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"Yes, I will Of hiaze drifted toward the street "He’s such a man"

"A real tower of testosterone" Alex unlocked the door and pushed her inside The as picking up and the te "I want you to see your doctor this week Get a referral for a therapist And go to church"

Once Edith was floating toward her bedroom, Alex turned the push lock, threw Edith’s keys inside, and slammed the door The chill in the air et her jacket back

Cyprien stood waiting for her at the end of the little walk that led up to the duplex "Noill go and find you a willing--"

Alex punched hiht him squarely on the chin She felt her skin split, watched hi flashed

He was stunned, holding his jaw "Why do you hit ot only as far as the end of the block when the rain carabbed her and whirled her around

"Why?" He caught her fist this time before it reached his face, and held it

She drew her foot back, nearly slipped on the wet sidewalk It was raining so hard she almost had to yell to be heard "Want to walk like a drunken sailor for the rest of eternity?"

"Why did you hit ed as he saas dripping fro?"

"Nibble on my neck and rub my back," she snarled, "and ed her over to stand under a streetlight and exa" His head snapped up "Mon Dieu, you haven’t changed yet"

She rifted her chin an inch "I won’t, either"

He wrapped the handkerchief he had used on Edith’s neck around her bleeding knuckles "You did so to prevent it, didn’t you? You and your science"

Alex eyed the clue "I don’t own ht Of course I did so is what I do, damn it This is not a curse; it’s a disease Disease can be cured"

He went still "The injections"

The rain abruptly dwindled to a thin drizzle Moonlight backlit the thinning clouds, turning the sky froured it out Alex could bluff, or she could get hiest blood, I don’t think I’ll change anymore My symptoms have stayed in re her now, and shuffled back a step "If I’ress I have to keep it static"

He wasn’t listening anymore "You’ve never fed before" He jerked her to hi blood I told you that Ever" She struggled in the vise of his hands "Don’t you like your kneecaps?"

He didn’t He had a fist in her wet hair now "You ain You feed or you die"

"Everybody dies, Mike Well, uys, but everyone else on the planet" She winced "Quit pulling rabbing the front of her shirt and lifting her off her feet "I let you ’handle it’ and this is what you do to yourself?"

Alex twisted, and the thin wet cotton of her shirt tore apart at the side and shoulder sea the front of the shirt in Cyprien’s fist The back peeled off her shoulders and fell away All that was left covering her was her bra, which was thin satin and practically transparent, courtesy of the rain

"Brilliant" She crossed her aro now?"

"No" He threw the torn ry Then again, so was she "You keep throwing that word at me and I don’t knohat the hell it means"

"It means you are my creation, my woman, and you do as I say"

Alex smelled roses and rain "You not only live in the clouds; you’ve furnished theo back to the car and sit in it until he calain