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They should all be staked

My heart stuttered painfully as Beast poured power into hter, as if a flash had gone off inside rowl erupted from my throat I whirled, raced toward my house

Beast-fast, I crossed the yard and leaped, catching the top of the brick fence with one hand and levering myself up and over, the flip-flops lost in the dash As I was vaulting the fence, I saw a ladder leaning against the brick It hadn&039;t been there before I snarled

And took in a whiff of vamp And of witches The trails overlaid one another in a twisting spiral from Katie&039;s Ladies to here Instantly I understood the trap that had sprung They had taken Bliss, then waited in the alley, hidden under a spell that had subtly encouraged me not to check around the entire house When I went inside Katie&039;s, they had simply climbed the fence and come here Then they&039;d attacked

I dropped into a defensive crouch inside the walled garden There was no siren screah the wards Had Molly not activated the periotten after I left the house? I hadn&039;t waited to see that she was safe

The smell of blood hit me, rich and fresh Molly&039;s I/we screaics prickled across my skinThe wards are still in placeBut they sh the the air with the smell of scorched earth and ozone

Inside, the ser Bloody prints tracked across the floor Beast-fast, I followed the pool of blood at the foot of the stairs

Bleeding fro words "My babies He took my babies"

I wasn&039;t sure what I did next I know I called 911 I re clean towels fro them over the wounds on her torso with clean sheets I rehfro to the 911

operator that Molly was hurt bad and the children had been kidnapped

I remember the paramedics set off the ward at the front door And I sent the And I re Molly&039;s blood-slick hand into help her And the fear on their faces when they looked intoit S Leo&039;s De But Leo wasn&039;t ho Bethany to the hospital The hesitant sound in his voice; he knew he shouldn&039;t be helping

I re the photos just taken of Molly and the kids For the cops For the AMBER Alert Rushing with police officers into the street to follow the trail of the witches and the vamps who had invadedcloud of diesel and a booby-trap spell that sentfro into the back of the ambulance

But it was allsound bites, like being in a foreign land, the language all juhts alien I couldn&039;t save Molly, my only friend I didn&039;t knohere her children were Bliss was gone I was crying and useless

Useless While Beast screae on me

Tulane University Hospital was the only one in New Orleans that kept paranormal medical experts on salary, medicos who dealt with the needs of the supernats and their injuries Molly was unloaded and carted into the TUH Eency Department I claimed to be her sister, so they let n papers and talk to the cops Two unifore read A

Ferguson

Ferguson wanted to question me, the kinds of questions cops saved for suspects I was covered in blood, so I understood the officers being wary, but there wasn&039;t time to waste And Beast was too close to the surface forEvan in Brazil, left hi sister in Asheville I ed to call Rick And Jodi Richoux And Troll

I coped enough to get my story out to the cops between calls, and Rick talked to one of them while I answered the doctor&039;s questions and talked to a surgeon as also an earth witch I held it together by a thread, juggling answers, questions, inforht up until Bruiser and Bethany waltzed into the ED

Everything stopped at that moment The constant incredible din of the place The continuous ency It all stopped Everyone stood in place, pivoted to get a better look, and stared Suddenly I could take a breath A sense of icy expectancy flowed over htened into taut peaks by the power that wafted around the va storle Beast settled onto her haunches, quiet

Bruiser stood in the entrance, the glass doors to the ambulance ramp open behind him, Bethany&039;s hand in the crook of his ar jeans and an open-neck shirt Bethany earing a full-skirted crie turban, an orange shawl over one shoulder Gold hoops dangled froold links circled her neck Her feet were bare And she was fully va cop beside me pulled his weapon, but before he could raise it to fire, his partner put out a restraining hand and looked at eant by his stripes His partner looked young, still wet behind the ears

And the plainclothes guy, Ferguson, was mid-fifties Experienced Canny He looked froether as his eyes darkened

"The victim She&039;s a witch, isn&039;t she?" the detective said I nodded and Ferguson&039;s mouth curled into a faint sneer The scent of fear and hatred started to ooze from his pores He was a closet witch hater Maybe not so much closet His voice dropped lower

"And you didn&039;t think it i our tirowled He took a step back The younger cop struggled with his partner to draw his gun, eyes switching from Bethany in the doorway, to the closer threat,out "You telling me that you wouldn&039;t have issued an AMBER Alert for two kidnapped children if their ?"

"Witch politics," Ferguson spat "Their kids aren&039;t the concern of normal humans And that?" He jutted his chin at Bethany, still in the doorway "They should all be staked"

In an eyeblink Bethany had crossed the floor and taken the detective into an embrace It looked like a lover&039;s touch, carnal, possessive, one hand at his back, the other holding his head Her fangs braced at his throat He struggled for a single heartbeat and went still I shivered in the cold, dry hospital air, sweat chilling on my skin I had never seen a humanforced under by a vamp They could mesmerize, but not without eye contact

Not without tial And deadly

Bethany licked along Ferguson&039;s throat, her tonguebetween her spiked canines

She breathed in his scent and closed her eyes in what looked like sexual ecstasy The detective groaned in her arhed happily and slid an ar close

As if she couldn&039;t hear hie She&039;s gonna kill hilance "Probably not But if you can&039;t control your partner,he le as I turned back to Bethany

She smelled the detective the way Beast s drafts of air She moaned softly, and the sound raised the hairs on the back of le so she would see his approach while he was several feet away "Bethy, love He&039;s not a danger to you He isn&039;t food"

"It would let children be stolen," she said, her breath on the neck of her prey "It would let theuson&039;s eyes "Speak the truth, huo without searching for thehed and smiled, stoned on vamp power "Witch kids Not human"

Bethany said, "Some would call me witch and cursed You would let my children die?"

"Let &039;eled softly "Stake you Gut you Cut off your head"

Bethany s his will He shuddered along the length of his body as if she shook hier desire to stake the cursed You will love us Desire us You ork to help and to find all children Speak to this, human"

His eyelids fluttered "WiiiiWill help" He licked his lips "Always" His hands rose and he stroked her face "Please? Now? Please"

"Good" Bethany patted his face "This is good" She struck, her fangs slicing into his carotid so fast I didn&039;t see them penetrate Her lips forle drop of blood teared at the corner of her lips Five long seconds later, she released hiuson slid to the floor, his neck wounds closed and only a smear of blood to shohere he had been a meal "The human will live It will allow no er cop said "Sarge - ?"

"Shut up, Micky Shut up and go to the unit Don&039;t do anything Just sit there"

Bethany looked at ht here to help a witch I s"

The older unifor the door behind her The sergeant pursed his lips, not sure what to do next He toed the detective on the floor Ferguson didn&039;t stir The cop grinned and it was a nasty sight, as if he thought Ferguson had gotten what he deserved

I touched his ar you she was a witch, but if I had, soht have buried the report for a few crucial, critical seconds So I kept it to myself"