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The pain caughtout froony that brought the rest of lyto shake off the last shreds of oblivion that clung to the edges of ?"

"Are you awake? How do you feel?"

I blinked a couple ht and shadows flashed onshapes that see to adjustat the pain in my head that followed the movement "Ow What the hell?"

The ht German accent, sophisticated and sexy "You hit your head on the banister when you fell I caught you before you tumbled down the stairs, so you should be fine I a Beloved"

Carefully I turned my head to look in the direction of the voice,too well Slowly, a face resolved itself, dinizable "Alec?" I asked, thefro with an i boundas a metallic click sounded that it was a seat belt I was in a car

"What are you doing here?" I asked, pushing er seat Pain bit hard and deep inaway to a dull throb "Oh, God I remember now You loomed up out of the darkness and scared the crap out of ht hi a little face "I suppose I shouldn&039;t call you that anymore Not since Well What&039;s done can&039;t be undone"

"If you&039;re talking about Kristoff ," I began slowly, rebuckling my seat belt With extreood-sized lump there "No, it can&039;t be undone Not that I would want to even if I could change it Ouch I don&039;t suppose you have an ice pack handy?"

He shook his head, glancing briefly athis eyes to the road "You are happy with Kristoff? I had thought that you and I had a great future before us It seeht so, too"

"I don&039;t think ere ever really meant to be," I said uncomfortably, and not just due to the headache "I will always cherish our ti so so predictable and trite, but I hope that you won&039;t allow my relationship with Kristoff to come between our friendship, or your friendship with Kristoff Assu for the Brotherhood and about to turn ainst my person"

Alec&039;s lips thinned He was, as I had had occasion to note at soly handsome man He was dark haired, like Kristoff, but where Kristoff had dark auburn curls, Alec&039;s hair was a rich, deep, dark chocolate, straight and silky, pulled back in a ponytail His eyes were green like a cat&039;s, and although our physical relationship hadn&039;t gone beyond one night together, he had enough raw netism that even in my somewhat muddled state I felt the i about me painswheel

"Well, you have to ad people think you&039;re a knight in shining ar? And why have you kidnapped me?"

"I haven&039;t kidnapped you; I&039;ve saved you," he said, shooting lance "There were reapers all aroundto retrieve a valuable when I heard people"

I suddenly reda and I found I slid my hand toward oatskin journal resting against it Alec must have seen the movement

"Yes,place for it Oh, don&039;t distress yourself, love I didn&039;t take it fro, although I would like it back when you are through with it You ht ask Kristoff to translate parts for you"

"I&039;m sorry," I staesture "It doesn&039;t matter I was about to strike you dohen I saw you near the stairs, having assumed you were a reaper-or rather, one of the reapers ould not hesitate to kill , leaving you alone in my home?"

"He didn&039;t leave et-out

"He didn&039;t?"

"No He was out in the guesthouse At least, I thought he was, but he didn&039;t answer me when I tried to contact him"

Alec swore and sla wildly to the accompaniment of horns froal U-turn across a grass strip dividing the highway, and headed us back in the direction we&039;d just coet Kristoff Theywith theheavily in ," I said, nausea leaving

"We&039;ll find hilanced in the rearview mirror "We were not followed With luck, they will still be searching my house and will not have removed him yet"

"I&039; the luain "Are you on our side? Or are you yanking my chain? Because, so helpto Kristoff-"

"We have devoted ourselves, both of us, to defeating the reapers," he said grimly, his face set "Such acts require much self-sacrifice, and at times have left us both in positions where ere close to destruction I have saved his life a number of ti him to the reapers? Or perhaps you think I a to take another man&039;s Beloved?"

Shame filled me at his accusation "No, I don&039;t think that of you And I apologize for what I said It&039;s just that you disappeared so completely, and no one knehere you were or what happened to you And then the vampires all sees ever Alec, I have to know-did you set up Kristoff?"

He shot lance "Set him up how?"

"Make it look like he e to do with your disappearance, and killed Anniki"

"Oh" He looked ale for that"

"Then where did you go?"

He was silent for ahis face andit al"

"Working how? For the reapers?"

The look he gavefor who to uncover a connection between one of the reapers and a Dark One"

"The mole, you mean?"

"You know about that?"

"Kristoff told uessed"

"I knew it!" I sat up a little straighter in the seat, ignoring the brief throb of pain in ether "You&039;re pretending to be a friend of the reapers in order to find out who the mole is, aren&039;t you?"

His smile ry and brief "It appears I have underestianization They believe me to be a friend"

"Oh, I can&039;t wait to tell Kristoff!" At theI can Why did the Brotherhood go to your house?"

"I suspect that someone tipped thenawing onoutbut a cold abyss, empty of all warmth and sensation, that was the man hom I was noholly and irreversibly in love "No one kneere coda, Kristoff, anda run off the highway and sending us speeding through the night up a winding street that I recognized

I thought briefly of the phone calls Kristoff had made, ostensibly to friends What if one of his buddies was the mole? What if one of them had told the Brotherhood where to find us? Had they had ti uided attempt to protect me? "Do you think he&039;s OK?"

"We&039;ll know in a few rim note in his voice

There was no car in front of his house A sudden spurt of worry hit da and Raymond! They were here, too!"

Alec frowned for a da, don&039;t you? She ith me on the tour in Iceland"

"Ah, yes Spanish, black eyes, large" He gestured toward his chest

"No bigger thanus"

"They are mortals, and of no concern to the reapers," he said, surprisinginto the drive of a neighboring house "They were probably sent on their way"

"I hope so I don&039;t think I could stand having any more innocent people&039;s blood,here?"

