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"He&039;s taking an awfully long tilanced in the rearview mirror at his mother&039;s face Her expression reflected the worry and concern that had been in her voice, the sa Bastien had been e" Renberger&039;s house alone Etienne had been so cold and furious, he&039;d feared what he ht do But that was Etienne&039;s problem It was his woman and his battle and, in the end, Bastien had decided to let him handle it until he proved incapable of it

"It hasn&039;t been all that long," Lucern said froet he had to--What&039;s this?"

Bastien glanced back to the house in tiray-haired and cherubic, she carried a small furry bundle in her arms They watched in silence as she rushed across the yard and into the house next door

"That doesn&039;t look good," Marguerite spoke the thought they all shared They had expected Pudge to have Rachel here but hadn&039;t even considered that anyone else ht be in the house Now they didn&039;t knohat to think What had the wo there? Had she seen Etienne? Or Rachel? She&039;d been fleeing as if all the deo in and see if Etienne needs any help" Their lance with Lucern, reading the uncertainty in his brother&039;s mind Neither of them were sure they should interfere Etienne wouldn&039;t thank theer man hadn&039;t said as much, but it had obviously been important to him to be the one to find and rescue Rachel, not tohis life such hell

"Why don&039;t we give hiested and Bastien nodded They fell silent as they turned their attention back to the house It was a short, tense wait The three of thelances when they heard the wail of a siren in the distance They re city; the vehicle could be either the police or the fire department, it could be headed anywhere

Bastien and Lucern reached for their door handles, however, when a police car turned down the street they waited in

"Wait," Marguerite barked,them pause The brothers stayed where they were but unrolled their s as the cruiser pulled into the driveway of the house next to Pudge&039;s--the one the woman had just dashed into She ran back outside now, still clutching so small and furry to her chest as she rushed the patrol car There were two officers in the vehicle, one short and blond, the other a tall brunette The dark-haired officer was the closest and the one the wo wheel and slaone crazy!" she shrieked "He thinks he&039;s a vampire! He wanted to eat my Muffin!"

"I certainly hope her ," Lucern said with a dry huh and dispelled soone crazy, ma&039;am?" They heard the blonde officer ask as he rounded the car to join the pair

"Norhbor" She pointed toward the house Etienne had disappeared into "He has a poor young woirl fro a couple of weeks ago She&039;s pale and doesn&039;t look well at all He&039;s obviously been starving her He tried to ?" the darker officer asked with disgust

"My Muffin" She lifted her ar ball of fur she held

"Was that before or after he tried to eat your Muffin himself?" the blonde asked with a trace of amusement that made Bastien frown It was obvious that at least one of the ht the wo that The worade teacher spotting a trouble man I&039;m not soht now in jeopardy"

"Two?" the second man asked

"Yes That pretty redhead fro man who came in and set lanced toward the Renberger house, then back

"Why didn&039;t they come out with you?" the blonde asked

"I was just tied up He was able to untie irl was chained to a coffin"

"Coffin?"

"I told you, he thinks he&039;s a vampire," she explained with exasperation "He&039;s insane! Now stop dawdling out here Go help that young irl That&039;s your job"

When the two officers still hesitated, obviously unsure what to ust and turned toward the house "Very well I&039;ll go get the young man and have him come out if he hasn&039;t already been noticed and killed by that nasty Norman"

She was out of her yard and across Norman&039;s before the officers kicked out of their frozen state and hurried after her The little woman could really move when she wanted to She mounted the porch and entered the house before they could reach her

"Turn me"

Rachel shifted a little to the side to look around Etienne&039;s shoulder at Pudge After the tense silence that had passed since his reappearance with the crossbow, those weren&039;t the words she&039;d expected to hear

"Coe whined when both Etienne and Rachel stared at him blankly "Why should you have all the fun? Turnto ask her whether Pudge&039;s request was for real

"Turn e promised

"Rest?" Etienne echoed with amazement

"Vampires alant rest," Norman announced solemnly, then frowned "Well, mostly they do Once they&039;re staked they look at peace in the movies Sometimes they even thank their staker Except for Dracula I don&039;t think he wants peace, but he&039;s been alive forever" He peered at Etienne curiously "Have you e, do you understand the difference between fiction and reality?" Etienne asked

"Of course I do," he said with a scowl Then he added impatiently, "Just turn me already, and I&039;ll put you to rest"

Etienne released a short laugh "Are you even thinking about what you&039;re suggesting? You&039;re asking e you&039;ll end mine? Hellooooo You want eternal life What makes you think I don&039;t?"

