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The skinhead’s face was contorted, his eyes huge He stared at her, breathing hard like a hurt aniure out how I ran faster"

"You’re-not-human," the skinhead panted Except that he threw in a lot of other words, the kind huuessed," Jez said cheerfully, ignoring the obscenities "You’re not as dumb as you look"

"What-the hell-are you?"

"Death" Jez sht? I hope so"

He fu so hard he could scarcely aim it

"I think you’re out of ammo," Jez said "But anyway

a branch would be better You want un just clicked He looked at it

Jez srow as she went into feedinguntil they were as sharp and delicate and translucent as a cat’s She liked the feel of the her lower lip as she half-opened her e She knew that her eyes were turning to liquid silver and her lips were getting redder and fuller as blood flowed into the on an indefinable charge of energy

The skinhead watched as she became more and more beautiful, more and more inhuman And then he seeainst a tree, he slid down until he was sitting on the ground in the ht ahead

Jez’s gaze was drawn to the double lightning bolt tattooed on his neck Rightthere, she thought The skin see It was running there, rich with adrenaline, in blue veins just under the surface She was alood; it added that extra spice to the taste Like Sweetarts This was going to be good

Then she heard a soft broken sound

The skinhead was crying

Not loud bawling Not blubbering and begging Just crying like a kid, slow tears trickling down his cheeks as he shook

"I thought better of you," Jez said She shook her hair out, tossed it in contehten

He didn’t say anything He just stared at her- no, through her-and cried Jez knehat he was seeing His own death

"Oh, come on," Jez said "So you don’t want to die Who does? But you’ve killed people before Your gang killed that guy Juan last week You can dish it out, but you can’t take it"

He still didn’t say anything He wasn’t pointing the gun at her any it with both hands to his chest as if it were a teddy bear or soet away fro inside Jez tightened htened and twisted until she couldn’t breathe What rong with her? He was just a human, and a human of the worst kind He deserved to die, and not just because she was hungry

But the sound of that cryingIt see almost of deja vu, as if this had all happened before-but it hadn’t She knew it hadn’t

The skinhead spoke at last "Do it quick," he whispered

And Jez’s mind was thrown into chaos

With just those words she was suddenly not in the forest any, with nothing to grab hold of She saw pictures in bright, disjointed flashes Nothingbefore her helpless eyes

"Do it quickly," somebody whispered A flash and Jez saho: a woman with dark red hair and delicate, bony shoulders She had a face like a ht you," the wohter live"

Mother

These were her memories

She wanted to see more of her mother-she didn’t have any conscious iven birth to her But instead there was another flash A little girl was huddled in a corner, shaking The child had flaht hair and eyes that were neither silver nor blue And she was so frightened

Another flash A tallin front of her "Leave her alone!

It’s not her fault She doesn’t have to die!"

Daddy

Her parents, who’d been killed when she was four Executed by va Blood Dark figures struggling with herthat wouldn’t quite resolve into words

And then one of the dark figures picked up the little girl in the corner and held her up high and Jez saw that he had fangs He wasn’t a vairl, whose mouth was open in a wail, had none

All at once, Jez could understand the screa

"Kill her! Kill the hu it about her