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A miscalculation

One of her blades slid across his throat

Warm blood slapped her in the face as the va crimson

Horrified, Jenna took a step toward hiround

Richart appeared at her side and took her arh, the vaain until he couldn’t anymore

Jenna looked up at Richart "It was an accident"

"It was inevitable," he said softly Withdrawing a handkerchief, he wiped her face with care "You saw it--the ht?"

She nodded

"The brain dafroer He would have tortured the with it just as he saw nothing wrong with preying upon you or allowing his friends to kill you, as they would have had I not intervened"

Jenna’s gaze went to the vaan to shrivel up like a mummy as the virus he housed devoured him from the inside out "This is what it’s like? This is what you do?"

"Yes I know it seems brutal, but we save lives, Jenna You saved lives And you kept hiood men become fiends once the madness seizes them Most, when lucid, wouldothers"

Dropping the daggers, she leaned into hiet used to this"

"I won’t lie It’s difficult But once you see what they do to their victims, it will beco her to look up at him "And I will be with you all the way" He smoothed his thumbs across her cheeks "I’ll be with you always, if you’ll let ood"

He lowered his lips to hers for a slow kiss "Let’s go show John you’re okay You can tell the study group the vamp has become ill and is still in the bathroom, then send them home"

When she nodded, Richart wrapped his arms around her and the world dissolved

HIGH STAKES

HANNAH JAYNE

So cities

And fabulousness

I’m one of those people

I’m Nina LaShay and one day, my brand will be everywhere

I stand in front of the mirror every day and say that to my reflection Well, not so e of s as I don’t haveundead will do that to you

Call htwalker; lost one; soulless, Godless aboveground hell dweller Personally, I’m partial to Life-Backward, Fashion-Forward Temple of Awesoive or take 141 years) woreatest fashion co my latest Drop Dead creation--that’s the na (I know, totes adorbs, right?), when the faint scent of two-day-old patchouli oil and sweat snaked into my apartment The whole super-vamp sense of s It also makes the modern street hippie "at one with the Earth" sh Calcutta in June I wrinkled h rient scent was co from

It was her

Eaunt cheeks, and head of Supercuts-styled straw-colored locks, she looked far asped when she sawopen

"You’reand smart but decided to err on the side of breather-approved sportsmanlike conduct "And I suppose that means that you’re ly hair over one shoulder "I was being facetious, sweetie You and your welcons are no kind of coh Emerson is sha ("breathers" as they’re known on the undead end), I desperately wanted to stake her through her patchouli-scented heart

"Please," I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest "Drop Dead has spanked--what is it? Tweet by Emerson Hawk?"

"Soar," she corrected with a snarl "Soar by Eht Either way, Drop Dead has spanked your line often and repeatedly" I sether--not so much in an effort to hide my always-there pointed petite incisors, butinto her obnoxious sallow flesh

But I bet she’d taste like stale bread

Enat at her ear "Small-town shit"