what they want.”
“If they’re reasonable. They might not be, you know.”
“Yeah.”
“They might not stop screaming, as you put it, until they’ve tried to lynch you.”
“Yeah,” I repeated. I took a deep breath. “Want to sit in and see the blood?”
He smiled. “There might not be any blood if I’m there.”
“Then, by all means, sit in.”
“Oh, I will. But it will only be to let them know I’m acknowledging your authority over them. I’m going to turn them loose, Mary.”
I swallowed. “Already, huh?”
“They’re yours. It’s time you jumped in among them.”
“I guess so.” I really wasn’t surprised. I had seen him working up to this. He couldn’t read my mind, but he watched me as closely as I watched everybody else. He questioned me. I didn’t mind. He let the others complain to him about me, but he didn’t question them about me or make them promises. That, I appreciated. So now it was time for me to be kicked out of the nest.
“You’ll be leaving if this works, won’t you?” I asked.
“For a while. I’ll be back. I have a suggestion that might help you both before and after I leave, though.”
“What?”
“Let Karl in on what you’re going to do before you do it. Let him get over some of his anger with you and see the sense in what you’re saying. Then, if I understand him as well as I think I do, he’ll stand with you if any of the others threaten you.”
“Isn’t that just trading one protector for another? I’m supposed to be able to protect myself.”
“Oh, you can. But, chances are, you’ll have to do it by killing someone. I was trying to help you avoid that.”
I nodded. I knew he was still worried that my killing might be a chain-reaction thing. That if I took one of the actives, then, sooner or later, I’d have to take another. And another. I had a feeling that, when he left, he wouldn’t go any farther than Emma’s house. And from there, he’d keep whatever special senses he had trained on me.
“Is Karl alone now?” he asked.
I checked. “Yes, for a change.” Karl had been screwing around with Jan, of all people. He couldn’t have found a better way to disgust me.
“Then, go to him now. Talk to him.”
I gave Doro a dirty look. It was late, and I was in no mood to hear the things Karl would probably say to me. I just wanted to go to bed. But I got up and went to see Karl.
He was lying on his back interfering with the thoughts of some sleeping local politician. I hesitated for a moment to find out what he was doing. He was just making sure that a company he and Doro controlled got a zone variance it needed to erect a building. He had a job, anyway. I knocked at his door.
He listened silently to what I had to tell him, his face expressionless.
“So we’re here, we belong to you, and that’s that,” he said quietly.
“That wasn’t my point.”
“Yes it was. Along with the fact that we might as well find some way to live our lives this way and make the best of it.”
“All I want us to do is settle down and start acting like human beings again.”
“If that’s still what we are. What do you want from me?”
“Help, if you can give it. If you will.”
“Me, help you?”
“You’re my husband.”
“That wasn’t my idea.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. This wasn’t the time to fight with him.
“Doro will back you up,” he said. “He’s all you need.”
“He’s putting me on my own. He’s putting us on our own.”
“Why? What have you done?”
“Nothing, so far. It’s not punishment. He just thinks it’s time we found out whether we can survive without him?as a group.”
“Whether you can survive.”
“No, us, really. Because, if things go bad, I’m not about to let the others get me without taking as many of them as I can with me.” I took a deep breath. “That’s why I want your help. I’d like to get through this without killing anybody.”
He looked a little surprised. “Are you so sure you can kill?”
“Positive.”
