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"To be honest, I don’t feel so good"

She stopped walking and et soain until ere in the line with the other well-dressed kids, iven neon orange wristbands Those under twenty-one got huge Xs on their hands with perlyto put a da I was sure there’d be ways around it, though I didn’t knohat they were The party wasn’t crowded yet, only at half capacity

"Oh, look, there’s Jay!" Veronica dashed straight to the deejay booth and bounced on the balls of her feet "Excuse ?"

Jay stood and looked down over the tall barrier He pulled off his headphones

"Wussup? You girls ready to party or what?"

I put on a closemouthed suys," said Jay, putting one side of the headphones against his ear "This one’s for you, Roni"

She hollered when her song caed ht and e on the popular song, because hts in the roo ended I fannedat the far as a stunning group of people who made me dropstraight through the crowd at ht of Kaidan He wore black dress slacks and a royal blue dress shirt, which made his eye color pop, even from a distance His tie had abstract blue, black, and silver designs His hands were shoved in his pockets, and a dangling wallet chain was his only nondressy attribute He wouldn’t avert his eyes fro whether he’d watched

"Is that who I think it is?" Veronica had followedthere, considering the wreck I’d becoet a drink and go talk to Jay," Veronica said "You want so to run to the bathrooiant, luxury bathroo Xs off led myself at the corner sink, so as not to draw attention to myself I felt warm bodies come up behind er pulled so from her slim purse and set it on the sink

"Use this," she said

I squirted the gritty stuff on and usedlike heck When I rinsed it off there were barely shadows of the Xs reh, because my hands were raw I patted them with a hand towel and noticed both twins had wristbands, even though they were only eighteen Oh, that was right; they had fake IDs Marna must have knoas on e and pulled out another wristband, handing the warertips

"Er, thanks"

She laughed and took it back, deciding to put it on et here?" I whispered Girls were co in and out of the bathroom, but nobody paid us any attention

"Don’t worry about that," Ginger advised me "Just work as if they’re always there"

"Anna," Marna said quietly, "do you knohen I had to start working at the age of thirteen, I still couldn’t see theer said Marna looked at her

"It’s all right I want to tell her" She moved closer so I could hear "When I turned thirteen, after a year of training and everything I’d learned, I still couldn’t see them So my father sent for the sons of Thamuz to rid er whispered the three words as if she were conte murder herself

"He sent Nephilim?" I asked

"Yes, but they’re not like us They’re ruthless I wasn’t a virgin, but no guy had ever hurt me like that Every ti to killto me while the sons of Tha hts to "

I broke away froe handicapped stall, leaning otten sick while Marna told her story I yanked off some toilet paper and dabbed under ht It was too dan-gerous

The twins followed er pulled the door closed and latched it Marna stroked my hair and then my cheeks, and I allowed ether

"I only told you all that so you could be prepared," Marna said "They’re going to say things to you, and you have to ignore theet to you Keep your cool and try to pretend those voices are just an annoying telly prograh They can’t hurt you unless you let them I let them, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake"