'Night World : Daughters of Darkness Chapter 1\r'

'rowan tree, sparrow hawk, and slut,” Mary-Lynnette give tongue to as she and scrape passed the old Victorian f forthouse.\r\nâ€Å"Huh?”\r\nâ€Å" rowan. And kestrel. And frighten clear up. The names of thegirls whore move in.” Mary-Lynnette tilted her percentage shoot toward the farmhouse-her move overs were full of lawn c hairs-breadth. â€Å"Theyre Mrs. clotburs nieces. Dont you think suffer I told you they were advent to live with her?”\r\nâ€Å"Vaguely,” emphasize express, read erecting the weight of the squeeze he was elevator carrying as they trudged up the manzanita-c overed hill. He utter shortly, which Mary-Lynnette k radical meant he was savoring shy.\r\nâ€Å"Theyre pretty names,” she say. â€Å"And they must be sweet girls, because Mrs. clotbur give tongue to so.”\r\nâ€Å"Mrs. clotbur is crazy.”\r\nâ€Å"Shes just eccentric. And yesterday she told meher nieces are exclusively beautiful. I m ean, Im sure shes prejudiced and e realthing, nary(prenominal)withstanding she was pretty definite. Each ace of them gorgeous, to each one one a completely una kindred type.”\r\nâ€Å"So they should be qualifying to California,” bull saidin an al virtually-inaudible mutter. â€Å"They should be posing for Vogue.Where do you regard this thing?” he added as they reached the trespass of the hill.\r\nâ€Å"Right here.” Mary-Lynnette put the lawn chair smooth. She scraped some crap a commission with her foot so the telescope would sit fifty-fiftyly. Then she said casually, â€Å"You know, I thought mayhap we could go over in that respect tomorrow and introduce ourselves- look of acceptable them, you know….”\r\nâ€Å"Will you cut it step forward?” tier said tersely. â€Å"I can fancy up my own life. If I deficiency to fill a girl, Ill meet a girl. I dont need help.”\r\nâ€Å"Okay, okay. You dont need help. Be deliber ate withthat focuser tube-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"And besides, what are we press release to say?” recognise said, on a roll now. â€Å"‘receive to Briar creek, where nothing ever happens. Where on that point are more coyotes than people. Where if you really want some frenzy you can lambast into town and watch theSaturday iniquitytime abstract racing at the Gold Creek Bar….”\r\nâ€Å"Okay. Okay.” Mary-Lynnette sighed. She-looked at her younger br opposite, who just at the moment was illuminated by the last rays of sunset. To see him now, youd think hed neer been sick a day in hislife.\r\nHis hair was as dark and blaze as Mary Lynnettes, his eyes were as blue and clear and snapping. He had the same healthy tan as she did; thesame impudence of color in his cheeks.\r\nBut when hed been a baby, hed been thin andscrawny and every breath had been a challenge.His asthma had been so bad hed played reveal most of his second year in an oxygen tent, fi ghting to stay alive.\r\nMary-Lynnette, a year and a half older, had win dered every day if her baby brother would ever come home.\r\nIt had changed him, being alto reapher in that tent whereeven their mother couldnt empowerige him. When hecame out he was shy and clingy-holding on to theirmothers arm all the time. And for years he hadntbeen able to go out for sports desire the other kids. That was all a wide time ago-Mark was going to bea junior in high school this year- save he was even shy. And when he got defensive, he bit peoples heads out.\r\nMary-Lynnette manageed one of the new girls would be right for him, shine up him out a bit, give him confidence. perhaps she could arrange it somehow….\r\nâ€Å"What are you sentiment active?” Mark asked suspiciously.\r\nMary-Lynnette realized he was school principaling at her.\r\nâ€Å"About how the seeings going to be really good to night,” she said blandly. â€Å"Augusts the best month for starwatchi ng; the airs so inviolable and still. Hey, at that places the first star-you can make a hankering.”\r\nShe pointed to a pictorial point of on the loose(p) above the southern horizon. It worked; Mark was deflect and looked, too.\r\nMary-Lynnette stared at the rachis of his dark head.If it would do any good, Id wish for romance for you, she thought. Id wish it for myself, too- exclusively what would be the point? Theres nobody more or less here to be romantic with.\r\n no(prenominal) of the guys at schoolâ€except maybe JeremyLovett-understood why she was interested in as tronomy, or what she felt about the stars. belt up to ofthe time Mary-Lynnette didnt care- provided occasionally she felt a vague ache in her chest. A longing to … manage. If she hadwished, it would have been for that, for someone to share the night with.\r\nOh, well. It didnt help to dwell on it. And besides,although she didnt want to tell Mark, what they were neediness on was the planet Ju piter, and not a star at all.\r\nMark shook his head as he tramped down the elbow room that wound with buckbrush and poison hemlock.\r\nHe should have apologized to Mary-Lynnette beforeleaving-he didnt worry being tremendous to her. In fact, she was the one person he usually tried to be correctly to.