This was one of them. It was a court martial.
And there wasn't really a thing that Jez could say to the humans she lived with. She certainly couldn't give them any excuse that would make sense.
"First, ditching Claire even though you swore to us that you'd let her drive you to school." Aunt Nanami
was ticking items off on her fingers. "Second, ditching school after you swore to us you weren't going to skip again. Third, going off some place you won't even tell us about. Fourth, not even calling to let us know you were still alive. Fifth, getting home at almost ten o'clock at night-"
Uncle Jim cleared his throat. "Nan, I think we've been over this already."
A couple of times, Jez thought. Oh, well, at least Claire is enjoying it. Her cousin was standing at the entrance to the living room, openly listening. When she happened to catch Jez's eye she smiled brilliantly, her small face actually glowing with smug satisfaction.
Aunt Nan was shaking her head. 'I just want to make sure she understands, Jim. I thought she understood last night, but obviously..." She threw her hands up.
"Well, the thing is-" Uncle Jim cleared his throat again and looked at Jez. He looked uncomfortable; he wasn't very good at discipline, but Jez could see that he'd reached his limit. "The thing is that we can't just keep yelling at you. We have to do something, Jez. So we've decided to lock up your motorcycle. You can't ride it anymore, not until you learn to be more responsible."
Jez sat stunned.
Not her bike. They couldn't take her bike from her.
How would she get anywhere?
She had to be mobile. She had to get to Morgead tomorrow-she had to get to Hugh sometime. She had to be able to track down the Wild Power. And she couldn't do any of that without transportation.
But she could see from Uncle Jim's face that he was serious. He'd finally decided to put his foot down, and Jez had gotten caught underneath it.
She let out her breath. Part of her wanted to yell and storm and rage about this, to lose control and make a big noisy fuss.
But it wouldn't do any good. Besides, she'd managed to keep her temper for almost a year with these people, to live her double life as a student and vampire hunter and make it all work. To blow that now would be stupid.
And another part of her was scared that she was even verging on losing control. That was what even a day with Morgead did to her. It cut through all her careful discipline and changed her back into a raving barbarian.
Morgead... she couldn't think about him now.
"Okay, Uncle Jim," she said out loud. "I understand. You do what you have to."
"If you can just show us that you're learning to be responsible, then you can have the bike back. You have to learn to take life more seriously, Jez."
That forced a tired snort out of her. She was laughing before she knew it, and her aunt and uncle were looking shocked and displeased.
I'm sorry," she said. 'I'll try harder."
And I'll just have to take public transportation tomorrow, she thought when the lecture was over and she was free to go to her room. Even though that's a lot more dangerous. I could get hunted down so easily. .
. .
"You messed with the wrong person, you know?" Claire said as Jez reached her door. "You shouldn't have dumped me like that. You shouldn't make me mad."
"Yeah, Claire; well, now I know better. I'm terrified."
"You're still not taking things seriously, are you?"
"Claire-" Jez rounded on the smaller girl. Then she stopped dead. "I don't have time for this," she muttered. "I have to make a call. You just run along and harass somebody else."
She shut the bedroom door in Claire's face.
Which, she realized later, was a mistake. At the time, though, she was too tired to think about it.
She was too tired to think properly at all. Tired and distraught, with the feeling that everything was closing in and happening too fast.
And so when she picked up the phone to dial Hugh she hardly noticed the little click on the line, and she didn't stop for even a second to consider what it meant.
Chapter 14
Did you have trouble getting away?" Hugh said It was the next morning, a very different sort of day from yesterday. The sky was overcast and the air was heavy. Everyone Jez had passed at the Concord BART station looked a little depressed.
"Eh, a little," she said, and sat down by Hugh on the platform. They were at the far end of the station, beyond the covered area with benches, beside a little concrete security house. It was a safe and private meeting place since the station was almost deserted after the morning commute. "They chained up my bike with this huge chain. Claire drove me to school-she's been watching me like a werewolf guarding dinner. And Aunt Nan called the office to make sure I didn't cut" Hugh shifted in concern. There was a tiny breath of warm wind, and it stirred his fair hair. "So what did you do?"
Jez grinned. "I cut." She shrugged and added, "I got a guy from my auto shop class to drive me here. It wasn't hard."
He smiled at her sadly, his gray eyes distant. "But they're going to find out. Jez, I'm really sorry for completely messing up your life."
She shrugged again. "Yeah, but if I don't do it, everybody's life is going to be even more completely messed up. Every human's."
"I know." He shivered slightly. Then he drew up his legs, clasping his arms around them. He looked at her with his chin on his knees. "So what did you find out?"
"That the girl Morgead thought was the Wild Power isn't." He looks so cute that way, Jez thought helplessly. So-compact. Morgead would never sit like that.