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"Use the cannibal line this tiuarantee you it&039;ll work"

"I&039; even before I had the door all the way open My excuse dried up at the sight of the da asked "What about a park?"

The man raised an eyebrow at me "You are Pia Thomason?"

"Ack!" I said, and slada, it&039;s him!"

"Him? Him who?"

A shivery d¨¦j¨¤ vu sensation washed overaside the curtain on thejust enough to peek out at the er Good Lord, we&039;ve already done this!"

"We&039;ve done what?" Magda sounded confused

"This, we&039;ve done this! This was the drea"

Muttered conversation was audible on the phone for a da uncovered the o down to the baseet me that bottle of olive oil? The Italian one Pia&039;s having a crisis, and thisas hea crisis," I hissed, peeking out at the er, that&039;s all Just a vampire come to do God knohat to me"

"Ray sends his love, by the way, and says he hopes your crisis isn&039;t a serious one," she said in an aside before continuing "How do you know the er? Maybe he&039;s soious type Orto sell Girl Scout cookies"

I eyed the stranger again as he raised his hand to knock "He&039;s around six feet tall and is wearing a very tailored black sports coat withpants, a scarlet shirt that looks like it&039;s made of raw silk, and shoes that probably cost da insisted, the sounds of chopping accoled to shade his face froh that uy is definitely not Kristoff&039;s brother"

Silence followed for a moment "OK, that description does sound like a you-knohat"

"Vaht, that is indeed a bottle of olive oil, but it&039;s Greek, not Italian, and I will not put Greek olive oil in spaghetti Would you da was silent for aaere audible even on the phone "All right, he&039;s gone again Pia, you&039;re going to have to let the vasuspiciously at the bedroo to walk out of there, as he had in the dreaoing really well right now Kind of Soht to be made worse by involvement with the Moravian Council, or whatever it is the vamps call theoing to have a choice They seeot even louder Obviously the"I don&039;t care I have to get rid of this guy What is it vamps don&039;t like? Garlic and holy water? I don&039;t have any of the latter, but I have garlic bread You think that ork?"

"Pia, sweetie" Magda&039;s voice took on a frustrated tinge as Iuntil I found a loaf of garlic bread "I really don&039;t think pretending none of this exists is the answer"

The va ondown the phone in order to peel back the wrapper on the garlic bread I wielded it like a club as I swung open the door

Madga&039;s voice was faint but audible from the phone "Pia? Pia? What are you Oh, she is so silly soarlic and I&039; the bread in his face

He looked at it for a aze shifted to me, a look of stark incredulity on his face "Bread?" he asked, his voice silky with so open the loaf to show hiarlic smooshed into the butter "So just stay back!"

He reached out and touched the garlic butter, licking the tip of his finger "Very tasty"

"You&039;re not Garlic isn&039;t poisonous to you?" I asked, taken aback

He closed his eyes for a moment, a martyred expression on his face "No, that&039;s a fallacy created by mortals I assume you are Pia Thomason? I a around as he started to enter ious newsletter and shoved it at him

He didn&039;t flinch, or shriek, or run ious He just took it and gavelook " &039;The Watchtower&039;?"

I sluainst the door "I should have known it wouldn&039;t work-Kristoff dragged me to a church toI had"

He took the garlic bread from me, and set it and the newsletter down on the table next to the door "Pia Thomason, I am here by a directive from the Moravian Council As you are no doubt aware, you have been ordered to appear before the council to answer questions that have arisen since the events of June this year For matters of your safety and comfort, I will escort you to Vienna, and am authorized to meet any reasonable financial needs the journey will impose upon you The plane leaves in four hours A that you are not yet packed for the journey?"

I picked up the cell phone, saying into it, "It&039;s the arlic and religious things He wants o to Vienna"

"I heard We can watch your house for you if you like-"

"That won&039;t be necessary I&039;ll call you later" I hung up the phone and faced the vampire Like the other males of his species, he would have been at home on a fashion shoay I wondered if it was some rule that all vampires had to be drop-dead sexy "I told the council when they sentthat I had no intention of letting theree on me Christian Dante is the head of the council, isn&039;t he?"

The vareement "He is executive director, yes"

"He was there in Iceland when all the stuff happened Well, he was there forI knew, so I have nothing further to say to any of the council"

"You are a Midnight Zorya in the Brotherhood-"

"I a up my hand to stop hi froave up Zoryaing If there were soive the stone to, I would, but there is no Brotherhood group here, for which I arateful, if you want to know the truth So you can just go back to your precious council and tell them that I said no"

He was silent for ame in a manner that made me very uncoht have in the house "I should tell you thatyou before the council did not take into account your wishes"

I lifted aze with one that I hoped did not show the fear that suddenly rolled around in my stomach "Is that a threat?"

"No It isyou before the council, and I will do so"

His arrogant statement was fortunately just what I needed The fear inside h-handed, anger that the er that I was in this position to begin with Where was Kristoff when I needed him to protect me from the ire of his brother vampires? Why wasn&039;t he here like he was supposed to be, suitably grateful that I got back his soul?

The anger grew hot, building and intensifying until it threatened to burst out ofht burst forth fro me in a sphere of brilliance

The va hih the open door

"I will not be used," I shouted at hi in intensity "Not by you, your council, or anyone! Do you understand? No one!"

The va, but I sla it before I cruainst the cool wood as the light surrounding