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Great Yet another thing he hadn’t deigned to ister’s business records? Fat chance

"So hoas she changed? Witchcraft?"

"That’s e figure"

"To pull soic, Costa"

He pushed up froe in the corner "I know" He grabbed a paper sack fro a s his eyebrow, he held it up An offer

I shooka plastic hotel-provided cup, he said, "It either has to be a Covenant witch behind this, or one of the stronger underground anti-Covenant groups" He poured a couple of shots into the plastic cup, sans ice "At this point, I’m not sure which would be worse" He downed the whiskey in one quick h, clever enough, to twist an otherworlder’s powers Not only strong enough, but willing to do so for in to describe such a person

"Right noe’re operating under the official assuroup, perhaps led by an excommunicated Covenant member

It’s h power to pull this off isn’t a stretch"

I nodded "And if they were led by a person with Covenant training…"

"Exactly"

"I didn’t even know that they excommunicated members I mean, I’d heard that they don’t always accept every Covenant family member, but not about that"

"It’s rare" He poured another double shot and grimaced "They may not allow a Covenant family member to join for a few reasons; the most common, as you probably know, is a lack of power They blame it on diluted bloodlines, but it happens in the pure families as well Genetics always tosses one out there with a weak ical capacity But excommunication is different" He tossed back the shots and let out a sainst the Covenant, ones that aren’t severe enough for execution"

I raised an eyebrow "Such as?"

He twisted the lid back onto the whiskey bottle and set it on the fridge "I don’t know, really I could hazard so the Covenant in a bad public light for not following their rules They’re very twitchy about outsiders getting into their business, so I don’t know for sure"

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly "You’ve known this all along and you didn’t share it withme all the case inforood You were already under enough pressure with Elaine" He glanced wistfully at the bottle on top of the fridge

"Another fucking lie You didn’t tell me because you didn’t trustafter the head of security What the hell do you have against succubi?"

His eyes seemed darker than normal, and it was almost as if the whites of his eyes had disappeared I tried to clear ht? No That hat Natalie hadthe characteristics of true sala

"It’s personal" He looked at the floor, and his jaw muscle clenched "Let’s just say I don’t place a lot of trust in succubi" He closed his eyes for a few seconds before turning his gaze back to ain"

My stoht knot He either toldhe kneasn’t soht for his life story was hardly a productive way to spend my time For whatever reason, he didn’t trust succubi I’d bet my salary that one had broken his heart way back when, and apparently theyou know?"

"Yes"

"You’d better not be lying to ot up from the chair "You know, there is at least one very powerful Covenant member in town this week Viktor Koslov"

"The councilto check out,involved in a crime like this"

I brushed a chunk of hair from my eyes "Why not?"

"Well, for one, they tend to be from old, very wealthy families That would remove the moneysuccubi