There was a puncturing sound and a terrible smell. The knife had penetrated just under the shoulder blade, six inches into the heart.
The ghoul convulsed once and stopped moving.
Claire's voice came piercingly from behind the closed door. "Mom! She's doing something in there!"
Then Aunt Nan's voice: "Jez, are you all right?"
Jez stood, pulling her bamboo dagger out, wiping it on the ghoul's shirt. "I'm just having a little trouble finding a ruler...." The ghoul was in a perfect position. She put her arms around its waist, ignoring the feeling of skin slipping loose under her fingers, and heaved it up onto the window seat. There weren't many human girls who could have picked up almost two hundred pounds of dead weight, and even Jez ended up a little breathless. She gave the ghoul a shove, rolling it over until it reached the open window, then she stuffed and maneuvered it out. It fell heavily into a bed of impatiens, squashing the flowers.
Good. She'd haul it away later tonight and dispose of it.
Jez caught her breath, brushed off her hands, and closed the window. She drew the curtains shut, then turned. The fair-haired boy was lying perfectly still. Jez touched his back gently, saw that he was breathing.
The door rattled and Claire's voice rose hysterically. "Mom, do you smell that smell?"
Aunt Nan called, "Jez!"
"Coming!" Jez glanced around the room. She needed something... there. The bed.
Grabbing a handful of material near the head of the bed, she flipped comforter, blankets and sheets over so they trailed off the foot, completely covering the boy. She tossed a couple of pillows on top of the pile for good measure, then grabbed a ruler off the desk. Then she opened the door, leaned against the doorframe casually, and summoned her brightest smile.
"Sorry about that," she said. "What can I do for you?"
Claire and Aunt Nan just stared at her.
Claire looked like a rumpled, angry kitten. The fine dark hair that framed her face was ruffled; she was breathing hard, and her almond-shaped eyes were flashing sparks. Aunt Nan looked more worried and dismayed.
"Are you okay?" she said, leaning in slightly to try and get a look at Jez's room. "We heard a lot of noise."
And you'd have heard more earlier if you hadn't been watching TV. "I'm fine. I'm great. You know how it is when you can't find something." Jez lifted the ruler. Then she stepped back and opened the door farther.
Aunt Nan's eyes widened as she took in the mess. "Jez... this does not happen when you can't find a ruler. This looks like Claire's room."
Claire made a choked sound of indignation. "It does not. My room's never been this bad. And what's that smell?" She slipped by Aunt Nan and advanced on Jez, who sidestepped to keep her from getting to the pile of blankets.
Claire stopped dead anyway, her face wrinkling. She put a hand to cover her nose and mouth. "It's you,"
she said, pointing at Jez. 'You smell like that."
"Sorry." It was true; what with all the contact she'd had with the ghoul, and the dirty knife in her boot, she was pretty ripe. "I think I stepped in something on the way home."
"I didn't smell anything when you came in," Claire said suspiciously.
"And that's another thing," Aunt Nan said. She had been glancing around the room, but there was nothing suspicious to see except the unusual clutter-the curtains hung motionless over the shut window;
the pile of bedding on the floor was still. Now she turned to face Jez again. "You didn't call to say you were going to miss dinner again. I need to know where you go after school, Jez. I need to know when you're going to be out late. It's common courtesy."
"I know. I'll remember next time. I really will." Jez said it as sincerely as possible, and in a tone she hoped would close the subject. She needed to get rid of these people and look at the boy under the blankets. He might be seriously hurt.
Aunt Nan was nodding. "You'd better. And you'd better take a shower before you do anything else.
Throw your clothes in the laundry room; I'll put them in the wash." She made as if to kiss Jez on the cheek, but stopped, wrinkled her nose, and then just nodded again at her.
"And that's it? That's all?" Claire was looking at her mother in disbelief. "Mom, she's up to something, can't you see that? She comes in late, smelling like dead skunk and sewage and I don't know what, and then she locks herself in and bangs around and lies, and all you're going to say is Don't do it again'? She gets away with everything around here-"
"Claire, quit it. She said she was sorry. I'm sure she won't let it happen again."
"If I did something like that you'd skin me, but, no, if Jez does it, it must be okay. Well, I'll tell you something else. She cut school today. She left before sixth period."
"Is that true, Jez?" a new voice asked. Uncle Jim was standing in the doorway, pulling at his chin with long fingers. He looked sad.
It was true. Jez had left early to set up a trap for the vampire and shapeshifter. She looked at her uncle and made a regretful motion with her head and shoulders.
"Jez, you just can't do that. I'm trying to be reasonable, but this is only the second week of school.
You can't start this kind of behavior again. It can't be like last year." He thought. "From now on, you leave your motorcycle at home. You drive to school and back with Claire, in the Audi."
Jez nodded. "Okay, Uncle Jim," she said out loud. Now go away, she added silently. Thin curls of anxiety were churning in her stomach.
"Thank you." He smiled at her.
"See?" Claire jumped in, her voice hitting a note to shatter glass. "This is just what I'm talking about! You never yell at her, either! Is it because you're afraid she'll run away, like she did from her dad's relatives?