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Right
I ate fast, grabbing a muffin I found in a small stack next to the coffeemaker, then I sipped coffee while I searched the Internet There was als within the seely endless streams of data on the web I needed to confine rabbed my cell phone and hit Parker’s nas, and a deep voice answered
"Parker I need your login info for the database"
"I don’t know if--"
"It’s fine, Parker Really I just need to do soers behind my back
The new recruit, still in his first year on the job, hesitated for a second longer, then rattled off the infor up before he could ask h partner A lycan in his early twenties Enthusiastic about his job A decent investigator Easily led
Guilt pressed against the back ofmy influence as his senior partner It was an abuse of power An abuse of the crush he so obviously had on et
The OWEA database access wasn’t fully enabled from a personal laptop hooked up outside of an OWEA office, but I could access the records I needed--the "Ite irons first, but there were dozens of records, far more than I expected I narrowed down the search further by adding in the term "ritual"
Seventeen items remained The first four proved to be standard irons, where the designs themselves weren’t important to the ritual in which they’d been used--it had been the pain that mattered The next tisted my stomach, and ns weren’t important in those either, but the attackers had used their initials to brand their victi irons, sto at each picture, at each description Finally, after looking at fourteen irons where the brand syy didn’t seem relevant to the actual crime, I hit pay dirt
The symbol of the brand used to mark a man in Butte, Montana, nearly a decade before wasn’t at all similar to the one Claude had had me touch, but the symbol was relevant--scratch that, necessary--for the ritual it was used to coot me
The symbol allowed the woy, like a vah a blood drain, or a succubus could do with sex The woman who had branded him simply had to touch the branded flesh with a bit of her blood to activate the ic she could then activate whenever she wanted froy
My breath caught A shaman
But shamans didn’t tend to deal inwouldn’t be easy for theinvolved in this
The sound of a door clicking shut had er possessed, and wouldn’t have again until I was back on official duty
"Beatrice?" Claude’s voice rang out, and my blood pressure dropped
"In the kitchen," I called back
"I brought lunch" He held up a bag frorinned For a man who didn’t require food to live, he sure knew his local eateries
"Thanks" I pulled a hot dog out of the bag and eyed Claude, who had already started in on his French fries
"I didn’t realize vampires ate so often I mean--food-food" Had he eaten so much before and I simply hadn’t noticed? No We’d both been too distracted to eat much then By the case and by each other For aupinto ht at theive us sustenance like blood does, but that doesn’t ood" His eyes twinkled and his rin "Besides, I’ve found it makes humans more comfortable if they see et he was a vauess I can see why Not really any shah"
His eyes widened and their color struck ain The man should not be allowed such lovely eyes "That’s not the typical reaction I get Humans tend to be…uncomfortable when confronted by the realities ofhis words carefully "Ian intimate--"
"There’s no shame in it," I plowed on and pretended my embarrassment wasn’t obvious on my heated cheeks I refused to let him finish that sentence Red hair and the pale skin that acco ee it "I don’t see people looking askance at a plant for absorbing energy in a way different from us"
"True But plants aren’t potential predators--not of human prey"