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Did he just shudder? Great

"Every ascension is different You can’t compare the two"

"Try me"

"You don’t want to know"

"Yeah I do I need answers, Warrior"

His gaze snapped to hers then back to the on-ra traffic, he said, "Well, I was a wild beast, full of rage I still am when I think about what happened The death vamps raped and drained my wife, Marta, my mortal wife, my first wife She was dead before I found her My son Evan, not ain his cradle but alive

"My ascension involved abandoning my son that sae, killing and thenuntil I’d found every last one of those bastards who had essentially destroyed my family"

Alison felt the depth of his pain He reh they were yesterday A wife raped, a son abandoned Jesus "You ever wish it undone? Your ascension?"

He nodded "I would undo it for Evan’s sake I hate that I left hiht of hieance I think abandons you can do to a child You don’t have children, do you?"

Alison shook her head, even laughed "Not possible"

"You lanced at hi I was talking about earlier Every year, er, and by the time I was in my late twenties, well, I couldn’t be with a e"

"I’e the subject … fast "If I ascend, do I have to leave my family behind? Is that one of the rules?"

"Every ascender’s situation is different Some are happy to leave Mortal Earth and never look back Those ant to sustain the connection to loved ones face a variety of dile, every visit requires a pass, as well as counseling

"The greater dilemma becomes the nature of i forever Each day that passes in which you do not age creates a problem for your family, your friends on Mortal Earth As the decades wear on eventually a separation becomes not just necessary but sensible And of course, there’s always the matter that we keep our world hidden froine saying good-bye forever to her parents, to her brother, to Joy, to little T J, even to Joy’s husband, Ryan Her heart ached just thinking about it

"Hey," he said quietly "The best thing to do is to take this one step at a ti straight ahead "Good idea"

After a fewnorth, theaspects of her current predicaain A shiver rolled through her "So," she ventured into the stillness, "what are the odds I’ht here," Kerrick said "It’s h this The warriors will help And Endelle"

She thought of Darian, of having counseled hi in such close proxiainst her? It didn’t make sense

"Why didn’t Darian--the Commander--take my life when he had the chance? I saw him every week for a year"

His thuain, we have certain rules we have to abide by An ascender isn’t fair game until he or she has answered the call to ascension Endelle would have had the right to demand a trial to prosecute Greaves if he’d harmed you But that laorks both ways Endelle, all of us, have to be careful hoe do our jobs"

He scowled "But I’ll tell you what I really don’t get Do you see that car in front of us? That’s a BMW M3 with a four-liter, V-8 engine, so fifty-two fucking miles an hour!"

The warrior next to her was irritated at how a hed, which helped a lot In this moment, the vampire next to her seemed so, well, normal

Warrior Kerrick, however, was not aed lanes, sped by the BMW as fast as he could in a car that started to shake He eased back to fifty-five so that her Nova could relax

"I take it you’re not the patient type, are you?"

"I have no patience for so a car that could easily fly at a hundred ed "Think about it, Warrior At this hour of the ed out or drunk off his ass Sloould be better"

He grunted but still wore his scowl

"Okay You’ve told me a lot of bad stuff about Second Earth So now tellthe love"