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Hey, Morgead!" the voice was shouting even as the door went sla

every few inches because it was old and warped and didn’t fit the frame anymore

Jez had jerked around at the first noise The connection between her and Morgead was disrupted,

although she could feel faint echoes of the silver thread, like a guitar string vibrating after it was struead-"

"Hey, you still asleep-?" Several laughing, raucous people were crowding into the rooht of Jez

There was a gasp, and then silence

Jez stood up to face them She couldn’t afford to feel tired anyhtly tensed,

every sense alert

She knew the danger she was in

Just like Morgead, they were the flotsam and jetsam of the San Francisco streets The orphans, the ones

who lived with indifferent relatives, the ones nobody in the Night World really wanted The forgotten

Her gang

They were out of school and ready to ruead began picking these kids up, that the Night

World was ht be young; they ht not have

fath to be a for at her like a group of wolves looking at dinner If they all decided to go

for her at once, she would be in trouble So killed

She faced them squarely, outwardly calm, as a quiet voice finally broke the silence

"It’s really you, Jez"

And then another voice, froead said carelessly "She joined

the gang again"

Jez shot hilances She hadn’t expected him to help He returned the look

with an unreadable expression

"she cae of a her face grave "I had to go away

for a while, and I can’t tell you where, but

now I’ead for the leadership" She figured she

et it all over with at once She had no idea how they were going to react to the idea of her

as leader

There was another long moment of silence, and then a whoop A sound that resembled a war cry At the

same instant there was a violent rush toward Jez-four people all throwing themselves at her For a

heartbeat she stood frozen, ready to fend off a four-fold attack

Then arms wrapped around her waist

"Jez! I missed you!"

Soh to knock her down "You bad girl! You beat hi her and punch her and pat her all at once Jez had to struggle not to show she

was overwhelood to see you guys again," she said Her voice was very slightly unsteady And it was the truth

Raven Mandril said, "You scared us when you disappeared, you know" Raven was the tall, y one

with thein front, falling over one eye and

obscuring it The other eye, leam back, just a bit She had always liked Raven, as the irl"

"I wasn’t scared" That was Thistle, still hugging Jez’s waist Thistle Galena was the delicate one who had

stopped her aging when she reached ten She was as old as the others, but tiny and alhtless

She had feathery blond hair, a white teeth Her specialty was playing the

lost child and then attacking any humans who tried to help her

"You’re never scared," Jez told her, squeezing back

"She ht, wherever you were I did, too," Pierce Holt said Pierce was

the slender, cold boy, the one with the aristocratic face and the artist’s hands He had dark blond hair and

deep-set eyes and he seemed to carry his oindchill factor with hi at

Jez with cool approval

"I’ead, who just looked condescending

"Yeah, well, soht you were dead," Valerian Still, heroic one, with deep russet hair, gray-flecked eyes, and the build

of a linebacker He was usually either laughing or yelling with i the

streets for you froe-"

"Because I was hoping a few of you would fall off," Morgead said without emotion "But I had no such

luck Now shut up, Val We don’t have ti

important to do"

Thistle’s face lit up as she stepped back from Jez "You mean a hunt?"

"He means the Wild Power," Raven said Her one visible eye was fixed on Jez "He’s told you already,

hasn’t he?"

"I didn’t need to tell her," Morgead said "She already knew She came back because Hunter Red-fern

wants to make a deal with us The Wild Power for a place with hiot a reaction-the one Jez knew he expected Thistle squeaked with pleasure, Raven laughed

huskily, Pierce gave one of his cold sot the real thing! He doesn’t wanna ht, Val; I’lanced at Jez and rolled his

Jez couldn’t help but grin This really was like old ti secret looks about

Val There was a strange war heat she’d experienced with

Morgead alone, but so with people who liked her and knew her A

feeling of belonging

She never felt that at her hus that would drive her huine None of them had any idea of what the real world was like-or what Jez was like, for

that matter

But now she was surrounded by people who understood her And it felt so good that it was alar

She hadn’t expected this, that she would slip back into the gang like a hand in a glove Or that soh and say, "We’re home"

Because I am not home, she told herself sternly These are not my people They don’t really know h returned You don’t ever need to tell them you’re human There’s no

reason for theht away, scrunched down hard on the sighing part of her mind And hoped it would

stay scrunched She tried to focus on what the others were saying

Thistle was talking to Morgead, showing all her sot the teret to pick the little girl up?"

"Today? Yeah, I guess we could" Morgead looked at Jez "We know her na It’s

Iona Skelton, and she’s living just a couple buildings down from where the fire was Thistle made friends

with her earlier this week"

Jez was startled, although she kept her expression relaxed She hadn’t expected things to ht all work out for the best, she realized, herover possibilities quickly If she could

snatch the kid and take her back to Hugh, this whole ht

even live through it

"Don’t get too excited," she warned Thistle, coirl’s silk-floss

hair "Hunter wants the Wild Power alive and unharot plans for her"

"Plus, before we take her, we’ve got to test her," Morgead said

Jez controlled an urge to sent on coers "What do you mean,

test her?"

Td think that would be obvious We can’t take the chance of sending Hunter a dud We have to make

sure she is the Wild Power"

Jez raised an eyebrow "I thought you were sure," she said, but of course she knew Morgead was right

She herself would have insisted Hugh find a way to test the little girl before doing anything else with her

The proble was likely to beunpleasant

"I’ead snapped "Do you have a probleerous For us, I ining, right?"

"And she’s in eleonna be able to take on six vaead and Jez like fans at a tennis match

"It’s just as if she never left," Raven said dryly, and Val bellowed laughter while Thistle giggled

"They always sound so-e of spite to his cold voice

Jez glared at the the sauy on

earth was dead," she informed Pierce

"If it were a choice between her and a huead put in nastily

Everyone laughed at that Even Jez

The sun glittered on the water at the Marina On Jez’s left was a wide strip of green grass, where people

were flying huge and colorful kites, complicated ones with dozens of rainbow tails On the sidewalk

people were Rollerblading and jogging and walking dogs Everybody earing su;

everybody was happy

It was different on the other side of the street

Everything changed over there A line of pinky-brown concrete stood like a wall to h school and then rows of a housing project, all the buildings identically square, flat, and

ugly And on the next street beyond theead take the lead on his s She always found this

place depressing

He pulled into a narrow alley beside a store with a dilapidated sign proclai "Shellfish De Lish" Val

roared in after hi pillion behind her, and finally Pierce They all

turned off their motors