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"What? Less violent?" He leaned toward her, fore?arainst the fab?ric of his golf shirt "I hate to burst your bubble, Vicki, but we&039;ve all got to live with that It&039;s the price we pay for civilization"

"Give it up, Celluci" She leaned forward as well "You can stop being so god-da thou! You can&039;t possibly feel sorry for the type of lowlife I&039; to be " As his eyes narrowed, she paused for a heartbeat " dealing with What&039;s that?" She stared suspiciously at the list he held out to her

"It&039;s an easier way I had Dave pull the names and addresses of the people you want off the coer

If he&039;d been willing to risk pandering to her desire for et to those people through ould no doubt be tight security As he neither wanted to remind her of her potential for violence nor hier, he said neutrally "There&039;re a lot of naht Why don&039;t you split them with Henry?"

"Henry?" Her eyes silvered "No No Henry This is my hunt! Mine!"

"As much as I hate to say this, he&039;s not totally in?competent He&039;s even done this kind of stuff for you before"

"Before," Vicki rerowl than spoken word

Celluci stared at her for a few seconds then sat back, shaking his head "So he was right"

"About what?"

"About your childish inability to ith him" In spite of her sometimes tenuous control of what she&039;d become, Celluci&039;d always believed that Vicki would never hurt him He&039;d wondered occasionally, as he prodded at the limits of her new nature, if he deliber?ately put that belief to the test He wondered it now as she slowly stood She seemed taller than he knew she was The hair on his arin to rise, an instinctive surrender bypassing his conscious control He forced it back down

Eyes blazing, Vicki stepped forward, closed her hands around the chair she had been sitting in, and ripped it into kindling, one handful of wood at a ti heavily-not fro control-she snarled, "See what you made me do!"

"I made you do?" His heart beat so loudly even he could hear it Considering hoell attuned she was to that sort of sound, he was a little surprised she could hear his voice over it "I don&039;t think so"

"No" Her eyes were al could have been a trick of the light "I guess not" She reached across the table and brushed the curl of hair back off his face "But you&039;ve got no right accusingher hand, he laid his lips against the cool skin of her inner wrist, a e of a position they&039;d held a hundred ti to call Henry"

"Call?"

"Yeah On the telephone" She pulled free of his grip and patted hihtly on both cheeks "You&039;re not the only one who can think of an easier way to get through this, sweet knees"

He frowned as she walked away "Sweet knees?"

" suppose one of the for?" Henry asked as he folded the list and slipped it into his pocket He&039;d tried to sound neither sarcastic nor superior and had been, all things considered, remarkably successful at both But then, they&039;d always been able to e over the phone

"What? You mean suppose one of your subjects says: Yeah, I&039;ans all up and down the West Coast Usually we duot caught in the tides?"

With an effort, he kept his s in his voice-Vicki had sounded so incredibly indignant at the ht discover the informa?tion before she did "Yes Suppose one of iven me half the list, the odds are fifty-fifty"

"You don&039;t need to tell me the odds, Henry I may be a childish varound and was quite happy to havethis living thing a lot longer than you did, and I&039;ve certainly been an investi?gator one hell of a lot longer"

"I hadn&039;t intended to suggest you hadn&039;t"

"Oh, no, you just intended to suggest you didn&039;t need htly, he went back over the conversa?tion and tried to determine how she&039;d arrived at that particular conclusion "Vicki, I -arm crime lords, but it would never have occurred to et rid of my nonblithe spirit, I do need you here"

"Oh" He heard her sigh "I can&039;t decide whether you&039;re being "

"Which would you prefer?"

"You know, that&039;s a very Celluci question I don&039;t want you guys hanging around together any more" But he could hear the sound of her sht

"I fully understand"

She snorted, a purely huets back first leaves a e on the other&039;s machine"

"You don&039;t think we should meet?" He had an un?expected memory of the pulse that beat at the base of her throat, her skin the soft, sun-kissed tan it would never be again and e of loneliness "I&039;entle as he&039;d heard it since the change "I&039; all worked out?"

Her hand still resting on the phone, Vicki turned to face Celluci and shrugged "I gave Henry every other name He knoe need to find out Like you said, he&039;s not totally incompetent"

Celluci&039;s brows drew in at the hint ofwent okay?"

