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, wa sn' 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 anythin g 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, an d 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 tur ned 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."
Jam es 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 a ntero om. 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.
"W hat d id 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 ho use?
Did you see her on the balcony?"
"No, I just followed the shouting."
Poppy turned around to look at him. James said, "What sho u ting?"
"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 tr ee?"
"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.
"N o. 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 something 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 clairvoyant dreams."
"And that's why Phil heard me," Poppy said.
"Oh, no," Phil said. "Not me. Come on."
"Phil, you'r e twins," J ames 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 happe ned? 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 feelings 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 astonishment, but she couldn't quite understand James. James was absolutely beaming. Filled with unbelieving 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.