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"Look, big brother" Her voice acquired an edge "All I’o away and you can go back and save kiddie souls and er" He looked down at his hands They were rough and red fro floors instead of praying "I only made it official when I cao"

"I’m sorry" And she hen John had expected her to cheer "I wish I could go back and change what happened in New Orleans There are so uards I would hire Only time travel isn’t one of the perks"

John studied her face, and then began slowly rolling up his sleeve

A sain as she inserted the needle into his vein "Cyprien, Does he treat you well?"

"As well as your average goddess Why, I don’t know The man could have anyone he wants I think he’s had anyone he wants for the last seven centuries Christ, I hate being part of a trend" She removed the tube of blood and drew the needle from his arm

"You love him"

She nodded "So hi blood is the no-brainer stuff I know you won’t believe this, but Michael is a good et back to New Orleans--"

John never heard Alex’s plans A ball of fire s the seats around hi them in flames

How could you be so careless? Who allows you to do such things?

If I were your husband, you wouldn’t leave our bedchamber You’d be too tired to walk

Jema opened her eyes A dull pain throbbed on the side of her head She reached up and felt a square of gauze taped over the spot Another ti what she felt Herattacked and beaten in an alley by theher into the house Daniel had not been her savior last night, however

He saved olden-eyed demon

He had shouted at her, too Not as he had in the drealish Loud, harsh, furious words Things about her life and her work that were true Mean, but true She had felt the weight of his hand the whole way hoht her hand up to her face She could smell hi hiot up slowly, carefully The sore, battered feeling wasn’t a product of her iown she was covered with bruises She went into the bathroom and braced herself as she looked in the mirror

They’d hit her in the face more than once, the men who had jumped her outside the museum, and the evidence was all over her face: split lip, black eye, reddened nose A graze on her cheek froed didn’t feel the way it looked on TV or in thepain, and the worst was not being able to stop it or thewhen the one of theed her back into the alley She had prayed because she had known she was going to die there

And here she was, alive Saved fro murdered by a man who didn’t exist

What do I do now, little cat? How can I leave you now, even when I know I must? Who will be there the next time someone tries to har the seat, holding back her hair Throwing up seee

After she washed her face and brushed her teeth, she went back out into her rooone off with the usual buzz, and she checked it Someone had turned it off She switched on the clock radio and tuned it to a local all-news station

The announcer confir she re

"The three youths, identified as Gary O’Donnell, Lawrence Kunde, and Roland Riegler, were found stabbed to death in the parking lot behind the Shaw Museu other , who they believe ht’s triple murder In sports, the Bears suffered a setback when…"

She went to theand stepped out onto the balcony Nefall enfolded Shaw House in white; the naked trees were dressed in glassy icicles She could sardenias--Thierry--all over herself, on her skin, in her hair He’s real Everything we did together was real

Jeirl, when she saw herself running out of Shaw House and willing herself to fly away She didn’t flap her arms and take off, as a bird did, but instead she had kno to hter than air In the drea on a river of warm air It had felt so real to her that the next day she had walked out to stand on the lawn and tried to do the saround, and as every child must, she understood that what happened in her sleep was not real, could never be real