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"A wise alternative" Cyprien looked around the room and spotted the buckshot ""You were able to help Arnaud?"
"Physically Aside from the fact that l’attrait in his case hted the table and sat on it, dangling her feet froe "Mentally? He’s just like all the others Gloom and doom Convinced he’s damned to eternal vampiric life for souy, right? TellArnaud ever did?"
Cyprien thought for a moment "’He joined the Templars so that he would not have to marry the woman his father chose as his betrothed It was said that she had vast holdings and an impressive dowry"
"So he’s… enormously stupid?"
"His betrothed also had boils and the pox"
"Whoa Nice dad But see what I ainst her hands "How a to come up with a viable treat? I’ to any human experts, not after what happened to Leann" Leann Pollock, an old Peace Corps friend of Alex’s who had offered to get her access to the CDC disease archives, had been tortured to death because of her involvement in Alex’s research
"Be patient" Cyprien ca, sensitive hands over her messy mop of curls "Secrecy is how the Darkyn have survived all these centuries You cannot undo seven hundred years of experience with a single conversation"
"They don’t trust er to wake up, isn’t it? They don’t think I’m for real"
"The fact that you took seven days to e concerns many," he admitted "But you are the first human to become Darkyn since the fifteenth century We have no basis of coold, fixed on hers "What are you keeping from me this time, chérie?"
Too s Like her talent
"You know I don’t need as much blood as you do" She noticed a new scratch on her palm and showed it to him "Evidently I don’t heal as quickly, either"
He cradled her hand between his and studied it "How long before it heals?"
"If it’s the same as the last one, it’ll disappear in an hour Maybe two" She poked hi at h "You have been feeding only on huain?"
"Grade A, type O whole units, fresh from the private stash" She tried not to think about the fact that he had bought a blood bank to serve as her caterer "All I’ve done is tap my veins for a few blood samples" When he started to protest, she shook her head "This is nonnegotiable Mythe same as yours did I could have so with it"
He didn’t like that "You are Darkyn--"
"--but am I immortal, like the rest of you?" Because she didn’t know, and couldn’t bear the look in his eyes, she slid off the table and into his arot the Brethren, Tremayne, and every secret vampire club in America on your plate I’m the doctor Medical has to be my baby"
"So it seems" He rubbed his thuht?"
"Yeah" She grinned "I forgot to tell you the good news I’ve found a way to help Jarab the folder of research froraleaned from different medical journals that published the latest in reconstructive surgical techniques "The first tiht the Brethren had torn out his whole tongue, but on my second check I found a stump with muscle tissue still intact This is what it looks like now"
"Could it grow back?" Cyprien asked, looking through what she pulled froenerative powers don’t stretch that far The good news is I can make him a new one" She lifted her arer on the inside, near her wrist "’It’ll take two patches of raft them onto the remnant muscle"
Cyprien nodded "This has been done before?"
"To vaues to cancer or massive oral injuries, yes It’s a very successful procedure, too Most patients who undergo it regain their ability to s and speak" She showed hione the origami-like reconstruction "They’ve also done successful whole-tongue transplants as well, but that isn’t an option for us The only tissue Jamys’s body will accept is his own"
"’Have you spoken to hiht of the last ti Darkyn I have to stop thinking that way: Jaot six hundred years on me "’He wasn’t very interested I think he’s worried about his dad Has there been any word on Thierry?"