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I came to a crouch and then carefully lifted the ball into my arms It is an unfortunate testaelic strength, the ball felt heavy to h the house toward the back door Athe ball from my arms

"Where?" he asked shortly

"Down the back stairs, to the yard and intoand puffing, but it wasn’t all laziness The ss more than it had affected his

Nathaniel disappeared into the kitchen, streah the apartid Noveotten into a period of deep frost so there should just be a thin coating of ice on the rain barrel I just hoped that whatever was inside that ball would respond the way s doused If the iteht blohen it hit the water You could never tell

When I’d finished opening the s and the air had cleared soe The ball had completely smashed the --no surprise there--and rendered the back rest of the chair I had been sitting in to splinters I putI stood on the opposite foot and looked at the oozing wound on the sole

"Well, of course there would be glass on the floor, dummy," I muttered to myself I hopped down the hall to the bathroolass embedded in the ball ofon my oits"

I reached down to the cabinet underneath the sink, pulled out rabbed so around on the seat withblood on the blue tile floor I dumped a little alcohol on the cotton ball and swabbed the tip of the tweezers Then I added some more alcohol to the other side of the ball and applied it to the wound I hissed as the alcohol stung

You would think that after nearly being killed by a nephilim I would have more tolerance for pain

I bent over lass I grabbed at the sliver with the tweezers and pulled, whi as it came free from my flesh

"I a et infected My eyes teared up as the alcohol did its thing

I finished bandaging the cut and stood up to test ht on it I would survive A moment later, Nathaniel slaerly into the hallway to meet hihter

Well, I’d wondered if he’d ever get rumpled, and noas He looked kind of like that cartoon coyote after the dyite has gone off in his face

Nathaniel’s blond hair stuck straight up in front and had been blackened by soot So had his face and his forered into s onto the floor