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With long blond hair and beefy arnized Nick and gave hiood, it was Dev One of four identical quadruplets, Dev was always easygoing and fun to be around While Dev’s brothers, Cherif and Quinn, were nice enough, Remi was the one who scared hilad Dev was on duty He was the one being whohiue "Nicky, Nicky, Nicky … I don’t envy you, onna take a bite of your hide and mount it to the wall"

If the knot in his stohter, he’d have diamonds in the toilet later "Yeah, I don’t envy hed "You’d think that, but no Believe ry You, Maman likes Me, not so much most days Trust me, she has a bear of a te fun at the fact that he and his family were shapeshifters whose alternate for his head at Dev, he went inside It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the dark interior

Dev’s sister Ai up drinks

"Nohere were you, ry tone in his ear How had she snuck up on hi, he could rent her out as a ninja

"At school I had detention" Go ahead, Nick Throw gas on that fire…

"For what?" she growled

"Being late"

She narrowed her blue eyes at hi out her hand to signal him to shut-up "Don’t even start that You take responsibility for your own actions You hear round his teeth as he forced hier toward her But he was really getting tired of being treated like an idiot who couldn’t tie his own shoes "I didn’t get to class until after the bell rang" There, that was the truth

"Nicholas Ambrosius … do not test me Not today I am not in the mood for your crap"

You hear me, he mocked silently in his head ‘Cause he wasn’t quite stupid enough to do that out loud

He forced himself to speak in a calm tone "I don’t knohat to tell you, Mo and I’m sorry It was a bad day at school and two ofto help the about myself"

She frowned "What do youthe awful pictures of theaze as he struck the nerves in her that Gri his ossip or speculate about someone else She’d had too nant with him "Who?"

"You don’t know Spencer, but Brynna was the other one they attacked"

"Addams?" she asked incredulously

He nodded

Now his mother looked as sick as he’d felt "Why would anyone attack Brynna?"

"I don’t know That’s what I was trying to find out She ran out of school crying earlier, and I just wanted to help her, you know?"

Finally his iven, but still grounded"

Of course he was

She gently pushed him toward the s you soet your homework started"

Not happy about this at all, Nick obeyed before he got into h his backpack As he pulled out his ain

Turning his head, he tried to pinpoint it But it was gone so fast, he wasn’t sure he could trust his eyesight in the dirimoire heated up beneath his hand With a hiss, he snatched his hand back He blew cool air across his pal while he opened the book with his other hand

"All right, what are you trying to tell ertip Reciting the spell to activate it, he squeezed three drops of blood onto the page For a second, it didn’t react Then the blood rolled across the page until it fors are never what they seem

Discord Strife Shame and Pain

Into all lives, they will rain

But none of them will cut so deep …

As the ene to decipher it when his gaze was drawn to the napkin holder There in the shiny li by her neck in her bedroom

CHAPTER 4

Nick juet ahold of Brynna before she let her hurt feelings overtake her common sense Life was hard for everyone, but pain was transitory and it would eventually leave He knew that better than most since he’d been spoon-fed a steady diet of shaony since the moment of his birth

Death was forever There was no undo button on it Not unless you kne to suuarantee she’d take you

His hand shaking from his panic, he dialed Brynna’s nu up, his ether in a worried frown "What’s wrong?"