"No reason why it shouldn&039;t, is there? Across the country, across the hall, it&039;s basically the sa"

You miss him, don&039;t you? But that was one question he wasn&039;t stupid enough to ask She didn&039;t miss Fitz?roy-the undead royal bastard was still around-she missed what they&039;d had, and he didn&039;t want to reain, and while he reveled in the certainty, he had no inten?tion of co across as an insensitive prick

"Need to feed?" he asked instead

Melancholy gone, she grinned and her eyes frosted "No, thanks, I&039;ht of her gorging on the blood of Vancouver&039;s crientler hts he didn&039;t want to think about Standing sud?denly, he joined her on the way to the door "Hang on and I&039;ll go with you as far as the lobby Tony&039;s working till nine I think I&039;ll head over to the video store and see if he wants to join hed "You know, eating never used to come with this many double entendres"

She&039;d half turned to answer him as he closed the door By the time they became aware they weren&039;t alone in the hall, it was too late to do anything that wouldn&039;t seem like a retreat

"Henry"

"Vicki"

Oh, shit Still, they&039;re sounding practically conversa?tional, so maybe this won&039;t be a complete disaster They both wore black jeans and black T-shirts Vicki wore sneakers and a black cotton sweater He kneas cotton; he&039;d bought it for her Fitzroy wore desert boots and a black linen blazer He kneas linen; he had one just like it, which he was going to get rid of the ot home Celluci&039;d never noticed before how much alike they looked

It wasn&039;t the clothes Thousands of vampire wanna?bes all over the world dressed with more undead style than these two

It wasn&039;t their coloring Although both were fair, Fitzroy&039;s hair had more red in it and Vicki was a defi?nite ash blonde It said so on the box

It was just, merely, simply, purely the way they were They shared a belle morte-a deadly beauty Celluci wasn&039;t sure why the words came to him first in Italian; he was fae he&039;d ever thought in, but solish-didn&039;t seem sufficient

And not only a deadly beauty; they also shared a complete and utter certainty in themselves and their place in the world

Certainty, Vicki had never been short of, but her sheer, bloody-ht as anyone had been refined during the moment she locked eyes with Henry Fitzroy; refined and sharpened to a razor&039;s edge Fitzroy, of course, had always had it It was one of the things Celluci&039;d always hated Always responded to

His heart began to beat in time to the power that throbbed between them That surrounded them That surrounded hi the two of them watch each other, he under?stood the declaration, I ah of that! Italian description arriving out the blue he could cope with, but blas?pheive me, Father, for I have sinned; it&039;s been two years since my last confession, but that&039;s only because I&039;ve been sleeping with a vaht

As a ht foot, put it down, and al directly through their line of sight "I hate to break up a Kodak moment, kids, but the elevator&039;s here"

For a heartbeat the power gained a new focus He could feel it flaying his back, simultaneously hot and cold, and he had a brief vision of Vicki&039;s pale fingers shredding that chair A little amazed he was still able to move, he stepped over the threshold into the eleva?tor and turned around As expected, they were both staring at him Vicki&039;s mouth twisted up in a half s the melodrama Fitzroy had on his Prince of Darkness face Celluci squared his shoulders, resisting the pull No one survived a relationship with Vicki Nelson- alive or undead-without an equally strong sense of self and he was not going to bend the knee to Henry Fucking Fitzroy "You co, Vicki?"

When she nodded and stepped toward the elevator, he stepped back to give her roo, Henry?"

Even Celluci could hear the challenge Hell, a deaf e "Vicki "

One pale hand rose A prince indicating there was no need for the et involved "I don&039;t think so No"

"Why not? Afraid of losing your vaunted control? Too old to cope?"

