"Strong...and generous, to think of others." Claudia's little smile was remote, a private amusement behind it. What generosity she could not comprehend herself, something essentially mortal that she did not have. A doll's cold expression, fangs hidden behind lips pressed together, shell-pink and perfect.

She lifted her arms, a child's demand to be lifted, tiny found-fingered hands, arms shaped still like the chubby rounded arms of a mortal child. "Help me up?" she asked, so softly, guileless as she had learned to lure mortals in, blue eyes so wide. The kinder their hearts were, the easier it was for them to fall for her little-girl guise.

So few ever saw the predator beneath...but he was interesting. She didn't think she'd kill him.