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I curled deeper, savoring the water It swirled around y, slowly released from the smooth stones on the porcelain bottom of the antique bathtub The heat soothed childhood scars that traced up my li winter, aggravated by the cold War totally safe for the first tie attributes slip free and sipped a Black Bear Brew, the label on the ice-crusted beer bottle blurred by rising stealassat the back of the loft, and wavering heat rose all aroundof candles whitened the protective ring of salt enclosing ies exhausted by the Salvage and Mineral Swap Meet and the trail

A year ago, Lucas would have slid into the big tub and wrapped his arth of the few scars my amulets allowed him to see We would have celebrated on bones," I said, pushing away theover the wo cheat I&039;d had the bad taste to ain and slipped lower into the potent bath, finishing off the beer On ht toas little more than an anonymous shadow in the securitytheir wares would reed woic voice for trinkets, not Thorn of Thorn&039;s Gems, a woman for whom the costs would have soared Our recent success had instantly bred price increases

Most of the folk who had traded with h stock, wouldn&039;t re at the conclusion of each deal and come aith fabulous buys But I&039;d done it fairly, so no one would have the need to search for a young witchy-wo with unlicensed enchanth stock for the next year, I had found and purchased soed stones froes They contained wild erous, but I hadn&039;t been capable of passing them up The seller hadn&039;t knohat he offered and they ca

I had done so well that I should be having a party, singing and dancing and discharging bursts of roizardry But as that would get me tossed out of my home, likely in bite-sized, cube-shaped pieces, I was happy to settle for a moment of quiet revelry, even if I did have to celebrate alone Hu, a low-pitched chih me The bell echoed in the hollow of my loft, insistent Evil happened when callers caht ain and stood, too fast

Water surged over the rim of the tub in a tiny tsunaed water splat on the earth- the protection for a moment before it broke the circle and opened a pathway A hard treripped me as power flowed back into the water around ained my balance, and stepped from the tub to the dark tile Force rippled up froht that actually hurt

"Sweet seraph!" I swore softly The bell rang again as I dried off, chilled and , I belted on a robe and slid my feet into suede slippers I was halfway out the door when I re

Surely not Stillfast, I raced to the back s and pushed aside the draperies A bloodring swirled around the full moon I choked off a second curse I&039;d never heard of a bloodring appearing twice in as nificance ca half in, half out of the loft as icy air swirled understick and swept the blade froht hand, the guard curving overthe blade down along ht left sleeve I slid a shortsword I kept at the coat rack

With a swipe at the ae attributes so I&039;d stop glowing and ran down the stairway It was chilled and da feet At the foot of the stairs I found the keys to Thorn&039;s Ge the longsword atto human speed, I ran into the display rooht through the glass I flipped on a light, unlocked the door, and gripped the hidden hilt ofjaunty, clashing notes Icy air blasted in, chillingwith it a scent that rocked me back a step The unexpected sar, and beneath it all soer

My body clenched in reaction, then went slightly limp, my hold on the sword hilt lax I looked up Glacial eyes stared at y red hair fell over his brow Full lips were stern above an alold haze And the smell I breathed it in, the scent as rich as a candy shop

"Are you Thorn St Croix Stanhope?" he asked, shifting into the light His coat gapped open with the e of office, half hidden in the folds of cloth He&039;s a cop Seraph stones! I&039; the sword&039;s hilt to draw it I had left my amulets at the bathtub I had no defenses without the in le huerous

Indecisive, I drew in a breath, all move And then I felt the tug of blood, the pull of earth and sex I felt him flow into me like a wraith, as heated as the stones in ed with their stored power And I knehat the ser on ht, was a child of the seraph Baraqyal, a third- or fourth-generation descendant of the winged warrior and a e This was a kylen I shook esture, the skin over his cheekbones tightened; his eyes narrowed

Fear rushed through me, chased by doubt A kylen onhis weapon and takingoff his clothes to ish honey-thick construct with the flush of fight-or-flight instincts, endorphins and hormones He isn&039;t here to e And he isn&039;t here to arrest me And then I realized He doesn&039;t know I&039;er still, he doesn&039;t know he&039;s not human Time snapped back to its accustoear and I released shortsword hilt, trusting the tight sleeve to hold the kris blade in place

What had he asked? I gestured to his sigil with a jut ofht?"

"I could be a rapist," he said with a faint smile, "or a thief here to clean out your shop" Involuntarily, unaware of the power of his breeding, he called to nized and craved but had never known

Holding on to the door fra the balance that had fled froe "No You look like a cop Mean" And wished I could pull the words back out of the air

He laughed and unclipped the black sigil with its State Police Departraphic ID on the other "Insulting, but correct Thaddeus Bartholomew, detective with Carolina State Law Enforcement"

He was a Hand of the Law, not an Adator Okay That offered me a measure of safety

"May I come in, out of the cold?"

