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That he was even willing to help her was so much more than she would have ever suspected On iers through his "I know you’ll do what youat her for weeks seeh her, as alien and uncoainst her skin She didn’t understand it; or perhaps she understood it all too o, when she’d slaered inside, only to watch Balfour drag the blade across her husband’s throat

A cold chill swept through her, her eyes swiain Balfour had ripped her heart fro her entire world She’d sworn then that she would never weaken herself ever again, never place another man in such a situation

Lynch’s head lowered, his lashes falling half-closed over those glacial blue eyes Rosalind’s heart stuttered in her chest as she realized his intentions It was one thing to kiss him as Mercury, to tease him as Rosa Marberry, but now she was neither She had bared part of her soul to hi left her surprisingly vulnerable This, , was her truth Not the words she had just spoken, but her own ads for hiers froh her abdo on her skirts Balfour had taught her to fear neither pain nor death But…this… And the devastation it left in its wake…

"I’m sorry," he said curtly "I did nother hands into each other What was she thinking? Maybe Ingrid was right Perhaps it was time to cut her losses… But then he had just promised to help her try and find Jereh to the end

If she could For the first time, Rosa had serious doubts about her ability to reht," she whispered "I don’t think it wise to pursue this… this…" She had no naave the weakness power over her "I think perhaps we should remain as ere Employer and e to the side to see him Uncertainty filled her, she as never uncertain What was he doing to her? She had to keep her distance

"Of course," heyou home I hate to think of you out here on the streets"

She could handle al she found on these streets The irony was that her one weakness was hi herself "If you ered into her, his hands clutching at hers before she could stop him

Horror filled her His hand closed over the hard metal of her left wrist She couldn’t feel the touch of course, though she felt as though she should She felt as though it should burn right through her

"Oh God," she whispered

Then his knees went out fro at her skirt, her fingers, anything to stop hi out of the back of his neck

Fifteen

A h filled the alley

Rosalind looked up as a shadow separated itself fro a heavy leather seaman’s coat lumbered forward He didn’t bother to hide the sharp hook he wore instead of a left hand, his heavy-lidded gaze sliding over her

"Well, now Look e got, boys A Nighthawk by the looks of it And a well-rounded tart" A smile split his broad face "The craver for Mordecai, and the bitch forits hypnotic lihts that had roamed these parts used whatever scrap metal they could find to enhance themselves Some said they even cut the limbs from their own flesh to replace with cruel hooks and sharp blades in order to join the gangs The better to drag a body to Undertohere they’d strap it to a gurney and drain it of blood for profit

Three years ago, a vampire had taken care ofup the rest Obviously some few had escaped

And Mordecaitheement" Rosalind watched the shadows Slashers used to run in packs, hunting their prey like wild dogs There’d beThen a third Rosalind glanced up as so shifted in her peripheral vision and saw more on the roof

At her feet Lynchfierceness in her chest took her by surprise They weren’t going to get their hands on him She’d make sure of that

"Don’t worry," she said softly "I won’t leave you"

"Get her," the slasher said with a contemptuous wave of his hook "And tie that bleeder up before he comes to"

Rosalind’s hand dipped to her pocket and caive herself roo the pistol at the lead slasher’s forehead "Or all the rinned slowly "That’s a pretty little toy, lass You kno to use it?"

"Would you care for a deered back, his eyes rolling up in his head and a red dot blooround hard and Rosalind waslow to take the knife from her boot She preferred a pistol but in these streets it wasn’t wise to draw toomen stepped forward, expressions blunt and hard One of thely faceto keep you alive for that," he pro time"

"I have no such corateful that he was lying face-first and couldn’t see

The rafted to his forearm, no doubt drilled into the bone Rosalind swirled, the skirts barely ha her as she released the Carillion blade in her iron hand It slipped between his ribs with a surgeon’s ease, then she slashed doith her other knife, dragging it across the inside of his thigh Blood sprayed across her skirts, hot and coppery as she hit the femoral artery

He went doith a screa the toe of her boot behind the other er burned hot in her throat She wanted this, needed it Anything to drive away that helpless feeling and unleash the tide of hopelessness within her

As he hit the ground, she was upon hi her heel into the vulnerable bones of his throat A satisfying crunch filled the air

Noise whistled in the eerie fog Rosalind spun, knife held flat Then so heavy dropped over her and she went to her knees under a net, the ends weighted with lead

Daled hopelessly with her bustle and she’d dropped the bloody knife A pair of boots landed in front of her, then the sound of another Rosalind slashed desperately at the net with her Carillion blade It sawed through the thick heht her by the upper arht, the net wrapped round and round her ankles