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Footsteps crashed at the mouth of the alley I whipped halfway to my feet Audric stood there, bare chested, fra down the sword and a wakazashi shortsere crossed at groin level A fighting stance In an instant, I drew on ht, and dropped back to the alley Melted snow soaked into ripped hard in the after, teeth chattering

Knees flexed, Audric advanced at an angle, allowing hisword to cover the entrance as he th of the alley, the wet cobblestones even now freezing over, the rock wall exploded out, revealing the webbing of ancient wood slaths He looked at ray cloth that had been tossed over Rupert It carried the reek of Darkness in the smear of blood, and my hands ached when I touched it, but I balled it up and tucked it beneath y, confused, and the bruise at his te lump

A screech of wood echoed in the alley and voices sounded from above Audric lifted the katana as if to ward off attack, before instantly lowering both weapons and hiding thes Over our heads, twoat once "You folks okay?"

"That wall jist fell right on out"

"Dang, woman, I see it"

"I tolt you that wall needed attention The mortar was rotten Now them people are hurt You folks need aor other"

"Rupert?" When he shook his head, I said, "We&039;re fine No one&039;s hurt But your wall needs repair" Actually, it now needed to be replaced, but I didn&039;t point that out

"Fine, then Glad you&039;re all okay And we got us a son what&039;s a stone on the shop door at front" The couple, still bickering about the mortar, lowered the ith a second screech Only after theclosed did I recognize the proprietors of the bakery It was the bakery&039;s wall I had destroyed I scented yeast and fresh bread on theair

Audric relaxed his stance and rested his weapons as he advanced the rest of the way to us His skin was puckered with cold, stea off his chest "Rupert? Are you okay?"

"Yeah Woozy" He braced his arms and looked down his body "I&039;m all wet What happened to the snow?"

"Thorn happened"

The blood in my veins froze What had Audric seen? He hadn&039;t been here -

"The wall can be rationalized, but we need to get you tay from this spot before anyone notices the melt Can you walk?"

"Sure Help me up" Rupert raised his hand

Audric slid the wakazashi into his belt and lifted Rupert I stood up alone "Audric - "

"Not now"

"Yeah Later" Much later Like never, maybe? The swords disappeared into the folds of Audric&039;s pants leg for the short walk No one looked out ato see tet and wretched people and one nearly naked man It was as if we ht of the rising sun bent around us and vanished

Heat blasted us as we entered Thorn&039;s Ge off my shoes My feet were so cold even the floor felt heated

"Get dry and warm," Audric ordered I ran upstairs and locked myself in What had he seen? What had Audric meant when he said, Thorn happened? I unsheathedit hadn&039;t re to generate body heat, I pulled a bag of salt to me, one that had been used often, e- Brimstone burned my nose as the blood was cleansed When I pulled the blade free, salt clung to the cutting edge I held it beneath springwater in the sink as the final traces of blood were neutralized I quickly opened a bottle of lightweight oil and wiped down the blade It needed more attention, but the oil would hold it temporarily To remove traces of spelled blood from the sheath, I poured salt inside and touched a little-used ath left in the stone to clean the inside of the walking stick When I banged the sheath, pouring the salt down the sink, it had grayed, losing its savor

The smell of evil was still in the cloth the attackers left behind I could use it to track them I could use it to scry And so could they to me It wasn&039;t safe to keep or use

I knelt and turned the fireplace flah Withthe bloodiest sections, and tossed the contaminated cloth on the flames The stink would rise and be swept away by winter winds Let them try and track it to me It wouldn&039;t be possible unless they had planned well in advance The stink of evil wafted up the chimney

The rest of the cloth, still tainted but less powerful, wasn&039;t soh I smelled brimstone and knew it contained traces of blood I stuffed it into a stone jar, sealed the top, and wedged it into the bag of salt It was effectively insulated until I needed it No one could track it, not through the salt Iwith a black X

Only then did I strip out of the wet clothes, hanging the in wars and slacks I wore navy this time, which wouldn&039;t clash too badly with the teal tunic and ocean-toned scarf My hair was low seeped from my skin

My amulets were almost barren I had panicked and drawn on the with after-battle fatigue, cold, even afterspeed I was too drained to restore both the alow

Because tainted salt wouldn&039;t affect every incantation, I picked up the salt marked TRUTH/LUST and for tohalf under it in my exhaustion I didn&039;t have the resources to call on the power of the deeps, or to fight the temptation to steal power and force forthe ae a for any incantation onea hard crystal disc for infore Or they can be adapted with a perram is permanently etched in the crystal matrix of the stone or shell or whatever is used to hold the conjure Such arammed for only one purpose and can be refilled after each use The latter version of a several days, soes, to make one, but they hold an incantation and the power needed to fuel it much better

Most of reater protection than a neo us for days at a tiht have hundreds of lesser aed for a different use To keep my secret, I made do with a few major ones I dropped my necklace of amulets at ony, but I could immerse them in ater later

With an effort of will, I called upthe circle with a soft pop The loft glowed, but dimly, as ies Too tired to think, I tried to pull energy from beneath my feet Instead, a seductive lavender heat throbbed atpower that soothed and enchanted The amethyst in the storeroom

