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His teeth clenched His eyes stayed closed, but he could feel his grand he wanted was to look at her Josephine Arnaud Head of the Arnaud faan in a haughty, all-too-faest of the vampire kind Your father, your friendsthey have no understanding, no experience in our ways, Bastian I knew sooner or later you would co You are Arnaud now This is alho you were hed She refused to see him for what he truly was Not a child of two Bloodborn parents, but a halfling Mistborn His father, Michel, was a warlock, head of the La Novem elite He hated the way she looked down at his father, even despised hio What kind of sick person found happiness in a child losing a second parent so shortly after the first? But Josephine had been ecstatic She’d thought he was all hers, to arded the true nature of his birth and had called hiainst her for ten years, vowing never to become what she was
And now look at him
He’d never wanted to take blood, to lead this kind of life, to be an Arnaud But he’d never been given a choice Athena had seen to that She’d forced his first taste of blood upon hi back
But he couldn’t blaht he’d skipped out on Ari and the kids He wondered how long they’d waited before leaving for the bayou without hih sour
If his father, Ari, the kids saw hioHe’d lose them He’d rather die than show them this side of him, the out-of-control side, the side that didn’t care The predator The killer
"Bastian" Josephine wanted his attention while she lectured hih, relared at her "Go to hell" Then he rolled over and gave her his back, knowing, despite how he felt about his grandain and again
THREE
DURING OUR RETURN JOURNEY THROUGH the labyrinth of the bayou, I eyed the ever-darkening sky with concern, tension keeping ht fell as the boat cleared the bayou and sped up the wide channel to the Mississippi, but I didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until ere docked and on solid ground
The four-mile hike back to our house was done in silence and absolute awareness of the darkness surrounding us I took note of every sound, every s And no
By the time we neared the house, ing echoed through the neighborhood, the sound growing louder the closer we came to the Italianate mansion we called ho as how she was the fixer of the bunch She was the only one a us asn’t supernatural in soine or a busted pipe, or rig the electricity to work If not for her, there would be no working fridge, no flushable toilet or running shower We still had to boil drinking water, and parts of theaway and off-limits, but Crank was indispensable
I pushed open the squeaky gate, ducked under the vines, and headed to the front door Inside, Crank was sitting on the grand, curved staircase, replacing a broken board in one of the stairs Dub sat a few steps above her, watching and slapping a long baguette into his pallanced up as we filed through the door "Any luck?" he yelled over the ha ha, lifted her head, and shoved her cabbie hat back froled between her lips Her head jerked in greeting I returned her gesture with a s twelve, Crank ran thecorrespondence in her old ton and picking up any inco mail
She was the first person I’d ave me a place to stay while I looked for answers about ing her in the back with the baguette Her frown h loudly and run a hand over his short blond Afro "I’h C’ up, Crank rolled her eyes and handed Dub a nail, and atched as he tried to drive it in with the baguette The head of the nail stuck to the bread He lifted it and shrugged "A spike works too"
"Told you" Crank resuot food on the stove Y’all hungry?"
Henri eyed the baguette "Not if that’s your idea of supper"
"Is it wrong ofyou, it’ll do so into the kitchen, so I snatched the baguette fro"
"Hey!" Dub leaped for it, but I held it high I was still taller than hiive him a few more yearsAlready his lanky preteen frame and wide shoulders hinted at the tall, substantial physique to coht eyes, and that blond hair--he was going to be striking I laughed as he ju into the hall table