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CHARLES forced himself to walk There was no hurry Tom would have been a problem under other circumstances But his mate was there to keep him under control And even a

He was off balance: Anna&039;s fault He wasn&039;t used to panicking, and it put hie

There were very few people he&039;d cared for enough to panic over-anddead and forever beyond need of his aid His father and his brother Samuel he could usually trust to take care of themselves

Anna left him vulnerable

She&039;d said she was fine, and she meant it He&039;d heard the stress of survival in her voice, but she was safe for now And Tom would need calm to deal with his wounds, not some adrenaline-jacked asn&039;t one of his pack But even at a slow, steady pace, Brother Wolf fought against his control, growing more upset, not less

And the human half wasn&039;t far behind Someone had tried to hurt his Anna, and he hadn&039;t been there to prevent it

A youngin the other direction jerked his head to stare at Charles-and quickly dropped his gaze when his eyes rowling softly

He stopped, sucked in a deep breath-and hesitated as the air he&039;d taken told hi like the usual concentration of city smells

He stood on a wide swath of pavement that was as clean as it had been the day it was poured No visible garbage wasn&039;t really strange, not in Seattle, where the rain washed the sidewalks on a regular basis But no garbage, no scent, no anything, that was odd Odd enough to allow him to hold off the frantic need to find Anna and assure hih to think

Tom&039;s witch had dealt with the blood trail, she&039;d said, and he illing to bet that he was looking at the results: a wobbling stretch of walk two shades whiter than the cement around it It was still a trail for anyone anted to follow it-though he supposed a blind woman couldn&039;t know that And it was a lot better than the blood that would have sent a slew of human police to the hotel

He could follow it to the hotel-or he could go hunting He stood very still and consulted Brother Wolf Then they turned away from the hotel

Yes, said Brother Wolf, at one with his human half

Blood and flesh would be welcous in a few us had taken his car to the hotel

So there was tier so they could regain their balance

It wasn&039;t long, only a few blocks, until the unnaturally whitened sidewalk returned to its norered in the air

It was full dark, though the hour wasn&039;t late-a little after six, he thought It had been twenty minutes since Anna had drawn upon his power, fifteen since he talked to her The shadoouldn&039;t have been so dark then, but still dark enough for a lot of the nastier things to co

He stepped back into the clean space and looked around A blackened bit of cloth, wet and dirty, a plastic bag that spilled two pairs of women&039;s shoes with another shoe, hot pink and scorched, several feet away A little casting about on the edges of the witch&039;s spells-and he s wolves He considered it-and clenched his fists at the thought of his Anna going up against bloodsuckers

The cloth s The lone pink shoe hadn&039;t been so thoroughly caught in the witch&039;s cleaning spell When lifted to his nose, it s flesh and vampire

The other four shoes were new and shtly, of Anna One pair was low-heeled puh-heeled, the kind women wore for men

Charles could care less about shoes-and he suspected he wasn&039;t alone as Shoe, no shoe, he didn&039;t care Naked was good, though over the past couple of weeks he was beginning to think that dressed in his clothes was a decent second best

Even sht of Anna in his sweater, he didn&039;t slon his hunt He tracked the edge of the witch&039;s spell until he found the trail the vampires had left-not difficult, as at least one of theo to work, then he had no sht, or possibly two His nose now told hiht six individual scents Six vampires who&039;d been after his Anna

And he wondered if she&039;d been as honest as he thought when she told hiht The pink shoe broke in his hand, and he dropped it He was growling again as he followed the vae-space number forty-six

Four minutes, and a little inti-and he found that the space had been paid for six months but occupied only now and then

No way to tell if the vampires were connected to the person who rented the space or if they&039;d just found an empty space to use He was inclined to suspect the latter They weren&039;t planning on being there long, and the cars were checked every two hours

"Yeah," the man-notat Charles now, and not doing so had allowed hi out of here like they were fit to be tied I ree-not the kind of vehicle you roar out of town in I didn&039;t notice it coht I don&039;t remember a minivan except Mrs Sullivan&039;s parked in here when I did it"

Charles wasn&039;t concerned about that Mind tricks that work on huifts of the vampires If they&039;d told the attendant not to remember, he wouldn&039;t have

"Tell me about the minivan"

"Three men and a woman They all looked like FBI, you know? Expensive and conservative" The ? Shouldn&039;t you show ," ain Gently, Charles thanked the otten their faces fro et If not today, then eventually he would run into thee to a man who lived forever When he found theht to them

When he reached the place where the attack had occurred, he stopped and put Anna&039;s new shoes in the plastic bag and took them with him There had been no blood, no meat at the end of this hunt-and Brother Wolf was not satisfied Not in the least