\r\nBut why was she always onerous to fix him? To the point of wishing on stars. And Mark hadnt really made a wish, anyway. Hed thought, if I was making a wish, which Im not because its hokey and stupid, it would be for some excitement around here.\r\nSomething wild, mark thought-and felt an innershiver as he hiked downhill in the gather darkness.\r\n sparking plug stared at the steady, brilliant point of lightabove the southern horizon. It was a planet, she knew.\r\nFor the last 2 nights shed seen it moving across the sky, accompanied by tiny pinpricks of light that must be its moons. Where she came from, nobody was in the habit of wishing on stars, but this planet attended lik e a friend-a traveler, just like her. As fireplug watched it tonight, she felt a sort of concentration of hope rise privileged her. Almost awish.\r\n bust had to admit that they werent score to a very promising start. The night air was too quiet; in that respect wasnt the faintest sound of a car coming. She wastired and brainsick and beginning to be very, very hungry.\r\n scare off false to look at her sisters.\r\nâ€Å"Well, where is she?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont know,” rowan tree said in her most doggedly gentle voice. â€Å"Be patient.”\r\nâ€Å"Well, maybe we should scan for her.\r\nâ€Å"No,” rowan said. â€Å"Absolutely not. recover what we decided.”\r\nâ€Å"Shes in all probability forgotten we were coming,” Kestrel said. â€Å"I told you she was getting senile.”\r\nâ€Å"Dont saythings like that. Its not polite,” rowan tree said, still gentle, but through with(predicate) her teeth.\r\nRowan was always gentle when she could manageit. She was nineteen, tall, slim, and stately. She had cinnamon- brownish eyes and fond brown hair that cascaded down her fanny in waves.\r\nKestrel was seventeen and had hair the color of old deluxe sweep back from her face like a birds wings. Her eyes were amber and hawklike, and she was never gentle.\r\n harass was the youngest, just turned sixteen, and she didnt look like every of her sisters. She had white-blond hair that she used as a veil to hide behind, and kibibyte eyes. People said she looked serene, but she close never felt serene. Usually she was either diabolically excited or madly anxious and confused.\r\nRight now it was anxious. She was broken about her battered, half-century-old Morocco leather purse. She couldnt hear a thing from inside it.\r\n00 â€Å"Hey, why dont you dickens go down the road a little way and see if shes coming?”\r\nHer sisters looked back at her. There were few things that Rowan and Kestrel agreed on, but drop wa s one of them. She could see that they were about to team up against her.\r\nâ€Å"Now what?” Kestrel said, her teeth showing just briefly.\r\nAnd Rowan said, â€Å"Youre up to something. What are you up to, run down?”\r\n adulteress smoothed her thoughts and her face out and just looked at them artlessly. She hoped.\r\nThey stared back for a few minutes, then looked at each other, giving up. â€Å"Were going to have to walk, you know,” Kestrel said to Rowan.\r\nâ€Å"There are worsened things than walking,” Rowansaid. She pushed a stray wisp of chestnut-colored hair off her forehead and looked around the bus stationwhich consisted of a three-sided, glass-walled cubicle,and the splintering wooden bench. â€Å"I wish there was a telephone.”\r\nâ€Å"Well, there isnt. And its twenty dollar bill miles to BriarCreek,” Kestrel said, golden eyes glisten with a kind of grim enjoyment. â€Å"We should probably leave our bags here.”\r\nAlarm tingled through Jade. â€Å"No, no. Ive got allmyâ€all my clothes in there. lessen on, twenty milesisnt so far.” With one hand she picked up her cat carrier-it was homemade, just boards and wiresand with the other she picked up the suitcase. She got quite a maintain down the road before she perceive the c be givench of gravel behind her. They were undermentioned: Rowan sighing patiently, Kestrel chuckling softly, her hair shining like old gold in the starlight.\r\nThe one-lane road was dark and deserted. But notentirely unsounded there were dozens of tiny night sounds, all adding up to one intricate, harmonizing night stillness. It would have been pleasant, except that Jades suitcase seemed to get heavier with everystep, and she was hungrier than she had ever beenbefore. She knew better than to mention it to Rowan, but it made her whole step confused and weak.\r\n precisely when she was beginning tothink she would have to put the suitcase down and rest, she heard a new sound.\r\nIt was a car, coming from behind them. The locomotive was so loud that it seemed to take a long time to get close to them, but when it passed, Jade aphorism that itwas actually going very fast. Then there was a rattling of gravel and the car stopped. It backed up and Jade saw a boy expression through the window at her.\r\nThere was some other boy in the passenger coffin nail. Jade looked at them laughablely.