Instantly, I saw ht, an antique novel on the coes curled and brittle, the book nestled into the deep, thick down My bed and a kylen in the sah es and kylen and their attraction for one another but had never really believed them Until now An icy draft swept up my robe and I clutched the lapels close The cold helped, broughtatinto heat With a cop Very bad idea "Yes Come in I have a fire" I took a deep breath to settle myself This sucked Habbiel&039;s pearly toes

I pressedmy side A sizzle of power from the mineral shot up my arm, into my heart, into my mind Suddenly I could reason I stepped back from the doorway, myrong with this There was a child of Baraqyal in Mineral City, a thousandoutside of a Realht, a kylen whose e within miles was an open book - hopes, drea in Enclave surrounded by others of e, part-seraph, part-hu

Had Lolo known that was possible? Had she sent hi for fabled runaway neohmy head, and I reached out with a silent ski he was head-blind He had no blood scent, but I could - aluilty of so I dropped the skim fast What did he think I&039;d done?

He sta out the cold, sealing us in, alone together His eyes fell to ths of velvet, scars whiter than white One-handed, I pulled the robe close, tightening the knot, ainst the bloodstone pri through the robe

"Are you Thorn St Croix Stanhope?" he asked

I nodded, an idiot puppet, staring into his eyes, shivers running up e-heat he had stirow I had been a Stanhope until I took back my maiden name But those words didn&039;t come

"Is there a place we could talk?"

"Yes" Talk I could handle, as long as it was general - the weather, the state of the union under the new president, the military&039;s readiness to coave myself away, I would be in trouble Within days I would be either dead or insane; neither option was appealing

I led the way up the steps to the second story, the former hayloft of the two-hundred-year-old livery that had become both Thorn&039;s Gems and my home His footsteps followed close behind me Heat wrapped aroundthe walking-stick sheath and hiding it in the robe beside the sword Bartholo the open space as I crossed the width of the vast apart the robe, I strapped a blade sheath to my lower left arm and inserted the blade, pulled on silk undies, slacks, and a bulky sweater over a silk tee to hide the curved blade of the shortsword Fuzzy socks protected my cold feet and ankles, suede slippers went back over the stick I could feel his apprehension from across the rooht He was thinking about his weapon

The phone rang I came out from behind the screen, picked it up fro it or guessing it as hu it in the way of ain as I carried it to hih to disappear, to hide from them all forever But here was a kylen in ment, and I knew Lolo was on the phone Gabriel&039;s tears!

"You going to answer that?"

I lifted the hard black plastic receiver and said hello ALolo&039;s command, but helpless to refuse The old witch "It&039;s for you"

A strange look crossed his face The heavy black base cradled in one hand, he lifted the receiver and said into it, "Bartholomew"

I walked to the back of the apartht sleeve, and plunged ed water Power shocked to inning to prickle and burn in arnet-studded hilt of the kris soy I had released into the bath, while I absorbed more into my own body I pulled it into e Lolo once envisioned forbefore the blossoan my outlawed presence in the huies led down as I picked up one of the wet stones and stood I scattered the salt ring with my feet, lifted my necklace of amulets and slipped it over my head, beneath the sweater, and pulled down my sleeve The stored power in the bath stone and in lanced at the cop as he listened to the phone He hadn&039;t arrested ht to deport me to Enclave He was a cop, but not an AASI And while it seemed impossible that he didn&039;t knohat he was, impossible that he hadn&039;t scented what I am, it was also true If I could keep hiht never know My secret would be safe Thorn&039;s Gems would be safe My friends Fire and feathers! I had to protect them No one would believe I had kept my secret all these years They would be arrested as accoht, to draw blood, rose in me, but I tamped it down Not now Not yet But theinoff the slippers, I curled on the big, deep cushions of the couch in front of the gas logs and pulled a green afghan over reen-blue eyes flicked over me and stared

"And who or what is a Lolo?" he asked into the phone

Near the tub, ht The hue of the red-gold band with its spray of rubies and eht It had been beautiful once Noas ruined, the gold beaten flat, the geed priht while low of my skin damped, and most ofme to marry a human It was the most powerful amulet I had ever owned, one of two keyed to ed it When I learned of Lucas&039; infidelity, I took a five-pound steel e, I&039;d chipped the alistened in the soft light Portents?

"Ma&039;as, their heat rising in waves, as curvy as the blade against my arhan and set it by aze back to Bartholoe-colored eyes, the exact shade of chrysocolla

"Who gave you that infor storm "Ma&039;alared at the ugly black phone and hung up I figured Lolo had broken the connection She hated phones

Except forin huy The presence of so e-power in Enclave had a deleterious effect on technology Meaning the stuff didn&039;t work To et on a horse, ride several eneral store near old I-10, and trade for the use of the phone Because the store owner knew he had so valuable to Enclave, such calls were costly in tere power Very costly Yet Lolo had done that, at just this time She kneas here