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"My thanks," another blue blood said sincerely, his pale blue eyes wide and frightened

I didn’t do it for you But then she stopped, watching as he helped a frightened young woap She of all people should know that sometimes the monsters were just as human as the rest of the world

Rosalind didn’t bother to watch as the first of the crowd slipped through the gap She had to find Lynch or, barring that, Garrett or Perry

Solanced around the darkened theatre A tall lasses, his rough-hewn face watching so in the chairs intently as he stalked forward

Mordecai

Her blood went cold when she realized who he was staring at

Lynch ground his teeth together and wrenched the blue blood’s head sharply to the right A faint crack Then all of the fight drained out of the man and the body slumped to the floor beneath him

A thrall in buttercup yellow lay on the carpet between the seats, staring up at him in shock and horror Blood splashed her skirts and there was a bite mark on her shoulder that would leave a scar Her lips parted as the blue blood collapsed, then she scrambled to her hands and knees at his side

"Epson?" she whispered Her hands began to shake and she looked up at Lynch ide blue eyes "You’ve killed hi to assuage the bloodlust that roared through his veins The h it stirred his heartbeat, he could control himself

"Look out!" a wo between the seats as a man behind him lifted a pistol The shot went over his head, an enor on the wall

The pistol lowered and Lynch stared down the barrel The h with stubble, his eyes cold and merciless as he thuhthawk"

A blur of cream silk came out of nowhere just as the pistol retorted The pair of them tumbled out of view, but he kneho that had been as surely as he knew his own na here? And where the hell did that bullet go? There was no sign of struggling, no sign of er that had consumed hi in his chest

Leaping over the row of chairs, Lynch skidded to a halt in the aisle The stranger reached for the pistol on the ground with grim determination--an enormous brute in a workman’s shirt that strained over his enor to her knees, Rosa launched herself past the stranger and kicked the pistol under the chairs

"Curse you," the stranger snarled, rolling to his feet "Who’s dalance shifting past hiht through "You want to knohat I aer shot him an uneasy look

"Where’sthe truth

If she thought he could stay out of this, she was mistaken She’d betrayed him, lied to him, made him think there was et hurt was beyond hi so that he could keep them both in view "Probably the same place as ht and focused, so far removed from Mrs Marberry’s saucy cheer that Lynch suddenly realized he was seeing the reality of who she was Not Mrs Marberry Perhaps not even Mercury She stood with a self-assurance and determination that were but echoes of the other tomen

Herself

"I’un I was faster"

"Aye" Darkness shadowed Mordecai’s eyes "But are you faster ’an me?"

He lashed out with a meaty fist Lynch leaped forward, then stopped as Rosa ducked beneath the blow as if she’d expected it, her elbow locking Mordecai’s arainst the fellow’s neck Mordecai roared in pain and drove her into the seats with his shoulder in herher elbon between his shoulder blades Eachthe flamboyancy of someone who did this to prove his skill She could have drawn this out, but instead she aimed for blows that would cripple and ered to his feet and Rosa hopped up lightly on the chair to get height, then kicked hih and graceful Mordecai stuo down

Lynch’s vision dripped between color and black and white The Doeppler Orbs had dissipated, but he didn’t dare take off the mask He wanted to step in, to end this, despite the fact that Rosa hadstorh him This was his woman His And he wanted to kill anyone who threatened her

Their eyes ered back several steps in the aisle, grinding her teeth against the blow Lynch dug his fingernails into his pal the enorht arm Rosa blocked it with her own bio-ered her back into the seats Light froe backlit them as Lynch took a step closer then stopped

Mordecai flexed his irl"

Rosa looked up, her eyes black as night Kicking out, she drove her heel into his kneecap and Mordecai screamed as it shifted

It should have been the end But even Lynch was surprised when the huge ed forward in an aard lurch and drove his enormous body directly into Rosa