfectly serious. You're witches of the
second kind. Remember what I told you?"

"There are the kind of witches that know their
heritage and get trained-and the kind that don't.
Who just have powers. And humans call that kind-"

"Psychics!" James chorused with her. "Telepaths.
Clairvoyants," he went on alone. There was some
thing in his voice between laughing and crying.
"Poppy, that's what
you
are. That's why you picked up on telepathy so quickly. That's why you had clair
voyant dreams."

"And that's why Phil heard me," Poppy said.

"Oh, no," Phil said. "Not me. Come on."

"Phil, you're twins," James said. "You have the same ancestors. Pace it, you're a witch. That's why I couldn't control your mind."
"Oh,
no,"
Phil said.
"No."
He flopped back in his
seat. "No,"
he said again, but more weakly.

"But whose side do we get it from?" Poppy wondered.

"Dad's. Of course." The voice from the backseat
was very faint.

"Well, that would
seem
logical, but-"

"It's the truth. Don't you remember how Dad was
always talking about seeing weird things? Having
dreams about things before they happened? And,
Poppy, he heard you yell in
your
dream. When you were calling for James. James heard it, and I heard
it, and Dad heard it, too."

"Then that settles it. Oh, and it explains other
things about all of us-all those times we've had
feel
ings
about things-hunches, whatever. Even you
have hunches, Phil."

"I had one that James was creepy, and I was
right."

_"Phill---"

"And maybe a few others," Phil said fatalistically.
"I knew it was James driving up this afternoon. I
thought I just had a fine ear for car engines."

Poppy was shivering with delight and astonish
ment, but she couldn't quite understand James.
James was absolutely beaming. Filled with unbeliev
ing elation that she could feel like streamers and
fireworks in the air. "What, James?"

"Poppy, don't you see?" James actually pounded

the steering wheel in joy. "It means that even before

you became a vampire,
you
were a Night Person.
A
secret witch. You have every right to know about the Night World. You belong there."

The world turned upside down and Poppy couldn't breathe. At last she whispered. "Oh . . ."