I open the door and put my hands on my hips. "So, you're finally ready to talk?" I say in my coldest voice. I don't move toward him and almost smirk when his brow furrows.

"Yeah, Jules." He stands up. "I'm sorry," he says with a pained look.

"Oh, about what?"

"Jules, you know."

I stare at him waiting for him to go on-to tell me he was a jerk or scared or something to make up for the fact that I trusted him so completely, and then he bailed on me. When he doesn't say anything, I roll my eyes. "Well, I guess we're done here-apology not accepted."

I turn to leave and he rushes toward me and touches my arm. "Wait, this isn't easy for me.

I-I know I should've called you, and I know you were probably wondering what was going on and ..."

"d.a.m.n straight I was wondering what was going on!" I say, pulling my arm away from him. "G.o.d, Connor, you told me you loved me, we almost went all the way, and then you act like I don't exist. I know you saw me in the hall at school. And then to top it all off, you have Michael give me a note like we're ten or something. Not that you even meant what you said in your stupid four-word note. I called you five times before I decided I was making a complete a.s.s out of myself!"

He grabs my hand and pulls me close. "You don't understand," he says. "My mom was waiting for me, she knew."

He's still holding my hand, and part of me knows what facing his mom must have been like-I can picture her steely eyes boring into his, but he said he'd fight for me, and it's obvious he gave up without even trying. "You told me it didn't matter what your mother thought." I try to yank away from him but he holds on tight, so I turn away and look at the stupid pumpkins. "I'm such an idiot to have bought into all your bulls.h.i.t!"

Tears sting my eyes as the effort it's taken to stay strong and pretend Connor doesn't matter these last two days dissolves. "I am such an idiot," I choke out, feeling my legs buckle.

He comes up behind me and I'm too tired to fight him.

"Jules, I'm the idiot, not you. I'm sorry I put you through this. Please just stay and hear me out, okay?"

I stared at the jagged heart he carved in the middle pumpkin. "Whatever." I let him lead me reluctantly to the couch.

"My mom was waiting for me; she knew. I don't know how, some sort of witch thing maybe, but I opened the door and she up and slapped me. My own mother-no warning, and then she was raging at me, and she may not look like much, but it was like getting hit by a demon."

"Like you'd know what that felt like."

Connor glares at me. "Sorry I wasn't born with special powers and don't get to go at it with demons on a regular basis."

I look up at him and see fear and sadness in his blue eyes. I hold my hand up to his face and whisper, "Reveal." A small pink handprint rises on his cheek, and I bite my lip. "Oh, Connor," I say, bringing my hand up to cover the mark. "I should've realized. I mean I thought this all might have been because of your mom, but I was so upset and then I got mad. But you should've come to me."

He covers my hand with his, presses it to his face, and then takes it to his lips and kisses it, making my heart flutter. "You don't know how badly I wanted to tell you, but she was crazy. She said all these things, and I-I didn't know what to do. I needed time to figure things out, to think how we could be together when you're a hunter with all the rules and stupid freaking traditions that go with it." He drops my hand and drops his chin to his chest. "And I'm just a nothing, whose grand purpose in life is cleaning up roadkill."

"No, it's not like that-"

Connor shakes his head. "Jules, you just as much said it yourself a minute ago. You can pretend all you want that I'm destined for something bigger, but it is what it is. I'm a guy riding the coattails of a bunch of monster-hunting witches." He stands up and walks to the witch b.a.l.l.s hanging on the curtain rod. He twists one, winding the string tight, then lets it go, sending the ball into a frantic spin. "You women have been holding all the power since the 1600s when the coven was first approached, I, uh-" He stops the ball with his hand. "I mean, was formed, and us guys have just been along for the ride ever since."

I get up and wrap my arms around him, pressing my chest into his back. I rest my head on his shoulder blade and sigh. "It's the twenty-first century, you can be whatever you want- we can be whatever we want."

"I don't know anymore," he says quietly. "But we'd both be lying if we said that making a change in the coven would be easy. You know what we're up against, and as much as I wanted to think it would be easy to make all the roadblocks disappear, it's not going to happen. My mother won't let it. There's too much at stake."

He sighs and I hug him tighter. "Let's just be together for now." I reach around for his hand and we sit on the couch. "Where'd you get the pumpkins?"

Connor smiles. "Seeing as I'm as magical as a can of worms, I called a bunch of farms until I found one that was growing the white ones. I remembered how much you like them, and Ms.

Kline said hers didn't come up this year."

"That was really sweet," I say, and then lean in and gently kiss him on the lips.

"I got you something else," he says, reaching for his wallet.

My heart beats faster wondering if tonight will be the night.

He opens it up and pulls out a tiny manila envelope instead of a pack of condoms from behind some bills. Relief and a bit of disappointment flush through me, but I figure after what's happened it's better to take things slowly.

He tips it over his palm, and a silver-and-gold ring slips out and lands in his open hand.

"My mom has a room in the house filled with all sorts of old stuff-I think you guys get some of it after kills, and some of it's been around a long time from other hunters, but put it on."

