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"Yeah," Drake said, annoyed but submissive
He curled his tentacle arht her, shivering and e
Drake set her down and the baby toppled over It would have been coiant head was too big for the body to support it very well
So it toppled, but then, with surprising speed, it was on all fours It crawled the few inches to Penny
It reached out a pudgy hand and touched the grisly wound
Penny gasped, a sound that ht have been either pain or pleasure
Drake felt a stab of jealousy, thinking the gaiaphage ift of a whip hand But no, all it did was to heal the wound
The baby healed the shotgun-destroyed flesh in seconds
And then the baby crawled back to her mother and nursed
Brianna had not expected to return to Justin But there he was, breathing softly in the pitch-black And here she was, a mess of cuts and bruises, but alive
"It’s me, kid," she said wearily
"Did you rescue her?"
"No I didn’t I couldn’t pull it off It was a fight I couldn’t win Not byto explain about the baby And about the overwhele
"I need to find Sam," Brianna said "Which is pretty hard in the dark"
"Take oing to do, leave you here?" Actually the thought had occurred to Brianna She was already slowed to a crawl by the dark With Justin she’d beat whatever it was that was slower than a crawl
They began feeling their way, inch by bruising inch, toward the ination, with her boundless optied they would find the world ht everywhere
But when, after a terribly long time, Brianna finally felt clearer, cleaner air on her face, she knew her hope had been futile
The trip was from narrow darkness to wide-open darkness She was still blind And still slow
The bonfire in the plaza was much soing to keep it burning Even with Caine’s sullen help, ripping fla them to the fire was not easy So now the bonfire was low on the first circle of kids Most sat in darkness, staring at the fire, unable even to see the person sitting beside the Quinn could do but yell at the thuds of some blunt weapon on flesh and bone
A few seconds later so chair leg and ran off into the night