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"Did I?"

Stormy nodded, stiffened her spine and lifted her chin "Yeah You were right about Brooke, Rhiannon How did you know?"

"We&039;ll get to that What has the little traitor done this ti And the scroll Turns out the dauess our pal Elisabeta decided Brooke was an easier mark, because she&039;s taken over her body now"

Rhiannon&039;s eyebrows arched "Elisabeta is corporeal?"

"Sure as hell felt corporeal when she tried to kill asped, but Stormy waved a hand "Don&039;t worry I kicked her ass and sent her packing"

"Well, that goes without saying, doesn&039;t it? And where is Vlad?" Rhiannon asked

"Last I saw hi her lick her wounds I&039;m done with the both of them"

"I only wish that could be true For your sake, if not for Vlad&039;s"

Stor er have any reason to stay involved in this mess Let him deal with her"

"Stor then and turned toward the doorway from the sunroom to the main part of the house "We have co, Melina and Lupe appeared They came to an abrupt halt when they spotted Rhiannon

"Well," she said in her"We ain Hello, Melina"

"Rhiannon"

Lupe just stared, her eyes wide but watchful Finally she aze from Rhiannon&039;s to focus on Stormy Then she frowned "What happened to you?"

"Later Did you et into Brooke&039;s computer files?"

"Yeah The passas immortality"

Rhiannon sniffed "Brooke has been obsessed with obtaining it for quite some time," she said "And I suppose part of the blas with o"

"The Stiles incident," Melina said "We found her notes in her coo She had planned to steal the formula Frank Stiles developed-the one he believed would make an ordinaryno more

"Would it have worked?"

It had worked Stormy knew that, because the vampires had used it to save the life of Willem Stone And they&039;d learned how to recreate the for as any of theroup had been involved in any ith that case

"Stiles is dead now, according to all reports," Rhiannon said "So apparently his formula didn&039;t work as he&039;d hoped"

Melina nodded slowly, sensing, perhaps, that there wastold Stormy knew instinctively that Rhiannon would never reveal the secret of Willeht she knehy The Sisterhood would likely see hiht decide to do so about it

"Why didn&039;t your friends tellto steal the for our order stands for"

Rhiannon shrugged "You&039;d have to ask theed "Because I don&039;t trust any of you any more than I trust Brooke," Rhiannon said "Besides, does it really matter at this point?"

"What else was in the files?" Stor or the scroll?" She told herself she no longer cared, but she thought a new topicin the roo herself to be distracted for the moment "Brooke believed that when Elisabeta returned to life, she would return with soht soen that Brooke believed Elisabeta had possessed during the course of her natural lifeti her to becoh," Storht it would," Lupe said "She was convinced Elisabeta could co-exist with another soul in the sae for eternal life" Lupe lowered her head "My God, she intends to put on that ring and perfor Elisabeta into her own body"

"She&039;s already done it," Storaped at her She nodded and went on "I just ran into her outside Only she wasn&039;t Brooke She was one hundred percent Elisabeta And I don&039;t know about you, but I know that one I&039;ve lived with her for a long ti that body with Brooke"

"She couldn&039;t if she wanted to," Rhiannon said "Two souls cannot long occupy the sa inon Brooke has no such anchor She&039;s surrendered her own body In your body, Tempest, Elisabeta could only lurk and wait and occasionally take control She wasn&039;t strong enough to drive you out, and the power of the ring kept her froiven herself over Her own soul will shrivel, weaken and fade"

"How soon?" Melina asked

"Melina?" Lupe was searching her e and brown and full of questions

"How soon?" Melina repeated, ignoring Lupe&039;s unspoken question

Rhiannon shrugged "A few days, at most"

"Can we save her?"

"Why would ant to?" Lupe all but shouted her question "Melina, she betrayed us She betrayed the Sisterhood She hit you over the head and left you lying there Why would you want to help her now?"

Melina lowered her eyes "I don&039;t expect you to understand"

"No one could understand It doesn&039;t make any sense," Lupe said

"To ain "Can we save Brooke?"

"Only by exorcising Elisabeta And only after releasing the hold the ring has over her, so she can &039;s hold was dead, now that Brooke has performed the rite," Stormy said

"Not entirely, I fear," Rhiannon replied "If we free Elisabeta fro would still keep her froht very well return to your body, Stor We need to be sure"

"What if we can&039;t do it?" Stormy asked

Rhiannon bit her lip "Then they&039;ll both die Brooke will ain be trapped by the power of that ring Stormy, it&039;s your body Elisabeta needs You are her spiritual descendant, I am convinced of this You&039;re spun from the same collective soul What she&039;s done, it&039;s like like perforan transplant between two incompatible patients It cannot take It cannot last"

Storood luck with that I&039;er concerns me"

"I&039;m afraid it does, Stor the vaive

"She&039;ll realize soon enough that Brooke&039;s body cannot hold her And when she does, she&039;ll co and the scroll"

And Vlad, Storht She has Vlad, too And if he realized his precious as dying in Brooke&039;s body, that she needed hers to survive, he h as she was, she knew she wouldn&039;t stand a chance Not against both of them

"And there&039;s the deadline If her soul isn&039;t at peace, either fully re-established in a living body or fully relieved of the burden of physical life, she&039;ll die And so will you, Storht"

Stormy closed her eyes, lowered her head "Fine I&039;ot what she asked for, as far as I&039;m concerned" She recalled Lupe&039;s words earlier, about her having no idea ould happen to her if Melina found out she had shared the Sisterhood&039;s secrets with Stormy "And from what I understand about the Sisterhood of Athena&039;s rules and regs," she went on, "she&039;s going to end up being executed anyway Aaped briefly, then looked away, refusing to answer

"So I&039;ht on that one There&039;s no point No one leaves this organization And I&039; Elisabeta, so her soul can move on to eternal bliss All I want to do is kill the bitch Once and for all I want her dead"

"It a," Rhiannon said

"Then let&039;s do it"

"We&039;re going to have to get her here," Rhiannon said "We need to convince Vlad And I think, Stormy, that you are the only one who can do that"

She lowered her head "He won&039;t listen to ed "I&039;ve been wondering, Stormy, why it is I like you, when I have little tolerance for most of your kind And I&039;ve come to the reluctant conclusion that it&039;s because you remind me of myself"

Stormy met the woman&039;s dark eyes "Is that a co now if I rong about that Because, frankly, I would never stand by and let soht"

Stor Elisabeta for sixteen years"

"Yes, you have So what&039;s oneht She was going to love Vlad forever, win or lose She ive it one last try Pride be damned Her life was on the line here "What do you wantat a house, a vacant one, twothis very road I sensed his presence there when I arrived Go to him, Stormy Talk to him Make him see that this is the only way"

She licked her lips, then nodded "I think I&039;ll walk I could use the air"