"Wow, this must be the universe's way of telling me I need to accessorize more," I say, feeling giddy Connor is giving me a ring! "I got a new necklace today, too."

I'm about to pull out my necklace to show him, but he takes my right hand and slides the ring on my finger. "It's an Ouroboros," he says. "You know-the symbol of unity and eternity."

My heart quickens. "I've seen this before," I say, looking down at the snake, with its tail in his mouth, loosely coiled around my finger. The head and the top half of the body are gold, the rest silver with ruby eyes that sparkle in the candlelight.

"Oh!" My right hand suddenly starts to quiver. "We got this off a demon we killed in ninth grade! Your mother told us not to come home without it." I start to pull it off, but the snake lets out a soft hiss, and I yank my hand away like I've been bitten. The head starts to move and gulp the tail down its throat, until the ring fits tightly around my finger. "Oh, my G.o.d, Connor!" I say, shaking my hand-trying to dislodge the ring. "What the h.e.l.l is happening?"

Connor jumps up, his eyes wide. "I don't know! There was a paper in the box, it didn't say the ring moved or anything, just that the eyes are supposed to glow if-"

"If what?"

"If the person who gave it to you is telling the truth. I swear I didn't know it moved or anything."

"Well, it did! The freaking ring swallowed its own tail," I say, holding my shaking hand far from my body. I hold my left hand over it. "Remove!" I say The spell swirls around my hand, but the snake just wiggles, takes another gulp, and the ring cuts deeper into my finger. "Ow!" My legs start to shake, and I flop down on the couch. "What if it's cursed? Did you research the thing?

And what if your mom finds out it's missing?"

Connor puts his hands out to calm me down. "No, no- don't worry. It's okay. From what I read, the ring lets you know when the person who gave it to you is telling the truth. That's it. I just wanted you to be able to trust me. I just wanted to talk to you and then I was going to put it back."

I stare at the snake's head, my heart pounding wildly. "What else did it say?"

"Not much, just something like it was-uh, well, demon in origin, and-"

"Well, that's not a huge surprise," I say bitterly, "seeing as we got it off a demon! We had to cut its finger off to get the ring, you know."

I wince thinking about the sound of Margo's knife sawing through the bone--the blackish-blue demon blood sizzling on the pavement. I remember Dani saying she saw the ring move, but we all thought she was crazy.

I guess I owe her an apology.

I touch the ring and when it doesn't move, try to pull it off. It hisses and I let it go, not wanting it to strangle my finger again.

"It's stuck and when I try to pull it off, it just hangs on tighter!" I throw my head back onto the back of the couch feeling exhausted. "For future reference, Connor, jewelry forged in h.e.l.l is not on my top ten list of gifts I'm hoping for." I take a deep breath and will my heartbeats to return to normal.

"I'm so, so sorry, Jules, I didn't think it mattered where it'd come from, and I was kind of hoping you wouldn't ask." He closes his eyes and sighs. "I guess I didn't think beyond the fact that this would let you know I was telling you the truth. So you'd know I was really sorry. That I do love you."

The Ouroboros's eyes glow stronger, and its mouth moves, releasing a bit of the tail and loosening its tight grasp.

"Look at that! See," he says, pointing at the ring.

I hold my hand in front of my face and shake my head. "Oh, well, I guess this makes wearing a demonic ring okay then. Who cares that the snake came to life and swallowed its tail to magically attach itself to my hand, and the only way to remove it may be by hacking it off? I'm sure Margo is just itching to try amputating another finger."

"This isn't exactly going the way I'd planned."

"You think?"

"Jules, look at me." Connor gently places his hand on my face and turns it toward him. His touch sends a jolt of electricity coursing down my spine. "I got scared after talking to my mom- really scared-and I was a complete jerk for not telling you right away, but I really am sorry."

The snake's eyes pulse with red light, and despite the fact that my heart is still beating a mile a minute, I can't help but feel relieved.

"I guess there's probably some spell to get rings off," I say. "I can go through some of my mom's books." I look at Connor. "So what all did your mother say to you?" I ask, leaning my shoulder into his. "The girls need to wait until the right time-it's all got to be coordinated-we can't have any unexpected pregnancies, blah, blah, blah."

"Yeah," he says, "the same old stuff, but she was harping on and on about the coven's mission, and how fooling around with you could mess that up and stuff."

The snake's eyes pulse. "Well, that's nothing to get all freaked out about-we've been fed that line forever, right?"

Connor doesn't say anything, and we sit in silence. The candle in the center pumpkin starts to sputter and burns out. I watch a thin trail of smoke leak out of the heart. I point my hand toward the hole. "Relight. " A new wick appears and bursts into a tall flame that licks the top of the pumpkin. I smell the burning flesh and whisper, "Lower." The flame settles down to a tiny flicker and I look up at Connor. "Did she say anything else?"

"She was just really freaked out that you aren't taking things as seriously as you should," he finally says, "and she said dating would only make things worse."

