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I frowned "How is that a good thing?"

"Keeps him alive, doesn’t it? Guess it keeps you alive, too"

I nodded "Guess so Did he say anything about anyone else?" I tried to think of anything strange I’d seen or felt, but Fred was one of a kind The clowns in the al ey tonight pretending to be superheroes hadn’t been doing anything the rest of us couldn’t do

"He talked about Raoul," Diego said, the corner of hisdown

"What skil does Raoul have? Super-stupidity?"

Diego snorted "Definitely that But Riley thinks he’s got sonetism - people are drawn to hied"

"Yeah, Riley mentioned that Didn’t seem to be effective on the" - he broke out a decent impression of Riley’s voice - "

�� tamer kids’"

"Tame?"

"I inferred that he meant people like us, who are able to think occasional y"

I didn’t like being cal ed ta when you put it that way Diego’s way sounded better

"It was like there was a reason Riley needed Raoul to lead - so hter "Like what?"

"Do you ever think about why Riley is always after us to keep a low profile?"

I hesitated for half a second before answering This wasn’t the line of inquiry I would have expected fro what Riley had told us Unless Diego was asking this for Riley, like a spy Finding out what the "kids" thought of hio’s dark red eyes were open and confiding And ould Riley care? Maybe the way the others talked about Diego wasn’t based on anything real Just gossip

I answered hi about that"

"We aren’t the only vao said solemnly

"I know Riley says stuff sometimes But there can’t be too o nodded "That’s what I think, too Which is why it’s pretty weird that she keepsmore of us, don’t you think?

"

I frowned "Huh Because it’s not like Riley actual y likes us or anything" I paused again, waiting to see if he would contradict reement, so I continued "And she hasn’t even introduced herself You’re right I hadn’t looked at it that way Wel, I hadn’t real y thought about it at alBut then, what do they want us for?"

Diego raised one eyebrow "Wanna hear what I think?"

I nodded warily Butto do with hi I think she wants protection, and she put Riley in charge of creating the front line"

I thought this through, ain "Why wouldn’t they tel us? Shouldn’t we be, like, on the lookout or soreed

We looked at each other in silence for a few long-see more, and it didn’t look like he did, either

Final y I grimaced and said, "I don’t know if I buy it - the part about Raoul being good for anything, that is"

Diego laughed "Hard to argue that one" Then he glanced out the s at the dark early"Out of time Better head back before we turn into crispies"

"Ashes, ashes, we al fal down," I sang under o chuckled

We et next door for big ziplocks and two backpacks I doublebagged al es annoyed me Then we mostly roof-topped it back to the water The sky was just faintly starting to gray up in the east We slipped into the sound right under the noses of two oblivious night watch for them I was ful or they would have been too close for h the murky water back toward Riley’s place At first I didn’t knoas a race I was just swihter I didn’t usual y push the ti honest with e vampire nerd I fol owed the rules, I didn’t cause trouble, I hung out with the ot hoot a few lengths ahead of me, turned back with a smile that said, what, can’t you keep up? and then started booking it again Wel, I wasn’t taking that I couldn’t real y remember if I’d been the competitive type before - it al seemed so far away and uniht away to the chal enge Diego was a good swi

See ya, I mouthed as I passed him, but I wasn’t sure he saw

I lost hi to see by how h the sound til I hit the edge of the island where the most recent of our ho cabin in the middle of Snowvil e-Nowhere on the side of some mountain in the Cascades Like the last one, this house was re basement, and had recently deceased owners I raced up onto the shal ow stony beach and then dug o coing pine and flipped ht ently on the bal s of one