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His fingertip lifted led to rasp "I consider you anything but har a woerous?"

He leaned in for a kiss,the arave me then--he was like a reptile, a lizard, head cocked and eyes hard and fathomless

"Deeed hands Normally, I don’t mention such crass topics, but you appear to need a reminder of your precarious position" His hand patted the couch again, harder this tiement with reed to anything" His face was going over red, so I looked down, batted my eyelashes at him "I don’t norin in Morthteen, and I wasn’t prepared forthis"

It was a lie, of course They were all lies

But he believed hteen," he said, slowly and carefully, "is h"

"Not for ree on a co his coat aside, he revealed his bulging "coe overtook me

"You want rinned, and the sight of asp "As you wish"

And I dove for his throat

14

I didn’t kill hih I wanted to But I did make a terrible mess I’d never fed from a human before, and my teeth slid across his skin like a car over black ice When his ar the skin and releasing a dribble of blood My tongue found his neck with the ih Cri from customers and Cherie had never drunk from a live victim, the two-headed boys of the caravan had plenty of experience and loved to brag Catarrh and Quincy had shrugged their extra-wide shoulders, saying that where they’d co could conclude a full day’s work for lucky humans with a healthy constitution

While Quincy filed his teeth, Catarrh detailed how very easy it was toenjoyable for theic That was how they got aith snitching blood in the darker corners of the freak tent Their willing victims never complained and sometimes enjoyed the experience so owns and winding cravats meant to protect the humans from us sometimes protected indiscreet Blud that feeding froe antics, be another triu chased out of the city with fire and pitchforks, I tried toe in his expensive trousers, it worked He was putty inunder ainsthard at , seductive stroke of

"That was the most sensual experience ofe, monsieur"

I slipped on his frock coat, opened the copper door, and walked down the stairs of the elephant’s leg on the balls of ht was dark and cold and still when I e out of the elephant’s foot to run across the courtyard and into the cabaret The halls were eust, I plundered the coat’s pockets, all empty, and dropped the expensive pile of fabric on the boards, disappointed to find not a single whiff of Cherie on its lapels Feeling hu until I was in Li "La De silver letters, just like I’d dreaht here

Thankful my as closed and locked from the inside, I curled up in , beautiful, invincible It was al that I would be thrown in jail in theBut it had been my only choice