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Deciding to confront Adas He wasn’t conveniently waiting forroom of my rented abode Of course, as previously noted, it was dayti the map he’d once drawn to lead me from shack to o when the sun shone?

I was teotten to check out Cassandra’s But the idea of Ada wet stoppedof my skin and hair How could I confront him with any sort of bravado fresh from a shower?

I couldn’t So I wandered around his three-room shack, knife in hand, as I searched for clues They weren’t any more available than he was

Food, soap, clothes - the essentials - but there wasn’t a single scrap of the paraphernalia of daily life No books No papers No bills, no checks, no MasterCard If he lived here, where was his stuff?

The more I looked around, thethat would h I knerong, I went through everything Every drawer, every shelf, every closet, even theout of the ordinary Not even a stray doggie biscuit or a bill from the local veterinarian

I lost track of time, or maybe the sun faded more quickly in the swamp, because when I pulled my head from under the sink, dusk had descended

Outside, a long, lol began in the distance Just one But one was enough to make me want to run all the way home ’

To Boston

"Wuss," I ht, but the first ti out of this world, you want to run home to Mommy"

As if Katherine O’ Malley would ever answer to such a crass monicker as Mommy I’d been instructed to call her Kate the instant I’d grown a half an inch taller than her Being me, I’d continued to refer to her as Ma whenever the opportunity arose

I crept to the frontand peered at the steadily falling night The cypress trees blotted out the last of the sun The sky was both bright blue and bloodred - stunning and scary in one Just like Ada at it, I frowned I couldn’t kill hih

"Maybe I should - "

"What?"

My head went up He was already inside the room Fully clothed in loose dark pants, boots, and a black T-shirt, so at least I didn’t have to deal with the ht of tooto say ait for the cage and the tranquilizer gun Glad I hadn’t mentioned those out loud

"Go," I finished on a whisper

His lips turned up just a little "Stay instead, cher"

He was so daeous, he couldn’t be human

I slid the hand that held the knife behind et close, put his arreat body and beautiful o for several seconds Hey, if I had to kill him, I should at least make sure he died happy I yanked off his shirt

Then, while he was nuzzling ainst et one little probleht the knife up fast

I couldn’t stab him I didn’t have it in ainst his skin

He shoved me aith a hiss, ands to have to try again I tightened rip, and he kicked rabbed my wrist and twisted it behind rowled "You crazy?"

He tugged a little tighter, and agony shot through arou?" I blurted

He released h the tangle of my hair He stared back with no expression whatsoever

"I am not," he said

"I’m supposed to take your word for it?"

"You asked I answered"

"The knife was silver You flinched"

"It was a knife, Diana You think I’d let you stick me and see if I exploded?"

My eyes narrowed "How did you know silver makes a olf explode?"

He swore in French, then stalked to where the knife had fallen, picked it up, and pressed the blade against his bare chest

Nothing happened

With a practiced ht the sharp end, and offeredto my feet, I took the weapon but set it on a table