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She dearly wished they could figure out how to get those fangs to retract It had to s more self-conscious around mature vampires, the constant problems with spittle, or flecks of blood and tes punctured the lip and chin
"All right, then It’s tiirls can have their ti that Leonidas wouldn’t give her trouble and have to be forced back in by a call to Malachi While she liked Chumani considerably, it was the first time she’d really been able to be alone with the that uninterrupted time to talk to theave her a sneer, a blatant defiance of the warning Mal had issued on the plane, but sauntered back to his cell He knew he frightened her Like all anierous attention and, in his case, conteh, except stay calle for it inside
He went into his cell, closed it with a resounding clang, then shook it to show her it was locked When he tossed her that derisive look again, it said clearly that, if he wasn’t held in the cell, he would tear her to pieces Beyond the fear, it ht, that there was less than Buckley’s chance they could dissipate his rage or make his life better Unlike the others, he’d never shown any interest in books, gadgets--anything that would prove he could be engaged by so she’d figure out the secret to hie the tide of such thinking She wondered what he’d been before It was a gareen eyes At ti aloud what she thought they’d been like before What sports they’d played, what their faht be the only ones who really knew, since they’d been taken from their es
Still, not reine a variety of the his son on his shoulders A htingale Who never hit her daughter in the face hatever object carande advice
She supposed those were hardly original ideas, but every child who’d had no faht be worse than none at all--was conificant pauses, and encouraged theive her the true version and correct hers But they hadn’t, not so far They listened to the stories like a child listened to a fairy tale, seeing no real connection to their own lives Ruskin s, but eventually souessed she’d have to hope and fantasize for all of theirls Watching the way Nerida ied her, she wondered if they’d been half sisters, sharing a h the area to work on the railway or fence lines
Nerida brought the pieces of chocolate Elisa had left in her lockdown cage with the blood, offering Miah soiven them an equal amount, and they both liked the sweets, Miah liked the the boys never did They didn’t share
Elisa glanced down at the two books she’d brought to read by the lantern light One had colorful pictures, a photography book of exotic places, but she thought shecadence of it, and Walt Whitave such beautiful descriptions of the world around the it in some odd way, as if the words could help transcend the cell bars At least that hat she thought, because when Lady Constance had sent her to school and she’d discovered the book of Whitman poetry, it had made her feel that way about the more nebulous bars of her own life
She wondered what Mal was doing He’d intended to be in the leopard part of the range today, helping the adolescents learn to hunt Froa them by exah that they would likely join in the hunt, ju it down, such that Mal would likely be able to pull back and let them do most of it except for the final kill, which was apparently the part that initially confused them, that clamp on the throat that would end the prey’s life quickly
Today’s lesson likely wouldn’t be quick or easy, so she was glad not to be there for that She understood the point of it all, but she was just too softhearted to watch it
Jeremiah cried out, a harsh shout Elisa’s head jerked up from the books, just in tiainst his locked cell door, his hands cla her head around, she saw Leonidas shove open the door of his cell with a resounding clang A glint ofmechanism, a shard she realized with horror he’d
He was in the coirls
Nerida shrieked, darting behind Miah and grabbing the skirt of her dress, even as Miah tried to snatch her up and run back toward her cell, the closer of the two She didn’ther to the ground, Nerida underneath her body He had his hand clairl’s neck, his knee in her back
Elisa was on her feet, reaching for the control panel, but then she realized there was nothing she could do to help She couldn’t open the enclosure Spinning on her toe, she grabbed for the radio instead