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Caitlin started across the crowded floor and was gratified to turn severalthe attention for herself but because it made Case instantly notice her

He leaned in toward the musician type hunched on the bar stool beside hirabbed his drink and stood, moved away

As Case looked down at her, she felt her face flush, reht before

Except that wasn’t hiht of Ryder and his shapeshifting trick away, climbed the stairs and slid onto the stool beside Case

"My lucky night," he said, with that twisted grin

The bartender immediately stepped up, and she told him, "Jack and Coke"

Case quirked an eyebrow, and she lifted her hands "Not playing tonight?" she asked, just to have so, cher"

"True," she said, and felt a wave of impatience Why does this always have to be so hard? Why can’t he just tell ames?

The bartender set her drink in front of her, and she slid it over to Case

"Thanks for the donation Still looking for Danny, are we?" he said, reading her "That hurtsthat it was probably not the best way to get hirinned at her

"Good point" He picked up the drink she’d bought hihed "Come on, Case, I don’t want to play What do I have to do?"

He leaned back on his stool "Depends What is it you need to know so bad?"

Caitlin was about to say that she’d told hi you didn’t say anything just now, because he would have been all over that for sure

"Those tourists aren’t dropping dead froue entities in town--they’re called walk-ins They’re y that craves human fore its senses and wreak havoc, and burn out the body so quickly that the human host dies of stroke or heart attack"

"Party entities," Case htful in the flickering light from the candle on the bar "What does Danny have to do with any of this?"

Caitlin was encouraged that at least he hadn’t turned her down flat Yet

"These things are completely formless They spend all their time in the astral And you know no one’s better than Danny at reading the astral"

Case was silent, sipping his drink Caitlin forced herself to be still, to wait for whatever he would say

Finally he spoke "How did you come to know all this?"

Caitlin had a weird wave of déjà vu--it was the saht before, almost as if he’d seen this conversation in the future

Caitlin answered the same way she’d answered Ryder "There’s a shapeshifter in toho says he’s been hired to track them"

Case’s eyes narrowed in the dark "So that’s Mallory’s excuse for being in town," Case muttered, and Caitlin felt an electric thrill

So he does know Ryder, and he knows he’s here

"That’s no one you should be trusting, cher," Case added, and it was all Caitlin could do not to roll her eyes

How many people do I need to hear that froh that Case flinched slightly "But so on, for sure That’s why I want to talk to Danny"