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"Dr Garrett? Dr Rachel Garrett?" the officer asked "It is you"
Rachel nodded warily but didn&039;t get the chance to say anything Pudge jumped in there, his voice excited "Yes That&039;s her She orking in the ht I went in to finish hi Rachel flinch It had already gone off once accidentally and could easily do so again "She jumped in the hen I went to cut off his head and I axed her by mistake I hit her in the chest She should be dead, but he turned her Now they&039;re both va completely insane "They&039;re both soulless bloodsuckers, cursed to walk the night forever"
Rachel bit her lip, al he had said was true, of course Well, except for the soulless part But really, where was his common sense? Surely he must realize no one would believe hian easing farther apart and approaching Pudge in a rather wary et it They&039;re vauy But we&039;re here now You&039;re safe So drop the weapon and put your hands up, huh?"
Pudge frowned, his gaze shifting between his weapon, the police, and Rachel and Etienne "But what about theuns at theuns don&039;t work on va peaceable-like" He glanced at Rachel and Etienne, "Won&039;t you?"
They both nodded
"See?" the first officer said soothingly They know they&039;re caught Now you just need to give up your weapon there, buddy"
When Pudge hesitated, the second officer added, "We didn&039;t come prepared for a call like this You know, varound these days We aren&039;t arive us the weapon so we can take thee looked relieved "You should be armed too" He started to shift sideways toward the nearest officer,sure to keep the crossbow aimed at Rachel and Etienne "I have more weapons in the back You can keep this trained on theet et thereeably, lowering his gun slightly and holding his free hand out to accept the crossbow
"Don&039;t take it off thee warned as he handed it over "They&039;re super fast you know And super strong I--Hey!"
The ed hands, the officer tossed the crossbow aside and raised his gun to ai his wounded expression, the policeainst the wall and spread &039;ee&039;s protest was cut off as the second officer hurried forward and caught hile," the dark-haired un trained on Pudge while his partner ripped off his cape and proceeded to frisk him The maniac had a couple more stakes in the back pocket of his jeans that the officer took away
Rachel and Etienne watched in silence as a protesting Pudge was cuffed and led to the stairs He was still babbling about their being soulless vampires and he was the hero in this piece and that they were e mistake
"Well," the officer who had been pinned to the wall said as his partner disappeared upstairs with Pudge He turned to survey Rachel and Etienne, then his attention focused on Rachel "I gather this is where you disappeared to frolanced at Etienne as she felt hi tense beside her She knehat he wanted her to say He and his whole faht her here that night over a week ago It wasn&039;t true, though, and she was a lousy liar She hesitated briefly, considering her options The man had kidnapped her She certainly hadn&039;t coly On the other hand, she couldn&039;t explain where she had been for the past ithout there being questions that would be difficult to answer Rachel decided to be honest but cagey
"Pudge kidnapped ainst my will," she admitted solemnly, and felt Etienne relax beside her She al; they weren&039;t out of the woods yet But she caught herself as the officer nodded
"How did he get you here, ma&039;aue wearing a trench coat over fatigues He had a rifle and ax under the coat and was shouting solanced at Etienne again He see, she turned back and said, "I&039;ets rather blurry after that The next thing I can tell you is that I woke up here today chained to that wall He was still raeeks, and he seelanced between thener of Blood Lust," Rachel explained "It&039;s a vaame"
"Oh," the man said, but still appeared lost "Okay, he was fixated on your gaaze back to Rachel "But if that&039;s the case, why did he kidnap you and not hiirlfriend," Etienne said cal Half the tiht I was a vaht he was one or wanted to be one The fellow seems quite insane"
"Yeah It would seem so," the blonde said dryly and shook his head Then he told her, "Every cop in the city&039;s been looking for you, estured toward the now eirl as supposed to replace your assistant arrived as this guy storue She went to find security, but they were dealing with another issue at the ti to your offices The rooot there, and it was assumed the fellow had taken you" He shook his head "She did a pretty good job of describing him too They did a police sketch and put it on all the news shows I don&039;t knohy no one picked up on it being this guy He&039;s a dead ringer for his picture"
Rachel nodded but remained silent, afraid to draw any more questions from the man Fortunately, he turned his attention to Etienne to ask, "How did you end up here today, sir? The next-door neighbor said you came in and set her free, but she didn&039;t seem to knoho you were"
Etienne hesitated, then said, "I&039;ve been quite concerned about Rachel since she disappeared I spotted Pu--this guy while I aiting at a streetlight He was driving a van I recognized him from the pictures on the news and followed hi, Rachel noted with interest She supposed it shouldn&039;t surprise her He&039;d had over three hundred years to perfect his technique
"You should have called the police at once," the officer said with disapproval
"I intended to," Etienne assured hiuy I didn&039;t want to raise a false alarm By the time I parked, he was out of his van and had entered the house I peeked in a couple of s, hoping to get a better look at hiht downstairs I came around the back of the house and found that --"
Rachel followed his gesture and noted with some surprise that there were indeed s in the basement She hadn&039;t noticed theht in earlier She supposed one of the buttons Pudge had pushed had uncovered the s as well as turning on the sunlae had made of the fact that they hadn&039;t burst into flaht hit them as he had no doubt expected
"When I looked in and saw Rachel chained up down here, all I could think of was getting in to her I forgot all about calling you I could see the coffin, and the old lady Not toaround in a cape and fake teeth" Etienne shook his head "It was obvious he was crazy and I was afraid to leave the women alone So when the back door turned out to be unlocked, I slid inside and crept down here to free theuess I can understand your concern, but you really should have called us," the officer grumbled "The old lady said she was tied up, but that Ms Garrett was chained and you couldn&039;t free her How--?"