It flowed uphands Too fatigued to refuse the easy lure of such readily available power, I let it touch y; it simply flowed in, like th, power, and life force It quickly restored th, heatedtoes As I watched, old with tints of fuchsia, the stone in the stockrooed my a the basic charreen-jade bear that was keyed to er bear I called on when I needed power froar carved frolae and Mineral Swap Meet, others Usually I required a whole day of intense recharging to achieve such restoration, and another two days to fill the a on the amethyst, I was renewed in minutes, the amulets only a few

I should stop There was soiven But I was empty, empty to a bone-cold depth So I yielded and filled all the empty amulets in the loft All the stones that protected and served e the bloodstone hilt ofstick And then a bitmyself expand to contain it

Immediately I was unsteady, mentally inebriated, physically nauseous It was more than a psychic reaction A lot ed I sed heavily and put out a hand to stabilize ies still demanded to be used, an external pressure A faint headache started, ular cadence of pain When I looked around,with color as if I could see the energies of every atoroaned It had to be Rupert and Audric With a sick , kicking aside the salt Wavering as if drunk, I blanked my skin, tied the a, and swept up the salt, du Movement made me want to throw up Yeah, I was drunk, as drunk as a skunk, power drunk I heardstick, I felt power flowing through the bloodstone hilt, deep within the stone&039;s crystal ed to ed the other one, the bloodstone handle was my best defense Barefoot, warm, I walked to the door and opened it

Audric was alone, dressed in a loose and flowing black martial uniform, a scarlet belt of status tied, just so, at his waist, his blades at rest, hilts toward the floor Thoughtechniques, I hadn&039;t known he was a practitioner of savage-chi and savage-blade until I saw hio Now it seerind my face in the fact that he was a ht, and when he spoke, his tone was for Thorn happened He had seen my flesh in the alley, had to knoas a supernat But did he knohat kind? I sighed "You want to talk here or downstairs? " My way of asking who knew besides hi up Jacey has an early custo er "Who were they?" he asked

"I never saw the in the alley" As I talked, Imy story "When Rupert reached the mouth of the alley, they rushed hione before I could blink I grabbeda weapon - and ran after them I bumped one into the wall and hit the other with the stick several times They dropped Rupert and the wall fell Probably because its h to" At the expression on his face, I let rave, with the Zen-like silence of his training And so dispel the sense of drunkenness Thorn happened I gave up the pretense and dropped ontomy ar stick secured between knees and chest, blade loosed And I still had the kris strapped to my forearm "Okay Let&039;s talk"

Audric settled onto the couch, but he didn&039;t look relaxed He lay his blades across his lap, prepared for battle "You are neo- an infraction Or banishment This I have suspected for soht crossed raphed e battle reactions I had becoainstand instincts, I loosened the autonoht relaxation I should have thrown everything I had at hiepower and blade, hurt him badly, then run That hat Lolo had prepared ins were exposed and I was accused But Audric hadn&039;t accused ed plan for this situation And I didn&039;t want to run, start over somewhere else, as someone else I had roots here I had Rupert Jacey Ciana

How had Audric known? I opened ht and examined him He appeared human, smelled hu-bolt pendant at his throat and relaxed fro indefinable slipped aside, as if he dropped shields, as if he had been glalow seeped from Audric, soft coral, like me Or almost "Seraph stones," I breathed "You&039;re a crossbreed"

"The common ter

I closed off ht and looked at hi ainst half-breeds before I was sent away, and clearly I should have been Lolo would have sent one orSurely

Joy budded in the depths ofI&039;m not alone When I spoke, my voice was breathless, scratchy, and I had to stop and clear it "Not even a hu"

"Indeed," he said, his tone and words still formal "We call ourselves the second-unforeseen Or - for the neoe-human crossbreeds who desired to sire children or enjoy the full physical delights of , for an incident which I will not discuss"

"Are you a seraph-bound warrior or e-bound?"

"Neither," he said simply

I looked at hi, almost unknown When he didn&039;t elaborate, I asked, "What e do now? Who else knows?"

"Your scars have been noted at ti in back They are" - he paused carefully - "distinctive"

Unconsciously, I s ered and deep

"Rupert and Jacey have speculated that you are half-breed Neither have guessed about me But if Rupert relamoured skin, he will realize, as I did, that you are fully neo in the hue, none had ever been substantiated Until now It suddenly occurred to me that I was proof the ru ment was suspect

"The two in thethe broken alley wall It affected them personally, so it was likely all they saw The as old; its falling made sense The clouds outside hold frozen rain, which could easily create the frozen mess there now I think Rupert was knocked loopy And theest we do nothing? Keep each other&039;s secret from the humans?"

Audric relaxed even e and a crossbreed living in the sa with a human man? What would they say?"

"If the humans knew? Too much But Rupert has to know If you&039;ve been" - I searched for a polite term and felt my face burn - " intimate"

"We&039;re not all totally without physical characteristics He believes my differences are the result of an accident when I was a child"

"Oh" That sidestepped the issue nicely, which made me even more curious, but I couldn&039;t think of a polite way to ask what he looked like naked, so I changed the subject "I&039;ve never nation

"Second-unforeseen Neoenerated another question, and before I considered whether it ht be rude, I asked, "Do you have souls?"

He inclined his head, the lights glea off his bald pate "It is said that we do"

Sorrow pricked atto be as formal as he, I said, "I may have met another like you today One in the alley appeared huht back to the alley, parsing each sensation "I cut hi, not entirely human And he was spelled with Darkness"