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I liuy I saw, apologized profusely, and hauled hi snack As always, drinking blood felt physically wonderful, while eusted with ), I leftblood donor asleep on a pile of cardboard It was a warht; he&039;d be okay Unless you kneas there, you couldn&039;t see hiic before I even left the alley, and I was amazed to feel the bullet pop free of my flesh and fall into my bra

I fished it out and stared at it, but I don&039;t know a bullet from a dildo, so I tucked it back in and resolved to show it to Sinclair later Or maybe Nick Barry a cop would know all sorts of stuff about bullets If I dared involve hioodness for late night taxis!-and realized when I tried to pay the fare that I&039;d left noring the stab of guilt, and he drove off thrilled to his toes

There was, of course, the expected uproar when I walked in Marc and Jessica were both yelling at me at once, and while Jessica punched buttons on her cell phone, Marc naggedoff my T-shirt so he could checkmy shoulder like I was a side of beef "I don&039;t see a thing"

I coughed but didn&039;t elaborate on how I&039;d cured ?" I asked Jessica

"You knoho," she said, then barked into the phone, "Betsy was attacked She&039;s here now"

"A, no, not Sinclair! That&039;s all I need" I looked at et here, anyway"

"Yeah, he&039;s pretty helpless, that one," Marc said He wadded up ht as well toss this, chickie, it&039;s ruined What was it like, getting shot?"

"What kind of a duuy ent to medical school? It hurt!"

"I mean, is it different for a vampire, do you think? I&039;ve seen lots of bullet wounds at the hospital, but none that healed in an hour"

"How should I know? I&039;ve never been shot before Iat me-"

"Cool, like in The Matrix?"

"No They were like baseballs thrown hard I could dodge them, but I really had to be on ht," Jessica said I blushed with pleasure, and then she wrecked it by adding, "you idiot What were you thinking?"

"Hey, don&039;t yell athome," I said "I&039;onna strangle that Sinclair," shewhere she sucked on her cheeks, which threw her cheekbones into sharp relief She looked like a pissed-off Egyptian queen who needed a few er"

"This wasn&039;t part of et it out without giggling "The Blade Warriors aiting forramp"

Marc&039;s eyebrows shot up and he and Jessica traded a glance

"I kno it sounds," I said

"Bad," Jessica replied

"Real bad," Marc elaborated

"I was talking about their naht, that&039;s not too cool An arab a quick shower; I feel sort of yucky We&039;ll talk ly, they waited outside my bathroom while I freshened up At least Marie wasn&039;t here-it would have been too awful to explain the evening&039;s occurrences to a little kid

I stepped out of the bathroom in clean cotton shorts and a new T-shirt, and started back downstairs Jessica and Marc didn&039;t wait, they peltedroo," Jessica ordered finally, when she noticed I was ignoring everything she and Marc were saying "Start with, &039;I went diddy-bopping out the door six hours ago like a big blond idiot,&039; and finish with &039;and then I walked in all bloody and tired-looking&039;"

"Can&039;t it wait?" I griped "I&039;h, what a night I&039;ll be glad when it&039;s toht, I h to make us all jump, and lo, there was the prince of darkness

"Are you all right?" Sinclair de at my face

"Please, coet to wipe your feet And I&039;m fine There was no need to rush over here Where are your shoes?"

Jessica coughed "I sort of proot about the fact that Sinclair was in a suit, a topcoat, and bare feet "You did what?"

"Neverhis hands over my face, my neck, my shoulders, my arms

I slapped his hands ahen he started to raise my shirt to look at ht now" Before I could work up a good rant, I realized I was suddenly very tired Extremely tired I shook my head to try to throw it off, and realized that it was a lot lighter outside "Uh-oh," Iroom tipped away from me, and the carpet rushed up to my face

"I hate that," I said, exactly fifteen hours later I opened my eyes and was startled to see Sinclair with his jacket off, sitting in the chair beside"Jesus!"

He winced "Please don&039;t call us! How come you don&039;t have to sleep all day?"

"I&039;m quite a bit older than you are Now" He slapped the book shut I saas one of Jessica&039;s collection of antique school books Du that happened last night"

I ignored the command "Did you sleep at all?" I asked suspiciously Oh, I knew him of old

He smirked "I did rest beside you for a few hours"

"Pervert!"

"No, but if I was such a thing, taking advantage of you would have been sily, strongly dislike you?"

"Ah!" he said, looking pleased "We&039;redislike Where are my roomies? I don&039;t want to have to tell this story a thousand ti intothe to get her to call nored Marc&039;s chortle and replied, "I&039;ot shot once"

A muscle jumped in Sinclair&039;s cheek Weird I&039;d never seen that before "They shot you?" he asked with scary calm

"My car&039;s a lot worse off than I aht And , please"

I told the out And nobody interrupted, not once, which was a brand new experience

"They knew you were a vampire," Tina said when I finished She looked very, very troubled

"Uh, yeah Good point How did they know? I mean, most vampires don&039;t even believe it"

"And how did they know about the other vampires?" Marc asked

"Well, it uys on us?" I guessed

"Probably a vampire," Jessica said at once "Who else would knoho&039;s dead and who&039;s not?"

Sinclair nodded "And they aiting for you" He looked cool as a cucu into fists "They knew you were co"

"Apparently so" I hadn&039;t really had ti that, it ot!"

I jumped out of bed and practically ran over tomy clothes in the ha it up

"That&039;s great, Nancy Drew," Marc said with fake enthusiasave it to Sinclair, who examined it briefly and passed it to Tina

"This is a hollow-point," she said, very surprised

"Yikes," Jessica said "A vaun expert"

"I like to keep busy," she repliedwe could show it to Nick," I said

"Detective Nick Berry? I don&039;t think that&039;s wise at all," Sinclair said "Best he stays out of our business"