They were out of school and ready to rumble.
Jez had always thought, from the day she and Morgead began picking these kids up, that the Night World was making a mistake in treating them like garbage. They might be young; they might not have families, but they had power. Every one of them had the strength to be a formidable opponent.
And right now they were looking at her like a group of wolves looking at dinner. If they all decided to go for her at once, she would be in trouble. Somebody would end up getting killed.
She faced them squarely, outwardly calm, as a quiet voice finally broke the silence.
"It's really you, Jez."
And then another voice, from beside Jez. "Yeah, she came back," Morgead said carelessly. "She joined the gang again."
Jez shot him the briefest of sideways glances. She hadn't expected him to help. He returned the look
with an unreadable expression.
". . . she came back?" somebody said blankly.
Jez felt a twinge of amused sympathy. "That's right," she said, keeping her face grave. "I had to go away for a while, and I can't tell you where, but now I'm back. I just fought my way back in-and I beat Morgead for the leadership." She figured she might as well get it all over with at once. She had no idea how they were going to react to the idea of her as leader.
There was another long moment of silence, and then a whoop. A sound that resembled a war cry. At the same instant there was a violent rush toward Jez-four people all throwing themselves at her. For a heartbeat she stood frozen, ready to fend off a four-fold attack.
Then arms wrapped around her waist.
"Jez! I missed you!"
Someone slapped her on the back almost hard enough to knock her down. "You bad girl! You beat him again?"
People were trying to hug her and punch her and pat her all at once. Jez had to struggle not to show she was overwhelmed. She hadn't expected this of them.
"It's good to see you guys again," she said. Her voice was very slightly unsteady. And it was the truth.
Raven Mandril said, "You scared us when you disappeared, you know." Raven was the tall, willowy one with the marble-pale skin. Her black hair was short in back and long in front, falling over one eye and obscuring it. The other eye, midnight blue, gleamed at Jez.
Jez allowed herself to gleam back, just a bit. She had always liked Raven, who was the most mature of the group. "Sorry, girl."
"I wasn't scared." That was Thistle, still hugging Jez's waist. Thistle Galena was the delicate one who had stopped her aging when she reached ten. She was as old as the others, but tiny and almost weightless.
She had feathery blond hair, amethyst eyes, and little glistening white teeth. Her specialty was playing the lost child and then attacking any humans who tried to help her.
"You're never scared," Jez told her, squeezing back.
"She means she knew you were all right, wherever you were. I did, too," Pierce Holt said. Pierce was the slender, cold boy, the one with the aristocratic face and the artist's hands. He had dark blond hair and deep-set eyes and he seemed to carry his own windchill factor with him. But just now he was looking at Jez with cool approval.
"I'm glad somebody thought so," Jez said, with a glance at Morgead, who just looked condescending.
"Yeah, well, some people were going crazy. They thought you were dead," Valerian Stillman put in, following Jez's look. Val was the big, heroic one, with deep russet hair, gray-flecked eyes, and the build of a linebacker. He was usually either laughing or yelling with impatience. "Morgead had us scouring the streets for you from Daly City to the Golden Gate Bridge-"
"Because I was hoping a few of you would fall off," Morgead said without emotion. "But I had no such luck. Now shut up, Val. We don't have time for all this class-reunion stuff. We've got something important to do."
Thistle's face lit up as she stepped back from Jez. "You mean a hunt?"
"He means the Wild Power," Raven said. Her one visible eye was fixed on Jez. "He's told you already, hasn't he?"
"I didn't need to tell her," Morgead said. "She already knew. She came back because Hunter Red-fern wants to make a deal with us. The Wild Power for a place with him after the millennium."
He got a reaction-the one Jez knew he expected. Thistle squeaked with pleasure, Raven laughed huskily, Pierce gave one of his cold smiles, and Val roared.
"He knows we've got the real thing! He doesn't wanna mess with us!" he shouted.
"That's right, Val; I'm sure he's quaking in his boots," Morgead said. He glanced at Jez and rolled his eyes.
Jez couldn't help but grin. This really was like old times: she and Morgead trading secret looks about Val. There was a strange warmth sweeping through her-not the scary tingling heat she'd experienced with Morgead alone, but something simpler. A feeling of being with people who liked her and knew her. a feeling of belonging.
She never felt that at her human school. She'd seen things that would drive her human classmates insane even to imagine. None of them had any idea of what the real world was like-or what Jez was like, for that matter.
But now she was surrounded by people who understood her. And it felt so good that it was alarming.
She hadn't expected this, that she would slip back into the gang like a hand in a glove. Or that something inside her would look around and sigh and say, "We're home."
Because I am not home, she told herself sternly. These are not my people. They don't really know me, either....
But they don't have to, the little sigh returned. You don't ever need to tell them you're human. There's no reason for them to find out.