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Dervish refused to be adain, he doesn&039;t want to be in a public building, where innocents ht catch the crossfire So the team set in place by the Disciples swiftly established a te in a rundown part of the city where he, Bec and the other survivor were taken

Antoine Horwitzer&039;s soldiers are waiting for me when I arrive They line the corridor, heavily arlances with several troops in different unifor for the Disciples The air bristles with tension when I walk in The coroup steps forward and runs a cold eye over rowls

"Dead," I say bluntly

"You killed him?" the officer snarls

"No" I whistle and the olves lurch into view "They did"

The officer&039;s face blanches His men raise their weapons defensively The other soldiers raise theirs too, even more alarht and die, or lower your arn is over The Lambs are back under the thumb of Prae Athim Surrender now and we&039;ll call it even"

The officer licks his lips "I&039;d want safe passage for my men," he mutters "And I&039;ll have to confirm it with-"

"No time for confirht and die"

The officer studies the slavering olves and coives the order for his rowl at the beasts behind e Once they&039;ve filed out of the building, I bring my olves in, line them up in the corridor and ask to be escorted to Dervish&039;s room The soldiers are uneasy-I can smell their fear-but they do as I request One takesthe olves anxiously

I find Dervish relaxing on a bed in a large room, clothed in a T-shirt and jeans, no shoes or socks, hooked up to a drip andBec&039;s in a chair nearby, head lowered, snoozing She&039;s also hooked up to a drip In a bed further over, another gle of wide-eyed nurses A couple of fingers on his left hand have been cut or bitten off, rezo disic and fried them where they stood If there hadn&039;t been so h unscathed, but there were thousands They overwhelmed me, and the others too It looked as if ere dooirls and ploughed a way through"

"You saved their lives," a nurse gasps

"Pretty much," the man says with a falsely modest smile

I clear my throat Dervish looks over and beams at me Bec&039;s head bobs up and she studies my twisted body with a frown Kirilli Kovacs scowls at lance at Dervish, then lowers his voice and continues his story

"Sorry I didn&039;t bring any chocolates," I tell Dervish, walking over to the bed and taking ently, not wanting to hurt hi different about you," he says

"I&039;ve started styling ht it was that you were a metre taller, a hell of a lot broader, look like a olf and are naked except for that bit of cloth around your waist But you&039;re right-it&039;s the hair"

"There&039;s so at the six punk-like, purple-tipped, silver spikes that have appeared on his head since I last saw hirin at each other Dervish looks like death and I guess I don&039;t look much better Wego and taking a step back

"Fine," he says

"It&039;s not," Bec disagrees She stands, taking care not to dislodge the drip "We heard about your transfor others with you"

"They&039;re waiting outside What about his heart?"

"I need a transplant," Dervish says "Care to volunteer?"

"He needs to return to the de Dervish&039;s quip "The doctors have done what they can, but if he stays here" She shakes her head

"Can you open a ?" I ask

"Not right now I&039;th" I formulate a quick plan "Juni knows you&039;re here A &039;s being opened soh The air will fill with ic I want you to tap into it, open aof your own and get him out of here"

"Don&039;t I have any say in this?" Dervish asks

"No"

My uncle chuckles, then lays back and so," he says

"Take him somewhere safe," I tell Bec "If I survive, I&039;ll come-"

"You didn&039;t hear o"

"Of course you&039;ll go," I snap "You can&039;t stay here You&039;ll die"

"So?"

"Don&039;t," I snarl "We haven&039;t ti your rotten carcass out of here and that&039;s that"

Dervish&039;s s about it since ere rescued Do you know that Beranabus and Sharmila were killed?"

"Yeah," I mutter

"We&039;re not sure about Kernel," Dervish continues "He disappeared There was a lot of blood and scraps of flesh, but they htn&039;t have been his Maybe he&039;s dead, riain "I want to choose my place and manner of death Beranabus and Sharmila were lucky-they died quickly, on our oorld But they could just have easily suffered for centuries at the hands of the Demonata and been butchered in that other universe, far from home and all they loved"

"Those are the risks we take," I say stiffly

"Not h I served as best I could, and if this body had a bit ood for anything now I&039;ht when the demons attack, but if we repel thehost in my own, natural time"

"Don&039;t be-" I start to yell

"Grubbs," he interrupts gently "I think I&039;ve earned the right to choose how I die Don&039;t you?"

I stare at hi Dervish is all I have left in the world I think of hi him

"I reckon I&039;ll last a few months if fate looks on me kindly," Dervish says "But that&039;s as h Time&039;s up The way I&039;ve pushed myself, the demons I&039;ve faced, the battles I&039;ve endured I was lucky to last this long"

"But I need you," I half sob