A small, firm hand clamped over Mary Lynnette's mouth.
"Geez, Mare, you'll wake everyone up." Kestrel warned turning Mary Lynnette's head so that she could see her face. Satisfied she wouldn't scream again, Kestrel let go, "I didn't mean to startle you."
Mary Lynnette closed her eyes, letting her heart beat slow a little "It's all right, I thought you were Claudine."
Ash jerked the door open and tripped over a sheet that was wrapped his waist. Kestrel scowled at him, looked at Mary Lynnette, then back at Ash.
"Don't even tell me, I don't want to know." She said, arching a disdainful eyebrow at her brother.
"What are you doing out anyway?" Ash asked, trying his best to look stern despite being clad in a sheet that had pink roses on it.
"We have werewolves." She announced like an exterminator referring to termites.
"The garden variety or assasins?" Ash suddenly looked very serious stiffening, his eyes flashed a brief silvery yellow
"Assasins, Petra and Lyrhae."
"Great." Ash sighed, just when he thought he might be able to convince Mary Lynnette to become a vampire. If he ever got his powers back. Werewolves kept creeping back into their lives.
"They're after me aren't they?"
"That would be my guess. You saw them kidnap Beth." Ash said, watching her disappear into her room and return carrying letter opener she had stabbed Jeremy with. It glistened in the light shining in the hall.
Kestrel nodded, "Petra doesn't like to be outdone by a human."
"I don't like to kill either, but I'm not going to become puppy chow because some werewolf has decided to have PMS."
"Not touching that one." Ash muttered shutting the door behind him. They heard a loud thump, something heavy scraped across the floor, and Ash swore out loud. Mary Lynnette bit back a grin. She forgot to warn him about the stool sitting in the middle of the floor.
"Don't worry Mare, Thierry is sending Thea, Lupe, and Clarissa here with some wards to go around the house with a special surprise just for Petra and Lyrhae."
"When will they be here?"
"About 9 A.M. Rowan. Jade and I will be patrolling the area until they get here."
Mary Lynnette nodded. She felt safer knowing that they were looking out for her and knowing the Thierry was actually going to help protect her. The members of Circle DayBreak were certainly turning out different from what she had thought they would be. The world she was thrown into the night she met Ash's sisters was becoming more real and inviting as time passed. She didn't feel as much shock each time the sisters disappeared to feed. Nor did she notice the strange hours they kept. To her they seemed to be normal everyday people who had some quirky mannerisms.
Carefully closing the door, Mary Lynnette eased across the wood floor. When her feet came in contact with the rug beside her bed she dropped the letter opener on the nightstand. Why she kept it there, or kept it at all, she couldn't understand. It was a reminder of the night she killed Jeremy. True, it was an accident, sort of self defense, but the guilt she felt over it haunted her dreams at night. Nightmares woke her to blurry images of a werewolf's silhouette in the flames that erupted from her car. Ash's bloody still form lying on the ground. Hearing him apologize for the world he had unceremoniously dumped her in, shattering the illusions she had of her world, and nearly getting her killed. It was all his fault he'd said.
She'd let him believe that for the entire time he'd been gone, but she was partly to blame for that night too. She just couldn't let go of her idea of the perfect guy and Ash certainly didn't fit her plans. She couldn't accept him for what he was, her soulmate, a vampire, but her soulmate nonetheless.
Sighing, she slipped back under the covers with Ash.
"Ash?" She whispered, thinking he might be asleep.
"Yeah?"
She snickered, "There's a foot stool in the middle of the floor."
"Really? I didn't notice." He wiggled his offended toes against her leg for emphasis.
"Pink roses look good on you too." She poked one of the roses over his navel, noting that he was wearing his jeans.
"Oh, you're just a barrel of monkeys aren't you?"
The room was strangely quiet. Uneasy silence settled in the thick blackness of the room. A single moonbeam filtered through the curtains pooling on the floor in front of the window. Mary Lynnette stared at it. Muscles in her throat tightened and convulsed.
"Ash?"
"Any other bit of wisdom you wish to impart to save what's left of my pride?"
"No," She said with a sniffle, "I'm scared."
Ash rolled on his side and gathered her in his arms, gently stroking her hair. His grip tightened around her, feeling about as useful as a fifth wheel.
"I know and I'm useless."
Lightening hot anger shot through her and Mary Lynnette shoved him away, "Because you're human, you think you're useless! I should have known you couldn't be happy as long as you're human."
"You're used to this, I'm not."
"I might be weak vermin or food to you, but I'm not useless, helpless or powerless! Damn you! I can at least take care of myself!"
