A Perfect Blood

sweet innocence and a will of iron. Escaping her father to play with the demon.”
    “You!” Ceri said, and then her face became alarmed when Lucy shrieked in delight, her pace bobbling as her path became clearer. She was headed for Al, not Ceri.
    Trent’s hands spread wide in dismay as he hovered behind her, not wanting to ruin her first steps, but not wanting her to touch Al, either.
    “Me,” Al said. “The big bad demon.”
    “Begone, demon,” Ceri said, her expression holding fear as well as delight at Lucy’s success. “Your work here is done.”
    Al smiled, the dim light making shadows where there should be none as he leaned toward Lucy while she squealed in delight and tipped forward. Trent lunged, but it was too late, and Al calmly reached forward and caught her as if he’d been doing it all his life.
    “Done? No,” Al said as Trent snatched her back, but the damage had been wrought, and the girls were clearly not afraid of him. “I do believe that it is just the beginning.”

Also by Kim Harrison
    Books of the Hollows
    Pale Demon
    Black Magic Sanction
    White Witch, Black Curse
    The Outlaw Demon Wails
    For a Few Demons More
    A Fistful of Charms
    Every Which Way But Dead
    The Good, the Bad, and the Undead
    Dead Witch Walking
    And Don’t Miss
    The Hollows Insider
    Unbound
    Something Deadly This Way Comes
    Early to Death, Early to Rise
    Once Dead, Twice Shy
    Holidays Are Hell
    Dates from Hell

Copyright
    This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    A PERFECT BLOOD. Copyright © 2012 by Kim Harrison. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
    FIRST EDITION
    ISBN 978-0-06-195789-5 (hardcover)
    ISBN 978-0-06-212818-8 (international edition)
    Epub Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780062101020
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