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It was a monster with a hundred eyes Some had been smashed, others were so clouded they couldn’t be used The thing stared at Tayla through the rain and fog,her with its silence
It was The Warehouse, the one where she’d been born, the one she always cah now she wondered if there was another reason she kept returning to this place Maybe she was suffering from some sort of deht hours after fleeing Eidolon’s apartain, and with no ot here
All she kneas that her feet were bleeding, she was soaked, and she was angry She crossed the street, not caring that cars had to sla her Several drivers cursed at her, then cursed er salute
She walked into a wall of stench as she stepped inside the building Hunored the odors and the filth, but today she catalogued it all in her mind This here her raffiti-scarred walls, the discarded hypodermic needles, the rats and cockroaches
The Soulshredder had done this to herof rodent claws on concrete, and Tayla crouched, crept toward the east wing Several voices rang out behind her--laughter, probably co out The dozens of exits in that part of the building provided a safety net for the police raids
"Leave me alone, Bryce" Ahead, a woy blonde hairof a man stood over her, ht her and punched her hard in the head
Curiously calm, Tayla stepped out of the shadows, prepared to pound the man into dust A vae male, it seized the ainst the wall, and buried its fangs deep into the hu, the wolance back
The wet sound of sucking cut through the other warehouse noises Bloodlust shi off Tayla’s skin She’d never noticed the sensation before, or maybe she had, but assumed it was part of the adrenaline rush that filled her before battle It felt curiously good Seductive, even, and she had to plant her feet fir closer to the bloodsucker and his prey
Just a few days ago, Tayla would have taken out the vaiven that the huht have killed her Now Tayla just watched
"Funny how soer monsters than de she saas a pair of lu she saas the fist connecting with her face
Tayla’s head snapped back "Ow!" She returned the favor with an elbow in the black-haired wo herself, one corner of her black lipstick-stained ood to finally meet you, Tayla"
Tay touched the back of her hand to her stinging lips It caht Finally Who the hell are you?" Whoever she was, she was pretty, with long, thick eyelashes, high cheekbones, black and blue hair braided into two pigtails that would have looked ridiculous on anyone older than seven, but that somehoorked on her Probably because she was dressed like a Catholic schoolgirl On crack
"My name’s Gem"
"Well, Gem, now that we’re all buddy-buddy and on a first-name basis, you want to tell me why you introduced me to your knuckles?"
"So many ways to answer that" Geis treating you?"
"Youfareen Tayla had seen them before
"Why do you say that?"
"Because demons seem to lack the switch in the brain that warns the stupid"
"I knew you’d have a sense of huh of the cryptic shit How do you know me?"
"I’ve always known you"
"Jesus Christ," Tayla a but desperate to get away from Cryptic Goth Chick
"You have very little ti And not slowly"
Tayla snorted and kept walking "TellI don’t know"
A hand closed on her elbow and jerked her around "Fool!"
Tayla had Ge her waist in a flash "What the hell is your proble footsteps barely registered, but the low, controlled drawl drew a groan from them both
"That is so hot E, do you think we can talk the nad, too?"
Eidolon stood next to Wraith and Shade, ar Gem and Tayla like a stern father, which was appropriate, because fighting with Gem seemed unnaturallynatural
"She started it," Gem said, and Tayla snorted
"What’s your issue with rip on her upper are her "My issue is how you’ve wasted your life You could have been so rowled "And how do you knohat I’ve done with my life or what I could have been?"
"Because," Gem said, "we’re sisters, and look what I became"
Tayla narrowed her eyes at the other woman "Sisters in what? Half-huuys start fighting again?"
Geht fro like rival cats "I’m half Soulshredder Just like you"
Tayla’s breath left her in a rush "We have the sa to need hiht
Deep grooves furrowed Gerasped Tayla’s hand "We have the saaze locked with Tay’s "And the same mother We’re fraternal twins"
The world fell away "Thatthat’s i one in which she began to tremble "My mom--"
"She didn’t knoas born first Delivered by deht here on the warehouse floor while our ed stupor The demons took me because they sensed demon in me They didn’t sense it in the unborn baby You"