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When I left New Orleans for a stint in the mountains, a chance to clear my head and let Beast run and hunt, the vamp world was vastly different
In a ned, with some vamp clan leaderships decie that had to set records The vaht-have-been never made the papers, but I talked with Bruiser and Troll often enough to keep up with the gossip And I stayed out of Leo&039;s hair He was a bit too bloodthirsty for ht now
When the depths of the rebellion had coned on to the wrong side, and then he took over the va his loyal scions as new clan masters in rival clans I&039;d heard that he had forced the blood sharing that cemented their - and his - positions By all accounts, the bloodbath I&039;d been expecting had happened in the end but it hadn&039;t quite been war and was over now
I spent the days between the last battle andin his hot tub, and riding his horses Eating a lot of steak Meeting his fa a lot ofwellBeast was happy When I wasn&039;t with Rick, I was getting ready to say good-bye to Molly and Angelina It was a bittersweet parting, because I kneould be a while beforein theEvan andman, and the fact that er was a hard one to pardon I was having a pretty hard tiainst him
I hadn&039;t had to report in person to the vamp council, which was a relief, but I did have to write a full report for the ones left alive after the city&039;s blood-eance on the rebels An amended report went to the police, as informational as my contract with the vamp council allohichwith a cop, NOPD got a lot of info from an "unnamed source" and no one cooing to war over If the Rousseaus had succeeded - and it looked as though they had been close - my world would never have been the same Baldy, Tristan, Renee, Rafael, and Adrianna had been five fingers of a huge fist Together, they would have pounded Leo One of them would have taken over as master of the city Every vae to Leo&039;s successor The other four would have had their choice of cities anywhere in the world
So, Rafael had wooed Adrianna away from her master and mind-joined with her, kidnapped Bettina, and s detailing the vaured she&039;d burn theelina was big on history and stuff like that, sowith Derek was easy - I just deposited his checks We didn&039;t have a lovey-dovey relationship
My own payment and a hefty bonus supplied by the new va me peace ofa wad of cash in a donation box near the closed casket I learned his name at the funeral Corporal Leon Alphonse Hicklin had been hohanistan and was killed trying to stop a robbery, according to the police reports He was buried with full honors
The witch children&039;spersons reports stored in the oo rooelina told the witch covens what had happened to soover the years I wasn&039;t in on theand didn&039;t want to be It was outside my contract andway outsideto try to heal so ti accounts and attending a funeral, I received a letter from Leo, hand-delivered by Bruiser This one was also sealed ax and Leo&039;s blood
Bruiser stood on my front porch, his heart in his eyes, and waited as I opened the seal
Avoiding his gaze, I read part of it aloud to Molly, who blocked the doorway behind ainst the Rogue Hunter, Jane Yellowrock She is hereby offered permanent employment with the Council of Mithrans of New Orleans&039; " I squinted at Bruiser, outlined against the sunlight "Sorta like a retainer?"
"Yes" He smiled "Much like a retainer, for services yet to be rendered"
"Huh How &039;bout that?" I turned and pushed past Molly, shutting the door in Bruiser&039;s face I could hear hih the door
I hadn&039;t decided what to do about the job offer yet, but it was good ood money
A bit over a week after the Battle, on a Friday, Rick and I left New Orleans for a long weekend, our gear strapped to our bikes and no particular destination inthe Tail of the Dragon, the winding, twisty road that draws bikers to its curves as girly es It&039;s a lusty ride and Rick had never taken it
I wanted him to see my home, in the hopes thatWell, some hopes had to be kept undercover for now, but I hoped soht meet Beast And want to stay around for both of us