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The boy’s light hair was longish, falling over his forehead in disarray He had a nice face, serious, but

with an unexpected dihtly mischievous look His body was nicely

, Jez knew, he’d be no taller than she There was a large bu hair The ghoul had probably slaot a blue plastic cup full of water frorabbed a clean T-shirt

froently brushed back the hair froers Even softer than she would have thought Jez kept her face expressionless

and began to wipe his face with the damp cloth

He didn’t stir Jez’s heart, which was already thu distinctly, speeded up She took a deep breath

and kept wiping

Finally, although it probably didn’t have anything to do with the water, the boy’s dark eyelashes hed, breathed, blinked, and looked at her

Relief spread through Jez "Don’t try to sit up yet"

"That’s what they all say," he agreed, and sat up He put a hand to his head and groaned Jez steadied

him

"I’" He looked around the roorabbed her arhoul It’s dead"

He let out his breath Then he smiled wryly "You saved e," Jez said, embarrassed

"No, I ht at her "Thank you"

Jez could feel heat trying to rise to her face, and she had a hard tiray and so intense-fatho

She looked away and said evenly, "We should get you to a hospital You ht have a concussion"

"No I’m okay Let me just see if I can stand up"

When she opened her mouth to protest, he added, "Jez, you don’t knohy I’ht; Jez had been so intent on getting him conscious that she hadn’t even wondered what he

was doing here She looked at hio of his ar over

"See, I’m fine" He took a few steps, thenhis rab hiht lihoul tonight, Jez knew He’d had the limp from childhood,

from when the olves took his faet over that and join Circle Daybreak, Jez would never know

He’d lost his parents al as she had He’d lost his two sisters and his brother, too His entire

fa trip atLake Tahoe , when in the ht they’d been attacked

by a pack of olves Renegade ’wolves, hunting illegally because Night World laouldn’t let theang

The ’wolves had ripped through theDavis family’s tents and killed the humans, one, two, three Easy as

that The only one they left alive was seven-year-old Hugh, because he was too little to have much meat

on his body They had just settled down to eat the hearts and livers of their victi was dashing at them with a homemade torch constructed of

kerosene-soaked underrapped around a stick He was also waving a silver cross on a chain the

olves had torn fros olves don’t like: silver and fire The little boy was attacking with both The ’wolves

decided to kill hied to chew one of his legs aler arrived,

attracted by the spreading fire froun, and the fire was getting out of control The ’wolves left

Hugh almost died of blood loss on the way to the hospital

But he was a tough kid And a very smart one He didn’t even try to explain to anybody what he’d been

doing with the silver necklace He knew they would never believe him if he said he’d suddenly

re one where he’d seen a olf killed

Hugh Davis was an Old Soul

And a wakened Old Soul, which was even more rare It scared Jez a little He was huht World, but she didn’t pretend to understand the ain, reincarnating the the

them smarter and h’s case, also gentler every tiot out of the

hospital the first thing he did was try to find soht People He knew they weren’t all bad He knew

so anyone else

Fortunately, the first people he found were froanizations, but Circle Daybreak was for humans and vampires and shapeshifters

and olves, too It was an underground society, as secret within the Night World as the Night

World was secret within the huht World law: that

huht People shouldn’t fall in love with

hu to unite everybody, to stop the killings, and to bring peace

between the races

Jez wished the and was looking at her She blinked and focused,

furious with herself for her slip in concentration As a huntress-of va else-you stayed

alert all the tih said softly His gray eyes were calet when they’re reading you, Jez thought

She said, "Sorry Um, do you want soetting one on the other side, to ain

"Really, I’ve got so to take a while"

Jez didn’t sit "Hugh, I think you need it And I need to take a shower orin here for so long Besides, the sh she couldn’t

use her va on the bloodlust, her senses were still much more acute than a

hu to enjoy it" Hugh nodded at her, switching froravity as always "You need to do ill keep your cover here I shouldn’t be so impatient"

Jez took the fastest shower of her life, then dressed in clean clothes she’d brought to the bathroolassful of ice from the kitchen and a washcloth, she saw that Claire’s bedroo her narrowly

Jez raised the glass in a mock toast, and slipped into her own bedrooh He accepted it docilely "Nohat is it that’s so

urgent? And how cohouls all of a sudden?"

Instead of answering, Hugh looked into aFinally

he lowered the ice pack and looked straight at her

"You know I care about you If anything happened to you, I don’t knohat I’d do And if anything

happened because of et dohere it belonged It was pounding in her throat, choking her She kept

her voice flat as she said, "Thanks"

Soone instantly "You don’t think I mean it"

Jez still spoke flatly, in a clipped, hurried voice She wasn’t good at talking about eh,

look You were my first human friend When I came to live here, nobody at Circle Daybreak would have

anything to do withdid to humans But it was hard

because they wouldn’t even talk to me, much less trust me, and they wouldn’t believe I wanted to help

them And then you showed up that day after school And you did talk to h said "And I still do" He looked distant again "I thought you were the

saddest person I’d ever seen, and the most beautiful-and the bravest I knew you wouldn’t betray Circle

Daybreak"