"We wear them to identify ourselves to each other.You know, on rings or pins or clothes or things like that. Each species has its own kind of flower, andthen there are other flowers that mean you belongto a certain dub or family. Witches use black dahlias, werewolves use black foxglove; made vampires use black roses ..."
"And there's a chain of dubs called the Black Iris,"Kestrel said, coming to stand by the others. "I
know because Ash belongs to one."
"Ash... " Jade said, staring at Kestrel with widegreen eyes.
Mary-Lynnette sat frozen. Something was tugginginsistently at the corner of her consciousness. Some thing about a black design....
"Oh, God," she said. "Oh, God-I know somebody who wears a ring with a black flower on it."
Everyone looked at her.
"Who?" Mark said, at the same time as Rowansaid it. Mary-Lynnette didn't know which of them looked more surprised.
Mary-Lynnette struggled with herself for a minute.
"It's Jeremy Lovett," she said finally. Not toosteadily.
Mark made a face. "That oddball. He lives by himself in a trailer in the woods, and last summer ..."
Mark's voice died out. His jaw dropped, and when he spoke again, it was more slowly. "And last sum mer they found a body right out near there."
"Can you tell?" Mary-Lynnette asked Rowan qui
etly. "If somebody's a Night Person?"
"Well ..." Rowan looked dismayed. "Well-not for sure. If somebody was experienced at shielding their mind ...Well, we might be able to startle them into revealing something. But otherwise, no. Notfor certain. "
Mark leaned back. "Oh, terrific. Well, I think Jeremy would make a great Night Person. Actually, so would Vic Kimble and Todd Akers."
"Todd," Jade said. "Now, wait a minute." Shepicked up one of the toothpicks that had been em bedded in the goat and stared at it.
Rowan was looking at Mary-Lynnette. "No matterwhat, we should go and see your friend Jeremy. He'll probably turn out to be completely innocent-sometimes a human gets hold of one of our rings or pins, and then things get reallyconfusing. Especially if they wander into one of our dubs...."
Mary-Lynnette wasn't so sure. She had a terrible, terrible sick feeling. The way Jeremy kept to himself, the way he always seemed to be an outsider atschool--even his untamed good looks and his easy way of moving ... No, it all seemed to lead to one conclusion. She had solved the mystery of Jeremy Lovett at last, and it wasnot a happy ending.
Kestrel said "Okay, fine; we can go check this Jeremy guy out. But what about Ash?"
"What about Ash?" Rowan said. The last stake wasout. She gently turned one side of the rug over the body of the goat, like a shroud.
"Well, don't you see? It's his dub flower. Somaybe somebody from his dub did it." "Urn, I know I'm starting to sound like a brokenrecord," Mark said. "But I don't know what you're talking about.
Who's Ash?"
The three sisters looked at him. Mary-Lynnette looked away. After so many missed opportunities, it was going to sound extremely peculiar when she casually mentioned that, oh, yes, she'd met Ash. Twice.
But she didn't have a choice anymore. She had to tell.
"He's our brother," Kestrel was saying.
"He's crazy," Jade said.
"He's the only one from our family who migh.know that we're here in Briar Creek," Rowan said.
"He found megiving a letter to Crane Linden to smuggle off the island. But Idon't think he noticedAunt Opal's address on it. He's not much good at noticing things that aren't about him."
"You can say that again," Jade said. "All Ashthinksabout is Ash. He's completely self-centered."
"All he does is chase girls and party," Kestrel said,with one of those smiles that made Mary-Lynnette wonder if she really disapproved. "And hunt."
'He doesn't like humans,"Jade said. "If he didn't like chasing human girls and playing with them, he'd probably be planning towipe out all the humans and take over the world."
"Sounds like a great guy," Mark said.
"Well, he's sort of conservative," Rowan said. 'Politically, I mean. Personally, he's--"
"Loose," Kestrel suggested, eyebrows up.
"To put it mildly," Jade agreed. "There's only onething he wants when he goes after human girls besides their cars, I mean."
Mary-Lynnette's heart was pounding. With every second that passed it was getting harder to speak up.
And every time she took a breath, somebody else started talking.
0"So, wait you think he did all this stuff?" Mark asked.
"I wouldn't put it past him," Kestrel said. Jade nodded vigorously.
"But his own aunt ,"Mark said.
"He'd do it if he thought the honor of the familywas involved," Kestrel said.
"Yes, well, there's one problem with all that," Rowan said tightly. "Ash isn't here. He's in California."
"No, he's not," Ash said casually, from the back ofthe living room.
Chapter 12
What happened then was interesting. Mary-Lynnette got to see the sisters do all the things she'dmissed earlier in the clearing. All the hissing and the clawed fingers. Just like the movies.
Except that when a vampire hissed, it sounded real. Like a cat, not like a person imitating a cat. All three girls jumped up and stood ready to fight.
There wasn't any weird grimacing. But Jade and Kestrel were showing teeth that were long and beautifully curved, coming to delicate feline points that indented the lower lip.
And something else. Their eyes changed. Jade's silvery-green eyes went even more silvery. Kestrel's golden eyes looked jewel-yellow, like a hawk's. Even Rowan's eyes had a dark light in them.