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Eshe stretched sleepily and turned on her side, freezing when she spotted the tuft of hair sticking out from under the bundle of blankets beside her A slow s that neither of the woht, they&039;d merely called the Maunsell house and then the Harcourts and left e and waiting for phone calls that hadn&039;t coned a yawn and said that since they probably weren&039;t going to be able to ht at that point, he thought hefro that had happened He was retiring early and felt Eshe should as well
She had agreed with such alacrity it had left Bricker and Anders chuckling as Armand had led her from the room Eshe hadn&039;talone with Armand, safely in the house where they had backup and were unlikely to be attacked
The door had barely closed behind the blindly toward the bed in a sideways scuttle that had probably e, heventually, and no doubt long before the men had come up to bed She supposed that was probably why she ake nohile the sun was still trying to peek around the blackout curtainsWhich et up and set about their day talking to the wo as she took in Armand&039;s position
He&039;d cocooned himself in the blankets with just a handful of hair strands poking out of the s at the top His face and his body, all the way down to his feet, were hidden and enwrapped in the fluffy co none for her It was fortunate she didn&039;t like heavy blankets and preferred to just draw a sheet over herself, she supposed
Shaking her head slightly, Eshe reached for the blankets, intending to unwrap the gorgeous ht, but paused when she opened her , she was as dry as the desert and in soed as her stomach made the most atrocious sound Really, now that it had enjoyed the experience of having food in it again, her tuand the rest of her was deh as she beca place in her body
Retracting the hand that had been reaching for Armand, Eshe slid from the bed She started toward the bathroo earlier, and paused to pick it up before continuing on her way
Five minutes later she came out of the bathrooer-brushed and her mouth minty fresh, to slip silently from the room and make her way downstairs
The house was dead quiet; no vacuu washed, and Eshe glanced around curiously, wondering where Mrs Ramsey was This was Wednesday, after all, and the woman usually worked Wednesdays Surely Lucian hadn&039;t put it in her head not to come in all week?
Eshe frowned at the possibility She was rather hoping the woh she supposed she couldShe&039;d watched Bricker do that the day before and was pretty sure she could replicate the actions he&039;d taken to prepare it
Eshe was trying to recall all the items Bricker had put on the very delicious sandwiches the day before when she stepped into the kitchen and spotted Mrs Ra the coffeepot It was definitely a happy sight for her
"Good , Mrs Ramsey," Eshe said cheerfully as she crossed the kitchen to her side "How are you this ?"
The last word had barely left Eshe&039;s mouth when Mrs Ra knife flashing toward Eshe&039;s throat The sight was so unexpected, and frankly just so iet out of the way in time, but at the last mo the breeze of the passing knife as it barely oodthat Mrs Ramsey&039;s face was as blank as a sheet of empty paper Not in control of herself, then, she deduced Realizing the woman was under control of solance around, but caught aze back to Mrs Rarandmotherly woman
"Whoa You really don&039;t want to do that," Eshe said, continuing to move away from her now She then rolled her eyes at her oords Mrs Ramsey probably didn&039;t want to do it, but couldn&039;t prevent whoever was controlling her fro toat the idea of hurting this dear woman, Eshe tried to push her way into the housekeeper&039;s thoughts to ain, but whoever was controlling her had a firet in to free her, and instead had to leap back several feet as the carving knife caain
Eshe bit her lip on a curse as she slaainst the opposite counter from where she&039;d first found the woet out of the way as Mrs Raive her etting tired of this gaain, instead of backing away orbut not letting go when the knife sliced into the skin of her arm
"What the hell?" Ar the woman He was shirtless and his face was like thunder as he asked, "What the hell is going on?"
"She&039;s being controlled Hold her," Eshe snapped and clasped her hand over her cut arm as she hurried past him There were ts in the kitchen, one over the sink looking out across the backyard, the other by the table overlooking the side yard, but theby the kitchen sink was better positioned to see more of the kitchen, and when Eshe slammed out the back door onto the porch, she really expected to find the culprit who had been controlling Mrs Ramsey there She didn&039;t, however, and cursed as she ran down the steps to hurry around the house, knowing that whoever it ould have seen her head outside and taken off right away
As Eshe expected, when she turned the corner there was no one in the side yard, but the bushes at the edge of the woods were still h the the culprit, but she&039;d barely taken a couple of steps into the woods before she realized how foolish that would be Co to a halt, she peered around The trees were old here and tall, their leafy branches blocking out the sunlight so that it was dark and there was no ground cover All there was before her were dirt and tree trunks and an expectant silence that had the hair crawling on the back of her neck
He was there so, either behind one of the wide tree trunks or even up a tree in the branches overhead Probably hoping she&039;d keep co his breath in expectation, and h to go traipsing where he wanted when she was injured, unarmed, and barely even dressed
"Eshe?"