"Oh, come on You must be tired by no old are you? Five, six hundred years old?" he guessed "You have to be way old I looked up the Argeneau na way There&039;s a reference to a Lucern Argeneau back in ht? There was a Lady Marguerite uy too And I know that&039;s your mom and dad"

Rachel noted Etienne&039;s startled expression Apparently, he hadn&039;t considered that Pudge ht do research It was obvious he didn&039;t care for the fact, or the possibility that his faeted as well She shook her head with disgust Woe and betide the idiot for bringing Etienne&039;s fa as could be most of the ti to the fore His usually s face had become a cold, hard mask

Etienne e by the throat in the blink of an eye--far too quickly for Pudge to stop with his crossbow It did go off as he dropped it, but the stake hare reach into the front pocket of his black jeans but didn&039;t understand the significance of it She didn&039;t realize trouble was co until he pulled out a reht i sound filled the air

Rachel gaped at the sunla warm illumination down on her, then her head twisted to the side as the whirring was explained by a huge cross sliding out of a recess in the wall and swinging across the rooaze shot to Etienne to see that he had been startled enough by the sudden explosion of light and sound that he was gaping as well But he hadn&039;t seen the six-foot cross crashing toward hi, but it was too late, e object in tiain as he was slammed backward and crashed into the far wail She started to run toward hie instead when she sahat he was up to now The e had bent to retrieve his crossbow He tugged a fresh stake froe had the weapon reloaded by the time she reached hi, and she took advantage of that fact and juhtened with a shriek and attempted to throw her off, but Rachel held on like a h her With one arm around his arm and over his chest, she snaked the other around his neck and grabbed his jaw Rachel wasn&039;t even thinking when she twisted his head sideways It was pure animal instinct that made her do it, and bend her own head to his neck with every intention of biting the little weasel and draining him dry

"Freeze!"

Rachel heard that shout and quickly pulled herany blood Her head shot up as Pudge wheeled toward the stairs, the crossboaving wildly Her eyes widened in shock at the sight of the two unifor at the base of the stairs, their weapons drawn and pointed in her direction Then the crossboent off

"Oh," Rachel breathed as the officers tried to ju projectile There was a curse, followed by a thud as the blond officer was hit At first she thought theat it, she saw that it had ht by his sleeve, which was now pinned to the wall

Rachel was still gaping at the strugglingher fro her out of the line of fire before she even considered the need to move But the officers didn&039;t return fire The dark-haired one kept his gun trained on Pudge, but his gaze kept returning to the blonde struggling to free hie the chance to snatch yet another stake froe had just finished locking the stake into place and turned to aied to pull his sleeve free The twotheir weapons at Pudge

"Drop it! Drop the weapon, buddy! Just drop it!" the blonde shouted He sounded pretty angry Perhaps pissed off was the better word, Rachel thought, as Etienne shifted her behind hie was ai their way

She appreciated the concern obvious in this action, but iton Rachel ended up having to duck and twist to see past hie&039;s reaction to finding hi at theape He obviously hadn&039;t expected this

"Come on, buddy Put the weapon down," the dark-haired officer suggested in cajoling tones "We don&039;t want to have to shoot you but ill"

"Me?" He stared at theuy here I&039;! It&039;s thelance the two officers exchanged and knew everything was going to be all right They weren&039;t buying what must sound like nonsense to them However, she couldn&039;t help but think that, had their entrance been one e&039;s neck as she&039;d intended, this whole scenario lance at Etienne had her suspecting he was thinking the sa "They&039;re valanced in Rachel and Etienne&039;s direction out of reflex Both then started to look away, but the one who had so recently been pinned to the wall stopped aze back Rachel felt herself stiffen at the recognition on the blonde&039;s face