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"Did you call the cop?" he asked instead of answering me "After we arrived Did you tell hi the slow roil of darkness over this particular street, I shook my head "No I accidentally took a nap"

"Then he’s not our problem" He sounded almost disappointed

"But we do have one" It suddenly felt about ten degrees colder outside and that wasdown

"Yeah," he said griesture but as if in preparation for a blizzard where we’d need a nonvisual link to make it across the street "No o of me, Corine"

My mouth felt dry I wished I had called Saldana "I won’t I promise"

We stopped behind a warehouse, the reason he’d chosen this neighborhood in the first place It was a hulking structure with blank s, no signs of life There should have been a night watchh ere the only two hu trash skittering across the dead-quiet street So besides cloud cover blotted out the stars, and the air felt heavy as lead when I brought it tofor a moment, Chance finessed the padlock on the back door, another skill set I had never exahtered as we pushed past into cloying, copper-scented darkness His hand felt reassuringly warone two feet fro before, but as what my mas had happened here Nor froift if they felt the ghostly touch crawling on their skin

His penlight clicked on, a tiny isle of light surrounded by the shadows that surged with purpose around us Boxes and crates took on their own identities, sinister shapes crouched in wait He ignored them and led us deeper into the labyrinth

"Here," he whispered as we spotted the crime scene tape "They found her purse here"

I knelt, runningfor et impressions It sparked a little, the same blue shock I’d received from Jesse Saldana

Blood Pain Death

If I had anything indied here; there was no e smeared over the floor like rancid butter But I couldn’t quit If Min had left the Buddha for Chance to find, knowing he’d bring it to ht have left us another clue

"I need so ined I could feel the tackiness of dried blood texturing the stained cement I explored the corners of crates nearby and cracks where soht sink In one of those fissures I found a sers just in picking it up; oh, yes, it held an active charge, secrets to share I slid it into the narrow beaht

"A button," he said with sharp, wicked delight

"I shouldn’t handle it here" Though I couldn’t have explained er

"We need to get out of this part of Laredo entirely" Chance pulledhe was, stronger than he looked for such a lean frame "Try to lose thehtlass as they found us

It’s No Sacrifice

Needles skated alonghis arh he took the worst of it The place sounded as though Christmas orna sound for so that could slice us to shreds Then it settled, as if the air inside the warehouse had equalized to the pressure outside

And soh broken s, I heard the rush, like wind through dry leaves, before I sh suddenly numb lips

My o But she cautioned rimoire balanced on ," she’d toldherbs for some potion "Our first tenet is ‘do no harm’ "

My whole body wanted to freeze, but Chance pulled es "Yeah It’s going to get ugly, Corine Can you handle it?"

For a brief, panicked ht of Señor Alvarez, my Dutch miniatures, and my quiet, coht

"I’ could takeon the h it always s with yet, but sos are worse than others

I read about them after Mama died I’m not sure why It wasn’t like my foster families would letplace beneathfrorimoires survived the fire, as Mama had stored them in a fireproof safe