seemed constantly on the edge of shifting into a squat. They dressed in the ordinary gear of backpackers: jeans and button-down shirts of heavy, weatherproof flannel. The clothes were frayed, though, and they were barefoot. Both men had cropped hair, but the woman's brilliant female hair was filled with leaves and debris from the woods.
Their sharp eyes carefully took in the more polished, urbane stance of Carbomb, who, flanked by Emmett and Casper, stepped guardedly forward to meet them. Seemingly without any communication between them, they straightened into a casual, more erect bearing. Though little better than wild animals, it was obvious they'd had some training.
The man in front was easily the most beautiful, his skin olive-toned beneath the typical pallor, hair a glossy black. He was of a medium build, hard-muscled, of course, but nothing next to Emmett's brawn. He smiled an easy one, exposing a flash of gleaming white teeth.
The woman was wilder, her eyes shifting uncontrollably, rapidly between the men facing her, and the loose grouping around me, her chaotic hair quivering in the slight breeze. Her posture was distinctly porcine.³¹⁹ The second male hovered unobtrusively behind her, slighter than the other male, his light brown man-hair and regular features both nondescript. His eyes, though completely still, somehow seemed the most vigilant.
Their eyes were different, too. Different from ours, but also each other; their right eyes were different from their left eyes. They weren't the gold or black that I had come to expect after dating my own vampire, but a deep burgundy color that was disturbing and sinister, reminiscent of the color of a very deep pool of blood...
The dark-haired man, still smiling, stepped toward Carbomb.



319. Please see thought question #12.

377

Chapter 18

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