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"Pants," Iasked politely

"Nothing," I replied, telling oing coet over oat-man’s hand and let him help me out of the car

He smiled at me benevolently and I decided I liked him Until I slipped on a patch of ice, reached out to steady myself, and putcontact with bare flesh, I let go before I could steadymy face directly into the concrete sidewalk

"Jane!" Ryu barked, as four strong sets of hands liftedstars They wound their way around the concerned faces of Ryu, Anyan, and Caleb, who reached out to grab ic The fourth set of handsata clean, white handkerchief todown my face I didn’t want to knohere the handkerchief had coht? What happened?" I peered at Ryu over Caleb’s fingers

"Apron," I mumbled, my mouth partially covered by the satyr’s pal now, but Ryu still looked confused I realized he’d been on the other side of the car and hadn’t seen what happened

"What?"

Daoud clapped a hand on Ryu’s back "She’s fine, sir She got distracted by the size of Caleb’s… horns That’s all"

Ryu gave me a funny look as I shot Daoud an eyeball so hairy it would make a chinchilla envious

"All better," Caleb interrupted

I muttered an embarrassed, "Thank you," unable to , shall we?" Ryu suggested, putting a strong arm around my waist "On both feet this ti himself an elbow in the ribs

We walked up to the main door, where Anyan waited Then we all walked upstairs The barghest led us to an apartment on the third floor and then put a hand on my shoulder

"Remember, Jane," Anyan said, "we’re all here And that all of this is in Con’s head You haven’t done anything"

I nodded, o in there

But I did; we did Anyan first, then Daoud, then Ryu and I, his arlad of the possessiveness that often irked me Caleb followed, and I was happy to have hireeted ht it would be Partly, I was distracted by how sad Con’s life was I now understood why they called squats "squats" There was a filthy mattress in a corner, and a battered lawn chair, but that was it for furniture Whatever clothes Con owned must have been with him, for there were only a few old T-shirts and a pair of discarded, very unclean-looking boxers From the litter on the floor, it appeared that Con lived on cheap junk food, probably stolen

That said, I should probably have beenthe walls were pictures of ular paper, but they were clear enough I saw, aital picture frame, only none of the ones with him were present Taped to the wall above the dirtyandon the cathedral steps

"It’s not Ryu he wants It’s you," Anyan said from the side of me unclaimed by a very perturbed vampire "You okay?"

I looked up at him "Yeah," I said "It’s not as bad as it could be I thought things would be… stickier Photos just hanging there I can handle"

Anyan smiled at me and his hand raised as if to stroke ed me closer and away

I pulled myself out of the clutches of Mr Jealous Pants and turned back toward Anyan

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