LITMIR.BIZ

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moment, chewing on her lower lip. “If you’re…one of them, why did you help me?”

      “You mean, those old, outdated prejudices?” Allie buffed her nails on her thigh. “They bore me.”

      “Oh.” Another thought captured her attention. “Do you know any other loups-garous?”

      Once more Allie thought of golden eyes and a strong, grave face. “Not many.”

      “I’ve never met anyone from the pack,” Ruby said eagerly. “My brother won’t let me.”

      “Your brother?”

      “Gerald. Gerald Dubois.”

      “Don’t know him. Anyway, I thought all werewolves belonged to the pack.”

      “Not us.” She sighed. “My brother doesn’t trust many people. He likes living alone.”

      It was painfully obvious that Ruby was desperate to confide in someone, desperate enough that she would reveal all sorts of personal information to the first person who seemed to be on her side. Allie found herself prepared to encourage the girl for reasons she couldn’t quite acknowledge.

      “What’s he like, your brother—besides being so eager to protect you?”

      “He’s always serious. He almost never laughs. I know a lot of it’s because of the War. He was my age when he went over. I hardly remember what he was like before.” She ran her finger through a puddle of whiskey on the table. “He wants me to marry a rich man and become a member of New York society.”

      “Human society?”

      “He thinks I’ll be safer that way.”

      “Because he doesn’t trust other werewolves.”

      “Yes.”

      “But you want to be one of them.”

      “I want to be free.”

      Allie felt an unwelcome stab of pity. She knewwhat itwas like to feel trapped, confined to a narrowlife with the obliviousworld going past you day after day. She’d been confined by her own body. Ruby was being asked—by her own kin, no less—to deny her very nature.

      They had more in common than Allie cared to admit.

      “Don’t worry, kid,” she said gently, “when you’re a little older, you’ll find a way to become what you were meant to be.”

      Ruby sat straighter in her chair, as if bracing for an argument. “Will you teach me?”

      “Teach you what?”

      “To be like you.” She scooted forward, the pulse beating fast at the base of her throat. “To be beautiful and sophisticated and free.”

      At another time Allie might have been amused, but the situation was beginning to get far too complicated. “I don’t take apprentices,” she said. “And your brother…”

      “But he doesn’t have to find out! I was careful. Miss Spires is on my side. We’re not far from the train station, so it’s easy for me to get here.”

      “And easy for you to get into trouble.”

      Ruby lifted her chin. “It’s better to take risks and try new things than spend your whole life afraid of anything different.”

      Like your brother is afraid, Allie thought. She leaned back in her chair. “You’re right,” she said, “you can’t spend your life running away.”

      “Then you’ll let me stay, just for tonight? I promise I won’t be any bother.”

      “Oh, let her, Allie,” Pepper said, returning to the table. “No one is goin’ to bother her now.”

      “Sure,” Jimmy said, sprawling into an empty chair. “Poor kid probably never has any fun.” He grinned at Ruby. “Where d’you live, infant?”

      “On Long Island,” Ruby said, gazing at Jimmy’s platinum hair.

      “There you go,” Jimmy said. “Give her a break, Allie.”

      Sibella pulled up another chair and took the pencil out of her mouth. “I’d like to sketch her,” she said.

      “And I,” Kolya announced, “shall compose a poem on the death of innocence. She must remain as my inspiration.”

      Allie frowned. It wasn’t as if Ruby—if that was really her name, which she doubted—would suffer any real harm from remaining with the group for a few more hours, now that she’d gotten through the worst of the night. And if “Gerald Dubois” really did have her future planned out for her—which Allie didn’t doubt in the least—she wouldn’t deny the girl the chance to experience a little precious freedom beforehand.

      “All right,” she said. “You can stay. As long as you don’t give me any grief when it’s time to go home.”

      Ruby grinned. “I won’t, I promise!” She practically danced with excitement, all memories of her ugly encounter with Greco happily forgotten. Everyone crowded close to welcome her into Allie’s circle.

      The night was loud, bright and raucous. Pepper set about teaching Ruby the Charleston, whileKolya drank vodka and scribbled scraps of poetry on his notepad. Allie showed her howto apply lipstick with a fewquick strokes of the finger and coached her in how to kick a troublesome skirt chaser in the groin. The girl learned quickly, her innocent charm and unfeigned pleasure a surprisingly welcome change in such a jaded atmosphere.

      Allie had been naive in many ways when Cato had Converted her. Ruby aroused feelings she’d almost forgotten…just like Griffin Durant. And maybe that wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.

      By 3:00 a.m. Allie was beginning to regret that she would have to send Ruby home. She pushed through the gang of admirers who had become a permanent fixture around the girl and found Pepper standing over Ruby with a pair of shears in her hands. Half of Ruby’s luxuriant brown tresses lay on the ground at her feet; the other half still hung over her shoulders.

      “There, now,” Pepper said. “We’re halfway there…”

      “Pepper!” Allie snatched the shears out of Pepper’s hands. “What do you think you’re doing?”

      Pepper’s small pink mouth dropped open. “Why, I…Ruby wanted a nice little bob, and I’ve had some experience with—”

      “With angry brothers?” Allie stood in front of Ruby, hands on her hips. “This was your idea?”

      Ruby was utterly unrepentant. “I hate my hair. I want it to be short, like everyone else’s. What’s wrong with that?”

      “I thought the idea was to hide tonight’s adventures from your brother? That won’t exactly be possible now, will it?”

      “I’ll tell him I just went to a barbershop.”

      “In the middle of the night? I’m sure that will appease him.” Allie weighed the shears in her hand. “You don’t mind if I finish it, Pepper?”

      Pepper stepped back, and Allie took her place behind Ruby. She was just putting the finishing touches on Ruby’s new bob when a sudden commotion began at Lulu’s front door. The doorman and a couple of bouncers were attempting to prevent a man from entering, but it was quickly obvious that they were having little success. The man cast them off like a dog shaking water from its coat and charged into the room, looking sharply this way and that.

      Ruby let out a soft gasp and started up from her chair. Allie didn’t have to study the newcomer to know who he was or why he was here. Her heart began to race with unaccustomed anticipation.

      She steered Ruby back to the table, took her own seat and waited while her friends settled around her. An instant later the newcomer’s eyes found Allie—yellow eyes filled with startling intensity and seething

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