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"I gave her the rest of the apple pie," Julie said "I hope you don’t mind She’s a bear and they like sweets It oing to find hi to try"

"I’ll help you," Julie said "Tell athered up her owl and her blanket and stood up "I like Eduardo and George They’re always nice to me" She hesitated "I don’t want her to feel what it’s like"

My heart tried to flip over in my chest It hurt "I know"

Julie nodded and went to the third floor

I would find Eduardo I would find hih and deserved a chance to be happy, and because I knehat it was like to have someone you love ripped away from you

Chapter 3

IT WAS MORNING, the tech was up, and I was in our sunlit kitchen,a small tower of pancakes Julie’s school didn’t start until nine, because traveling through the dark in post-Shift Atlanta was too dangerous for kids, and we uaranteed a lunch and eren’t always home in time for dinner, so breakfast was our family meal Shapeshifters had fasteramount of food Curran was no exception I had a pound of bacon baking in the oven--cooking it on the stove resulted in burned bacon, a cloud of srease Two pounds of sausage simmered in another pan, and I was onlong rectangles on the tiled floor, sliding over the light stone of the countertops, and playing on the wood of the cabinets, setting their dark finish agloith red highlights The air sentle breeze floated through the rooo to school and ould go to the Mercenary Guild It was the best place to start looking for Eduardo According to George, Eduardo’s family wasn’t in the picture His parents lived somewhere in Oklahos He was friendly with everyone, but George was his best friend He spent all of his time with her

Julie sto her blond hair out of her face A long smear of dirt crossed her face More dirt stained her jeans When I found her on the street years ago, she was starved, almost waifish She was fifteen now Good food and constant training were paying off: her arms showed definition, her shoulders had widened, and she held herself with the kind of ready assurance that ca confident you can repel it

"I want a new horse"

I raised an eyebrow at her

Curran shouldered his way into the kitchen from the back porch Blond, broad-shouldered, and muscular, he moved like a predator even in his human form It didn’t ray sweatshirt like right now, or nothing at all; his body always possessed a coiled, barely contained strength A ether in his other shape and the client had locked himself in the car and refused to come out Curran turned human, but the client still fired us Apparently human Curran was still too scary, probably because noto tone down his face When you looked into Curran’s clear gray eyes, you knew that he could explode with violence at a moment’s notice and he would be brutal and efficient about it Except when he looked at me, like now He stepped close to me and brushed a kiss on my lips Mmm

"That’s nice," Julie said "I still want a new horse"

"Request denied," Curran told her

I flipped

"What? Why?"

"Because ‘want’ is not a need" Curran leaned against the kitchen island "I saw you in the pasture You don’t want a new horse You require a new horse Lay your case out"

"I hate Brutus," Julie said

I glanced through theat the pasture, where an enor the fence Brutus used to belong to Hugh d’Ah was my life’s aed death with ic That’s okay The third time would be the charm