The Captive Page 0,55

that she accidentally drank some salt water. But there was no help in sight. Laurel and Deborah were heading an assault on the Henderson brothers, and Adam and Diana were far away, their sleek heads bobbing side by side.

Nick tossed wet hair-blacker than onyx in the moonlight-out of his eyes and grinned at her. Cassie had never seen him smile before. "Surrender," he suggested.

"Never," Cassie said, with as much dignity as she could muster while wavelets slapped her. Nick was handsome-but she didn't want him to get hold of her out here. He made another grab at her and Cassie shrieked for help again, and suddenly there was a heaving wave between them.

"Go on! Get out of here!" Faye said. Her eyes gleamed wickedly under long, wet lashes. "Or do we have to make you? Cassie, grab him around the neck while I get his trunks!"

Cassie had no idea how to grab a guy as strong as Nick around the neck, especially when she was laughing so hard, but she surged forward. Faye dove like a dolphin, and Nick twisted and made a hasty retreat, swimming away as fast as he could.

Cassie looked at Faye and found Faye smiling sideways at her. Cassie grinned.

"Thanks," she said.

"Any time," Faye said. "You know I'm glad to do anything for my friends. And we are friends, aren't we, Cassie?"

Cassie thought about that, treading water in the silver-glinting ocean. "I guess," she said, finally, slowly.

"That's good. Because, Cassie, there's a time coming up when I'm going to need all my friends. This Tuesday, when the moon is full, the Circle is going to have a meeting."

Cassie nodded, not getting it for a moment. Of course they were going to have a meeting. And another party; it was Faye's and Diana's birthday. They were both seventeen-

"The leadership vote!" Cassie said, taking an involuntary gulp of salt water again. She stared at Faye with a sudden terrible apprehension. "Faye..."

"That's right," Faye said. In the moonlight she looked like a mermaid, staying afloat effortlessly. Her glorious mane of hair hung soaking-wet down her back like twining seaweed. Her eyes held Cassie's. "I want to be leader of this coven, Cassie. I will be leader. And you're going to help me."

"No."

"Yes. Because this time I'm serious. I've been going easy on you, letting you have your way, not making you play by the rules. But that's over now, Cassie. This is the one thing I want more than anything else in the world, and you are going to help me. Otherwise..." Faye looked over her shoulder to where Adam and Diana were still bobbing, far away. Then she turned back.

"Otherwise, I'll do it," she said. "I'll tell Diana-and not just about that little cuddling session on the bluff. I'll tell her about the way you and Adam were kissing at the Homecoming dance-did you think nobody would see that?

And the real reason Adam went through four circles of protection to save you at Halloween. And"-she floated closer to Cassie, her hooded golden eyes as unblinking as the eyes of a falcon-"I'll tell her about the skull. How you stole it from her and gave it to me, so we could kill Jeffrey."

"That's not what happened! I'd never have let you have it if I'd known-"

"Are you sure, Cassie?" Faye smiled, a slow, conspiratorial smile. "I think, deep down, that you and I are just the same. We're... sisters under the skin. And if you don't vote for me on Tuesday, I'll let everyone know the truth about you. I'll tell them what you really are inside."

Evil, Cassie thought, staring out at the ocean. It reflected the moonlight back like a mirror, like a piece of hematite, and it surrounded her. She couldn't say a word.

"Think about it, Cassie," Faye said pleasantly. "You have until Tuesday night to decide." And then she swam away.

It was Tuesday night.

The full moon was directly overhead, the circle had been cast. The members of the Club sat around it. Diana, who was wearing all the symbols of the Queen of the Witches, had called on the four elements to protect them, but now she was silent. It was Melanie who was calling for the vote, from oldest to youngest.

"Nicholas," she said.

"I told you before," Nick said. "I won't vote. I'm here, because you two insisted"-he glanced from Faye to Diana-"but I abstain."

With a strange feeling of unreality, Cassie watched his handsome, cold face. Nick had abstained, why couldn't she? But she knew that