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Bat, the guy sitting next to her--she’d dated hi under his breath that sounded like "Nephilim"

So that’s it The boy wasn’t a olf at all He was a Shadowhunter, a member of the arcane world’s secret police force They upheld the Law, backed by the Covenant, and you couldn’t become one of them: You had to be born into it Blood made them what they were There were a lot of ruhty, proud, cruel; they looked down on and despised Doorlders There were few things a lycanthrope liked less than a Shadowhunter--except maybe a vampire

People also said that the Shadowhunters killed demons Maia remembered when she’d first heard that deiven her a headache Vampires and olves were just people with a disease, thather to believe in all that heaven and hell crap, deels, and still nobody could tell her for sure if there was a God or not, or where you went after you died? It wasn’t fair She believed in deh of what they did that she wasn’t able to deny it--but she wished she didn’t have to

"I take it," the boy said, leaning his elbows onto the bar, "that you don’t serve Silver Bullet here Toolike the moon at a quarter full

The bartender, Freaky Pete, just looked at the boy and shook his head in disgust If the boy hadn’t been a Shadowhunter, Maia guessed, Pete would have tossed him out of the Moon, but instead he just walked to the other end of the bar and busied hilasses

"Actually," said Bat, as unable to stay out of anything, "we don’t serve it because it’s really crappy beer"

The boy turned his narrow, shining gaze on Bat, and shtedly when Bat looked at them funny: Bat was six-and-a-half feet tall, with a thick scar that disfigured half his face where silver powder had burned his skin Bat wasn’t one of the overnighters, the pack who lived in the police station, sleeping in the old cells He had his own apartht up until he dumped Maia for a redheaded witch named Eve who lived in Yonkers and ran a pale

"And what are you drinking?" the boy inquired, leaning so close to Bat that it was like an insult "A little hair of the dog that bit--well, everyone?"

"You really think you’re pretty funny" By this point the rest of the pack was leaning in to hear them, ready to back up Bat if he decided to knock this obnoxious brat into the middle of next week "Don’t you?"

"Bat," Maia said She wondered if she were the only pack member in the bar who doubted Bat’s ability to knock the boy into next week It wasn’t that she doubted Bat It was sonored her "Don’t you?"

"Who am I to deny the obvious?" The boy’s eyes slid over Maia as if she were invisible and went back to Bat "I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what happened to your face? It looks like--" And here he leaned forward and said so to Bat so quietly that Maia didn’t hear it The next thing she knew, Bat inging a blow at the boy that should have shattered his jaw, only the boy was no longer there He was standing a good five feet away, laughing, as Bat’s fist connected with his abandoned glass and sent it soaring across the bar to strike the opposite wall in a shower of shattering glass

Freaky Pete was around the side of the bar, his big fist knotted in Bat’s shirt, before Maia could blink an eye "That’s enough," he said "Bat, why don’t you take a walk and cool down"

Bat twisted in Pete’s grasp "Take a walk? Did you hear--"

"I heard" Pete’s voice was low "He’s a Shadowhunter Walk it off, cub"

Bat swore and pulled away from the bartender He stalked toward the exit, his shoulders stiff with rage The door banged shut behind hi at Freaky Pete with a sort of dark resentment, as if the bartender had taken away a toy he’d intended to play with "That wasn’t necessary," he said "I can handle arded the Shadowhunter "It’s ht want to take your business elsewhere, Shadowhunter, if you don’t want any trouble"

"I didn’t say I didn’t want trouble" The boy sat back down on his stool "Besides, I didn’t get to finish lanced behind her, where the wall of the bar was soaked with alcohol "Looks like you finished it to me"

For a second the boy just looked blank; then a curious spark of aolden eyes He looked so much like Daniel in that moment that Maia wanted to back away

Pete slid another glass of amber liquid across the bar before the boy could reply to her "Here you go," he said His eyes drifted to Maia She thought she saw soan She didn’t get to finish The door to the bar flew open Bat was standing there in the doorway It took a moment for Maia to realize that the front of his shirt and his sleeves were soaked with blood

She slid off her stool and ran to hiray, his silvery scar standing out on his cheek like a piece of twisted wire "An attack," he said "There’s a body in the alley A dead kid Blood--everywhere" He shook his head, looked down at himself "Not my blood I’m fine"

"A body? But who--"

Bat’s reply ed in the commotion Seats were abandoned as the pack rushed to the door Pete cah the mob Only the Shadowhunter boy stayed where he was, his head bent over his drink

Through gaps in the crowd around the door, Maia caught a gli of the alley, splashed with blood It was still wet and had run between the cracks in the paving like the tendrils of a red plant "His throat cut?" Pete was saying to Bat, whose color had come back "How--"

"There was so over hiht "Not like a person--like a shadow They ran off when they saw me He was still alive A little I bent down over hied It was a casualout like thick roots wrapping a tree trunk "He died without saying anything"

"Vampires," said a buxoht--as standing by the door "The Night Children It can’t have been anything else"

Bat looked at her, then turned and stalked across the roorabbed the Shadowhunter by the back of the jacket--or reached out as if hefluidly "What’s your problem, olf?"

Bat’s hand was still outstretched "Are you deaf, Nephilim?" he snarled "There’s a dead boy in the alley One of ours"

"Do you mean a lycanthrope or soht eyebrows "You all blend together to rowl--from Freaky Pete, Maia noted with some surprise He had come back into the bar and was surrounded by the rest of the pack, their eyes fixed on the Shadowhunter "He was only a cub," said Pete "His na any bells for Maia, but she saw the tight set of Pete’s jaw and felt a flutter in her stomach The pack was on the warpath now and if the Shadowhunter had any sense, he’d be backpedaling like crazy He wasn’t, though He was just standing there looking at theold eyes and that funny smile on his face "A lycanthrope boy?" he said

"He was one of the pack," said Pete "He was only fifteen"