I'm aroslav.KATE: Are you some kind of professor?aroslav: Sort of, but that's not why I'm here.KATE: They said an interview. What do you want to know?...aroslav: All about what makes you Kate.KATE: Are you a stalker?aroslav: No. Just a friend of Tony's.KATE: Okay. But you are kinda old and creepy.aroslav: Noted. Now how about we start with your full name.KATE: Katarina Mirela Holsinger.aroslav: That's a nice German name.KATE: Austrian surname. A hundred years ago. Great-great somebody emigrated. My plan.”“I like you,” I said, tightening my grip on my sickle. “Cocky and brash to the end.”Princess AvaThe lamia crashed into me. I gasped as she smashed the pointed end of her stone into my face. I shuddered, feeling the proxy shivering beneath the impact. Her attack hit with force, and alabaster wasn’t the strongest of stone.What made it easy to shape into pleasing forms also proved its undoing here. I grabbed her waist, struggling to push her off, but her legs squeezed about my torso. She. It seemed like an eternity before she took her gaze off my tits, “Yeah?” Her eyes shot darts at me. It was amusing. “I made these cookies for you and . . . are you living here alone?” I spoke loudly so as to get Kevin’s attention from the other room. This clearly bothered Cindy (as I learned her name was), but she had no choice but to introduce us when he stumbled into the foyer to say hi. From the looks of his beer-gut, he’d most likely just followed the scent of cookies, but his mouth. I immediately found Toni from across the room. She had a way to stand out in a crowd. It was as if the light in the room somehow concentrated and coalesced around her. She was holding on to Jacob’s arm as he played craps. His wife Linda was on the other side of him, sipping a cocktail. Toni glanced up, and she smiled to let me know she was alright.I wandered around the room, smiling and greeting people, shaking hands, giving fake cheek-kisses and patting people on the back with a lot of “Merry.