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He sesture that caused his already broken lips to split further I gri his teeth look longer and --the other had been perht with me--was yellowed like that of an ancient skull

Peyton shifted, his bones grinding against each other The padding between his joints must have been worn down to dust He was, in effect, the living dead, and not in the waycorpse

That realization was all it took for the re to me to fall away He was pathetic, and I didn’t fear the pathetic

"I see they’ve been keeping you comfortable"

"I see…" There was a rattle in his voice, his throat too dry and raspy to make ed"

The Tribunallevel up in vampire power Vamps could sense each other’s levels as easily as hu at someone In that sense, I had so, bad boss

"So it seelint in his solid-black eyes was unnerving, but I did my best not to slip backwards into my fear

"I try not to think of inconsequential things anymore," I lied

"Do you…knohat I will…do? When…I a fro kept in a low squat to stare at him "What? Go to the salon? You’re in dire need of so" I sniffed dramatically "And a bath"

He smiled, and a clear liquid oozed from the cracks in his lips that he made no atteun to feel was gone The glittery blue light felt cold, and in spite of the open door behindso close, I felt alone and uneasy Peyton couldn’t hurtin the prohtened of hiical it was

That’s the beauty of fear, it does not yield to reason

"You’ve tried to kill round, I braced ainst the floor and inchedmuch more like a wolf in that moment than the vaain But let’s be clear, here, Peyton…you will never get out of here Not while I’ his mouth so much in such a short tiainst his teeth, letting ood long look at h, I placed my hands on his cheeks and pulled his face towards nashed at me, but for once I kneas no match for me physically

"I will…"

I snarled when he took a pause, and the glint in his eyes faded "You will do nothing You’ll fester and rot here Starving until you are just a bag of dry skin holding a pile of bones You’ll never drink froain" I dropped one hand and cupped his face with the other, squeezing until his ave him then was loaded with threats "Maybe I should neuter you now"

His tooth was dry and coated with a layer of what felt like dust I didn’t want to think about what it really hen I gave the elongated canine a wiggle "Looking a little long in the tooth," I teased, my voice bitter He tried to clarip I had on his chin

"That’s enough," Sig interrupted His presence in the roolow to shrink back into the darker recesses Was there anything he couldn’t scare? "Secret, visiting hours are over now You can come back and play with Monsieur Peyton so’s Scandinavian inflection sounded alien but soo I’d never had the upper hand with Peyton before and I wasn’t willing to give it up on co warned He didn’t need to say more than my name I understood the implication loud and clear I couldn’t kill Peyton, and I couldn’t enact any kind of punishment on him without the express perht letmy history with the Cajun maniac, but Juan Carlos would point out that Peyton’s punishht

I released Peyton’s chin, and he wiggled his jaw

"I hope you like it here," I told hi out"

"We…will…see"

When I passed Sig on the way out of the hovel, I didn’twould ot out, I felt certain of that Asoften terrified me, he was a just leader, and it mattered to him whether I lived or died This was one evil he could protect me from