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I darted up the stairs, praying the olves wouldn&039;t get into trouble while unsupervised, checked on Babyjon (still snoring away), then ran back down and led the olves and Jeannie into the kitchen just in ti
"S&039;up?"
"Betsy? It&039;s Laura Listen, I wanted to talk to you about-"
"Not now," I said, and hung up I felt bad, but not too bad She&039;d been one of the bums to disappear on me in a time of need, after all And that eirdly convenient, wasn&039;t it? That Antonia and Garrett and Marc and Sinclair should all disappear right around the time my dad died and my half sister made herself scarce?
NawCrazy Butweird,
Naw
Weird
Naw! Dammit, naw!
GreatLonely, and now paranoid Oh, and surrounded by olves Let&039;s not forget that!
"Let&039;s see," I said, peering into the fridge "We&039;ve got strawberries, bananas, and peaches Also ice, for smoothies Oh, and Antonia&039;s left half a raw T-bone" I sniffed "Sood for another day or two"
"We&039;ll pass on the fruit"
"I could also," I added doubtfully, "defrost soet down to business"
"I&039;, toothy grin, enjoying the mutual flinch "So it&039;s smoothie time"
"I&039;d like a sht up" Noas my turn to flinch; how many times had I heard that phrase from Marc in this very kitchen as he played bartender? How many strawberry sht me upstairs and poured said smoothie all over my-
"Banana, please!" she repeated
I shook myself "Sorry Drifted off for aLara some bananas
Michael cleared his throat, while his kid (cub? puppy? whelp?) stripped three bananas and tossed the skins into the sink "So, ah Antonia didn&039;t check in And she checks in at 10:00 am EST on the twentieth of the ine our-
The rest was drowned out as I hit "puree" I left it on for a nice long ti the way it felt like a thunderstor) It orth it just to drown out the arrogant, gorgeous asshat
Wait Did I say gorgeous? Sinclair, where the hell did you go?
Via gestures, I directed Lara to the glasses, and she brought , and I srin when she didn&039;t smile back This was a kid older than her years, that was for damned sure What had she said? That she was the future Pack leader? That was a lot to pile onto a-what? Seven-year-old? Eight?
A perfect am of her mom and her dad: his eyes, her face, their attitudes She&039;d be scary as shit when she hit adolescence Or possibly the fourth grade
I shut off the blender, filled Lara&039;s glass to the bri, "-natural for us to juht had-"
And on goes the blender again I took my time win my own smoothie, but eventually I couldn&039;t liquefy the fruit and ice any ht," he finished
Jesus! Couldn&039;t this guy take a hint? How did Jeannie stand it? How did any of them? Luckily, I was not that kind of leader
I was no kind of leader
"Yeah, well, you rong, wrong, wrong" I took a large gulp ofwith you people"
" &039;You people&039;?" the strawberry blond-the guy called Brendan-demanded He was about a head shorter than Michael, with the aforeth strawberry blond hair, the usual-to-olves sculpted muscles (at least, the olves I&039;d seen), lean build, chiseled good looks, big gorgeous eyes (a kind of gold/brown in his case) They allow from within Luminous That was the word "What&039;s that supposed to hted, squinty-eyed ones?
"I said, what&039;s that supposed to mean?"
Mild-mannered ones?
"You carnivorous ravenous creatures of the fullpeople and turning the large-breasted woht T-shirts" I hailed him with the sh!" Derik said, looking genuinely revolted Looking, in fact, a lot like Antonia when she had told me what he was about to say "Omnivores taste awful Trust me We don&039;t eat you"
"And it&039;s not the ain: What kind of name was that for a woman?) barked Literally "You can&039;t catch it We&039;re two different species, you highlighted dis back into place "And if we&039;re two different species, you want to explain her?"