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"Sometimes I'm not sure, but ituy"

"So you're bisexual?"

"If what they're doing now counts as sex, yeah If it doesn't then" he laughed, and the sound was so abrupt in the silence that I saw Zane and Jamil jump "If this doesn't count as sex, let's just say that 'where no er applies"

Damned if I didn't want to ask who it had been Maybe I would have asked, but Cherry spoke and thethisweaker, but he's not"

Asher drew back fro out the corruption" He stood one hand under Nathaniel's thigh Hehis li child A moment before, it had been utterly sexual; now there was so in the way Asher acted that was tender, careful

Damian pulled away from the wound There was a spot on his lip, not red, but black I wondered if it had tasted bad He wiped the spot aith the back of his hand If it had been pure blood he'd have licked it off So it hadn't been pleasant

He crawled out fro him carefully on his back He drew covers over Nathaniel as he moved off the bed

Cherry had her first aid kit open She recleaned the chest wounds with antibacterial antiseptic The first few sterile cloths came away smeared with pus We'd allit The s When the skin and wounds were coht red blood welled into the slashes

Cherry flashed the rooht that you had to sht" She sounded surprised, and I wondered how close it had been

So breath I turned to the sound Da at his hands That pale,under the skin The flesh of his hands began to peel back while atched

14

"Shit," I said

Damian held his hands out to me like a child that had burned its hand I didn't knohich orse, the terror in his face or the alned look in his eyes

I shook my head "No," I said, but er

"You cannot stop it," Asher said

Da flesh of his hands, soft horror on his face "Help me," he said, and he looked to me

I stared down at him and didn't have the faintest idea how to save him "What can we do?" I said

"I know you are accusto the day, Anita, but some battles cannot be won," Asher said

Da at his hands He ripped his shirt off in pieces, leaving re flesh was halfway to his elbows A fingernail split and fell to the floor with a burst of so dark and noisome The smell was back, sweet and sickly

"I healed Damian once of a facial cut," I said

Da , Anita" He shifted his gaze fro flesh of his hands to me "Even you can't heal this"

I dropped toout to touch his hands Damian jerked away "Don't touch me!"

I put my hands over his hands The skin felt al him from the inside out The skin was soft as if, if I pressed too hard the skin would give way like a rotted spot in an apple

My throat was tight "Damian, I'msorry" Dear God, it was an inadequate word A thousand years of "life" and he'd given it up for me He would never have taken such a risk if I had not asked It was my fault

The look in his eyes was grateful, and pain-filled He pulled his hands gently out froainst ers would sink through his skin and into the flesh inside

His face twisted in pain, and a small sound escaped his lips I remembered Nathaniel's cries of how it had hurt

The ends of his fingers burst like overripe fruit, spilling soreenish onto the floor It spatteredwaves