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She studied hi ray and a face that was cut by laugh lines and scars Deep blue eyes and very white teeth He wore jeans and a cae T-shirt There was an autoht hip and a sheathed katana placed within easy reach on the ground

"You’re not Tom Imura"

"Ah," he said "That’s what you meant"

"What?"

"Before you passed out, you calledShe had seenthe bounty hunters The dogs were fierce, powerful, and able to take down anyone-- was one of the biggest she’d ever seen Easily two hundred fifty pounds Probably ht chain mented metal ran fro the bands A horned war hel had dark eyes that were filled with intelligence and controlled hostility

"Who are you?" Lilah deain as she shifted her aier, let er casually "Does that gun feel right to you? Iit doesn’t" He held up the slender azine "Bullets are kind of heavy, don’t you think?"

Lilah glared at him and then turned the pistol over The slot at the base of the grip was e old," mused the man, "but I’m not senile Not yet, at least"

She cursed

"Jeez, they teach you those words in school? What is the world coazine atop a small rock that lay between theet it, slap it into place, rack the slide, and fire before the un

The man smiled and picked up aover a tiny fire The soup sain

"Well, I’ree on that Maybe you don’t know the man, but he’s Japanese and I’m a blond-haired, blue-eyed all-American boy from Baltimore"

"When I first saw youyou were in shadows," she said "And you have the saround "Similar sword," he corrected "Tom carries a Paul Chen kas his over his shoulder"

Lilah said nothing

"My name’s Joe," he said, then jerked a thu "That’s Grimm He’s the brains of this outfit, and he’s made it pretty clear that I exist to fetch and carry for hi sound with his reeuys, no walkers"

Lilah looked around They were in a natural shelter formed by two massive red boulders A quadat it

"Before you ask," he said, "no--I’m not a reaper"

"Then who are you?" she said once more "And why did you help me back there?"

"Is that a serious question?"

"Of course"

"Well, let’s see Girl Hurt girl, actually Bunch of freaking zoirl Hht, ith a kink in my shoulder, and as everyone knows, there’s no better way to loosen up old joints than to go chop-socky on a couple of zolowered at him "That’s a stupid answer"

"No," he corrected, "it’s a silly answer The question was pretty silly too, don’t you think?" Before Lilah could organize a co pot "Have soood reason to refuse his offer She wanted to smash it out of his hand and use the confusion to run, but she was positive that her injuries would slow her down The dog would catch her and tear her apart

Joe shts

So Lilah took the cup While Joe watched, she sniffed it suspiciously and finally took an experimental sip She waited to see if there was any ill effect

"It’s chicken soup," explained Joe "For some reason there’s a lot of wild chickens out here Wacky postapocalyptic landscape, right? Threw a few herbs in Might be a little spicy"

Joe handed her a piece of clean cloth to use as a napkin

Lilah noticed that he made no attempt to touch her She knew that she was more than a little naive when it came to people, but at the same time she knew a lot about men Or rather, about sohly at Gah none of the bounty hunters had ever sexually abused theh jokes, and she believed that if they had stayed at that horrible place the jokestheir Warrior S, Tom had been very frank with them about the realities of the world Death was not the only harirl Toly, he said, and predators preyed on the unaware and uninformed

Even so, this man see an exaggerated show of propriety Why? To lull her off guard, or to allay her fears?

She brooded on that as she drank the soup It was very spicy, but it was delicious

If this man had wanted to assault her, he could have done it while she was unconscious If he had, then dog or no, she would have found a way to make him pay But she knew her own body The only pain was frohtness of stitches along her hip and thigh, but she still wore her clothes When she probed the area, she saw that he’d cut slits in the side of her pants in order to dress the wounds He had not removed her pants

She eyed hieat Toer, older, and of an entirely different ethnicity There was a sameness, a kinship between him and Tom that she could not yet identify She had seen similar qualities in Sally Two-Knives, Soloht alongside Tooodness or merely a lack of obvious corruption It was too soon to tell

Joe watched her as she studied hiave what appeared to be an encouraging nod Strange, strange ot up and walked over to sniff her Before he actually did so, he cut a look at Joe The nal of so whuffed and bent close to sniff Lilah

"Is he safe?" she asked

"Safe as I want him to be," said Joe "Pet hi sound with his tongue Another signal

Lilah tentatively reached out and touched the dog’s head His fur was dark and coarse, but very soft She ran her fingers along the top of his head, tracing the skull, and then gently rubbed one of his ears between thuers