She could look human, she could act human, but she couldn't be human.
Just as Uncle Jim swallowed and got his mouth clear to speak to her, she said, "I'm not hungry. I think
I'll just go do my homework."
Uncle Jim called, "Wait a minute," after her, but it was Claire who slammed down her napkin and actually followed Jez through the hall to the other side of the house.
"What do you mean, 'Sorry'? You do this every day. You're always disappearing; half the time you stay out until after midnight, and then you don't even have an explanation."
"Yeah, I know, Claire." Jez answered without looking back. "Illtry to do better."
"You say that every time. And every time it's exactly the same. Don't you realize that my parents worry about you? Don't you even care?"
"Yes, I care, Claire."
"You don't act like it. You act like rules don't apply to you. And you say sorry, but you're just going to do it again."
Jez had to keep herself from turning around and snapping at her cousin. She liked everyone else in the family, but Claire was a royal pain.
Worse, she was a shrewd royal pain. And she was right; Jez was going to do it again, and there was no way she could explain.
The thing was, vampire hunters have to keep weird hours.
When you're on the trail of a vampire-and-shapeshifter killing team, as Jez had been this evening, chasing them through the slums ofOakland , trying to get them cornered in some crack house where there aren't little kids to get hurt, you don't think about missing dinner. You don't stop in the middle of staking the undead to phone home.
Maybe I shouldn't have become a vampire hunter, Jez thought. But it's a little late to change now, and somebody's got to protect these stupid- these innocent humans from the Night World.
Oh, well.
She'd reached the door of her bedroom. Instead of yelling at her cousin, she simply half turned and said, "Why don't you go work on your Web page, Claire?" Then she opened the door and glanced inside.
And froze.
Her room, which she had left in military neatness, was a shambles. The window was wide open. Papers and clothes were scattered across the floor. And there was a very large ghoul standing at the foot of the bed.
The ghoul opened its mouth menacingly at Jez.
"Oh, very funny," Claire was saying, right behind her. "Maybe I should help you with your homework. I hear you're not doing so great in chemistry-"
Jez moved fast, stepping nimbly inside the door and slamming it in Claire's face, pressing the little knob in the handle to lock it.
"Hey!" Now Claire sounded really mad. "That's rude!"
"Uh, sorry, Claire!" Jez faced the ghoul. What was it doing here? If it had followed her home, she was in bad trouble. That meant the Night World knew where she was. "You know, Claire, I think I really need to be alone for a little while-I can't talk
and do my homework." She took a step toward the creature, watching its reaction.
Ghouls were semi-vampires. They were what happened to a human who was bled out but didn't get quite enough vampire blood in exchange to become a true vampire. They were undead but rotting. They had very little mind, and only one idea in the world: to drink blood, which they usually did by eating as much of a human body as possible. They liked hearts.
This ghoul was a new one, about two weeks dead. It was male and looked as if it had been a body-builder, although by now it wasn't so much buff as puffed. Its body was swollen with the gas of decomposition. Its tongue and eyes were protruding, its cheeks were chipmunk-like, and bloody fluid was leaking from its nose.
And of course it didn't smell good.
As Jez edged closer, she suddenly realized that the ghoul wasn't alone. She could now see around the foot of the bed, and there was a boy lying on the carpet, apparently unconscious. The boy had light hair and rumpled clothes, but Jez couldn't see his face. The ghoul was stooping over him, reaching for him with sausage-shaped fingers.
"I don't think so," Jez told it softly. She could feel a dangerous smile settling on her face. She reached into her right boot and pulled out the dagger.
"What did you say?" Claire shouted from the other side of the door.
"Nothing, Claire. Just getting out my homework." Jez jumped onto the bed The ghoul was very big-she needed all the height she could get.
The ghoul turned to face her, its lackluster bugeyes on the dagger. It made a little hissing sound around its swollen tongue. Fortunately that was all the noise it could make.
Claire was rattling the door. "Did you lock this? What are you doing in there?"
"Just studying, Claire. Go away." Jez snapped a foot toward the ghoul, catching it under the chin. She needed to stun it and stake it fast Ghouls weren't smart, but like the Energizer Bunny they kept going and going. This one could eat the entire Goddard family tonight and still be hungry at dawn.
The ghoul hit the wall opposite the bed. Jez jumped down, putting herself between it and the boy on the floor.
"What was that noise?" Claire yelled. "I dropped a book."
The ghoul swung. Jez ducked. There were giant blisters on its arms, the brownish color of old blood.
It rushed her, trying to slam her against the chest of drawers. Jez flung herself backward, but she didn't have much room to maneuver. It caught her in the stomach with an elbow, a jarring blow.
Jez wouldn't let herself double over. She twisted and helped the ghoul in the direction it was already going, giving it impetus with her foot. It smacked into the window seat, facedown.
"What is going on in there?"
"Just looking for something." Jez moved before the ghoul could recover, jumping to straddle its legs. She grabbed its hair-not a good idea; it came off in clumps in her hand. Kneeling on it to keep it still, she raised the sum bamboo knife high and brought it down hard.