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Jez recognized them immediately-not the individuals, but the type They were ’wolves, and they were

thugs Somebody’s hired muscle

She didn’t have her stick, but she didn’t need it She could feel a dangerous smile come to her lips; part

anticipation and part sheer fury Suddenly she wasn’t tired, wasn’t sore, wasn’t anything but perfectly in

tune with her body and dying to use it as a weapon

She launched herself like a streak of red lightning, passing Claire easily and knocking the hu in front of the ’wolves A guy and a girl They snapped to attention in front of her, each

dropping into a fighting stance

Behind her, she could hear Claire say, "Ow"

"Goodand welcome to the Bay Area,"

Jez told the ’wolves; then she snap-kicked the girl in the face

The girl flew backward She wasn’t out of commission, but it had wrecked the joint attack they had been

about to uy knew this, but he was a wolf, so instead of waiting for his partner to recover, he

growled and threw himself at Jez

Oh, Goddess, this is too easy As he drove a punch at her face, Jez turned sideways and let his fist

whistle past her Then she threw her left ar hih At the sa

with enough force to stun hi Bristly hairs erupted on his face

"Sweet dreaht just below the knee and brought

hi to the platform His head hit the concrete and he went liun Claire Jez ignored it, and ignored the two or

three people scra the down escalator because it was right beside Jez She

was focused on the female olf, as back on her feet

"Do yourself a favor and don’t even try anything," she said, grinning "You’re way outclassed"

The girl, who had reddish-brown hair and a feral expression, didn’t answer She sied for Jez

With both hands reaching for Jez’s face You’d think they would learn, Jez thought Especially after what

just happened

Even as she was thinking it, her body wasar her off balance She took the girl doith a pull drop, flipping her

to the platforirl was flat Jez locked the arainst the elbow joint

"Don’t irl rithing in pain, spitting and

struggling and hurting herself worse

Absently, Jez noticed that Claire had stopped shrieking She glanced up to ht and saw that Claire was on her feet, staring open nod

Then she looked back at the feht was over she had the leisure to wonder

as going on There were plenty of people who ht want to kill her, but she couldn’t think of any

reason for the her; Jez was sure of that

This was no randoht in public, in front of witnesses,

as if they didn’t care who saw theave the girl’s ar at Jez with reddish eyes full of

animal fury and hatred

"Okay, you knohat I want," Jez said ’I need answers, and I don’t havehere? Who sent you? And why do you want her?" She jerked her head toward Claire

The girl just glared harder Jez applied more pressure

"Look, I can make time for this if I need to I can do this all day After I break this elbow I’ll do the

other one And then I’ll break your ribs, and then your kneecaps-"

"Filthy halfbreed scuave an odd lurch

She tried to quiet it Well, now, that was interesting Somebody obviously knew her secret And since

they’d been going for Claire, they knew Claire was connected with her

They knew about her faainst the ’wolfs elbow joint The girl screaer than of pain

"Who hired you?" Jez said softly, each word co out like a chip of ice "Who sent you afterto reach into the girl’s soul and yank an answer out of her

"Nobody oing to be sorry"

She couldn’t ever reirl, so intent, that it wasn’t

until Claire screa behind her

"Jez, watch out!"

The yell woke Jez up Without releasing her hold on the female ’wolf, she turned around-just in

ti her He must have come up the down escalator

And behind hi ready for a flying tackle

"Claire, don’t!" Jez yelled She struck the female ’wolf once, with deadly accuracy, on the side of the jaw

to knock her out Then she sprang toward the va hiesture He whipped around and

seized a handful of dark hair, and then he was holding Claire in a choke hold, putting her body between

him and Jez

"One more step and I’ll break her neck," he warned

Jez skidded to a stop

"You let go of my cousin," she spat

"No, I really think we need to talk first," he said, the beginnings of an ugly grin on his face "You’re the

one who’s going to give answers-"

Jez kicked hi She didn’t worry about keeping it nonlethal

She only cared about breaking his hold on Claire-

It worked He lost his grip, sturabbed Claire and thrust her out of the way,

shouting "Run! The escalator’s right there!"

But Claire didn’t run "I want to help you!"

"Idiot!" Jez didn’t have time to say that Claire couldn’t help her; could only hurt her The va position

He was big, probably over two hundred pounds And he was a full vath and speed And he was se

And Jez didn’t have a weapon

"Just keep behind me, okay?" she snarled under her breath to Claire

The vaoing to have to keep half her

attention on protecting Claire

And then, just as he was about to make an attack, Jez heard the s footsteps, with a weird little hesitation between them, like somebody with a lih had just rounded the top He was out of breath and bleeding

from cuts on his face But as soon as he saw her and the valy Undead! Your friend ht in disbelief Fighting?

"Co toward the va to assess this new danger while not taking his focus off Jez

"You want to go a few rounds?" Hugh dropped into a boxer’s pose, throwing punches at the air "Huh?

You want to try for the title?" All the ti closer to the vaht All she needed was for the valance behind him once-and she could kick his face in

It didn’t work that way Solance behind hih kick that snapped

his head back But soed to blunder forward

straight at her She could easily have gotten away-except for Claire

Claire had obediently kept behind her-even when behind her ht by the BART tracks,

on the yellow e of the platforan to slide out of the way, she heard Claire gasp, felt Claire clutch at her wildly

She knehat had happened instantly Claire had tried to run the wrong way and was teetering on the

edge of the platfor Jez with her

There was a distant ruetting rid of Claire She could use Claire’s body as a springboard to

propel herself away from the drop That way, only one of them would die

Instead, she tried to twist and throw Claire away from her, toward safety It didn’t work They both lost

their balance Jez had the strange, surprised