The question died midsentence and the officer appeared confused for a ain, his voice sounded alh questions for now, I suppose You&039;ve been through enough We should get you out of here"
Rachel arched an amused eyebrow at Etienne It was pretty handy to be able to control people&039;s minds She really had to learn that skill, she decided
"After you" Etienne&039;s grin was unrepentant as he gestured for her to lead the way upstairs He obviously felt no sha his skills so shamelessly And frankly, she couldn&039;t bla The sunla her body cra of blood was the only thing on her ed the stairs on her own, but it was slow and wearying By the tihtly on her feet, and Etienne put out his hand to steady her as they crossed the lawn
"We&039;ll have to call an ambulance to take you to the hospital, Ms Garrett You look in pretty bad shape" the officer said, taking in her weakness and pallor "Has he fed you at all since taking you?"
"No," Rachel answered, grateful she was able to be honest
"I&039;ll see her to the hospital," Etienne announced and the hypnotic tone of his voice told Rachel he was digging inside the officer&039;s estion that his seeing her there was the better option, she thought
"That will be fine, sir," the officer agreed "My partner should have already called for backup to coestured toward the vehicle where Pudge stood, still vehe to convince the dark-haired officer that Etienne and Rachel were the bad guys, while he was trying to save the world from their soulless selves
"We&039;ll meet you at the hospital If the doctor says you&039;re okay, you ht have to come to the station while we type up your statereed, as if he had some say in the matter Which, she supposed, he did He could probably wipe the hts had he wished, but then, this all worked to his benefit Pudge was no longer going to be a threat to hiht ran through Rachel&039;s nized at once that it wasn&039;t her own Her gaze slid to the van parked on the street as Etienne finished talking to the officer and took her arnized his brothers sitting in the front seat but was sure neither of them had been the voice in her head It had been a woht placed there Rachel wasn&039;t terribly surprised when Etienne slid the side door open to reveal Marguerite seated on the bench seat
"Come in, dear You look terribly dehydrated Etienne, fetch the poor girl soeneau matriarch ordered "She&039;s in terrible pain"
Etienne helped Rachel into the van, then followed and sla into the back to retrieve several bags of blood from the medical cooler there
"How are you?" Bastien asked solicitously as Etienne settled on the bench next to her, sandwiching her between himself and his mother
"I&039; of blood She was hungry enough that she didn&039;t bother with the straw business, butinto her teeth to let them do the work
"You&039;ll have to tell us what happened Don&039;t leave out any details," Lucern said fro still affixed to her teeth, as he drew a small pad and pen from his pocket He obviously intended to take notes, and she are that he had done this the other times he had come around Etienne&039;s ho, he hada scribbler, whatever that uerite said quietly "Let the poor girl recover a bit before you boo to the hospital?" Bastien asked, turning in his seat to start the engine
"Drive slowly, Bastien Rachel needs a lot of blood and the tiuerite said by way of an answer "You&039;ll have to go in with Etienne to help at the hospital We all will Between her working there and the fact that she&039;s big news, shell draw a lot of attention Etienne will need all the help he can get"
"Help hat?" Rachel asked as she pulled the now e off her teeth and accepted the next one Etienne held out
"They&039;ll want to examine you," Etienne explained
"And we siuerite pointed out "Bastien, Lucern, and I will go in with you to make sure the doctors and nurses think they&039;ve examined you and found you dehydrated and undernourished, as you should be after being kidnapped and starved We&039;ll attend you to be sure all goes s her teeth to soak in the blood her body needed so badly She was exhausted enough to let them handle it whatever way they saw fit Rachel was even starting to think she should have listened to thereed to lie about hi tiained over the centuries was ht have happened to Pudge&039;s neighbor, not to mention Etienne and herself, because of her stubborn insistence on telling the truth was frightening Perhaps there were times when honesty wasn&039;t the best policy and a sht save a bad situation
"You&039;ll learn," Marguerite said quietly, obviously having read her thoughts "Tireat teacher Experience is A man may live a whole life, but if he never leaves his ho A mere child who has suffered and lived can be the wiser of the two"