"Uh," says Jake. "I don't know. A twelve-year-old human can't really physically hurt her... even if he got ahold of some vampire's tooth or something he'd have to have a way around the wards."

"I'm sufficiently full of distressing memories that it would be hard, but if he could think of something sufficiently awful to say to me that I cried," says Elspeth, "Jake would explode."

Jake wraps his arms protectively around Elspeth. He is about three times her size, so this is pretty cute.