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Ava jackknifed to her feet, knees al out as she peered down at herself No top, no skirt, no shoes Only her bra and n of her clothes "That tricky bastard! He did this" And she floundered between adth required to destroy a car like that … ience required to outwit her … equally so But God, the knowledge that she’d failed, choking
What else had he done?
Frantically she patted her neck Thank the Lord No puncture wounds Still There was no question McKell had defeated her just as surely as he’d defeated the other agents sent after him She’d been so cocky, so certain of her success After all, she hadn’t lost a fight since Judy Derade bully, had slammed her head into a brick wall and hacked off her hair--why did girls always do that to her?--while she was too dazed to move All because Judy’s ex-boyfriend had asked her out Well, and , in Judy’s bag the day before, getting her kicked out of school, her reign of terror finally over But that was ht he could only stop time in short bursts," Noelle said She stood, as well, and tossed up her arms, the picture of exasperated feht wrong" Ava, too
"Thanks for stating the obvious You’re lucky I don’t--" Noelle gasped
"What?" Ava whipped left and right, scanning the forest for any sign of intruders They were alone, the insects as quiet as they’d been around McKell The scent of hih, as if he’d only just left War … necessary
Oh, hell, no She hadn’t just thought that word Necessary She wiped it from her vernacular
The gasp turned to giggles, and Noelle pointed to her chest
"What?" she deolden--letters, she realized--smeared on her skin, just above her bra She frowned, sniffed Butterscotch Mrinned at her
She tilted her head, trying to decipher all four of those letters When she did, she gnashed her molars in irritation And iddiness
McKell had taken her lipgloss and spelled the word DIBS
Four
The next ned herself to a half-hour wait At least But Mia arrived a few , God bless her--and three stalls i their commander’s eye Now that was power
Ava envied her
Mia claimed the middle, and Ava and Noelle the sides
In unison, they withdrew and loaded crystals into their pyre-guns, checking the chambers for obstructions while techs placed flame-resistant dummies at the end of the stalls
Apparently, Mia was a et practice Only, as they fired golden bea where they hit, there was only silence
Was Mia too pissed to speak?
Ava looked at the woet Three shots to the fake man’s chest She looked at Noelle’s Three shots to the face Then she looked at her own Three shots to the groin No, Mia wasn’t pissed Otherwise her dummy would have resembled Noelle’s or Ava’s This was just business as usual And wasn’t that a shocker
Still Ava knew thiswould not end well for her How could it? After last night’s failure, Mia would forbid her to approach McKell To punish hie her curiosity and discover what he’d do next To tamp down her need to peer into those violet eye and … what? She didn’t know
She only knew the desire to see hi So, would she obey an edict to stay away? She didn’t know that, either The , she wanted it back Liar
Okay, okay Most of all she wanted to get her hands on hi about his victory, writing on her chest like that, then leaving her practically naked What a show-off He should be asha would be his
"So …" she began, aiain pictured McKell’s beautiful features as she squeezed the trigger Had he truly been standing at the end of her stall, his sto off or what?"
Because they were using pyre-guns, background noise wasn’t a problem Pyres were as quiet as little church ed her crystal for a bigger one The bigger the crystal, the hotter the burn Working off her stress? Looking at her, that seemed implausible Even with her obviously violent nature, she resembled a ballerina, not a trained assassin Black hair, blue eyes A face more delicate than Ava’s
Despite that face, Mia had earned the respect and yeah, fear of her peers When she spoke, they listened They trusted her to lead theth, saw the spirit of the alpha that lurked at her core Ava wanted that for herself Craved it like a drug
"There are probably a lot of things you don’t know about irl Ava," Noelle said to their boss She’d never been one to back down fro in front of a fireplace, and a new favorite, being written on with butterscotch-flavored lipgloss"
Mia’s lips curved slightly, the echoes of winter in her eyes al to summer "That’s inside info that will come in handy, I’m sure But to be honest, I didn’t command you here so you could listen tothe va to sneak up on hiers Three points for you"
Wait Praise? Fro But … "Contact or not, we failed," Ava said She wouldn’t dress that fact in bows and lace One, two, three, she nailed pretend McKell in quick succession Heart, groin again, and inner thigh Where it h Kiss him? Idiot!
"Believe olden bea ould have been an injury, not a death sentence "But it could have been worse"
"I’m not sure how" McKell had destroyed their ride and stolen their clothes, so she and Noelle had had to walk to the nearest convenience store, commandeer T-shirts and bandanas--all that had been available--and hitch hos the entire way
Funny thing, though She’d felt utterly safe And not just because she kne to protect herself with a skill and precision, and hell, a deterular citizens realized She’d felt so away the bad, yet never turning on her
The vampire? Surely not He’d had his fun, and he’d slipped away in the night