"Sorry." She felt herself flushing again, likely a darker blue hue. Playing the ingenue had been second-nature back home, but she genuinely felt badly about making someone she just met seem to feel awkward.

Her mother, her great-grandmother, her great-great-grandmother? All of them would have capitalized on it and made him feel worse. But Tinya had been on the other side of them too many times to feel okay about doing it to someone else. Now that she knew better.

"Actually, I'm a Night Walker here. Though, I've been trained in weapons and self-defense since I was able to stand upright. Here, I study with Terry Silver, I'm sure he'd vouch for me."