That shout frolance back the way she&039;d come It was Arlanced forward again, but saw nothing, and when Aran toto hurry back out of the woods Eshe was glad she had when she saw that he had hurried after her as barefoot as she in just his jeans and without even thinking to grab a weapon
"Are you all right?" he asked worriedly, rushing toward her "You&039;re bleeding"
Eshe opened her mouth to assure him she was fine and then paused and turned her head to the side to listen as she heard a vehicle engine start up somewhere on the other side of the woods She briefly considered running up to the road to try to see it, but knew she&039;d never get there in tih "I&039;et inside and out of the sun"
Ar over the woods behind her and then to the road, but then he slid his arm protectively around her and hurried her across the yard, but heading for the front of the house rather than the back
"What did you do with Mrs Ramsey?" she asked as he opened the door for her to precede him into the house
"She just suddenly collapsed I left her in the kitchen," Ar her up the hall and back into that roolance for the woed Eshe toward the table "Sit down I&039;ll get the first aid kit and soriet a look at it There was a lot of blood running in trails away fro, the nanos repairing and healing her now
"Don&039;t bother with a first aid kit A towel and blood will do," she said on a sigh It would just be a waste of good bandages It wouldn&039;t take long for her arain as she took in her slack face The woht when she woke, very distraught if whoever had controlled her had left her ahile doing it It would oing to have to be sent away teer, if their culprit was going to start using the on?"
Eshe glanced around to see Bricker and Anders rushing into the room, both of them in only jeans, sleep still evident in their eyes However, while Bricker was suffering a serious case of bed head, Anders&039;s hair apparently didn&039;t dare present itself so Every short strand was in place It figured, she thought, and then glanced to a half-naked Ars of blood Here she was surrounded by beefcake and she simply wasn&039;t in the ure?
"What happened to Mrs Ramsey?" Bricker asked with dismay as he spotted the woman on the floor and moved to check on her It was Anders who first noticed Eshe&039;s arm and asked, "What happened? I heard Armand shout"
"I&039;m not sure," Ars of blood on the table and began to wrap the towel around her arone, came to find her, and Mrs Ramsey was-" He shook his head, either not sure what the wo, or unable to even say it
"I ca to eat and so to slit lanced her way
"What?" Bricker looked at her askance
Eshe nodded her head, but when she opened her s of blood into view, her fangs slid out, and he popped the bag on, silencing her
"Feed now Explanations after," he grohen she glared at hilance at Mrs Ramsey and told the her wrist to keep her frorabbed Mrs Ramsey, and Eshe immediately rushed outside, probably to chase after whoever was doing the controlling Mrs Ramsey collapsed and I hurried outside after Eshe"
Anders spun on his heel, heading outside no doubt, but paused when Bricker said, "Don&039;t bother He&039;s gone She heard hilanced his ith a start and then rolled her eyes when she saas concentrating on her face He was reading her, of course, and probably enjoying being able to, she thought with annoyance, and hts h, however, and Eshe sighed and shook her head, then glanced to Mrs Raan to stir Bricker had raised her upper body to rest against his chest rather than the floor and the woman took that in with surprise as she returned to consciousness
"What happened?" she asked weakly
"She doesn&039;t re ofcoffee and then woke up on the floor or, as she&039;s thinking, in this handso man&039;s arms," he added with amusement
"I&039;ll take care of her," Bricker said quietly, helping the woman up He led her fro her and rearranging her ed the finally e from her teeth and murmured, "She can&039;t coain"
When Anders raised his eyebrows and glanced in Arhed wearily and nodded "It&039;s for the best We&039;ll have to send er, Jim, away until this is over too"
"We&039;ll handle it," Anders assured hi and sank onto the seat next to her His face was troubled as he watched her pop the bag to her mouth and then he said, "They controlled Mrs Ranized themselves"
Unable to speak, Eshe nodded It hat she&039;d been thinking too
"So it&039;s soht
Eshe nodded again She wasn&039;t terribly surprised by this possibility After all, strangers didn&039;t usually fixate on a person for sothem, but it seeht that could be possible, or he&039;d just not wanted it to be and convinced hiered by the possibility and struggling to accept it