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“Dean!” shouted Mrs Cleo, her a the overhead lights on “What are—?”

The other guy shot up like an arrow, hands clenching intowith you?” He rounded the table, shrugging out of his zipped hoodie “You want some of this?”

Stuff always got real when the clothes started to come off

Dean snickered as he stalked to the aisle Chairs screeched as students et me some of that”

“Boy fight!” Stacey exclai out her cell phone Several other students were doing the saet this on camera”

“Boys! Stop it right now” Mrs Cleo s the intercom wired directly to the front office A beep sounded and she turned to it frantically “I need the security guard in room two-oh-four immediately!”

Dean launched hi his of a nearby table In the back of the classroom, ere safe, but Stacey and I stood up anyway A shiver coursed overher tail across my stomach

Stacey stretched up on the tips of her boots, apparently needing a better angle for her phone “This is”

“Bizarre?” I supplied, flinching as the boy got a good hit in, knocking Dean’s head back

She arched a brow at o with awesome”

“But they’re—” I jued into the wall

Security officers swaruy wrapped his ar him off the other student as Mrs Cleo buzzed around the roo her tacky beaded necklace with both hands

A uard knelt beside the boy Dean had punched Only then did I realize the boy hadn’t stirred once since hitting the floor A trickle of unease, having nothing to do with the way Bauard leaned over the prone boy, placing his head near his chest

The guard jerked back, reaching for the microphone on his shoulder His face hite as the paper in my notebook “I need an EMT ie e Visible bruising along the skull He’s not breathing”

“OhStacey’s arm

A hush descended over the roo the excited chatter Mrs Cleo stopped by her desk, her jowls jiggling silently Stacey sucked in a breath as she lowered her phone

The silence following the urgent call was broken when Dean threw back his head and laughed as the other security guard dragged him from the classroom

Stacey tucked her shoulder-length black hair back behind her ears She hadn’t touched the slice of pizza on her plate or her can of soda Neither had I She was probably thinking along the sauidance counselor I’d never really paid attention to had given all the students in the class the option to go home

I didn’t have a ride Morris, the clan’s chauffeur, handyuy, was still on the no-ride list with ether, a possessed cabdriver had tried to play chicken with our vehicles And I didn’t want to wake up Zayne or Nicolai—for thethe day, entombed in their hard shells And Stacey didn’t want to be home with her baby brother So here ere, in the cafeteria

But neither of us had an appetite

“I’ a deep breath “Seriously”

“It’s not like the guy is dead,” Salasses slipped to the tip of his nose Curly brown hair flopped over his forehead His soul, a faint mixture of yellow and blue, flickered just like everyone else’s had since thispeekaboo with me “I heard he was revived in the ambulance”

“That still doesn’t change the fact thatsoht in front of us,” she insisted, eyes wide “Or are youthe point?”

Sam sed the bite of pizza “How do you know he really died? Just because a wannabe police officer says that solanced over at onna eat that?”

I shook my head at him, sort of dumbfounded “It’s all yours” A second later, he snatched the pizza with the little pepperoni cubes off aze flickered up to mine “Are you okay?” I asked

He nodded as he munched away “Sorry I know I don’t sound very sympathetic”

“Ya think?” Stacey muttered drily

A dull ache flared behind my eyes as I reached for ure out what the Hell was up with everyone’s auras doing the wonky thing The colorful shading around a hu: white for an utterly pure soul, pastels were the ood soul, and the darker the colors got, the more questionable the status of one’s soul became And if a human didn’t have that telltale halo around him, that meant he was on Team No Soul

Ie, he was a demon

I wasn’t doinganye If I touched a den on their body, which made it easier for Wardens to search them out

Well, it didn’t work on Upper Level demons Not much did

I didn’t stop because of what had happened with Pairounded y deht be har, I went for the Posers, since they were dangerous and had a habit of biting people, and left the Fiends alone