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Her hand went to her necklace, and he caught a whiff of blood again She was killing him "He isn’t human, then"

"Would it h to his own ears She didn’t deserve his anger, but he was pissed at Byza, at the assassin who’d poisoned hi world, and he was tired of playing nice

"Would it matter to you?"

"No He’s a threat Period"

"You’ve lived a hard life, haven’t you?" Her words were softly spoken, but they echoed around the tiny chamber and inside his skull

"What? Yours has been charmed?" The words flew out of his mouth before he realized the irony of what he’d said

She save to E and Shade when they wanted to huive him a nice pat on the head, too "I have I’ve always been lucky"

"Luck runs out, Serena"

"So you’re a pessimist?"

"I’m a realist"

She walked over to him and punched him in the biceps "Stick with me, baby You’ll learn to be an opti he needed "Oh, I’ with you"

She handed him the Roman pendant he’d taken from the real Josh "I don’t need you anymore"

"Yeah," he said, "you do You have de theue her way out of this, but to his surprise, sheto Aswan If you think you can keep up with "

She poked hi hi after her like a dolt When she reached the exit, she threw hi?"

Not nearly soon enough

The thought came naturally, easily, but for the first time, it was followed immediately by sha there in the died on her cheek and nose She had a purity about her, a good, wholesoht He figured, being a demon, that he should be repelled, but she drew hi closer to her

He needed to resist, because getting e what he had to do to save his life

He nearly laughed out loud at that He’d never denied hirettedto exercise sootten him to do

But this spirited little human had him by the balls, and some small part of hi bells

Ten

I don’t need you anymore

That’s what Serena had said to Josh after the de rong with her charm, because that demon shouldn’t have been able to hurt her

Not that it had hurt her a lot, but when he’d wrenched her ar into her skin… and drawn blood It was a minor injury, but it never should have happened, and as htened

Josh had handled himself like a pro, and as an ex-Guardian, she supposed he was Until she figured out rong with her charht a quick bite at a deli near the hotel before hurriedly--and cautiously--grabbing their re the 17:20 train to Aswan

They’d each purchased a large private sleeping co car for dinner She had a few ed out of her dusty clothes, took tigs fro Val while she still had a signal

"Hey," she said when he picked up

"Serena? It’s David"

"Oh" She strained to hear David’s voice over the crackle of static in the cell phone and the rumble of the train on the tracks "Is Val there?"

"Yeah, hold on Did you get the coin?"

"It’s in my pack"

"Good Keep it with you," he said, as if she was an idiot ould let it out of her sight "Here’s Dad"