By the tiotten a se on the floor in front of their roouardian, but there were few other wolves Charles would rather have guarding his mate&039;s door There wasn&039;t et past the old ho ruled Seattle

"So in the paper?" Charles asked politely

"Not really, no" Angus folded the paper back into its original shape with econoot to his feet He kept his face averted and down Not slow on the uptake, was the Alpha of the Eame face on-but any orth his salt would smell the frustration of a failed hunt on him fro anyone in before you got here With Toic to light a candle," finished Anna, opening the door "And I&039;us from Adam-I knoere introduced, but IAnd I think that our attack was engineered by one of our own kind Opening the door just because soave her a sharp look-he&039;d smelled only vampires Had there been a olf, too? He pulled the predator in him under better control once more

He needed a feers And he had to uess how hard it was for hi she was still working on listening to her nose

"As there was no urgent danger threatening, wisdom dictated that I wait here until so rather pleased with Anna

"Anna," said Charles, ignoring the urge to inspect her us, Alpha of the Emerald City Pack He would never, under any circuus gave Charles a sharp look as Anna examined him-and Charles tried to curb his possessive instincts She was just evaluating Angus The Emerald City Alpha was only an inch or two taller than Anna, asn&039;t overly tall for a woh much ave him a casual handsomeness that he used ruthlessly People who didn&039;t know him underestimated him all the time, which was probably one of the reasons he was so pleased with Anna&039;s caution The other would be that she had taken it upon herself to protect one of his wolves

But Anna knew Bran, as even better than Angus at being underestimated-Bran did it on purpose

"I&039;y was sincere

"No trouble," Angus said "Do I look offended? Let&039;s all get inside, and you can tell us what happened, so we&039;ll see what&039;s to be done Vampires, eh?"

Anna backed away from the door The scent of her distress and the stink of recent fear permeated the room Her lip curled as she smelled it herself "Sorry," she said Her shirt was covered with blood, and the air in the room was redolent with the rawness of open wounds

Not hers, Brother Wolf told hirily But it could have been He couldn&039;t tell who had thought that last, maybe both of the an unusually tough tiether

He had to keep his distance, just until he could get hius to pass between him and Anna, and when it didn&039;t send Brother Wolf into a rage, Charles took a deep breath of relief and allowed himself to examine Anna

Her freckles stood out on her pale cheeks, but the scent of her fear wasn&039;t fresh Angus hadn&039;t scared her, she&039;d just been being cautious Brother Wolf settled down, but only a little

"Here," Charles told her, and handed her the bag of shoes

She looked at the bag blankly before her face lit up in a grin "You are supernatural, Charles Absolutely supernatural"

She opened the closet and dus that hadn&039;t been there this ing next to the hotel&039;s bathrobes, too She&039;d been shopping and back once before they were attacked The va the hotel, and followed theht his attention back to the task at hand The little witch, still wearing her sunglasses, was curled up on the giant pillow at the head of the bed If Anna was pale, the witch&039;s face was chalk white under the inky blackness of her short hair, and she looked gaunt, as if she&039;d lost ten pounds since he&039;d seen her earlier that day

From the dent in the bedspread, Charles could tell the broho was Tom had been settled in front of his witch, but the invasion of other wolves had sent his was visibly crooked and -but that didn&039;t keep him down

Charles closed his hands on Anna&039;s shoulders before she could get between Angus and Toainst hius has this in hand"

There were Alphas heti his mate from an unknown threat Not defiance

In a cool voice that held us said, "To man, but his voice, when he chose to use it, was powerful enough to raise the dead

The wolf&039;s lips curled away frous said, putting serious energy into the word

And the wolf sank instantly to his belly, his breathing harsh as he dealt with his unwillingness to allow others around hishis Alpha&039;s demand for obedience

"Tom?" The witch sounded lost, and Charles wondered what she thought was going on Damnable to be helplessly blind in a world of ht," Anna told her "Just protective of you He knows you can&039;t protect yourself right now-and he hasn&039;t had tie yet He&039;s hurt and not thinking right Everyone is going to give hiht with a secret sus as if she were just talking to Moira, so he wouldn&039;t think she was trying to tell hi everyone, Charles included, to leave Tous&039;s teeth told hiht it, too, and had chosen to be a himself on the arm of the chair nearest to the"Alan called while I was in the hallway He&039;s about fivefor hihten ed my wolf?"

