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Mark thanked God that the city hadn&039;t changed much He was able to h Once there, he realized what tiet back to the house on Bourbon Street, steal a few hours of rest and getthe lake looking for Stephan&039;s lair

It was a huge lake, so he needed to get started early If he could just get a little sleep and then get going, he could cover a lot of ground

It wasn&039;t yetwhen he arrived at the house, but he felt every muscle tense as he stared up at the beautiful old ht

He started to run, opened the gate and sprinted for the front door He was shocked to find it unlocked

He pushed it open, then frowned as he closed it and looked around the foyer

They were all there: Big Ji with someone else

Jonas

The vampire, bare-chested as Stacey washed his wounds, sat in a chair, evidently describing whatever had brought hi his hand, looking up at hi Jim and Bobby noticed Mark first, followed by the others Lauren let out a little cry, staring at hirime, that&039;s all," he said Then he looked at Jonas and knew his voice was thick with suspicion when he asked, "What the hell happened to you?"

"I killed him!" Jonas said triumphantly

"Stephan?" Mark said

Jonas&039;s sht hand men And he&039;s dead now Deader than a door nail He went up in a puff of" He paused, getting a good look at Mark "Soot," he said weakly

"He&039;s hurt," Deanna said reproachfully "Leave him alone"

Mark stared at her sharply She looked much better than soht to

He stared at Big Jiht with a wince

"I did," Deanna said, carefully getting to her feet

"Oh?" He looked at the others

Lauren stepped closer, staring at hi a plain sleep shirt, yet she looked as elegant as a queen Her eyes were such a brilliant blue, and her hair was like a cascade of the sun&039;s rays down her back If she were differently dressed, if it were a different tiht have been Katie

But she wasn&039;t Katie She was Lauren Just as beautiful Articulate, talented, her own person He knew that And she had co in the world to him

Life, lovesalvation

"I fell asleep," she said "Then Jonas knockedand Deanna heard hi so well," Mark told Deanna

"We&039;ve got everything under control," Big Jim told him "In case you want to shower" He looked pointedly at Mark&039;s grimy clothes

The sun would coht Apparently Jonas had been in the house for a while, and nothing dire had happened And Big Jim was there-ready to rip hiht I&039;ll shower" He turned to Jonas "Then you and I are going to have a talk"

"He&039;s hurt!" Deanna said again

"He&039;ll be just fine by the tiot soht want to wash away some of the stuff on you, too The blood and the, uhwhatever"

Mark nodded curtly to the lot of them and started up the stairs to his own roo he wouldn&039;t wash it or have it cleaned-it was going in the incinerator He stepped into the shower

As he turned the water, he heard the door to his roo beneath the hot spray, grateful for the sheets of water raining down on him And the heat The heat seemed to cure all the little aches and pains

"Mark?"

He didn&039;t say anything, just watched her cory at everyone, but you shouldn&039;t be Jonas co into the housewas my fault"

Finally he said, "He&039;s in now Fault doesn&039;t ood Not evil"

He ignored her i to toret in here"

She hesitated, but a second later she stepped in beside him The water seemed to heat up a notch Hotter, harder No It wasn&039;t the water It was his senses It was her

Suddenly he didn&039;t care about anything but theher there and safe

"I&039; his back "Honestly, you don&039;t kno sorry I aain, but he turned into her arms and found her lips with his own

The soot that had covered hione It had washed away down the drain like a bad dreaainst him The soap smelled clean, like the woods, like pine It was a pleasant, subtle, earthy scent Like the lithe, supple vitality and life of her in his ar Like the feel of her flesh, so hot and slick, it was an aphrodisiac The pressure of her body against his was almost unbearable The taste of her was erotic He buried hi her curves, everything heightened by the time and place, the water, the heat and the steaainst hiainst hiht Knehen to h

When and where to caress and kiss and torht and settled onto him, like liquid steel as she arched and s wrapped tightly around his waist Her fingers stroked his shoulders and back Her whispers and kisses fell against his throat and shoulders and earlobes, and when they had both climaxed to the music of the steam and their own heartbeats, she found his lips, desperately clinging while he eased her back to the ground

And still the spray fell around the back her hair, looking into her eyes

He almost said the words he had said once before, what seeo

I love you

But he held back Instead he cupped her chin and stared at the beauty of her face, the fine lines of her profile sculpted by the water

"We have to be more careful than ever," he said softly

She sed "It&039;s we should leave"

