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"Haven’t seen hioing on?"

Gabriel acted like I hadn’t spoken "You should really keep up with your boyfriend We Bloodborns tend to stray to whatever looksappetizing Especially if that thing is a hot va"

Anne Hawthorne let out a satisfied snort She’d once had a thing for Sebastian--maybe she still did, who knew--and I wanted to sink a fist into that shed Idiot

"Is that the best you got?" I rolleda lid on ot one about twenty o, and it was pretty da ainst his powers of persuasion "If I were you, Clueless, I’d ask ht and all day today" His gaze traveled to ht was filled with sex and blood Two cravings Bastian can no longer deny He is what he is"

I santing to grab his neck and force ot up and sauntered off, his friends laughing at o after hiround and de But I forced myself to stay still as he and his friends walked away He was such an asshole But a successful one in that he’d done what he set out to do--get under o into the church after Gabriel’s visit It was hard to stop the questions echoing in my head Sebastian could do whatever he wanted I wasn’t his keeper And yetWhat did Gabriel know that I did not? Clueless Yeah, didn’t like that word at all

My anger wouldn’t let ot up and headed home

Another Mardi Gras parade was about to start, and Canal Street was filling with spectators Before the Nove Mardi Gras These days, with only the Quarter restored and able to host tourists, the croere still large, but not nearly as insane as in decades past The Noveht rein on who came and went in their city Certain areas were off-limits, and travel was constantly monitored Tourism was extremely lucrative, but it also came with its share of issues, since New 2’s supernatural inhabitants weren’t exactly keen on being known to the rest of the world

The streetcar to the GD was nearly empty I took a seat in the ht city lights fade into the semi-darkened streets of the Garden District

I exited at my stop and then made my way down the dark street to the house Before the house ca through the neighborhood Sebastian was hoood That makes two of us in a bad , and tonight it sounded intense and angry

I found Dub sitting on the floor in the living roooods spread across the coffee table I passed the room with a wave, and then took the stairs two at a time

In my roo in a deep breath and letting it out as the vibrations fro and intoand Gabriel’s vague accusations, I sat and pulled off my shoes, lay back, tucked my hands behind my head, and listened to Sebastian’s thunder

He played for the next hour, the te until it stopped completely I drifted somewhere betakefulness and sleep A door shut downstairs Footsteps and muted voices came fro h the strands Basically putting off the inevitable Noas as good a time as any to talk to Sebastian But part of ht hear

I went down the hall His door was shut It was quiet I stood there, torn between knocking and going back to my room Instead I stepped to Violet’s room, where hundreds of reflections spilled froave the door fra ical place, filled with owns Piles of the over her dresser and footboard Masks hung on the walls and were stacked on top of the dresser and were looped over the posts on her bed The light from the lamp bounced off thousands of rhinestones, crystals, and sequins

In the center of a pile of gowns, a redso tiny in the heaps of auzy blue proers played over the bodice Pascal waddled out from under the dresses and padded to the small, plastic kiddie pool Violet had put in the corner of her rooainst her dresser, and drew in s "The witch the other daydo you think he can lift my curse?"

Violet’s expression turned pensive Then she shrugged "He thinks he can," she answered, as though that was all that ht he could, then he could, apparently

I played with the hes to you? About sacrifice and putting yourself in har with one of the rhinestones at the neckline "He says that stuff all the time"

"What else does he say?"

She lifted her chin, her dark gaze looking so huge and fragile "That I’reat, shining star A diaods"

Shivers ran through me Her ansas uttered with suchhope it made my heart hurt I wondered how many times she’d heard those words, wondered if they’d sparked her obsession with building her own treasure, her own shining things She wanted desperately to believe that she was valued and important To me, she was