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"Is that so surprising?"

Given her age, no Not at all I just wasn’t ready to lose her I’d never known randmother If my dad’s parents weren’t dead when he disappeared, I never ht’ve been born from the forest for all I’d ever known of her family

"I’ll miss her, that’s all"

"You should be happy for her"

"Oh, shut up" Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to antagonizeanywhere until his orders cah, so it didn’t matter what I said anyway It wasn’t like he wanted to be here

To my surprise, he did We walked down the side street, which seehts on inside any of the buildings, and as we passed a house with an outdoor light, so popped like a firecracker, and the lahborhood where that happened on its own Weapons fire was pretty rare in this part of Mexico City, because laws regarding illegal guns were harsh as hell, and nobody wanted to wind up in prison here

I couldn’t see; I didn’t know if I should run or try to hide The street was bathed in complete darkness, and if there was a sniper on the roof with night-vision goggles, this would be like shooting fish in a barrel As I moved, the shooter nailed me in the upper arm The pain nearly blinded me I sed a screaht finish the job at any second

But I’d forgotten about Kel He slid in behind me and used his own body as a shield With his hands on ht’ve expected hi for the shooter, but no--his mission was clear He had orders to protect me, and he intended to do so

I stuht beside my ear, "I can see fine I’d lead but I need to stay behind you So you’ll have to trust ht, but when he said, "Up," I lifted her part of the sidewalk

Another shot rang out, and Kel stifled a sound

"You’re hit" Because of the injuries I’d seen him recover frootten him, but that didn’t mean he felt no pain I knew firsthand just howdown my biceps made me wonder how bad raze

"Keep ," he ordered

I needed no second invitation, and I sprinted as fast as I could toward the distant lights of the busy avenida just a block and a half froht behind reater size, he found it no problem to keep up, even when he’d been shot Each step sent a fresh jolt through my wounded arm

We burst onto the sidewalk, and I had never been n Men lance, and then their gazes slid away, partly because ofcoht a break in traffic, we ran across I had a sharp stitch in my side by then, and a dull throb incompared to Kel’s problekicked out of the paladin club I could so see his could have been worse on my end too At least I didn’t have a bullet in me; when I rotated n presence

"They had a guy watching me," I panted "In case the hex didn’t work"

I wanted to take a break, but ere al You don’t knohere the sniper is

"Insurance"

That made sense, I supposed But the shooter would tell Montoya I had protection Worse and worse Better to focus on what I can do to help hi that out of you or will it work its way out as you heal?"

Shadows played over his bare head, but his face revealed no particular ehts He hesitated, and when he spoke, his tone reflected a quiet surprise, as if nobody had ever asked him that before "If it’s not removed, it will stay beneath my skin"

A constant irritant--yeah, I knew all about that, and fought the urge to rub ain I wouldn’t do that to hiht

Playing Doctor

The shop was closed, so ent through the back door and up the stairs I could smell the spicy marinara sauce before we hit the second floor Shannon was hetti, her best dish Admittedly, it was hard to screw up: boil the water, time the pasta, one to sorated Parmesan cheese and a Caesar salad

It looked very impressive

Butch raised his head frorowled low in his throat, but I think he smelled the blood more than objected to ive the dog a soothing stroke on the head, and once I got closer, he settled down For a tiny breed, he could be quite protective Of course, that could be because if I got myself killed, he’d be ho her hair "Are you guys ready to eat?" She glanced fro"

"Got it in one"

"Is that blood?" she asked, stepping closer

I covered ers and watched the red trickle through With gri to the left narrowly saved me from a bullet in the chest I could’ve died, just like that The knowledge sank into my stomach like a fisherman’s hook

"Yeah"

Her pale face went a little green, but she squared her shoulders "What can I do?"