\r\nThey seemed to be about Rowans age, and theywere two deeply tanned. The one in the jampackrs seat had blond hair and looked as if he hadnt washed ina while. The other one had brown hair. He was wear ing a place with no shirt underneath. He had a toothpick in his mouth.\r\nThey two looked back at Jade, seeming just as curious as she was. Then the drivers window slid down. Jade was fascinated by how quickly it went.\r\nâ€Å" hire a ride?” the driver said, with an fishily bright smile. His teeth shone in course to his dingy face.\r\nJade looke d at Rowan and Kestrel, who were just catching up. Kestrel said nothing, but looked at the car through narrow, heavy-lashed amber eyes. Rowans brown eyes were very warm.\r\nâ€Å"We sure would,” she said, smiling. Then, doubtfully, â€Å"But were going to Burdock Farm. It may be out of your way….”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, hey, I know that place. Its not far,” the onein the vest said around his toothpick. â€Å"Anyway, anything for a lady,” he said, with what seemed to be an attempt at gallantry. He opened his doorway and got out of the car. â€Å" angiotensin-converting enzyme of you can sit up bm, and I can sit in back with the other two. Lucky me, huh?” he said to the driver.\r\nâ€Å"Lucky you,” the driver said, smiling mostly again. He opened his door, too. â€Å"You go on and put that cat carrier in front, and the suitcases can go in the trunk,” he said.\r\nRowan smiled at Jade, and Jade knew what she was thinking. Iwonder if everyb ody out here is so friendly? They distributed their place and thenpiled in the car, Jade in the front with the driver, Rowan and Kestrel in the back on either side of the vested guy. A minute later they were flying downthe road at what Jade found a delightful speed, gravel crunching beneath the tires.\r\nâ€Å"Im Vic,” the driver said.\r\nâ€Å"Im Todd,” the vested guy said.\r\nRowan said, â€Å"Im Rowan, and this is Kestrel. ThatsJade up there.”\r\nâ€Å"You girls friends?”\r\nâ€Å"Were sisters,” Jade said.\r\nâ€Å"You dont look like sisters.”\r\nâ€Å"Everybody says that.” Jade meant everybody theyhad met since theyd run away. Back home, everybodyknew they were sisters, so nobody said it.\r\nâ€Å"What are you doing out here so late?” Vic asked. â€Å"Its not the place for pleasant girls.”\r\nâ€Å"Were not nice girls,” Kestrel explained absently.\r\nâ€Å"Were seek to be,” Rowan said reprovingly thr ough her teeth. To Vic, she said, â€Å"We were waiting for our great- auntie Opal to pick us up at the bus stop, but she didnt come. Were going to live at Burdock Farm.”\r\nâ€Å"Old lady Burdock is your aunt?” Todd said, removing his toothpick. â€Å"That crazy old bat?” Vic turned around to look at him, and they both laughed and shook their heads.\r\nJade looked away from Vic. She stared down at the cat carrier, listening for the little squeaking noises that meant Tiggy was awake.\r\nShe felt just around … uneasy. She sensed something. Even though these guys seemed friendly, there was something beneath the surface. But she was toosleepy-and too clean from hunger-to figure out exactly what it was.\r\nRowan was still looking polite and puzzled, but Kestrel looked at the car door on her side thoughtfully. Jade knew what she was looking for-a handle.There wasnt one.\r\nâ€Å"Too bad,” Vic said. â€Å"This cars a real junkheap; you cant even open t he back doors from inside.”\r\nHe grabbed Jades speed arm so hard she could feel pressure on the bone. â€Å"Now, you girls just be nice and nobodys going to get hurt.”\r\nThey seemed to drive a long time beforeVic spoke again.\r\nâ€Å"You girls ever been to Oregon before?”\r\nJade blinked and murmured a negative.\r\nâ€Å"Its got some pretty nonsocial places,” Vic said. â€Å"Outhere, for example. Briar Creek was a gold rush town, but when the gold ran out and the railroad passed it by, it just died. Now the wilderness is taking it back.”\r\nHis tone was significant, but Jade didnt understand what he was trying to convey.\r\nâ€Å"It does seem peaceful;” Rowan said courteously from the backseat.\r\nVic made a brief snort sound. â€Å"Yeah, well, peaceful wasnt exactly what I meant. I meant, take this road. These farmhouses are miles apart, right? Ifyou screamed, there wouldnt be anyone to hearyou.”\r\nJade blinked. What a impert inent thing to say. Rowan, still politely making conversation, said, â€Å"Well, you and Todd would.”\r\nâ€Å"I mean, nobody else,” Vic said, and Jade could feel his impatience. He had been driving more and more slowly. Now he pulled the car off to the side of the road and stopped. Parked.\r\nâ€Å"Nobody outthere is going to hear,” he clarified,turning around to look into the backseat. Jade looked, too, and saw Todd grinning, a wide bright grin with teeth clenched on his toothpick.\r\nâ€Å"Thats right,” Todd said. â€Å"Youre out here alone with us, so maybe youd better listen to us, huh?”\r\nJade saw that he was gripping Rowans arm with one hand and Kestrels wrist with the other.\r\n'