He felt as if so his heart, but when he spoke, it wasn&039;t because he was afraid It was because he couldn&039;t bear to let her go

He spoke the truth

"It won&039;t help if you leave," he said wearily "He&039;ll follow you"

Fear lit her eyes, but she blinked it away quickly "All right But o"

Maybe they should, he thought Except that once they were gone, there would be no Sean Canady, no Bobby Munro, no Stacey and no Maggie, no Big Jim, to keep them safe

And now Jonas was in the mix, too

"I&039;m afraid this has to be solved here, now, or else you&039;ll all be in danger for the rest of your lives," he told her

And it was the truth

She lowered her eyes and nodded, her hair teasing his chest

"I&039; just to keep you here," he said softly

"I know you&039;re not," she told hio froain"

As he listened to the half-hysterical woman on the street, Sean Canady nodded politely and re odd occurred

"I&039; you, the two of thenantly "It&039;s broken Even a blind man can see that"

The as broken That er had told hiistered to a Rene Smith She had listed her address as New York City Sean wasn&039;t fro Apple, but even he knew there was no such thing as 18th Avenue in Manhattan

"They fell froot back up?" one of the detectives with Sean inquired skepticallly

The wohteousness, looked at the officer and inhaled deeply "I&039; you what I saw," she said "With these two eyes"

Sean lowered his head, wincing The officer who&039;d spoken was Jerry Merchant Night shift Detective Jerry Merchant This was really his case

And he knew Jerry Knehat Jerry was about to say

"I&039;lasses?" Jerry asked politely

Not unexpectedly, the wo ht across the street Over there And I&039; out of thatThey hit the ground Then the man took one of those construction beams and slammed it into the wo in the pile of soot on the sidewalk over there?" Jerry asked

The woht next to ave her husband a light s

"Uh" Harry said, looking at his wife and wincing "I was concentrating on Harrah&039;s-that&039;s where ere headed It&039;s our fortieth anniversary, right, Sonia?" He attempted a weak smile If he&039;d wanted a happy anniversary, he wasn&039;t getting it now

"Harry! How could you have rily

"Honey, if you say they fell froallantly

She sniffed "They&039;re going to be pulling that girl out of the Mississippi, too, you mark my words"

"No, since she would have been dead if a two by four had gone through her chest, she&039;d have to be here, wouldn&039;t she? They won&039;t be pulling her out of the Mississippi I&039;ht, but he was also feeling a fair amount of sympathy for Sonia, who had undoubtedly seen it all exactly the way she was telling it

Which was unnerving It looked like Mark was right Stephan had brought an army

"You have to find that man and arrest hiht?" Jerry said

He was huht

"Of course Get ive us an overall description, if you will, please We&039;ll start from there," Jerry said

At that point Sonia hesitated Then she sighed "I think he was tall and dark That&039;s all I can really say"

The desk clerk chimed in at that point and told them the woman who had taken the room had come back with a , college age, and he&039;d looked like an all-Aht crew to their work Then he started pounding the streets, even though he was afraid he was already too late Still, it never paid to give up before starting

Thirty minutes later, he found a tallalone in a nearby-and nearly e that it never closed and had rehout hurricane Katrina

Sean took the seat next to the h his hair as he stared into his untouched beer

"Bad night?" Sean asked

The guy started and stared at Sean, fear in his eyes "Uh, yeah Bad night" He picked up the beer and consule s

"I&039;m a cop," Sean told hi, I swear I&039;m an honor student"

"Quarterback?" Sean said

"Fullback"

"You any good?" Sean asked

"You bet," he said proudly, seeht?"

"You wouldn&039;t believe uy a beers?"

Sean motioned to the bartender, who set another beer in front of the blond ain Worse than that, I et laid for the rest of eous WeShe knew musicwe danced Drank so I know, she&039;s trying to rip uy bursts into the rooot the hell out She was scary crazy She&039;d had her teeth sharpened or so And she er than any guy I ever er than the entire football teauy who burst in on you? What happened to hiot the hell out That&039;s the truth, I swear it Pleasethat&039;s all I know I&039;ve never run so fast inanything illegal"

"I&039; to arrest you," Sean told him

The kid lowered his head "After this bear, I&039;ll never drink again, and I&039;ll never pick up a strange girl again, either I don&039;t care how good she looks"

Sean set a hand on the otherall your buds on the tea man looked at him with sheer horror "Oh, God, no!"