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"How’d Grant take the news?" Grant was Penny’s on-again off-again boyfriend Currently off Probably forever off now that Penny was pregnant with someone else’s kid

"He won’t speak to ," she said again, but she couldn’t mask the pain in her voice

They were quiet the rest of the drive, each lost in her own thoughts Finally, though, they reached their destination Red brick building after red brick building ca, soh apart to acco lots The streets curved, lareen

Not that traffic wasIn fact, just the opposite

"Wow," Penny said "Gotta say, this is a little unexpected Seriously Is that Mr Hayward,teach?"

Probably People were everywhere Huh an untrained eye wouldn’t be able to tell the difference

None of the stores were open, but that didn’t matter to the loiterers They had lawn chairs and beer coolers, andaThe lawn chairs-- PDA The coolers--stripper platfor that could double as sex

Shocking Mary Ann shook her head, rubbed her eyes, certain she was is This wasn’t what she’d expected, either Everything was so…collegiate Well, her idea of collegiate, anyway One big party, an orgy waiting to happen Shouldn’t creatures of otten into everyone and who are all those people?" Penny asked, awed

She ignored the first question, and answered the second "I have no idea" And technically, she didn’t She’d never been properly introduced to the creatures who’d chosen to le with the humans

"Should I pull over?"

"Yeah, but park where we have a view of everyone but they don’t have a view of us"

Penny pulled alongside Dairy Mart, killing the lights and i the car in shadows She stopped, and Mary Ann scanned the crowd intently At first glance, everyone appeared huun to make out the small differences

There were a few vampires, their skin pale, their lips bloodred They race, as if each step was a ballet There were fairies, careful to re slightly in the eous, each one of them The shifters, like Riley, had a purposeful stride, their expressions hunterish, as if the entire world was their dinner buffet

The otherworld, or whatever it was called, had fully descended on Crossroads, it seeh they had no idea as truly going on But…

Witches, witches, where were the witches?

"With witches, you must be careful," Victoria had once told her "They can s you"

They could also cloak theic so that anyone who looked at theettable

"You have to train your eyes to see below the surface," Riley had explained

Mary Ann found that she couldn’t see below the surface, past the ical mask Five ure she recognized and gasped

"What?" Penny deuilt "This is just weird, that’s all" Truth

"I know Totally weird"

One of the witches who had issued the death curse stood under a streetla blond hair curled over a shoulder, vivid against the darkness of her coat A breeze had kicked up, blowing the hood of that coat back to reveal her lovely, familiar face She hadn’t worn aone now, her dark eyes watching the surrounding chaos with disdain

"Have you ever seen that girl?" she asked Penny, pointing

"Pretty, but no Have you?"

"Maybe," she hedged Full disclosure wasn’t an option First, Mary Ann needed to gain Riley and Victoria’s perht want to kill her friend to keep her froh, really The secret was pretty y che with a scantily clad woman whose body was covered in odd tattoos

"Can I be honest with you?" Penny asked suddenly