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Fro, I pulled a thin, short-sleeved tee and slid it over my head, which would have been easier had I done it before I staked ht and airy and I thought that was new and different, solike the lab’s research had suggested

I looked down atout of bras and work clothes, getting sword-cut and claw-slashed This brown, yellow, and pink tee had a cute pig on it with the words Bacon Is Meat Candy Ugly, though it was a perfect tee for Beast And at least all irlie parts were covered

In a rush, all thefro on the floor of the vehicle My limbs eak, ainst the backseat I was pretty sure I was passing out I said soht was the sun trying to rise, a gray haze on the eastern sky, reflected in brokenglass everywhere

• • •

The sun was high in the sky when I heard a hollow knocking andme I picked up my cell and looked around at traffic It took ain the back of the SUV on a crowded city street There was a parking ticket on the windshield wiper Great And Eli stood at the broken passenger ith a peculiar look on his face I waved Eli in, opened the cell to answer the call, enius, geek, and co, you know Ummm Are you okay?" the Kid asked "You sound kindaI don’t know Happy"

"I’ I don’t know And say hi to your brother"

I held the phone out so Eli, as easing into the SUV, could hear

"Yeah Sure Hey, Eli Whatever Is she okay?"

Eli closed the door on the traffic, looked me over, and shook his head, beht in the back of an unsecured SUV, wearing a bacon shirt"

"Yeah? Get a pic Jane, the car tailing you was a lease that came back to Florence Falcon Florence is a false ID, with a social that originated at the same birth month and state as Paul Reaver Florence works for Paul Reaver Whoever created the fantastic IDs did a pis--uh, a poor job of separating the locales and the timelines You wanttailed And that they boxed me in and tried to kill me"

"What? Are you okay?" Alex sounded weirded out, which didn’tto kill runted agreeht want to--wait," I said "Send the info to Jodi and to the ATF officer in charge of the boent Stanley Got it" I could hear bewilderment in Alex’s voice "Eli, is she really okay?"

"She looks fine but the SUV is da up and looked at Eli "What’s up?"

"We lost track of you on the far side of the river," he said, mildly "It took us four hours to find you, and when I did, you were asleep"

"Oh That was" I realized he had been worried Both of the Youngers had been terribly worried Thinking I was hurt Or dead Which was really sweet, and would probably insult them if I said so I settled on, "That was horrible of"I was talking to Soul and she said she could find e, so I went into it And I was attacked by va to kill led memories back into place, and examined the different scent patterns from the attack "I think, maybe, an arcenciel ca to it or tried to, but it got away And they knockedat me with an indecipherable expression "Unconscious"

"Yeah Mostly I think the va the arcenciel and that’s why they left me And then Soul caht I should have saved the other arcenciel? Or ht I had attacked the arcenciel? Anyway, then I shifted into Beast And that’s when it got strange"

"That’s when it got strange"

I had a feeling that Eli was ht and she turned into a three- or four-hundred-pound tiger and I bit her throat and sed her blood And then she took off And then I shifted back to me Only her blood left me drunk as a skunk, ’cause she’s an arcenciel too and their blood’s really tasty" I chuffed a laugh "So, anyway, I got dressed and back in the SUV" I looked around ain at the traffic "I think I drove here and fell asleep Because of the druggy blood But I’m sober now Mostly"

Eli shook his head slowly, still looking ht I’d be bored in civilian life, out of the service I had no idea" Eli got out of the SUV and bent back in, his head low enough to see es" He closed the door, took the traffic ticket in his fist, and walked down the street He got into his own SUV, a battered, unarmored, older model, and drove into traffic He didn’t look es, sixteen froed my location And one fro with, "I’ lunch I’ll be there in an hour if the traffic is willing" I tossed the cell into the seat, wondering whether he would be there at all I was taking all sorts of chances Hoeird was that? I wondered whether it was the drugged blood, and decided that it wasn’t, as I was now starving,the least intoxicated

I pulled into the stream of cars and turned on the radio to catch the Doobie Brothers singing "Black Water," which was appropriate in so uys, discovering that things werethe sorta innocent Things were starting to happen here on the Mississippi Oh yes, they were