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It took me an hour, but eventually with Christian&039;s help I warded all the doors and s on the ground floor to prevent anyone ished to do us har ward, one I had confidence in because I used it on ht, so I felt pretty secure as I limped up the stairs to the bed I looked over at Christian, who had slowed his long-legged pace for ood for soh hi around an hour after sunrise How do you feel?"

He ran his hand through his hair (an added benefit tohim keep his hair unbound) and rubbed his jaw "Like I&039;ve spent the day jousting without ar y he&039;d spent on fighting the de sun draining hiet him to rest I&039;d just keep our little discussion short, offer hiht snack in case he was peckish, and then put hith about everything you&039;ve seen and done during your life, but right now I&039;m more concerned about our immediate plans"

At the top of the stairs I turned left instead of right, and limped toward his study He lifted me up from behind, turned on his heel, and marched in the opposite direction

"Hey!" I protested, punching hihtly in the shoulder "We have stuff to talk about"

"We can talk in bed I&039;ve fought a de to talk, and you know it"

He grinned

I bit his ear "Christian, this is serious If Eduardo is desperate enough to summon up a demon - which incidentally confirms my earlier suspicion that one of the people in the triu he&039;s not just going to shrug his shoulders and walk away I can&039;t iine why, but for soroaned, dropping my forehead to Christian&039;s shoulder "Not now"

"Stand and face me, you coward!" I looked down the hall Antonio had taken up a stand in front of Christian&039;s bedroo his rapier around "Now at last ill &039;ave this out like er will you bully mi coraz¨®n"

Christian didn&039;t even stop; he just waved one hand

"My dove, my sweet rose, you must see &039;oere meant to be - Caray! I &039;ate it when &039;e does this"

Antonio dissolved

"I can think of a number of reasons Eduardo wants you," Christian said as if we hadn&039;t been interrupted, gently depositing me on my feet next to the bed He peeled off my sweater, shoes, and pants without any further ado I squeaked and scurried under the blankets while he locked the door and took off his jeans He slid into bed and pulled me up next to him

"No, now, talk, Christian; we need to talk Your handsthat around; you could poke sohed and rolled onto his side, fitting ht, my brave maly v¨¢le¨¨n¨ªk, what do you wish to do about Eduardo?"

I snuggled back against hih his where they rested on ure out why he wants hosts under less than ideal circumstances, but there are other Suo to all of this trouble forhis chin on the top of my head "I believe that at first the interest was in you as a person who could be swayed by the research possibilities It sounds as if they thought they couldwith their plans to keep the spirits available"

"For research"

"Possibly"

"Well, I can&039;t ihost &039;At first,&039; you said I take it that means you think there&039;s a different interest now?"

He said nothing He didn&039;t need to I knehat the interest in htened around me Beloved, it is not your fault I would have come to their attention sooner or later in my attempt to find Sebastian It was h er than I have ever been, so that together we can fight the me, you have saved me?

"I think it&039;s a very fine line between destruction and salvation, and I never was one who could color within the lines"

His laughter filledmy soul just as his body warmed mine I would not want to you be any different

"That&039;s because you&039;re crazy And old You&039;repast that is just decrepit"

He laughed again and pulled hter to him Do I feel decrepit to you, Beloved?

"Stop that We have to talk about e&039;re going to do And besides, you were gravely wounded just an hour and a half ago A ht a de up over his thigh and slid into me Noe shall see who is too old

"You don&039;t play fair," I murmured into his arant one is what you are" I turned h the hair on his chest "But an arrogant one withand wondrous talents who s than your talent that we really should talk about If you don&039;tto an earlier, less pleasant subject, what are we going to do about Eduardo?"

His sigh ruffled ainst another attack, and I will locate Sebastian"

I pinched hiain "And to think I spent all those hundreds of years assuentle wo ways to please ainst another attack, and then I will - with your assistance - locate Sebastian"

I decided he&039;d had enough pinching for one day "Just barely passable, mister Now, I think that the quickest way to find Sebastian is to give Eduardo what he wants - namely, me"

"No"

"If I let him nab me somehow, he&039;ll have to takeSebastian, because he&039;ll know you are sure to co up on your white horse to save ht even be sure to have one or two of the ghosts withto bet Antonio would volunteer - just to sweeten the pot and rab me"

"It is totally out of the question"

"Then, once I&039; your friend, I can tell you where I a in with reinforcements and rescue Sebastian, save me from whatever terrible fate Eduardo and Guarda have planned for me, and we&039;ll all live happily ever after"

"This plan of yours is intolerable"

It was h I rolled over until I was stretched out on top of hi my chin on my hand "Do you have a better plan?"

