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"In high school"

"What a pleasant surprise Here I thought I&039;d have to show you the picture book Well, as in that story, your ring grants wishes But always at a cost You see, the stones were stolen froot to me I split them up and spread their pieces around the world For research purposes

"One actually o, set in a beautiful antique ring I buried it far enough ahere it couldn&039;t hurt ht come in handy And so it did, when Sinclair actually cao and asked agehed "He actually paid me a quarter of a million dollars for it I couldn&039;t wait to see what you wished for"

A thousand thoughts hirling through my brain The zoo Tina and Sinclair had tried, and failed, to figure out why it had come They hadn&039;t even known zombies existed A total mystery, unsolved until now But hadn&039;t I wished for a real challenge when the Europeans were in town? A way to prove to myself that I orthy of o away and leave me alone-I had never felt more isolated than this past week

And I had wished for a baby of my own And then my fatherand the Ant

"Oh God," Ito pass out I had killedthe new opportunity the ring afforded, I then breathlessly contacted the king and told him I had done more research on the stones and found out unpleasant facts Naturally he came on the run" She frowned at the other coffin "With coured Antonia must have had a last-minute psychic flash and either accompanied Sinclair, or followed him And Garrett had followed her What a cluster-fuck

"Apparently she tried to talk hi, but of course Sinclair is sensitive to vae And came anyway And so here we are"

"You bitch"

"Yes, yes Now Let&039;s discuss my first orders to you"

I dove at her Well, the wall, as she neatly sidestepped "Don&039;t be tiresome," she snapped "You won&039;t best me Sinclair is incapacitated, and without hi A typo No one has been able to harm me for over five hundred years You-ow"

I had punched her in the back and felt her ribs splinter But fast as a snake, she&039;d gotten a grip on my arm and thrown me into the wall I felt my nose break as it made brisk contact with the concrete

I spun and slapped her so hard she staggered sideways, and Ito kill this bitch twice Not because she was a duplicitous cow Not because she was trying to hurt andto kill her for what she had done to him

I heard a crunch asat her with runt she went down, but before I could blink she was back on her feet, hoisting her sensible librarian skirt up and kicking row back

I shrieked and flung ed to force her to the floor, then shrieked louder as her fist exploredto puke, then felt her on ainst the wall

"This is foolish," she said in et down to the business of governing the va at the crunch of her nose breaking I jerked an elbow back, but only caught air I felt her hands on me, and she pushed, hard My teeth broke as I hit the concrete again

H the shit kicked out of me was no fun at all I bit back a howl as she twisted an aret away)

Shut up, Sinclair I turned just in time to catch a librarian fist in the face, and there went ht in her face

"Oh, dear!Notblood " She laughed atlike needles springing froain, and she shook it off, then punched rabbed et an arm up before she brokedance Then she stomped on my foot with her sensible soles, and I felt a few more bones break and lost ht on top ofand yankingdidn&039;t bother me so much (I didn&039;t need the breath) but every time she slammed my head into the floor I heard another fracture It sounded like so ice in

Slas up to wrap them around her neck, but she sis were getting a little dark in here I didn&039;t think it was the a around like an idiot since Sinclair disappeared, had the clue in front of ured out who the bad guy was, and for

"And to think-I thought-you&039;d be-reasonable" Bitch wasn&039;t even out of breath! Each pause was punctuated by another head slaraying hair And sensible shoes!

Black roses were bloos hurt less Hmm Stakes hadn&039;t killed h dae (particularly tohead off, it seemed that would do the trick Fine way to find out

It was all right, though It really was I&039;d been floundering around in the dark for so long, it see dark for real She was right; I was no queen Look how easy she&039;d ledHeck, she&039;d been able to fool Sinclair!

(Elizabeth, get away Run!)

Easy for hi in a nice comfy coffin

No, it was probably for the best My dad was dead, practically by my own hand I&039;d probably have screwed up Babyjon beyond repair Antonia had apparently gone co locked up most of the week God knehat state poor Garrett was in Jessica was a goner-you only had to look at the weight dropping off her to see it And Sinclair-

If this bitch killed me, he was deadher fro anyone she liked My family My friends Sinclair

The back ofdown one Not broken Gone Blood was draining frory?

in my life Never I needed to drink, and I couldn&039;t I needed to live, and I wouldn&039;t But Marjorie had power and energy to spare; the most I&039;d been able to inflict on her were defense wounds

Marjorie had power and energy to spare

Marjorie

I reached for her Not withfaded to black I could sense her energy, her strength, and I grabbed for it like a fat kid grabbed for pie And just like a fat kid, ers crushed her tinfoil skin, andcrust

"Unh, " I heard her grunt She let go ofhad a hold of her and wasn&039;t letting go I rolled over to see who it was

There was no one else there But that didn&039;ter The black blooain Her li child inside ofwas inside

Man to drink

She screa it, I realized with more alacrity as the blood rushed intoVa obedience She has so pie-loving child was gone now I split her open withshe had intobits of dried skin, and then the billions of splinters of bone

By the ti tall over a librarian&039;s suit, a librarian&039;s sensible shoes, and about twenty grams of dust I felt absolutely fine

In fact, I had never felt fucking better in my life