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Clay went so motionless she couldn’t even hear hier disappeared, to be replaced by a sense of slow horror She hadn’t meant to tell hiet it It has no bearing on anything"

He growled at her again and this ti sound thatburied inside of her stirred in wary interest "Stop it," she said, pushing at his chest It was like trying to shift a steel wall He was hard, waret it?" His voice wasn’t quite huet it?"

She wanted to stroke hi her hands, she pressed her pal you can do," she stated in the face of his aggression "Reet sick as a kid?"

Black clouds rolled across his face "I re he was recalling the secrets she’d kept in a childish effort to protect him from her shame "I used to faint, and sometimes I’d have odd patches of lost ?"

He nodded "But you always rerew out of that" She was referring to the diagnosis of the harried doctor who had perforotten worse year by year When I lose consciousness, I stay that way for longer periods The memories sometimes don’t come back at all"

His eyes went even ?"

"Three different specialists" She had gone to theue state Things had only gone downhill from there So n froreedproperly It’s al away at my cells"

"You see an M-Psy?"

She shook her head

"Why not? They’re no hus far more accurately than nor way" Her skin began to creep with dread every time she came near an M-Psy "The other doctors were certain the Psy probably wouldn’t be able to help anyway"

"We’ll see"

She didn’t bother to argue - she could al step It wasn’t so anyone could stop "Our first focus has to be on finding Jon," she said On that one point, she would not co his jawline strained white over bone "How long before you go critical?"

"It’s hard to predict" Not technically a lie The doctors’ estiht nosis: Unknown neural nancy with potential to cause extensive cell death Risk of eventual fatal infarction - one hundred percent "Even if I knew the date of my death to the day, Jon cooal

He pushed off the wall, teid line of his body "Go set yourself up on the third floor"

She stayed in place "Do I look like a dog? ’Go set yourself up on the third floor,’" shethe leopard

"You look like an exhausted, idiotic woman," he snapped "Would you rather I yell at you for the next hour like I want to?"

"Why would you yell?"

"You should’ve coo" He turned fro about the disease eating at her froirl for running"

But he couldn’t forgive the wo a death knell over any hope of a renewed friendship between theive me that?"

He was silent The most crystal clear of answers But in place of sadness, all she felt was a blinding fury It was the last thing she would have expected - what right did she have to be angry with hiry that she left the rooht say

Chapter 9

His name was Jonquil Duchslaya but most of his friends called him Jon Talin sometimes called hiotten busted, she’d pulled him out and then she’d called him Jonquil Alexi Duchslaya

"One h" Her eyes had been black ice as they stood outside the justice office "I won’t pay your shoplifting fine and I sure as hell won’t turn up as a character witness and convince the judge to give you probation instead of jail time"

He’d flashed her a s off some steam "Aw, come on - "

"Shut it" She’d never before used that tone on him Shocked, he’d obeyed "Three chances, Jonquil, that’s all I give That’s all I have to give I don’t have time to waste on lazy thieves - "

"Hey!"

" - who can’t be bothered to respect entle, encouraging Talin he had come to know "Oncejailhouse tattoos"

He’d flinched at the pitiless reminder of what had becole member, male and female, had ended up behind bars Now they were all dead "You’re supposed to be nice to us That’s your job" She worked for so-deal nicey-nice foundation

"No My job is to be your friend" Her eyes had blazed with an emotion he’d never before felt directed at him "I’m not your nanny or nursemaid I made sure you had a safe place to stay and study II’ve done my job It’s up to you now"

"I don’t have to take this shit," he’d said "I can take care of myself" He had been on the streets for years before she walked into his life<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>