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She was poised and ready to juuard’s cheek as she leaped off him He yelped and cursed into his walkie-talkie for backup
She was panting as she ran, desperate to put as uard was calling, unsure which road ht lead her to some temporary haven of safety Finally, she spotted an openSo had left theiropen a few inches, only a screen protecting thelars She wondered how such people didn’t end up in ditches and on the six o’clock news
Greta ripped the screen with her claws and hopped inside She crept into a bedrooh the closet, careful not to wake theloudly in the bed Greta’s nose wrinkled in distaste at the clothes she had to choose froe collection of dresses with big flowers printed on theht and spanned the entire spectru to the shadows, she crept outside and paused in an alley behind a duloved hand covered her led, but it was one of the tribe, soer than her
"Don’t screaht soht A hypodermic needle poised over the vein in her throat Then the world went away
Chapter Nine
AYNE woke to a pounding he was sure was co from Dthe inside of his skull until he opened his eyes and realized it was the door His fingertips skione insane on hiht he planned to kill her Surely, the last activity they’d been engaged in together wouldn’t lead her to that conclusion
He crossed the room in three strides and threw the door open
His expression changed fro your life in your own hands by being here You’re lucky I didn’t kill you that night"
The ward on the door dissolved, and Jaden glided past hiht on the town in a long backless black goith a slit up one side, and strappy black heels that in another time and place would have made his mouth water in anticipation
"You never could have killed me"
Dayne wrapped his hand around her throat "Care to er?"
Jaden pushed him off her with ease and rolled her eyes "As fun as this is, I’ot captured"
"This is so unbelievably transparent My IQ ht have dropped several points the first tirown as a person since then" Jaden smirked "I’m sure"
"I think she’s perfectly safe And if she isn’t, what do I care?"
"What, indeed" She shrugged and stretched out on Dayne’s couch "It’s your call But she’ll be sacrificed as soon as the sun sets"
Dayne was h the s He shook his head and pointed at the door
"Leave"
"I know you care for her Help me"
He was annoyed by hoell she could still read hiive her round, the confident facade falling around her feet "Because I knew you could keep her safe"
"You didn’t think sending her here er her?"
"It’s not in your nature to harm an innocent You know you never felt that way about rin "Because you weren’t, in fact, an innocent"
"True enough" Jaden withdrew a thin lady’s cigarette out of a red leather pouch and placed it between her lips Her eyes remained on his as she lit the tip and inhaled the nicotine
Playing the seductress had become her full-ti it Or if she was, she was barking up the wrong tree She’d folded her legs up underneath her, and now she unfolded theh to peek out of the dress
Goddaain
This tierous to be left alive
"Very well," Dayne said, finally "I’m sure Greta shed some fur around the house" He’d need it for the spell to find her "And Jaden, if this is a double-cross like the last time, you die Don’t expect old senti with me this is your last chance to leave quietly" Jaden was already looking for cat fur
"Wakey Wakey"
Greta opened her eyes to see Sie, with barely enough room to turn around Her wrists were tied in front of her with coarse rope
She looked down to find herself dressed in a flohite gown, right out of a Cleopatra movie She would have felt so fear
Even with her new level of control, she should have shifted by now But she knew she’d never shift again Greta rass and the hunt and the stars that used to blur overhead as she ran She felt sluggish as the drugs flowed through her veins, da, her ability to scent eone She felthuman