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My heart went cold as a stone Deep inside, Beast chuffed with laughter, which"You son of a bitch," Idown hed and a tension I hadn’t consciously recognized left his limbs He sat back in the booth and met my eyes "I told him no" My mouth opened and closed with a snap "I’ll alant to be a cop," he said, "butup to friends and lovers to find out info Except for one thing that elina leave talks that were progressing so well between the vamps and witches and come back to Asheville? The vas have taken place since she left Why did Leo finally agree to an MOC parley? Two questions that ended up here, together" Rick leaned back to his plate and ate several , as if for an opening in the intense silence to chat with pretty boy Ricky Bo When she wandered away, her disappointroup of New Orleans vampires kidnapped and killed witch children for decades Centuries And Evangelina Everhart walks out on restitution talks? Not in a et concessions froers walked through the air as if floating

PsyLed orried about the sas I hich was just weird Of course, I knew about Amy Lynn Brown’s miraculous recovery, and they didn’t But weirder was Evil Evie’s display of spell casting, which Rick didn’t know about She had an agenda I sipped Rick ate I offered hts as far as I could "She knew about the parley for MOC status" Rick nodded as if that was obvious And it was There were only just so ht be here for I was pretty sure she hadn’t followed the twins or Derek and the security types That left Rick and Ke around the Tennessee side of the oire and h as far as I could tell, she had gotten here before either of us "Do you, or Jodi, or PsyLed have any idea why Leo chose Grégoire, specifically, to handle this parley, over his own heir?"

"Initially, Leo was supposed to coed "It’s scuttlebutt Leo trusts Grégoire They were lovers in France before they ehed at s all ways--huot added to the oo files yesterday when a photocopy of Magnolia Sweets’ diary was delivered to NOPD, no fingerprints, no return address, so it could be fake, but it nolia Sweets had been Leo’s primo once upon a time, his prime blood-servant, before she was bitten by a olf and went all furry Maggie Sweets was the bitch who had tortured Rick, and she was dead now Her death could be laid partly at my door Her death was also the reason the two lone wolves were chasinghumans and witches It made sense, except for the part about who had found and sent the diary That was a puzzle

As to the Leo-and-Grégoire-lover part, Grégoire had supported Leo when the ainst the wall, when he was being challenged by the vamp as now the MOC’s heir, and had stuck around when Leo was in the dolore--the whacked-out grief suffered by vamps when people they love die And Evil Evie, as not acting like herself, had left restitution talks and cooire? Forhere himself? I blew out a breath Okay She found out about the parley and could further so on her coven "And Jodi doesn’t knohy Leo agreed to Lincoln’s parley, after denying his petition for so long?"

Rick scraped his plate and sopped up the greasy egg remains with a hunk of biscuit "Nope" But he didn’tthat he had ideas even if no facts

I said, "To answer your question, I don’t knohy Evangelina left New Orleans" I didn’t tell him about the spell or the vamp bites or the olf scent she carried I couldn’t Rick was being courted by PsyLed If he took the job, he’d be my enemy The Everharts’ enemy And now that I knew he could smell truth and lies, I couldn’t tell his to think about I fished in my pocket for my keys

"Don’t you want to know about the other calls?"

I stopped, pulled htly, his eyes crinkling at the corners I’d kissed hi e Du, Rick said, "He wants to knoe’re seeing each other He wants to ‘court’ you" Rick waited as if expectingeach other or not I had no idea if Bruiser was serious about wanting to "court"for a way to keep an eye on me, or had been told by Leo to sleep with me for some nefarious Leo-reason My life ay too complicated

I stood and pulled out "

Faster than a hurabbed"Don’t you want to knohat I told hi there that I could read The reek of big-cat heated the air, the sle, and murky water, and musky male "Not really" I jerked ainst the weaker pressure of his fingers Broke his hold I dropped thirty bucks on the café’s counter and walked outside As I got into er seat The first patters of rain ainst the windshield as I took the wheel, feeling the leather give under ht Maybe I had no idea hoitchwas dangerous to both spell caster and spelled I had no idea what to do and I wasn’t used to feeling helpless I needed to research spells and stopping theelina and knock so Instead I started the vehicle and backed away from the café, useless

I spent the next few hours inspells and how to interrupt them There was precious little on the Internet about the subject and most of it was contradictory When I ran out of info, I talked on Leo’s fancy cell with the paddler, Dave Crawford, who had organized the creekers--adrenaline-junky-kayakers who took the rindy s on a map I was pretty sure where, within twenty-five linear squareup When I took into consideration the folded terrain inside that twenty-five square e aht exercise clothes, black spandex, and went looking for a sparring partner Wrassler, standing guard in the hallway in front of Grégoire’s room, toldbells in ed downstairs, and took it in fast: the small room and blood-servants The B-twins had cleared space, e music played over the speakers The tere dressed in black cotton martial arts uniforms--traditional karate Gi tops with kicker pants, and were still war up The clothes told me a lot about the martial forms they practiced We had the place to ourselves Wrassler had known they were here, of course

The door closed behind me with a soft whoosh The twins paused in their stretches and I grinned at the Beast rise inan opponent My heart started to pound, a fierce, hard rhythhed and shook out his hands, setting his feet, carefully balanced Brandon bent his knees, finding his own perfect readiness position, one hand fisted in a defensive posture With the other, he et it" motion I leaped

It wasn’t play It wasn’t practice It wasn’t sparring It was the closest thing to real co for tier than humans, and sneaky as cats They didn’t play by TV rules, attacking one at a time They played by fire ant rules--swarm and destroy Punches, open handed and fisted, kicks, sweeps, blocks that disguised punches, kicks that hidfrom both sides and frocame at me I loved it

For nearly half an hour, they attacked, the beating ere giving and receiving growing in speed, force, and complexity, until we moved in a blur The scent of va-cat musk-and-blood filled the space; faint lust pheromones added to the wonderful stench We overwhel on the door and s When I cheated, usingone brother into the other, bothbare chested Which ht I took two hard punches, one to the face, before I got her back into the brawl

We fought hard, pulling no punches, and I gave as good as I took It was painful, swift, and exactly what I needed, bruises, strains, sprains, blood on the , and breathless, I heard a sound that pulled ht The door to the fitness room closed with its soft whoosh

I bounded out of Brandon’s fist-punch-range and into Brian’s space Brian’s arainst his sweaty chest and abdo the bout Brandon whirled toward the door We went still Two ofon equipment, as if they had been there a while, dressed in workout clothes but looking lazy Derek was standing in front of the door, his heels twelve inches apart, legs braced, hands clasped behind his back as if at Marine parade rest He was dressed in baggy workout clothes But his eyes were hard and predatory Derek Lee was seriously ticked off