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She earden here-anyway, a lot of scraggly plants in large wooden tubs There was
also some dirty patio furniture and other odds and ends But the main feature was a small structure that
sat on the roof the way a house sits on a street
Morgead’s home The penthouse It was as stark and unlovely as the rest of the building, but it had a
great view and it was cos nearby to look down on it
Jez moved stealthily toward the door Her feet made no noise on the pitted asphalt of the roof, and she
was in a state of al up on
another gang h at theot
to be furious and huame
Jez started toward the warped wooden door-then stopped Doors were trouble Morgead would have
been an idiot not to have rigged it to alert him to intruders
Cat-quiet, she headed instead for a narrow metal ladder that led to the roof of the wooden structure
Now she was on the real top of the building The only thing higher was a pole without a
She e she found herself looking four stories straight
down And directly below her there was a
An open
Jez shtly
Then she hooked her toes over the four-inch lip at the edge of the roof and dropped gracefully forward
She grabbed the top of thein ravity like a bat attached
upside down She looked inside
And there he was Lying on a futon, asleep He was sprawled on his back, fully clothed in jeans, high
boots, and a leather jacket He looked good
Just like the old days, Jez thought When the gang would stay out all night riding their bikes and hunting
or fighting or partying, and then co to scraead, ould smirk at them
and then collapse He didn’t have parents or relatives to keep hi
I’ht, pulling herself back up to the roof She
picked up the fighting stick, ain, this ti
by her hands She slid in withouta noise
Then she went to stand over hied He looked exactly as she reer and more vulnerable
because he was asleep His face was pale,his dark hair seem even darker His lashes were black
crescents on his cheeks
Evil and dangerous, Jez reminded herself It annoyed her that she had to reead was For so pictures at her, scenes fro here in San Francisco with her Uncle Bracken
A five-year-old Jez, with shorter red hair that looked as if it had never been coead, hand in hand An eight-year-old Jez with two skinned knees, scowling as a
businesslike Morgead pulled wood splinters out of her legs with rusty tweezers A seven-year-old
Morgead with his face lit up in astonish called ice
creaht as well give up, because it’s no good We were friends
then-well, some of the tied I’ve changed He’d kill me in a second now if it would suit his purpose And I’ to do what has to be done
She backed up and poked hiead"
His eyes flew open and he sat up He ake instantly, like any vampire, and he focused on her
without a trace of confusion Jez had changed her grip on the stick and was standing ready in case he
went straight into an attack
But instead, a strange expression crossed his face It went fro Jez
didn’t understand For a , looking as if he
were caught in between pain and happiness
Then he said quietly, "Jez"
"Hi, Morgead"
"You caain "Apparently"
He got up in one motion "Where the hell have you been?"
Now he just looked furious, Jez noted Which was easier to deal with, because that was how she
remembered him
"I can’t tell you," she said, which was perfectly true, and would also annoy the life out of hiet dark hair out of his eyes-it was always disheveled in the lared at her He was standing easily: not in any attack posture, but with the relaxed
readiness thatin
any direction at anymuscles
"You can’t tell , without even leaving a note
you leave the gang and me and just completely vanish and nobody knohere to find you, not even
your uncleand now you reappear again and you can’t tell
himself into one of his Extremely Excited States, Jez realized She was surprised; she’d expected him to
stay cooler and attack hard
"What did you think you were doing, just cutting out on everybody? Did it ever occur to you that people
would be worried about you? That people would think you were dead?"
It didn’t occur to ht, startled Especially not you But she couldn’t
say that "Look, I didn’t mean to hurt anybody And I can’t talk about why I went But I’m back now-"
"You can’t just cooing the way she’d expected; the things she’d scripted out to say
weren’t getting said "I know I can’t just come back-"
"Because it doesn’t work that way!" Morgead was pacing now, tossing hair out of his eyes again as he
turned to glare at her "Blood in, blood out Since you’re apparently not dead, you abandoned us You’re
not allowed to do that! And you certainly can’t expect to just walk back in and becoain-"
"I don’t!" Jez yelled She had to shut hi your
second-in-coe you as leader"
Morgead’s jaw dropped
Jez let her breath out That wasn’t exactly how she’d planned to say it But now, seeing his shock, she
felt ainst the wall, smiled at him, and said smoothly, ’I was leader
when I left, reead stared at her "You expect to waltz back in here as
leader?"
"If I can beat you I think I can I did it once"
He stared for anotherbeyond words Then he threw back his head and laughed
It was a scary sound
When he looked at her again, his eyes were bright and hard "Yeah, you did I’ve gotten better since
then"
Jez said three words "So have I"
And with that, everything changed Morgead shifted position-only slightly, but he was now in a fighting
stance Jez felt adrenaline flow through her own body The challenge had been issued and accepted;
there was nothing ht
And this she could deal with She wasords She knew
Morgead in this mood; his pride and his skill had been questioned and he was now absolutely determined
to win This was very fa his eyes fro stick from the rack behind him
Japanese oak, Jez noted Heavy, well-seasoned, resilient Good choice
The fire-hardened end was very pointy
He wouldn’t try to use that first, though First, he would go for disar her The simplest way to do this
was to break the wrist of her doo for critical points and nerve centers He
didn’t play around at this
A ead’s posture alerted her, and then they were bothhis stick up and down in a perfect arc, aiht wrist Jez blocked easily with her