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Michael frowned "But you don&039;t have a baby"

Jeannie stared "What&039;s wrong with you?" She nodded toward Derik "Hiaasted I&039;d suspected last night he hadn&039;t noticed BabyJon, but not noticing or co Michael didn&039;t appear to see my brother at all

"Well, he&039;s notto recover from my surprise "Iat BabyJon with his flat, yellow gaze "Where did he cohed "Um, he came with us On the plane, like Jeannie said He was in the liht And in your office"

"Oh, well, that&039;s fine then"

"I wouldn&039;t call that exactly fine," Jeannie began, but Michael had already turned away, gently touching Jeannie&039;s elbow

"Hon, would you tell the kitchen they need to send up ht not have been a Packcontrol of a momentEverybody stopped and looked at hiently, "where is the baby?"

Michael frowned and cocked his head, as if listening to a voice from another room "What baby?"

"That&039;s it," Jeannie said firht now"

"I&039; a doctor can fix," I said,I mean, I really needed a minute here

As soon as Michael had turned his back, he&039;d forgotten-again-about BabyJon Derik wouldn&039;t go anywhere near the kid And the other olves see up on Derik&039;s extreme stress Only Sara seeo," Sinclairthe back of my chair

Perhaps it was time to call the local mental hospital with so to ainst uess we&039;ll-"

"We&039;re not going to actually let theet aith this, are we?" A petite, dark-haired woe of our sroup She was dressed in black jeans and a black button-down shirt, and it took me a minute to place her

It was Cain-one of the olves who&039;d co for Antonia earlier in the week

"She gets Antonia killed, then brings some sort of ensorcelled infant-if that&039;s what it really is-and we&039;re just going to let her walk?"

"Cain"

"Well, are we?" she cried, turning to face the man who towered over her He, too, was dark and whip-thin He, too, looked weirded out but, even more than that, he seemed almost embarrassed For her or forto bet the farm it was me

"That&039;s for the Council to decide," the quiet, dark-haired ot Antonia killed! And she doesn&039;t even seeet Antonia killed," I said, and I could practically feel ears pricking up all over the rooe of his nose and shook his head

"And then she-what?" Cain&039;s jaw sagged and she turned to fully face et a , I beckoned her closer and, when she bent to hear, I said loudly, "I didn&039;t get Antonia killed You did"

Cain jerked away and rubbed her ear A fewhis head and looking like the before picture of a sinus headache coeveryone in the roouess it hasn&039;t occurred to any of you to ask yourselves what the hell Antonia was doing living with vampires in the first place Oh, hell no! After all, it&039;s much more convenient to blaet out of here fast enough"

"And now," Sinclair sighed, "we fight"

"Here," I said, thrusting BabyJon toward Sara, who scooped him up and backed off a couple of steps BabyJon let out a pissed-off yowl, ignoring Sara&039;s attempts to soothe him

"You can&039;t pass the buck that easily," Cain retorted "You were the leader; she was your responsibility"

"She was a groo it sound like she wasthe buck," someone else said, a olf I hadn&039;tthe fact that not only did you practically drive her to my front door, I didn&039;t see any of you assholes ever come to visit"

"She was her own person," that same olf said

"Well, which is it, dipshit? Either she was a grooman who could take care of herself, or she needed me to shelter and protect her You can&039;t have it both ways"

"We&039;re getting a bit far afield," Sinclair began, but I bulldozed right over hile phone call the entire time she lived with us The only time anyone bothered to shoas after she missed her weekly military check-in, whatever it was When your info pipeline into the vaot cut off, then you showed up"

A furious gabble of voices rose, and rose, and I had to shout to be heard over the din "Not to uys clearly didn&039;t want much to do with her while she was alive So all this post to coed when it was your fault she was living in ot louder, but I was able to pick out one comment from the din: "The bottom line is that she died in your service, so it&039;s your responsibility"

"If they&039;re even telling the truth about how she died," someone else said "How can we ever know? She and her mate don&039;t have a scent They can make up any story they like and we&039;d never know the difference"

"Oh, really? Okay Here&039;s a story, fuck-o Once upon a time, there was a ho could predict the future who lived on Cape Cod And all her supposed friends and family went out of their way to avoid her because she wasn&039;t exactly Miss Congeniality" I ought to know; I used to be one "And one day she ave a rat&039;s ass The end"

More babbling The din rose and rose Shouts Threats Michael trying to get everyone to cal like an increasingly nervous tennis

It was stupid, really Stupid to forget how fast they were Stupid to pick a fight in a roo, and turned just in ti

That was pretty hts went out