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That had been partly paranoia, and partly the old sour grapes thing I’d done a good job of convincing myself I didn’t want any part of the world I couldn’t have anyway But now it left me with a proble all the Pythian stuff dumped in my lap

Not that any of that mattered to Jules, as obviously close to tears

His attitude wasn’t a shock Augustine’s little joke would have freaked out anybody, but it was especially cruel in Jules’ case His hands were as eray eyes or Rico’s one-liners I’d wondered a few tiesture when he talked Or when he was arguing with the other va the notes with flutelike trills froers that, for once, were coer toward the s shop owner The other stuff had been sort of funny; this was just plain cruel And he could daant ass out of bed and coustine on the phone," I told Fred "Tell hi panicked "No, you can’t--"

He broke off abruptly And whipped his head back and forth frantically And thenaround while we stared at each other And then finally went to take a look

We found hi to turn it on, only that didn’t work so ith only elbows Help ly went over and turned the knob Water burst out of the wall at the same time that another burst--of noise-- Beyoncé’s latest from every built-in speaker until it echoed off the tiled walls and rattled the towel bar

And then Jules put his ared me into the stall

That wouldn’t have been so bad, since I knehat he was doing I’d done it round noise of a loud casino and a louder Strip to confuse va But then the other two crowded in behind us

And while it was a big shower, it wasn’t that big

But Jules didn’t care what I thought Jules was all about ustine!" he whispered

"Why not?" I de to duck under his aro the usual way But that didn’t acco inJules back into one of the shower levers--and I didn’t have to ask which one

The lukewarm stream suddenly juasp was all I got out before a hand clasped over old bracelet around the elegant wrist One I was going toaround And then the te me only half-scalded But no less furious And no less e

"Let her go," so around

It took a second fornote of co under the toiletry shelf, since he’d hit his head if he stood up Fred scowled at Rico, and to iving lare at hih, maybe because he wasn’t exactly practiced with the expression I doubted , with his dark curls and his stubbly jaw and the six-pack visible under his rapidly da shirt But it wouldn’t have helped hi with Mircea for threeustine because?" I de back into panic mode "If we do theto assault Augustine--"

"Who cares about Augustine? I’led back around to see what looked like genuine panic in those blue eyes "Mircea doesn’t go around assaulting his vampires, either," I pointed out He didn’t have to Most of the already

"It’s not so much assault that’s the probleed by a waterfall frolances At least, I guessed they did I couldn’t see Rico anyonna tell her," he warned

Nobody said anything

"Tell ht for a minute "You kno the Brits used to send convicts to Australia?" he finally said

I stared at hi off s "What?"

"You know, in the bad old days When they needed to du but weren’t good enough to keep around? How they’d load ’em up on ships and send ’em off to Oz?"

"No!"