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But I only had eyes for Cherie

I ran to where she lay, eyes closed, strapped to a narrow bed with thick leather bonds, shackles digging into her wrists and ankles Beside her on an easel sat a nearly finished painting of her at herin turpentine The scent of oils now made h and sounded wrong--because her fangs were gone I couldn’t re a mouth full of blunt teeth, and etting you out of here"

I fumbled with the thick leather straps, and Vale caet undone, but Bea brought over a key, and I was soon pulling Cherie intoany blood?"

"I didn’t I’htly she squeaked and pushed away Her long blond hair was carefully pinned into an updo, her sunken cheeks rosy with fading paint She looked around the rooesture "Dai?"

"Nope We’re here to rescue you"

"And the er I’d forgotten about Charmant

"The men are all dead, but Charmant escaped Lenoir’s dead, too"

Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she sobbed into my hair "Thank Aztarte Oh, Demi I can’t even describe" She trailed off and looked up at the half-finished portraits crowded on the walls So final touches and varnish Others were in their early stages, rough outlines and splashes of color "We’re trapped in the paintings Lenoir does soirl And if he’s dead"

"Vale?"

"Yes, bébé?" He turned to look at s Burn the back as she went unconscious inHer breathing was shallow, her heart beating fast, as I placed her back on the bed When I went hunting for vials to fortify her for the catacombs, I was horrified to find the opposite of what I was looking for: Cherie’s blud in tiny, ornate vials, marked for shipment to a Darkside winery She couldn’t drink them, and I couldn’t find any huentlemen outside were cold I tried to soak up puddles of blood with a handkerchief, but when I put it to her lips, she took one suck and turned away

"Oil and round "Floor wax and poison"

The only ansas to hurry back to Paradis as quickly as possible and pour as e vials down her throat as she could handle But first, I had to see the Malediction Club ended forever

Heading out, the dai girls of Paradis supported the half-broken, barely alive girls fro past the bodies of their captors and hurrying into the catacoone that Bea and Mel had to carry her strung between thee machinery hidden in the laboratory, and some of it looked liable to explode once we started a fire But the paintings had to burn, and with theround to use the their bodies andheavy corpses into the laboratory I found one still barely breathing, but he was gone by the time I presented him to Cherie where she sat on the narrow cot like a queen, co of tuxedoed lords Sheback with a shudder and wiping at es

"Cold And he stinks of piss"

I sle Cherie’s prissiness and disdain were back, but I’d never heard her utter a single curse word Perhaps they hadn’t destroyed her spirit after all

The dragged bodies left slug trails of blood fro ballroo down the paintings and piling them on top of thetheh up Men and art were soon piled too high to reach the top, and my shoulders ached by the ti else here we need?" Vale asked Cherie

She shook her head pri should burn"

I reached for her hands, careful of the places where her talons had broken off "If Lenoir used the sairls here that he used on s have been destroyed"

Cherie’s beautiful eyes went faraway and hard "We will never be norain"