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“You can’t get here faster? What the fuck are you doing?”

“You can’t handle one seer pup?” Black retorted. “What is she doing? Staring at you adoringly to death? Calling you pretty again?”

Nick bit his lip. His fangs extended as anger heated his chest.

He was tempted to tell Black exactly what she’d been doing, but something in him couldn’t do it. He didn’t want to embarrass her.

He also didn’t particularly want it to get back to Jem.

He forced himself to take a breath, still staring at the wall.

He clicked off the comm with Black

He aimed his words at the girl without looking at her.

“Look, no one’s blaming you for being confused, kid,” he said, forcing his voice calm. “We don’t blame you for not knowing how we do things here, or for trying to relate to us the way you used to relate to…” He cut himself off, still staring at the wall. “But we’re not like the people in that house where we found you. We’re not like Lucian Rucker. None of us are.” He cleared his throat. “It’s not just me. It’s anyone here. You can’t just climb into people’s beds and start taking off their clothes. It’s not appropriate, and––”

“I’m not confused,” she cut in, her voice harder again, back to that more adult, eerily cultured-sounding voice. “And I’m not akid.”

“I’m not saying it as an insult––”

“Maybe you should ask Luc if he saw me as a kid,” she shot back.

Nick felt his fangs extend. He growled, “I don’t consider ‘Luc’ to be the judge of anything decent or right. I wouldn’t take his word on much of anything––”

“Well, at least he didn’t pretend he didn’t want me when he did,” she retorted.

Nick started to say something back, something he’d definitely regret, but he swallowed it.

He subdued his voice.

“If I were you,” he muttered in a low growl. “I wouldn’t view anything that fucker did or said as some standard for ‘normality.’ Like I said, we aren’t like him here. None of us are. If you tried that on Black or one of the others here, you’d get the same reaction you did from me. That’s true of any person in this building.”

She flushed bright pink. She opened her mouth, closed it.

“Why would I try it on one of them?” She sounded near tears. “Is that what you think of me? That I’m just somewhorewho gives herself to anyone?”

Nick flinched in shock. He opened his mouth, closed it.

Gods-damn it. This is why he neededMiriamhere. Of course he couldn’t be trusted to say the right thing.

He weighed back and forth whether to apologize, then shrugged.

“Again… what I’m saying is absolutely no reflection on you,” he said, falling somewhere in the middle. “I’m just saying… you shouldn’t be climbing intoanyone’sbed right now, Aura. Whether it’s me or anyone else doesn’t matter. You’re morethan that. You’re too young to see it, maybe, but that’s the least important thing in your life right now. You should be hanging out with other kids, enjoying being young––”

She let out a laugh.

The laugh was so bitter-sounding, Nick winced.

He opened his mouth, about to try and back-pedal, or maybe direct the conversation somewhere else, when the front door to the apartment opened sharply.

Black strode in, frowned. He reached for the light switch and hit it on. Nick hadn’t fully realized how dark it was in there until he had. He could see in the dark, almost better than in full light, and the girl hadn’t seemed to have any trouble seeing him, either.

Miri walked in behind her husband, then came to a dead stop, letting out a quiet, shocked gasp when she saw Aura standing there, entirely nude.

Black came to a dead stop, too.

Then Nick saw the third person to walk in after Miriam.