"Vicki!" He ht as well have saved his breath The words were thrown back with all the finesse of a school?yard taunt and were just as iainst the wall, with Vicki between him and the exit, Celluci watched Henry advance toward the elevator He wanted to grab her and shake her and de Except he knew Trust Vicki to drive her point hoeha stairs

When the doors closed, the fabric of Henry&039;s blazer whispered against it "Parking level one, please"

Head tilted slightly down, silvered eyes locked with shadow, Vicki pressed the button without looking at the panel

It wasn&039;t the elevator that lurched into motion, Cel?luci realized; it was his heart

They shifted position simultaneously, too fast for aeach other-Henry&039;s back against the doors-the next Vicki stood to Celluci&039;s left and Henry to his right They continued to face each other but had gained what rowl, felt not heard, vibrated through the enclosed space and lifted every hair on Celluci&039;s body-not a pleasant sensation Real?izing how little it would take to tip the balance into bloody chaos, he resisted the urge to scratch Noe can just

The elevator stopped on the seventh floor

The doors opened

Both vampires whirled to face the intrusion

Celluci didn&039;t know exactly what the couple waiting at the seventh floor saw nor did he want to Faces blanched of color and the spreading stain on the front of an expensive pair of silk pants gave his ih Teeth clenched, he jerked for?ward and jabbed a finger at the panel

The closing doors cut off a rising, er worried about either of his co control He lost it himself

"That&039;s it!" he snarled as he turned "I&039;ve had it up to here " The edge of his hand chopped at the air over his head " with the two of you You can both stuff that creature-of-the-night shit back where it be?longs! Did you see what you did to those two kids? Did you! Did either of you even notice they got in the way of your petty little power struggle?"

"Petty?" Vicki began, but he cut her off

"Yeah Petty No one fucking cares which one of you&039;s top ghoul except the two of you! And that&039;d be fine except there&039;s a whole goddaive a fuck who gets hit with the shrapnel!"

"You&039;re still alive "

He whirled toward Henry "Well, whoop de fucking do!" Too furious to consider the consequences, he dared the dark gaze to do its worst

Henry&039;s lips drew off his teeth

Vicki moved to deny him

Celluci threw out both arms Muscles strained as he held them apart, one hand on each chest, the utter audacity of the atte him to succeed for one heartbeat Two Three Teeth clenched, he refused to give in His vision started to blur

Ier

The three of them had just laid Vicki&039;s mother to rest for a second time The two men were physically wounded and e Henry had done what he could, but he hadn&039;t been strong enough to finish; he needed h he be?lieved that it

In over four hundred and fifty years of living as an observer in hu Henry Fitzroy had ever seen

Until now

Detective-Sergeant Michael Celluci was very large and very strong; but it wasn&039;t his physical strength that stopped the Hunger It was the attitude that dared to announce, "I will not allow this!" even knowing he didn&039;t stand, as he hi listened to

Once again, Henry was shown the quality of the man, and he was ashamed that he had to be reminded

Eyes still locked with Henry&039;s, Vicki remembered what he remembered and felt what he felt For the first time in his presence she was forced to think about so in horror at the pulse throbbing a the corded muscle of Mike&039;s neck, she replaced Henry&039;s shame with her own

Celluci felt their surrender and allowed his arms to drop He didn&039;t have ainst them, he couldn&039;t hold theely it didn&039;t see frootten," said a quiet voice he al?reat responsibility"

"I think I forgot what ed edge he didn&039;t often hear

"Sa" To his surprise, Henry, just Henry, a man Celluci suddenly remembered he&039;d come to re?spect and even like, held out a pale hand "My apolo?gies, Detective I wish I could proain, but I can&039;t I can prorip was cool, like Vicki&039;s

Then he was gone

"Where ?"

"Parking level one The van&039;s on level two I assu it?"

He blinked to clear the sweat from his eyes, and allowed her to slip her shoulder under his arht "You can have it I&039;ll never find parking"

"I&039;ll drop you off"

"Fine" The parking level had the da deep under?ground Celluci found hiraves "Vicki What did I just do?"

"You leaped a tall building in a single bound"

"I don&039;tshe did much any more; she&039;d lost the habit when she&039;d lost the need to breathe on a mortal scale "You reminded us to be more, instead of less"

He stopped and looked down at her "Try again"

"You told us to stop acting like idiots"

"Yeah, I know, but you don&039;t usually listen"

"This time " She paused, then reached up and pushed the curl of hair back off his face

Henry listened

Wrapping her arainst his chest and found what comfort she could in the steady beat of his life "I love you, Mike"

"Hey, I believe you" His chin resting on the top of her head, he wondered just what it was she hadn&039;t said