"Vampires," said Anna "Six of thelanced at Charles

"You ether before," he said Charles knew his calm facade was in place because her nod was et in each other&039;s way, not even when five of theed up on Tom after they&039;d knocked Moira over They were in a basement apartment stairwell and hidden behind a shadows spell It sic toIf Moira hadn&039;t brought the sun in, we&039;d be dead"

Five on one was difficult toold wolf like Tom, who kne to maximize others&039; weaknesses And a shadows spell Anna was right, that sounded like a hunting pack-except they were dealing with vampires

"There are vaus "Toh to tell the difference When he can think again, we can ask That&039;s what made you think that they were sent by a wolf?"

Anna nodded, but Moira said, "Vahtly take on the wolves, not in this city, anyway They were trying to kidnap Anna-and ould a vaus smiled coldly The wolves in Seattle had held the upper hand for decades "If the va Charles&039;s uards and polish her fingernails before they delivered her to me without a hair on her head out of place I&039;ll certainly call their Master, but I suspect they are interlopers He should know about them-and if so, maybe he&039;ll have some names for me"

"One of them was a woman ore a size six shoe," Charles said "But I don&039;t think she&039;ll be a probleain"

Moira&039;s part in the story bothered him She&039;d saved Anna-but He frowned at her "Witch, I&039;ve never heard of a white witch who could call sunlight That&039;s not even so witchcraft should be able to call-witches know ht," she snapped, responding to his tone of voice, he thought, rather than his words "Just made the vampire&039;s bodies believe in it-even the dead bodies" She wiggled her fingers "Sssst, and they were dust or running away"

"That&039;s a lot of ic Vampires have some resistance-and then you made your trail disappear for the better part of a rinned fiercely "I&039;ht Poor little blind white witch"

"Sacrifice," said Charles slowly, "is the power that witches pull from Mostly it is the loss of other people&039;s blood and flesh-but rumor has it that one of the reasons witches have faher sacrifice-not just the ani the witch holds dear"

"You think I kill kitties to powersuspicion that all wasn&039;t as it should be, Brother Wolf approved of her

He couldn&039;t let it be, not with Anna&039;s safety to worry about, but Brother Wolf&039;s approbation gave hiht be a different answer "I&039;ve always heard that self-sacrifice-as when the witch uses her own blood to fuel a spell-has some power, but it&039;s difficult to ith"

The witch pulled down her glasses and he saw his guess had been correct One eye had been blasted by ic He&039;d seen si he&039;d forget soon Her eye was stained white and shriveled, as if so ti to her-and when that had happened, she would have reeked of ic for quite a while The other eye had been destroyed h just as painfully-and likely just as long ago

Interestingly, Angus stiffened, as if he had not known, and Anna didn&039;t have any reaction at all Not to the witch&039;s face anyway-she was definitely reacting to hi after the witch

After Moira felt he&039;d had a chance to look his fill, she put her glasses back on Toent yellow eyes that promised retribution, and Anna looked not much happier with him

"I don&039;t know Moira," said Charles to the as Tom, since he understood his reaction the best "I did know that I&039;ve never heard of a white witch who could do what she did And if a black witch isas a white witch first, the deception iave the wolf a small smile-"I&039;ve never encountered a witch who could hide her nature from o," Anna told theh he could tell she was still miffed with him "It&039;s left us a little skittish"

Moira reached out and touched Toers drift down over his tail, which she tugged playfully "It&039;s all right, To rude"

She turned her head to Charles "Fair enough I&039;ve never heard of a white witch that can do what I can either And I&039; cautious"

"I am sorry I had to push," Charles said, honestly

"I&039;m sure I&039;ll find a way to return the favor," she said, showing her teeth in a white s"

The warut, and he let a little of it leak into his voice "I hope you turned whoever did into a pig"

She stilled, surprised by his reaction, he thought

"Cowards don&039;t deserve better," said Angus

The witch clearly wasn&039;t expecting support from that quarter either Had there been so ht have said had to wait, as someone knocked tentatively at the door "It&039;s Alan," their interloper said "Can someone let me in?"

The minute the Eh the doorway, Charles felt more settled Alan Choo was full-blood Chinese, and he looked it: delicate and unexpectedly strong, like a well-made blade

Except for when he was alone with Anna, Charles had spent his entire life with Brother Wolf raging inside of his of civilization they were forced to bear That&039;s what itthat threatened those under his protection Kill at a moment&039;s notice

Today orse than usual Brother Wolf was raging, and it was all Charles could do toto hold on to control He&039;d thought it only a minor addition that there were two other dominant wolves-wolves not of his pack-in the room with him and his mate

But that was before Alan Choo walked into the rooa like Anna-but he was sub olves So him in the room tipped the balance, and between hi Charles