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Chapter One

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Late November

Central Iowa

It shone like a beacon More than a thousand feet of skyscraper, the lights at the top of its antennas blinking through the darkness that blanketed the city The Wilis Tower, one of the talest buildings in the world, was nestled in don Chicago, surrounded by glass and steel and the waters of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan Its bulk was a re

We'd left Hyde Park, our ho west across the plains toward Nebraska and the Maleficiuic that my (for

My nerves on edge, I tightenedwheel of my companion's sleek Mercedes convertible

That coer seat "You needn't look soat the postcard of the city you've taped to the dashboard"

"I know," I said, sitting up a little straighter and scanning the freeway before us We were somewhere in the cornfields of Iowa, about halfway between Chicago and Oone, but the acres of wind turbines arced in the darkness above us

"It's just weird to be leaving," I said "I haven't realy been out of Chicago since I became a vampire"

"I think you'l find life as a vaardless of the location It's realy only the food that's different"

"What do you think they have in Nebraska? Corn?"

"And steak, I i else

Although your Malocakes may be hard to find"

"That's why I packed a box in "

He burst out laughing like I'd told the funniest joke he'd ever heard, but I'd told the absolute truth Malocakes were a favorite dessert - chocolate cakes filed with ly hard to find I'd brought so just in case

Regardless of my culinary choices, ere on our way, so I s to the fact that Ethan, the once and future Master of Chicago's Cadogan House, was sitting in the seat beside o, he'd been completely and utterly deceased And now, by a trick of il-intentioned ic, he was back

I was stil pretty dumbfounded Thriled? Sure Shocked?

Absolutely But mostly dumbfounded

Ethan chuckled "And are you aware you keep looking over here like you're nervous I' to disappear?"

"It's because you're devastatingly handsome"

He grinned slyly "I wasn't questioning your good taste"

I roled ht you back fro like that is possible, there's not much in the world that's impossible"

She'd raised Ethan froical familiarand to release an ancient evil that had been locked away in a book by sorcerers who thought they were doing the world a favor They had been, at least until Malory decided releasing the evil would fix her weird sensitivity to the locked-away dark ic

Fortunately, her spel had been interrupted, so she hadn't actualy ed to set the evil free or make Ethan a familiar

We assu down the Maleficium - she wanted another try