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  “What? What is it?” Grav looked at me, genuinely concerned. “What’s wrong, darlin’—you look like you’re gonna be sick. Is it the smell?”

  “No.” I shook my head, my hand falling from my nose. The smell of the rotting meat was as awful as ever but I barely noticed it. “I just realized something,” I told Grav. “Something I forgot—something I should have done.”

  “Well, we’ll have to deal with it once we get back to the ship. In the mean time—”

  “Grav?” The soft voice was so weak I could barely hear it. But Grav’s ears pricked up at once and he turned to the place the voice had come from—the dark doorway behind the meat freezer.

  “Teeny?” He pulled his shirt down and peered inside, his deep voice hopeful. “Teeny, is that you?”

  “Grav?” It was a soft, kittenish voice that twisted my heart in my chest—the voice of a little lost girl who’d been hurt and betrayed so many times she was almost afraid to hope anymore.

  Grav stooped to look further into the dark space.

  “Come out, sweetheart. It’s just me,” he rumbled. “Been looking all over for you.”

  “I don’t want to come out.” There was an edge of terror to her voice now but I thought I could see something moving in the darkness. Despite her words, a pair of big violet eyes appeared, gorgeously framed by long black lashes.

  “You don’t have to be afraid, Teeny,” Grav murmured coaxingly. “It’s okay—the pirates are dead. Everybody who hurt you is gone. It’s just me and Leah here and she’s all right—she helped me find you.”

  “I’m not afraid of Arn and his crew—I know they’re dead.” The big eyes blinked but as yet, I couldn’t see any more of her. “I heard the Imperial soldiers shoot them.”

  “Why didn’t you come out and tell them who you were?” Grav asked. “The Gold Skins can be bastards but they won’t hurt an innocent female. You know that.”

  “I was afraid to come out,” Teeny whispered. “I was afraid…afraid they would shoot me too.”

  “Why would they do that?” I asked, speaking up for the first time. “You’re not a pirate—you’re a little girl. Captain Verrai wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “He would if he saw.” Finally, Teeny sidled into the light. Stooping, she came out from the dark hole hidden behind the meat freezer.

  Her long black hair was matted and her clothes were filthy with dirt and cobwebs. There were dark circles under her big eyes and her pale green skin had a grayish cast that spoke of weeks of malnourishment and neglect.

  Poor little thing! I could only imagine how horrible it must have been for her, hearing the shots fired and the sounds of dying men and later waiting in the darkness, smelling the stink of decay…

  “You thought he’d shoot you if he saw what?” Grav asked. His deep voice was a mixture of impatience and tenderness.

  “If he saw this.”

  Teeny held out one slender arm. On it was an oval ring of bite marks. Black lines like lines of blood poisoning radiated out from it, running up the length of her arm in both directions.

  “He bit me—one of the Biters bit me,” Teeny whispered. “And now…now I’m going to be a Biter too.” Her big eyes filled with tears which ran down over her pale, trembling cheeks. “Oh, Grav,” she whispered, looking up at him. “I’m so glad you found me again but this time you’re too late. You’re too late.”

  And then she began to sob in earnest.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Leah

  I hadn’t seen Grav cry before—and he didn’t exactly cry now. But his white-on-black eyes were suspiciously bright as he took Teeny in his arms.

  “Hush. Just hush, now sweetheart,” he murmured, stroking her matted black hair as he held her tight. “Everything’s going to be all right. I swear it is.”

  But I could tell that he was lying.

  Teeny clung to him and cried as if her heart would break and I could see that Grav’s was breaking too. He held her tight, his broad shoulders hunched with misery.

  At last she pulled away, her long lashes matted with tears.

  “Grav,” she whispered. “I don’t…don’t want to be like the Biters.”

  “You won’t be, sweetheart,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t let that happen to you.”

  “You won’t be able to help it. Grav…I saw what happens when someone gets bitten. I watched it when one of the Biters got his collar off and bit one of Arn’s crew.” Teeny swiped at her eyes. “Within a week he was a Biter himself—the Hunger took him and he didn’t know anybody anymore. They…they had to put a collar on him but that only controls them—it doesn’t bring their mind back. Once the Hunger takes you, you’re gone.”

  “Teeny, sweetheart—” Grav began but Teeny kept talking.

  “Grav, I was bitten four days ago,” she said. “And I can already feel it growing inside me. I…I won’t last much longer. Not as me.”

  When I’d seen Teeny on the recording her grandfather had showed us, I had pegged her for around ten years old. Now I saw she must be closer to thirteen. There was an unusual maturity in her violet eyes—a determination and understanding that wouldn’t have been possible in a younger child.

  “Sweetheart,” Grav began again, but before he could get any further, Teeny was in motion.

  Quick as a flash, she grabbed the ugly snub-nosed blaster he had tucked in the belt at his waist and pointed it at her own delicate temple.

  “Teeny, no!” Grav roared, reaching for her.

  She leaped nimbly away, backing out of the kitchen, the blaster still aimed at her head.

  “I have to do it—please, Grav, try to understand.” Her voice was high and desperate. “You know how grandpapa is—he’ll make me wear a collar. He’ll keep me alive even after I’m not me anymore. I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to eat raw meat and have the Hunger burning me up from the inside out all the time!”

  “Teeny, don’t do this—please,” he begged, following her out of the kitchen. “Listen to me—just listen.”

  “No, you listen!” She took another step back, into the living area with its broken, overturned furniture and blood-smeared walls. “Just tell grandpapa you found me like this. And tell him…tell him I…I love him.”

  There were tears running down her pale cheeks again but she was keeping her chin up and I could see the determination in her eyes.

  “Give me the blaster, Teeny.” Grav held out a big hand. “Give it to me, now. Don’t do this.”

  “You know what I’m saying is true,” she whispered. “You know there’s no cure!”

  “Maybe there is,” I said, speaking up for the first time.

  Grav and Teeny both looked at me incredulously.

  “What…what do you mean?” she asked, hope and uncertainty warring in her big violet eyes.

  “I mean I’m a La-ti-zal,” I said, looking her in the eye. “And I’m a Healer.”

  Which was probably stretching the truth a little—okay, a lot—seeing as how I had only healed Grav twice and both times were after we’d been intimate. I didn’t know if I could heal anyone else besides him but I had to try. It was that or watch poor Teeny blast her head off!

  “Is that right?” Teeny was looking at Grav, not me. “Is she telling the truth?”

  “Actually, yes—she is.” There was uncertain hope in his eyes too when he looked at me. “Leah healed me twice. Once from acid and electric burns and once from a knife wound. See?” He held out one muscular forearm. “Didn’t even have a scar when she was done.”

  “Well…” Teeny took a step back from us but the blaster she held at her temple was sagging. “I…I don’t know.”

  “Just let me try to help you,” I said coaxingly.

  She looked at Grav again and he nodded.

  “Let her try, Teeny. And if…if she can’t heal you, I…” He swallowed hard. “I swear I’ll take you out myself. If that’s what you really want.”