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"No weapons allowed in the cells I’ll give you a receipt for this knife" She reer and set it on her desk "And this one"

The second dagger made her raise an eyebrow But both eyebroent up when the third dagger, the one in my boot, set off the metal detector I handed it over "Jesus, how many blades do you carry?" She crossed out the nu a self-defense class"

Uh-huh, said her look In a cocktail dress and pearls

"Can’t be too careful in the Zone, right?" I added

"Well, that’s true I never go to any of the ht betork and the checkpoint And the place still creeps uard to escort you to the prisoner Use this to reclaim your weapons on the way out" She handed me a slip of paper, which I stuffed into uard was also huive hi match with a zombie He jerked his head to indicate I should follow We went down a hallway and turned a corner I waited while he reh the hallway he stopped and again went through his keys He opened a door and gestured me inside

"Fifteen minutes," he said

I went in The door shut and locked behindbeige blanket She was thin Not concentration-camp-victim thin, but she’d lost her voluptuousness Her elbows looked knobby in the short-sleeved orange prison shirt Her long black hair was stringy and lusterless

This was not the Juliet I knew My Juliet had ht o Since then, countless others had fallen for her sultry gaze, the curve of her mouth, her effortless allure This Juliet looked frail, like the years (if not yet the centuries) were catching up with her

If she was surprised to seeher, but she made no ainst the wall by the door I sat in it

"Hi," I said "Orange is so not your color"

She pressed her lips into a tight, tiny smile--a vampire’s smile "They told me this style doesn’t come in black"

We stared at each other Juliet’s face was as still and unblinking, as if carved frooing on?" I asked "Where have you been? Who are the Old Ones? What the hell happened in Washington?"

She said nothing but shifted on her cot, crossing her legs A chain rattled A silver shackle was locked around her right ankle, connected to thick links of silver chain that coiled on the floor and disappeared under the bed Around the shackle, her skin was e blisters That had to hurt

Juliet flicked a glance toward a corner of the room, behindat us rhythed, too Soexisted for usyou okay?" I asked

Juliet sniffed "I turned et protective custody Thatme to different facilities, not leave me here chained to the wall like so for the sea h to let her o in the eight-by-ten room "If they don’t torture me to death with silver, they’ll drive , blinking, blinking I can’t ignore it" As a predator, Juliet’s vampire senses were hyperalert to anylight even through closed eyelids "Or else they’ll starve me with diluted blood" She wrinkled her nose "They serve it cold In a bottle"

Blood loses vitality when it leaves the body, and va blood to thrive The Goon Squad should know that But obviously they didn’t care They were giving Juliet enough nourishment to keep her alive, but weak She’d be easier to handle that way "I’ll see if there’s anything Kane can do"

"Why didn’t he come? I asked for hi where they’d hidden the microphone, and didn’t finish

How the hell e supposed to have any kind of ful conversation? There was so iven the circu here to talk with Juliet had been a bad idea In the ht be trouble for Juliet because I’d dropped by tonight And I hadn’t gotten an answer to even one ofet advice fro if he were here?

"Have any specific charges been brought against you?" I asked, trying to sound like I knehat I was doing

Instead of answering, Juliet gasped "What on earth?" She was looking over le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>