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She raised the"Lucky you"

I laughed Nope It wasn’t going to be easier now that I was grown I hadn’t fit in then, with a bunch of orphaned or seirls, and I wouldn’t fit in noith a bunch ofgirls "Christie, you and Rachael Tell me what you know about the vairls looked at each other and at me "Not much about the politics," Christie said

"Does Leo visit any of you? For" I didn’t kno to phrase it and I just stopped

Christie laughed, the sound taunting "For blood? Sex? Or aed to keep a blush under control "Yeah" I stuffed in another bite of greens and broke off a piece of roll It was flaky and sweet and left traces of butter on et a visit from Leo e first come here," Rachael said, her vivid eyes on ets first try He calls it the dark right of kings"

I had heard of the divine right of kings, where a in or use any wo It was archaic rape, si his slave in her cabin, or having her brought to hiht out the--I half sht--the Beast in me Rachael looked at Christie when I smiled I didn’t need Beast’s nose to tell me Leo scared the crap out of Rachael Leo Pellissier was shooting to the top of my list of people I didn’t like I needed to interview the bloodsucker My grin twisted in grim satisfaction "I need to talk to old Leo, but since I burned hireeable"

Rachael looked atin her chest "You burned him? And he didn’t kill you?"

"He thought about it Katie healed hiht’ve had to stake him"

The table went silent No onehad happened occasionally when I was in the ho that came out weird I looked at the little witch, her white skin and jet-black hair contrasting in the candlelight This girl had touched me on some level the first time I saw her I had felt a subtle connection, which had to be a mistake, didn’t it? But it was there, nonetheless, and ht? What did Leo say when he" The correct word eluded me

"You have trouble with this, don’t you," she said It wasn’t"With e do, Ihow to do witch stuff," but I caught myself Just in case she didn’t knohat she was "Where are you fro a silky gauze top that laced across the front like an old-timey corset if it had been put on backward Her sh the cloth, a necklace dangling between them Suddenly I felt like a voyeur "I was raised in foster care, so that means I’ht not know she was a witch Katie knew, didn’t she? Couldn’t vamps smell witch? I’d have to ask "I have trouble with it, yeah" I looked around the table,eye contact We had finished our salads, and I didn’t have to be told that thethat I’m a predator, I ue va weird about one of Katie’s vaht?" They all nodded, and froathered that Katie had a lot of va weirder than usual? Even someone who smells different?"

"They all smell weird," Bliss said

"No, they don’t," a dark-skinned woman said "But you’d have to define weird in totally different ways to cover some of Katie’s clients" I was pretty sure her nairls looked at Bliss She said, "Like old leaves Sometimes mold If they haven’t bathed in a while they can smell like old blood You know Like a woood sense of smell," she insisted

I’ll bet you do I could tell this had been a sore point with the others "Do any of thelanced around the table "I know you think I’m crazy, but they all sht?" to the dark-skinned girl She had an on-again, off-again accent that I couldn’t place, but then accents weren’t th Like Bliss, I was better at scents "Let’s talk weird First, where are you frohed and Najla narrowed her eyes at ht What I meant was, I want to hear about weird and vamps, but first, I’d like to knohere you’re from"

"None ’a your business," she said

"Katie says it is," Miz A said as she shuffled back into the roo a cart that smelled of spices, charcoal, andshe wants to know, you tell her"

Najla tossed her head "My parents and I erated here fro her a little tell-esture, and she said, "Froht find it on a h"

"And your parents?"

"Dead" When I waited, she grudgingly said, "Car crash when I was fifteen Katie tooktricks on the street to buy food She brought h school before she would letmen happy" Whatever she saw on my face made her bristle "I want to retire before I’irl fresh out of high school can pull doo hundred K a year and retire in less than twenty years? Naly I added, "If you’re lucky"