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take his eyes off her. The way she moved, her weight on the tips of her toes, like she was continually trying to make herself just a little bit taller. The slight slouch in her shoulders that rendered that effort useless. The rhythm of her steps, the color of her skin.
    Even knowing that an entire team of Sensors was in the vicinity, Nix couldn’t bring himself to look at anything else. He told himself that it was vigilance, that he was a fox and she was a rabbit, and like any good hunter, he was tracking her every move.
    But the truth was, she was breathtaking.
    He could almost understand why the universe had chosen her to be the type of person who could command love with a snap of her fingers.
    She’s walking toward me. Her footsteps are erratic, like she can’t decide whether to walk or run. I wonder if she knows I’m here. I wonder if she knows I’m watching
.
    I wonder if she knows she’s dead
.
    He decided not to wait for her to come to him. Slipping out of the bushes, Nix faded and walked toward her. She was wearing sunglasses, hiding her soulless eyes from the world, but he could still see them.
    He could see everything, all of her, and he drank it in like a drug.
    His heart began beating faster—
    Less than shadow, less than air. That’s what you have to be to kill my Claire
.
    He flicked his wrist, and the needle appeared in his hand. His was a specially made poison—untraceable, invisible, unreal.
    Just. Like. Him.
    She was within ten steps of him now. He picked up hispace, his arm ready, his fingers shaking with anticipation.
    And then she did it again. She whipped her head up like she’d been electrocuted, and she looked directly at him. Her mouth dropped open in a little O, her body trembled, and then she did the most amazing thing.
    She picked up
her
pace.
    And then they were running at each other, closing the distance between their bodies in a heartbeat. But his arm, the one holding the needle, wouldn’t move, so he did the only thing he could think of to do.
    Instead of slipping poison into her veins when she came within range, he ducked his head and just kept on running—straight toward her. Faded, he should have been able to pass through her body as easily as the door to his room, but he knew that he wouldn’t.
    Couldn’t.
    You have no energy. You can’t affect anyone. Faded, you can’t even touch them
.
    In a fit of impossibility, their bodies collided. Nix’s target went flying through the air and onto the grass, her sunglasses falling from her face. In an instant, he was on top of her.
    So much for his plan to take her by surprise.
    Down the street, the unmarked van started its engine, and Nix knew that he had to move fast. The Sensors probably couldn’t see him through the fade, but chances weregood that they had a lock on her. And if they were moving, that meant that they were coming to take her away.
    “You’re mine,” Nix said fiercely. “I’m the one who kills you.”
    His skin hummed every place that their bodies touched, like a tuning fork, adjusting to the perfect pitch.
    Null
.
    She was doing this to him on purpose. To make him weak. Because she could.
    “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”
    Her questions seemed so human, but he couldn’t let himself forget, even for a second, that she was a monster.
    A monster who said she wanted to know who he was.
    “Nobody,” Nix whispered. “I’m Nobody.”
    For the first time in his life, that felt like a lie. He only had one thing going for him, and she was taking it away.
    “You’re nobody,” the girl beneath him repeated. “Yeah, right.” And then she started laughing hysterically.
    This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to kill her. He was going to kill her, and she was laughing at him.
    Nix raised his hand, his fury propelling the motion, and that was the exact moment that he noticed the redness of her face, the tear tracks on her cheeks. It should have made her ugly, and anything that took away