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Cherise seemed to try to remember One second To and a half, and then I saw coet driven out by fear "II don’t know," she said Her voice was high-pitched with sudden panic "Jo, ere in the forest He was showingme how he did the fire stuff, and it was really cool, you know He was proud of hi we could help people"

I nodded Not that I really understood "And then what happened? Cherise, can you-"

"I don’t re was fine We were doing fine, and" Soh her expression like an electric shock, and her eyes widened "There was someone else She ca" Her voice failed, or at least her vocabulary She shook her head, sniffled, and wiped at her nose I dug in the backpack for a travel pack of tissues and handed one over It took her the now-fa held in front of her face, and then she clurabbed it and honked She sniffled so bad happened to us, didn’t it?"

I had no idea, but it see very bad indeed had happened to her and Kevin The proble, and if it hat that meant for my own safety

I watched her like a hawk, but Cherise didn’t display any special powers, o away She napped for a while, lulled by the war to her body-yeah, I kne that felt-and when she woke up I broke off soy bar and shared it with her, washed doith plenty of water I noticed her fingernails She’d been out there scraping her way through the forest, but once upon a time she’d had a nice manicure Her skin had that well-lotioned look, too No wrinkles A smooth, flawless complexion She’d had better hair days, but I had the feeling she’d clean up fine

So as going on with her? What did herti Girl?

As if she were reading hts-scary idea-Cherise suddenly blurted, "Do you think ere taken?"

"Taken?" I paused in the act of loading the water bottle back in the pack Cherise looked nearly hu what a little color in the cheeks can do for a girl

"You know By theer

"They?" And then I reht" Not that I wanted to sound judgmental, and hey, I’d hooked up with a former boyfriend as apparently made out of liquid metal and could disappear at will, so as I to scoff? "Uh, I don’t think so, honey"

She was staring atfor itated "But itto us!" Cherise suddenly threw off the therroping at the back of her neck She twisted the hair up and anxiously turned toward me "Is there a scar? Did they put the chip in rasp the fact that I was replying to her, and this tirip There’s no scar, there’s no chip, and I don’t think you were abducted by little gray aliens I don’t think you were probed, experimented on, or beamed up I don’t think you went to the planet Bozbarr, either Whatever happened, I think there’s a different explanation" Not necessarily one any less crazy

Cherise frowned, then looked disappointed "Butit fits all the stories We were away from people, and I don’t re time, and suddenly I’m back out here in theelse"

She was already talking overto do with the Wardens," she said

"You’re sure you don’t re at all?" Cherise, after several seconds of silence, shook her head I changed the subject "Do you re about what happened to Kevin? Where he could be?"

The conversational train clickety-clacked along tracks for the required two heartbeats before she caught up "No But" A faint wave of color bloomed in her cheeks "But if he could, he’d be here withfor skinny slacker boy? I’d thought they were just unrelated strangers, but clearly it wasn’t even just a Mutt-and-Jeff partnership; it was a choice Her choice, at least, and his, if he wasn’t a total idiot

I kepthave you been with hiot me an odd look "You know You ithblack hole to fill in "Pretend I don’t know," I said "When-"

There was a scratching at the tent, and I shot up tothe nearest blunt object-which turned out to be a bottle of water-butskills weren’t necessary It was Lewis He snaked through the narrow entrance, reached for his pack, and then he saw Cherise

His stare fixed on her, and there was this sensation of so I couldn’t see or control Needles all over ust of breathlessly cold wind, and I felt gravity give a funny little lurch, as if it were thinking of canceling its regular appearance

I blinked, and however I did it, I saw things First of all: Lewis He looked taller, stronger-not substantially different, justmore He radiated so like oil on water And outside of that aura was a stors, but still: a storm There was no other way to think of it It was sheer bloody power, sparking and gathering and flaring, coround, flowing into and out of him And it was focused directly at Cherise

I looked at her, and she almost vanished Not totally, but she’d faded like soraph, and her aura eak and pale by coed streaks of pure black running through it, like claw lier, so strong I could hardly stand to look at him

"Lewis!" I turned back to him "Don’t She’s okay"

"No," he said "She’s not"

Leasn’t letting down his guard When Cherise looked at me, terrified, he held out a hand toward her, pal her to stay away

"How’d she get in here?"

"I brought her I know, that was probably stupid, but I couldn’t just leave her!" Lewis transferred that X-ray stare to ot the i to see, but then it must have been better than he expected, because he blinked and seemed to back off fro to her?" I asked

"What we thought The Deo She’s been badly hurt"

"I didn’t see any wounds" There’d been blood on her sweater, but nothing wrong with her skin As if the bullet holes Lewis had put in her had fully healed

"This isn’t the kind of dae you see outside," he said "And it’s not the kind that heals"

I wasn’t sure how ; she see back and forth between the two of us Lewis kept staring at Cherise, frowning, tilting his head first one way, then the other