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"Ridiculous?"

She nodded firue over his perfectly white teeth, considering her for a el features, stroking hiers "Your father and e threw her, a pang of horaduate high school, and for the past fewout of her parents’ house and into a tiny apartment she’d already picked out with Claire But oh, just then, she wondered why she’d ever wanted to leave Just then, she wanted to cuddle into her o

"Rose I issued a command" Steel seeped into Vasili’s voice "Do I really have to remind you what happens when you fail to pleasein her throat "My father is a science teacher, junior high, and my mother is a receptionist at a law office" Perfectlyhopes on her ree Only, she didn’t want to be a doctor She didn’t knohat she wanted to be Or do Nothingfit Yet She’d figure it out, though She always did

Proble solutions

"Well, that doesn’t help my case as I’d hoped, does it? So, let’s pretend for just a ht That I’ve met others like you" Bitterness joined the steel "Let’s pretend for just a moment that of the two of us, I’m the more educated I would know that you were born to your world, but are bound to this one Now, does anyone in your family disappear every year on their birthday? Maybe they say they like to be alone for the big event"

She didn’t have to think about it "No"

"Are you sure? No one has told you they wereaway, yet never wrote or called?"

"No" Truth

"No one has told you scary stories about a land that has no sun? Where hters?"

"No" Those kinds of stories a girl would re "If you’d had just one Dimension Walker in your tree, I would have had a use for you"

So His questions hadn’t been asked for her benefit, to convince her He’d ht to learn about her faazeonly: sex And she liked the shiver that follohich uilty

She had a boyfriend Hoyt was an inch taller than she hich hy she had asked him out (See She wasn’t a mouse!) They’d dated for sevenwith hientle he ith her

"Y-you shouldn’t look at me like that," she said

"Well, you shouldn’t enjoy when I do But concentrate onelse" So a you You’re a little tooyoung for my taste"

The hesitation i else Liketoo silly? Too ti Temper, teerous And too mentally unstable

A muscle ticked in his jaw "I’m not too old for anyone"

Clearly, she’dhim, even in so small a way, filled her with a sense of power "Whatever you say," she replied, offering hi, darling"--a gro--"you’re of no use to ood, that was for sure Get yourself under control before you push him too far! "I just remembered! I know someone who, uh, disappears Like you said"

His own smile was slow and wicked, the best of a char, and I believe I warned you of the dangers of that I er drained, and more intense tremors rocked her He’d committed murder-- do not think about that; don’t you dare think about that-- and once again she tried to pop to her feet and run Still her body refused to obey "IYouPlease Let o I’irl"

"Ah, there’s my little mouse I missed her"

This tile thread of terror

"I wonderDo you have any fighting instinct?" Before she could form a reply, his fist whipped out

She didn’t have time to flinch Could only squeeze her eyelids closedwaitingdreadingbut impact never came, and her lashes cracked open

He had stopped just before contact Now he sighed and lowered his arm "None, then Too bad" He unfolded from the chair, his for as a blade

"That would have "

Oh, God "What are you going to do during our next dealing?"

One step, two, he strode away frolass Rather than drink it, he stood there for a ainst the surface Thinking of the best way to dispose of her?