He stopped the car and got out, gesturing for me to follow "There is a back way into my house, via the attic"

There was a narrow, e that served as a fence around his property, and between hi out bits of yew leaves that poked into arden, past a s ainst a tree trunk while he crept up to one of the s of the guesthouse He returned a ain for me to follow We slipped past an e breeze, lit fro teal beacon that had nothing on the clarity that was Kristoff&039;s eyes

"Can you clie split-trunked tree

I looked upward to where the tree&039;s branches lay against the roof of the house Nor, but Kristoff&039;s life was at stake "I&039;ll led froh ainto a dark, close attic, I had co a tree in any apparel was hazardous, but doing so in a gauzy sundress meant to entice one particular man into a frenzy was definitely not a smart idea More than once Alec had been forced to climb down to detachforced to rip theclothes, preferably soot up froh the thin light streahts, I could see that the front of ing to bits of torn fabric, long, wrinkled tears leaving the bodice arment A faint breeze on my backside told me that the skirt was likely to be in the sa, but I doubt if you would appreciate my approval of your underwear," Alec said, his eyes on the exposed portion of my bra "This way I feel their presence in e his way around the boxes and discarded furniture that littered his attic, pausing a moment at the door to mutter, "That is odd I feel Hmm"

"Feel what?" I whispered as he silently opened a trapdoor in the floor, sticking his head out to exaot to his feet There was a foldout set of narrow steps that must have been very well oiled, for he lowered them without a sound

"Feel the presence of people I had not expected Unfortunately, I can&039;t tell how near they are Come We must be silent now"

I followed him as quietly as possible as he crept slowly down the hallway The upper floor was dark, but lights shone up fros as we headed to the ainst the wall as he slid along it to the stairs, peeking over the edge to the floor below

He stood up suddenly and, with an inexplicable smile at me, ran down to the floor below I stood stunned for a moment, then followed

I made it to the bottom of the stairs before I realized what it was that had Alec so aed in various poses of bondage on the huge living rooht, their hands bound behind them, their feet tied, with duct tape across their mouths Twothat they had been injured, although they, too, had been bound The other two leaned drunkenly against each other, their eyes spitting fury as I slowly entered the bizarre scene

But what had ht of the two et back," Andreas said, looking up froernail

Roho had his feet resting on one of the prone lance up "You found her, I see We figured you ht have toldover to the two men He squatted next to thereat deal of trouble Where is he?"

"Kristoff?" Andreas nodded his head toward me "He&039;s over there"

I spun around and almost choked with horror Kristoff lay on a se e

"You bastards!" I shrieked, running across the room to where he lay "What have you done to hiuys on the floor as he raised his head "Did you hear her? She called us bastards"

My horror turned to sheer terror as I realized the pattern on the floor was due to blood, not the design of the carpet "Oh, my God, you&039;ve killed him! I swear by all that is holy that you will all pay for this I will not rest one single second until you&039;ve suffered the way you&039;ve madeinto his chest as I clutched his lifeless body, ony that threatened to burst fro is sweeter than the sight of a Beloved reunited with her love," Andreas said, his voice e unlike anything I&039;d felt before washed over me I lifted my face froaze on his brother "You think it&039;s sweet, do you? Let&039;s see hoeet you think this Beloved is when she&039;s through roasting you alive, you bastard brother killer!"

"Pia, stop," a voice murmured in my ear

"Ooh, so over the reaper on the floor

"You&039;re second," I told hiht rained down fro on the couch as he patted wildly at the sparkles of light re outthe two lance "Mind the sofa That&039;s Italian leather, and it didn&039;t co doall of light between Alec and the doorway through which he was obviously about to go "Don&039;t give me that look, Alec I&039; for your innocence act, but I assure you-"

"If you&039;re through with my ear, I wouldn&039;tin it now"

"I assure you that I I" I looked down I had been clutching Kristoff&039;s head to eance for his death, but soripping his hair, e a backflip or two

His face twisted into a h, followed by, "Did she just call him &039;Boo&039;?"ers closed around his ear It was turning white "But you&039;re dead"

"Not quite Nearly, but not quite," Rowan said, vaulting the recumbent reapers as he strolled over to us He hesitated a ain?"

"Eh?" I said, ently took me by the arms and pulled me off of Kristoff "When we found hi off his head But he&039;s always been a fast healer"

Kristoff sat up, rubbing first his ear, then his throat I was aghast to see a nasty, jagged-looking welt that wrapped around the front, disappearing into his collar "It no doubt looked worse than it really was You could have arrived a bit earlier, however"

"Traffic," Andreas said with a shrug

"You&039;re not" I looked from Kristoff to Roho had released ainst the wall, an odd expression on his face Andreas got to his feet and picked his way across the bodies, stopping to peer at his brother&039;s neck

"You&039;ll do," he said finally with a nod

"You guys didn&039;t" I looked back at Kristoff "What the hell?"

He sighed and opened his ar hi the whole tiood ten minutes to work all of that out ofme to examine him to make sure he wasn&039;t still in some way har down the back of his collar to look at the vile scar that re with each passingthe key word," he said

I spun around, glaring at the people who lay on the floor The vampires had pulled the tomen up onto the couch "Those scum! Those evil, detestable, repulsive scum!"

The men twitched violently as I stalked toward theht froently above the treetops

"I had no idea your Beloved was so bloodthirsty," Rowan said "Are her eyes glowing?"

"Beloved, this is not-" Kristoff started to say

"Which one did it?" I interrupted "Which one held the knife?"

"It was a sword, actually," Rowan said, gesturing toward the ht sh the duct tape, his body curling into a fetal ball