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"That’s right," she said loudly "Stay in school, all of you Or I’ll get really riled"

She returned to the headquarters, but there was no comfort to be found there now She turned on the co at Jared in her head

"Uh," said Ash froht?"

"Fine!" Kami said She typed out: "With the advent of sperm banks, women realized the sheer uselessness of ely extinct" with extreme force "Absolutely fine, never better! Why do you ask?"

"Er, because I heard you and Jared had a screa like a maddened weasel taped to a keyboard"

Ka "You may have a point"

"I just wanted to check and see if you were okay," said Ash "I thought youup"

Ka in the doorway, not leaning against it listening to invisible voices Just standing, blue eyes concerned and voice gentle "Hoere you planning to cheersht?"

He was so nice, Ka anyone else She wasn’t betraying anyone Kaes of her mouth strain to form the shape "I’d love to"

Down in the dark waters, there was gold gleaing hi here but darkness and the unreachable gleaet to the surface, he would die, and yet he kneith a chill, sure knowledge that if he did not reach that golden glea else, lit by the underwater shine on the metal: a woman’s face at the bottom of the pool

Jared broke the surface of the drea He rolled onto his stoht solid hours, and taken a few tumbles He’d only eased up because he knew if he did actually crash, Kami would come for him

So he hadn’t driven his bike into a tree, and instead Kaone out on a date with Ash That washis bike, Jared had stor time, crashed out, and dreamed about a dead woman

Jared realized that his jacket sht hours in it He threw it off and headed for the shower His bathrooe, each claw on his claw-foot tub clutching a tiny crystal, the showerhead a brass fist At least the faucets worked, which was more than he was used to It was better than he’d had in plenty of the apartments with his parents in San Francisco, and sure as hell better than the taps at fast-food places that he’d used to try to keep clean last su on his new scrapes and bruises, sluicing between his shoulder blades Jared cracked his neck, got out of the shower, and went to find a clean T-shirt and jeans He left the roo his hair back froh the drawing roo for Uncle Rob Uncle Rob was always kind to hi him "son" Jared wasn’t sure why he liked it or why he wanted to see Uncle Rob now, but he did

Jared stalked into the parlor There were no lights on, but a fire was burning, casting orange and black streaks on the s as if the curtains were tiger hide From the shadows, a voice said: "Can I help you?"

Jared said, "Aunt Lillian?" and turned on the light

His aunt sat in a yellow arh back Her hair was neatly parted, held back by a black band, which made her look like an older, evil Alice in Wonderland

"Did you want a book?" Aunt Lillian asked "I could not help but notice half the library has uely unsettled that she’d noticed He wasn’t used to adults scrutinizing his behavior He hadn’t meant to take so many books, but they were all the kind he liked, about made-up olden days when the worldfor Uncle Rob," he said, backing up "Is he in the garden?"

"Don’t go outside, Jared; your hair is wet," Aunt Lillian told hiuard It was such ahis mom would never have said He hesitated on the threshold, and while he did, Aunt Lillian’s darkened and shaped eyebrows caht frown She repeated, "Can I help you?"

Jared came to a decision "Yeah Yeah, you can"

Lillian clearly did not much appreciate the word "yeah," but she nodded for hi," he said, "we don’t know each other all that well, do we? I mean, like--for people who are related to each other I wondered, and this e, if you have any stories about when Ash was a kid"

Aunt Lillian blinked Jared figured that was Aunt Lillian’s equivalent of staggering back with a hand pressed to her heart "Yes," she said, her voice chillier than ever "Yes, I do" She rose and went to the glass-fronted bookcase at the other end of the room and took out a cloth-covered photo album with sepia roses on the front She stood by the bookcase holding the albu Jared

Then she strode over to one of the sofas with scarlet canopies She sat down, her back straight, like soenteel military acaderaciously

Jared cah of a distance away so that Aunt Lillian had her space and close enough to see the photo album It was possible he slu an interest in the fareat deal toin the world that uilt He felt okay using Aunt Lillian and having underhanded ot more complicated if she actually cared what he did It alsohe really had known before Back in San Francisco, in the last of a long string of apart Mom had never lost her accent, but it had been weird to realize that he couldn’t differentiate between their voices It was like lying in the dark listening to hiswith herself Except that the two voices had very different things to say