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“What’s that for?” Robert asked, nervous.

“Just in case I need it,” she answered. She moved so her back was to a wall, and crossed her arms. She could defend herself if necessary, but she didn’t want to start a fight if Nikolas was going to help Kristin.

“You just carry that thing around?”

“This and two others,” Sarah answered. “Sometimes more. It depends whether the knife sheaths match my outfit.”

Robert looked at her as if she might be crazy, but then seemed to realize she was making a joke. He didn’t realize that she was also telling the complete truth — she tried to wear as many knives as her outfit would safely hide.

Then Nissa reappeared with Nikolas and everything happened at once.

Robert’s eyes narrowed as he realized who Nikolas must be — black and white.

Sarah and Nikolas locked glares, and he took a step toward her.

Nissa stepped between Nikolas and Sarah.

Kristin vaulted across the room and fell at Nikolas’s feet.

Nikolas’s attention snapped away from Sarah as he pulled Kristin up, looking at her quizzically Sarah could see recognition in his eyes.

“Christine,” he recalled aloud.

The girl did not argue the name, but instead nodded, leaning against him. Nikolas tensed for a moment, and then put a comforting arm around her, looking over her to where Robert was standing.

“You’re the brother?” Robert nodded. “I sent Christine home. What happened to her?”

Robert opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. “I thought …”

“She told us what happened up until you sent her off,” Sarah said. “Then she broke down, hysterical. Nissa said Kaleo did this.” Since when did Nikolas turn into a cuddly sweetheart? Sarah wondered cynically seeing the tenderness with which Nikolas held Kristin.

Nikolas’s eyes narrowed. “It would be like him.” He looked around the room, taking in the lack of color, perhaps seeing even more in it than Sarah had. “This isn’t his, though … Kaleo likes color, especially red.”

Kristin shivered, and put her head down on Nikolas’s chest, crying.

“She can’t stand color anymore,” Robert explained, watching his sister in Nikolas’s gentle embrace. “She screams at anything red.”

Nikolas nodded, and then returned his attention to Kristin, lifting her face.

“What happened after I sent you away, Christine?”

She shook her head violently. “No, no —”

“Christine, look at me!” Nikolas ordered. He put his hands on her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze. Sarah heard the echo of his voice in her own mind, and she could tell that Nikolas was forcing his words into Kristin’s mind as he spoke aloud. “You’re … safe, Christine. No one is going to hurt you. Calm down.”

Kristin relaxed a bit as his mind reached into hers, speaking his words directly to her thoughts.

“Now tell me what happened.”

“No, I —” She broke off, finally looking away from his black eyes. “You sent me away, and he took me outside … he said you didn’t care what happened to me …”

“Go on.”

“And he … he bit me, but it wasn’t like when you bit me, it hurt …” She moaned. “I tried to push him away but it just hurt more …”

She collapsed back into sobs and he put his arms around her, comforting. He ran his fingers through her hair, and Sarah saw him hesitate when he noticed the dye.

“Go on, Christine. He isn’t here; it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“I think I blacked out, and when I woke up I was in a hospital, and people were asking me questions, about you. That’s all they cared about. The police thought you had hurt me, and I told them no, you tried to send me home, but no one would believe me. And they had an IV in me, and the blood was so red …”

She was babbling now, but Nikolas simply held her, looking over her shoulder as if he couldn’t stand to see the mess she had become.

“Christine,” he said, looking her in the eye. “It’s over now —”

“No!” She screamed it. “They keep telling me it’s over… that there’s nothing to be afraid of, that … but it is’t… it is’t …”

Now she did collapse, and Nikolas caught her easily. He whispered into her ear and she moaned in unconsciousness. Suddenly his eyes narrowed as he found something