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I didn’t have a plan for this o His hand was cold His face had a kind of arrogant handsomeness--an aristocratic nose, pale eyes, blond hair parted on the left side

"I’ his hand Walker introduced hiht, butin front of Walker?

"What are you doing in Savannah?" I said He looked as fit as the last tihtly, as if I’d been rude, but he see nonetheless "Do sit down," he said "Join me for a drink"

Walker slid onto a stool I said, "No"

They looked at ned

"We’re on our way to dinner," I said "And then we have to attend a reception" I wasn’t ready to face Malcolm after all, with Walker there I added, "Perhaps we can meet at a later time"

"By all means" Malcolm’s s up to do" He reached into his jacket, pulled out a case raved metal--platinum, probably--opened it, extracted a card I took it without reading it, slid it into my purse

"Good-bye," I said

"Good evening" He nodded at both of us, then sain as he watched us leave

Outside, Walker said, "That eird Who was that guy? Why didn’t you want to stay?"

"He’s an old acquaintance of my family" I pushedall formal-like?"

"I don’t know" We turned a corner and there was the restaurant: an old house painted pink

"I’ him was a bit of a shock I’ll explain why, someday Don’t let it spoil our dinner"

What spoiled our dinner was Walker He was restless, constantlyaround the crowded roo out what to order, and later he barely touched his food An older couple at the table next to ours kept looking over at us, wondering rong

It was a relief to return to the hotel, to change back into o to the reception There were no speeches tonight, just food and drinks and a band The band was playing a pop song when I walked in, and so

Walker had already visited the punch bowl He pulled an to flail his ar ended, I steered hiainst the wall nearby, watching the crowd, taking in the kaleidoscope of colors and scents and patterns, knowing that Walker wasn’t noticing much of it, if any He slu inanely

And so, when Neil Caladly We danced a fast song, then a slow one; frolances at his face, his profile and deep-set eyes

"You dance the way a catwith uess so" It was ht Multicolored adjectives filled arnet-red divine, sapphire enchanting, all words I’d norhtlike our tentative steps across the airport’s tiled floor In , soaring out across a night sky

He shts Suddenly I felt clu strange happened, so I couldn’t put a nay rose up inwas akin to what I’d felt when I’d first kissed Walker, but its reater Mãe told me some time later that I’d experienced what the French call a coup de foudre--a ter flash," "bolt froht" To this day I’, stared at me, and I looked back into his dark blue eyes "Like star sapphires," I heard my voice say, but he didn’t seem to hear

Then the music stopped, and we moved apart Three FSP supporters came up and took Cameron away, but he looked at me over his shoulder, mouthed the word later I took a deep breath and looked around the rooain; Malcollanced away, pretending I hadn’t seen him

But when Malcolm left the reception a few minutes later, I decided to follow him Cameron stood at the bar, surrounded by adlass I didn’t bother to tell anyone I was leaving

Malcol out in the wind I turned invisible and began to run to catch up When I ithin half a block of hi how to make him tell me what I needed to know Finally I hit on a plan The last ti to persuadea new kind of synthetic blood I could pretend to be interested in the research, offer to be a go-between to entice ht--unless Malcolm knew that my father was too sick to work Unless Malcolm was the one who’d made him sick

The route varied, but the destination was the saht before: we ended up at the vine-covered house near Oglethorpe Square The slimmered Malcolm strode inside before I had ti the last few y suddenly seemed silly to me How could I hope to fool him?

I stood under the live oak tree, beneath its curtain of Spanish irls, both with earphones plugged into music players, walked down York Street toward me They passed so close to me that I could smell the body lotion they wore: lemon on one, vanilla on the other When they walked up the path to the house, I was close behind, and when they opened the door, I stepped inside just after theh the diht of stairs I paused long enough to get a sense of where I was--a long corridor loo off it--then followed thean They were halfway down it, opening a door