"Could you give us a few minutes, so she can change?" she asked with as friendly a smile as she could manage at the strange teen.

"Yeah. We need to talk." It wasn't a request

"Um, sure," she said, startled as much by the statement as the commanding delivery. "Ash, we'll be back, okay?"

Her cousin nodded. Jessi went to the door, crossing her arms at the weird charge around the kid named Jonny. It made the hair on her forearms stand up. They exited into the hallway, and she closed the door behind her, standing protectively in front of it.

"I want to make you a deal," Jonny started.

Jessi listened, confused.

"You have a skill you're probably not aware of, but which I need," he said with pensive slowness. "You use your talent to help me, and I leave your family alone."

Her mouth dropped open at the blatant threat.

"You live at 537 S. 29th, Apartment 22. Your cousins attend the Day School two blocks down. I know where you work, your schedules, the plate number of your ten-year-old Hyundai. I know what time of day you brush your hair," he said in the same calm tone. "My friends were gentle with Ash last night, at my request. They don't have to be. I don't have to be. Your cousins can simply never return from school one day."

The strange teen with the dead gaze was serious.

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"Wait, you did this to Ashley?" Jessi demanded.

"One of my guys did. I could've let her bleed out or let them finish her off," he replied. "Next time, sweet Ashley won't survive."

"What the hell is going on?" She searched his gaze.

"I want you to realize how serious this situation is," he replied, still calm. "You have a skill. You'll use it. Or your cousins won't survive the week."

This had to be a dream. Jessi waited to see if she'd wake up instead of standing in the hallway, being threatened by a kid a little older than Brandon.

"It's not that bad," Jonny said. "Just do what I tell you. Everything will be fine."

Why didn't she believe that?

"This can't be real. You put my cousin in a room with a rabid dog to coerce me to … do something?" she managed.

"Not a rabid dog." He said no more but bared his teeth. She stared at him for a moment before registering that his canines were growing. And growing. Like some sort of special effect on a horror movie. They couldn't be real. He had to be … faking it.

Somehow. They certainly appeared real.

At her silence, Jonny took her hand. His touch was like shocking herself, and she jumped. It was the first sensation that pulled her from her thoughts. The second: when he sank his teeth into the meaty part of her palm. Hot fire flew threw her. She jerked away and stared. Blood welled.




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