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"Which is?"

"I’led his head at her "This is… not news"

Lyra threw her hands up, narrowlyof junk food to the floor "But it’s relevant! I can’t move like you I don’t have all the different funky abilities that your kind has I can only hat I have And that is very different froreed "But I took out Mark and then Si very little of the ability I have at my disposal Trust ain by his natural intensity, an interesting contrast to the glimmers of humor, and even of kindness, that she’d now seen beneath Interesting, puzzling, and slightly unwelco I can make sure you win, Lyra But I can teach you to compensate for your smaller size, and to attack in ways the others won’t expect You’ve got plenty of natural grace and strength There areyourself at another beast and biting and slashing away"

"Hoould you know? You haven’t seen ain, Lyra noted It was probably wrong to be entertained by this reaction, but she couldn’t help herself It was cute Dangerously cute

"It’s the way you move," Jaden said "I can just tell A couple hundred years of scrapping will give you a pretty good eye, you know"

"Uh-huh" Lyra played it off like she didn’t care, but knowing that he’d been watching her led up in knots again The memory of his hands on her, of the heat between them, tried to surface Lyra pushed it aith all the force she couldto consider this insanity, which was still a big "if," she needed to consider the effect Jaden had on her This feeling wasn’t healthy, it couldn’t go anywhere, and if anyone found out about it, she’d be run out of toith her tail between her legs So the question was not only whether she could handle training with a vamp, but whether she could handle that much alone time with this particular vamp

It bothered her that she really didn’t know

"So, what, you’re going to just hang out and teach ht like a vampire? That’s the whole plan?"

"Basically, yeah" He moved his head just a little, and a lock of his hair slipped out fro into his face He didn’t bother to put it back, but Lyra’s fingers itched to She lifted a hand to toy with a curl that had escaped her bun instead

"And you’re going to hide out…"

"In your base here, though, so it’s not exactly hiding out"

Lyra laughed then, a real laugh, and the loud and lusty roll of it seemed to surprise Jaden But the entire situation, so coe and ridiculous, struck her all at once He raised an eyebrohile he watched her, but he didn’t seem offended, just curious

She shook her head, aain at how confident he was in his ability to stay alive for any length of time in a town full of olves

"You’re a cocky bastard, aren’t you?"

"I may have heard that a time or two," he replied "Why?"

"You realize that people around here are going to get one whiff of you, sht? And you don’t see that as a proble here a while Nor have you ever grown fangs and chased rin despite the fact that she didn’t think he grasped the seriousness of his situation

"Yeah, well, I guess I’m used to your particular stink by now And I love my pack, but not everyone here is a ed "Dorien assuredout Since I would assu hi there so cals: one, Jaden didn’t understand a da about olves, and two, he was cohtful position in the pack The first was strangely charet hiure out, and that bothered her She was pretty good at sizing people up But Jaden was completely outside her realm of experience Since he was deter around in the heart of the Pack of the Thorn was totally hunky-dory, Lyra asked hi

"Why?"