"Yes"

"Christian, you know the only way to find out where Sebastian is being held is to allow one or the other of us to be captured, and let&039;s face facts - it will be easier for you to rescue th, I knohat I can and can&039;t do, and suh power to rescue two half-dead vampires is not within my abilities I siardless - "

"No" I putabout this for the rest of the day, why don&039;t you just recognize that I&039; that formidable mind of yours to work on how to keep me safe when I&039;m in the clutches of the triumvirate and rescue Sebastian at the saer yourself

I moved my hand and kissed him I have absolute faith in you, Christian

You are everything tothe silky line of his eyebrows "Don&039;t you see? This is all part of ether - our relationship will be incomplete, a farce, a shadohat it should be If we are truly h We must fulfill the prole within hi with the respect he had for th, the pride he had in htly, his lipsto doo every person in need who comes to your attention, aren&039;t you?

I s a prayer of gratitude that I had found hiined, and yet he had been everything I hoped for, and soup a little bit of control wasn&039;t a sign of weakness Maybe, justeven if I cohted when you were twenty-one Once a knight, always a knight The only thing that has changed is that now you have a partner

If I didn&039;t know better, I&039;d say the derisive noise that echoed through usted snort I traced a ward over us both and fell asleep to the sound of his heart beating strong and true beneath my ear

We held a war conference that afternoon It wasn&039;t easy getting Christian to agree to it, since his natural tendencies made him (foolishly) believe he could make up plans on his own and then inform me of my role in thehosts disappearing the instant Christian threatened to lock me in a room and conveniently lose the key, which, of course, I countered with a promise of slow castration, I eventually persuaded hin supreme over the triumvirate, other warm bodies would be a welco about

So it was that an hour after I described to Christian just hoould geld hi cups), we sat in his cohosts (minus Alis, who had been left in an empty bedroom with several inexpensive ceramic knickknacks to a I&039;ve never rescued anyone before I want a gun Raphael, can I have a gun? I think I need a gun"

"Firearms! What an excellent idea," Antonio said Roxy sled his eyebrows at her until he saatching hiuns," Raphael told Roxy, then shot Christian a martyred look that very nearly rivaled the one Christian was alearing around reed "Your role will not require it"

She frowned "Oh? Just what do I get to do?"

"I believe you will best serve our cause by keeping a protective guard over Joy Raphael will feel easier to know so a blessed event should always be kept calely from where she sat next to Christian

"What?" Roxy asked "Why does she need to be guarded? No one wants to kidnap her!"

"I could be kidnapped if I wanted to," Joy said defensively

"I would kidnap you if you were not eh" Antonio waved at her stomach

"Thank you, Antonio, that&039;s very sweet of you," Joy said, sly at Roxy

Roxy rolled her eyes "He&039;s just being nice to you because anyone can see you&039;re about to explode I want in on this, too; you can&039;t palht place; I&039;ve had self-defense training I was tops in my class with the bottle of Mace I bet I could take down at least a couple of this Trust&039;s goons"

"There will be no taking down of anyone, no Mace, and no violence My company specializes in nonlethal security, and I do not want to jeopardize its reputation because of a trigger-happy vigilante"

Raphael told her We all nodded, even Je, and was now clad in a pinstripe suit and talked like he was a cross between a character from Tom Jones and The Godfather

"Maces are very old-fashioned," Antonio commiserated with Roxy "No one uses them anymore I prefer a rapier, myself It is very deadly, yet always looks stylish"

She blew him a kiss I frowned at both of them "Christian and I talked this all out and we have a plan If you will let us tell it, you&039;ll see where each of you fits into it"

"I don&039;t have to stay at home with the beached whale, do I?" Roxy asked suspiciously

"That&039;s it; you&039;re off the list as god to cross her ar

"Expectant mothers should never be referred to as sea ered

"No, you do not need to stay at hoh I happen to think she looks char," I answered Joy beamed at me "It&039;s really a siree that we have all the bases covered"

Everyone looked at us expectantly

Go ahead; I&039;ll let you tell it, since it was racious of you

Don&039;t push your luck I&039;m still ticked off about that "locked in a room" comment

Three hours and thirty-two minutes later four of us stormed the ARMPIT offices, clad in jumpsuits and ventilation hats labeled with the naas company, Raphael in the lead with a clipboard and an extremely officious manner Aided by Christian, master of the mind push, we had the offices cleared out in just a couple of led as the last secretary dashed out the door, under the as leak was about to cause an explosion of a catastrophic nature She pulled off her ventilator and sy of yours sure does co at the racetrack, eh?"

I grabbed her ar cabinets "Stop hitting on Christian; you&039;re rinned and saluted h both paper and coht lead us to the two houses the trust owned in London

"Hey, is this so? It&039;s a receipt for some temperature-controlled wine vault"

"Wine vault?" Christian looked up from the computer on Guarda&039;s desk and came out into the outer office "Guarda does not strike me as the type of person who appreciates fine wines"

We all huddled around to look at the receipt