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Burke nodded, and hurried off to the elevator

Halfway down to the e, and she set down her case to answer it "Hello"

"Got your e," Alex Keller said over a terrible connection "We’re in Ireland"

"Great" Sam sat down on the steps "I’d send hiestions?"

"Check yourbagged blood," the doctor said "Someone couldtampered with it"

"Tampered how?"

"Addedanimal blood" Alex launched into an explanation of which Samantha heard only every third or fourth word Then the connection crackled and her voice cah in a clear burst "bleed hiht pints, but no o into thrall"

"I’m sorry, you want an to break up again "Alex, can you hear me?"

"There’sKynwith" The line dissolved into a buzz of static, and then disconnected

"Shit" Sa infor was teh Sam didn’t knohat Alex had meant by mind control, the possibility that their blood supplies had been tainted made sense To please her, Lucan usually abstained froed blood the jardin had stockpiled Because the blood was kept out of sight in a refrigerated rooround, and was available for any Kyn to use, no one had ever bothered to put a lock on the entry or otherwise secure it

If someone had spiked their supplies with even a small amount of animal blood, it would definitely affect any Kyn who drank it At first it would onlythe tainted blood, it would gradually begin to change the periods of tio bizarre physicalforced for decades to live exclusively on cat blood, the high lord had beco Sam and Lucan had also battled a snakelike Kyn who had loston the blood of reptiles

Rerotesque appearance didn’t bother her asthe ferocious and violent behavior he’d displayed Sa his jaws to rip the head off the body of a Kyn warrior as easily as a hurape from a stem

"No, it can’t be the blood" She and arrison also made use of it, and none of thees in behavior Unless soht Ever the connoisseur, Lucan preferred the taste of that particular type over all the others She and the rest of the Kyn were aware of this, which hy they usually set it aside for his use

Sam left her suitcase on the stair and trotted down to the first-floor landing, where she inputted the code to access the secondary stairwell leading down to the tunnels

At the blood-stocks rooroup of tresori wearing protective shrouds and working in bucket-brigade fashion as they res

"What the hell happened here?" Saood, Lady Samantha" He sketched a quick bow "Someone deliberately destroyed our stocks They used a blade to pierce the bags, let the"

Saain and saw the hundreds of pennies that had been scattered everywhere "Why throw coins in the blood?"

Aldan looked unco that was done in the old days, during the jardin wars A traitor would co coppers into the kegs"

"You kept kegs of blood?"

"During the winter season, when humans remained indoors and were harder to hunt, the cold kept it sound" He saw her expression and quickly added, "’Twas not taken by force, my lady We collected the blood bled fro to heal theive what they could to help sustain us"

"The only thing we have in kegs now is beer, right?" When the captain nodded, she looked back in at the es We can buy all the blood ant and have it here in a few hours So destroying it was a waste of ti is done to provoke, estured for her to follow him, and led her out of earshot of theof it that harms Lord Alenfar is as feared as he is respected For an eneuards to infiltrate his household and make worthless that which sustains it"

She stared at hi they did this to make Lucan look bad?"

"Not bad Weak," Aldan said "Or perhaps unworthy of rule"