"Why did she single me out? What about Dani? What about Sascha? It's not like they're all gung-ho like Margo and Z."

"I wasn't fooling around with Dani or Sascha, I was with you. Look, bottom line is my mom takes this way seriously."

"Ha, tell me about it!"

"And, in a way, she's right."

"What?" I sit up, eyebrows raised.

"It's just that people need you, and what you do. Just think of what the world would be like if you weren't-"

"What? Slicing and dicing nightmares? G.o.d, you sound like a greeting card-or one of our mothers!"

"Come on, Jules, don't you feel a little bit, you know, proud of what you do?"

"I don't know-maybe. But I'm beginning to wonder if your mother cast a spell to brainwash you into buying into the coven c.r.a.p."

Connor pulls me close and buries his face into my neck leaving a trail of kisses until he reaches my mouth. He lingers there, and I kiss him back until he pulls away. "Would I be doing this if I was buying into it all?" he whispers.

"No." I smile and kiss him again. "But where does this leave us-sneaking around?" I stand up and walk to the pumpkins. I want him to tell me he got scared, but now he's ready to fight-but I know that's not how this is going down. He wouldn't have brought the ring if he were ready to battle. This ring is to placate me for the time being.

"Just for a little while. Until everything settles down- until my mom cools off. Don't you think it's better than the alternative?"

"I guess," I lie, wanting him to stand up to his mother for me. I wave my hand in front of the pumpkins. "Out," I say, and the candles extinguish at the same time. I turn toward the table and point to the small candle on the table. "You, too." A small puff of air blows by, snuffing out the candle. I stand there in the dark, my back to Connor, breathing in the smoke. What do I do?

Concede things aren't easy to change? Now isn't the right time to change the way the coven's been doing things the last couple of hundred years?

But if we continue-what's to keep his mom, or my mom for that matter, from finding out?

I'm sure Helena's put my mom on alert.

"Are you willing to risk p.i.s.sing off your mom to be with me?" I hold my right hand out and wait.

"We just need to be smart about this, plan things out. Like tonight she'll be too wrapped up in Margo's initiation to worry about me. And as long as you're pretending to be the coven's number one hunter, she won't be worrying about you, either."

"What if I don't want to pretend? What if I want us to be together where everyone will see us?"

Connor comes up behind me, brushes my hair aside, and kisses the nape of my neck. He presses his hips into me, and my heart quickens. "It's just for a little while, Jules, and after your birthday you'll have more say about how things are run." He wraps his arms around me, pulling me close, and then slides one hand under my shirt. His cool hand runs across my stomach, and then skims down just under my waistband, making my knees weak. "I promise we will find a way to work this out."

The red eyes glow bright and steady in the dark, and I exhale. "Okay, we'll play it your way-for a little while, but only because I don't think I can stand being away from you again.

Promise me you'll come to me next time. Promise me you won't leave me hanging like that."

I face Connor, his features muted in the dark.

"I promise," he says, leaning in to kiss me.

I hold my right hand up behind him and watch the red eyes glow, and then I close my own eyes and let myself go.

I lift my head up at the sound of "Danse Macabre." Dani and I thought it would be a funny ring tone, but right now it's a definite mood killer. "Oh, s.h.i.t, I better get that," I say, pushing off of Connor.

Breathless, I fish my phone out of my cape pocket. I look at the caller ID and just about die.

"It's your mother!" I grab my shirt from the table and pull it over my head before I answer.

"Hi, Mrs. Keyes," I say, trying very hard to make my voice sound normal. "Vamp? Okay.

The meeting is for eleven thirty- yeah, I can be there before then. Do you need me to call anyone? Do they have binders? Okay, I'll head right over!"

I click the phone off. "Well, here's my chance to be the best darn slayer this coven has ever seen. Did you hear me asking about binders? Did I sound enthusiastic enough?" I raise my hands to the witch b.a.l.l.s. "Light."

Connor sits up on the couch and brushes his hair out of his eyes. "Did I say you should be the coven's number one hunter?" He reaches out and pulls me down on top of him. "I changed my mind!"

I giggle as he starts tugging my shirt up. "Hey, out-slaying Margo and Z was your brilliant plan." I give him a quick kiss, and then get up and look around on the floor for my bra.

"Fine," he says, sitting up. "But who knows when we'll be able to sneak away again?"

"That's no longer my concern, because until this particular member of the undead tastes the pointed wrath of the Revealers, I have no time for earthly pleasures!" I pull my arms out of my shirt and slide my bra on.

Connor laughs. "Yeah, better take that act down a notch, or they'll know something's up for sure. But since it's a vamp, I'm off the hook for tonight." He b.u.t.tons his shirt and sighs.

"Although, if I had to be on cleanup crew I could at least steal another good-night kiss. I guess I'll have to steal one now."

He grabs me and kisses me hard. "And let me help you with this." He hooks the back of my bra while nibbling on the base of my neck. I run my hands across his bare shoulders, and I'm tempted to blow off the whole hunt, but then I think about impressing his mom.