Ash held up his hands in surrender. "Hold it! Let's just get a grip okay?"
"You're not useless, I need you." She dashed angrily at the tears running down her cheek with the back of her hand.
Ash reached out and traced her cheekbones with his thumbs, brushing away tears, "You're not weak vermin or food. I've never seen you as anything except my soulmate. Mare, I love you."
Mary Lynnette nodded, allowing him to hold her again.
"Why are you dressed?"
"In case we have visitors."
She leaned her head against his shoulder wishing with all her might that his powers would return before morning while knowing deep in her heart they would probably never return. This was her fault. He'd wished to become human to suit her. Now that he was human, she wanted the old Ash back. Snuggling closer to Ash, she settled on the resolution of making up for her selfish behavior.
Sunrise streaked across the morning sky in brilliant pink and orange hues. Ash and Mary Lynnette watched from the safety of her bedroom window. Mary Lynnette's heart beat in fear as it had all night. Something was going to happen. She could feel it and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She cracked her fingers nervously trying to focus on what was troubling her.
"Mare, what's wrong?"
"I just have a bad feeling that something is going to go wrong."
"You're just tired."
"I hope so."
The phone rang. A few seconds later Mark knocked on her door. "Mare, open up," He hesitated for a moment, "I know Ash is in there."
Fortunately, they were dressed so Mary Lynnette let Mark in.
"I just got the weirdest call, some girl said the plane crashed with the witches and Lupe on it but there's no television reports about a plane crash."
"Where?" Ash asked.
"About a mile from the air strip near Briar Creek."
"Stay here Mare."
"I'm going." She grabbed her letter opener and shoved it into her waistband.
Ash sighed deeply, "Mare . . ."
The door swung lightly on its hinges as she left without allowing him the opportunity to argue his point.
"Women, ya gotta love 'em." Mark mumbled following his sister out the door, Ash trailing behind.
The road was covered in a veil of fog as Mary Lynnette guided the van along the winding road perched on the side of a mountain heading toward the air strip on top. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and yawned.
"Sleepy?" Ash asked, anxious to be useful for a change. "Want me to drive?"
"Uhh, no thanks. I'll be okay."
"Should have gotten more sleep." Mark told her, eyeing Ash to see his reaction. Unfortunately, Ash wasn't taking the bait.
Mary Lynnette frowned at Mark in the mirror. "Keep your thoughts to yourself, Shit!"
The brakes screeched making the van slide sideways through a curve. The tires struck loose gravel and spun around in a circle, coming to a halt just inches from a cliff. A fuselage of a small plane lay in the middle of the road behind the van. Mary Lynnette flopped against her seat,out of breath.
"Everyone okay?" She asked, turning around to check her passengers as they picked themselves up from the floor. "Well, there is a plane down." She added fumbling with her seatbelt that had jammed when she locked the brakes down on the van.
Ash hopped out, rubbing his head where it had cracked against the door, feeling a little nauseous. He heard Mark climb out as well while Mary Lynnette was swearing at her seatbelt. He looked up at the solid rock wall the plane had obviously crashed into then at the plane in confusion.
"That's not Thierry's jet." Then it hit him. They had walked into a trap.
He started shoving Mark back toward the van, "Get in the van!" He looked over his shoulder for Petra and Lyrhae.
"Uh oh." He heard Mark say
Petra, in half form, blocked their path to the van.
"Just stay where you are Redfern, we only want the vermin girl."
"Don't touch her Petra." He warned feeling a strange spark trickling through his veins.
"Or what, Ashy poo? I know you can't fight me while you're human." Petra taunted.
Rippling waves were shooting through his blood. He felt his eyes trying to change to their silvery vampire shade even as his teeth ached with the need to elongate. His hands started to shake with repressed power. He pushed Mark toward the plane focusing on the thought "Get behind the plane." He hoped Mark could hear and felt a small measure of relief when Mark did exactly that.
"OOooh, Ash thinks he can take me Lyrhae."
A half demented laugh came from the back of the van, "Wonder what made human tastes like?"
Mary Lynnette had stopped struggling with her seatbelt, her eyes riveted in terror on the werewolf facing Ash. She frantically hit the doorlock switch effectively keeping Lyrhae at bay for a few minutes. She whipped out her letter opener, making sure Lyrhae could see it and ran her finger along its glistening silver edges while pointedly looking at Lyrhae's chest.
"Oh come now Ashy baby, she's just a human. Oh, yeah, I forgot, you're human too." Petra dropped to all fours and licked her lips, "Want a taste of made human, Lyrhae?" She asked just as she finished changing and leapt for Ash.
