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Good A vampire shouldn’t be alone in such a sharp, fierce awareness

"A nice way of putting it," she aze swept over her s a vae"

"Vaave a tiny shiver and then her eyes abruptly narrowed "Hey, wait, just how strange do you think I aed "You haven’t yet answereduntil I know ly conceded the wisdoer and faster thanolder"

That did surprise hie?"

"I’ht just be good genes, but I don’t think so"

Styx had to take her word She looked young and innocent to hies in hu to vampires

"You must possess at least soe that he couldn’t detect any hint of rels rarely possessed the full abilities of their demon ancestors, but a vampire could still detect that they were not precisely mortal It troubled him that he could not "What of your parents?"

The pale features became smooth and unreadable As if a mask had fallen into place

"I never knew them I was fostered when I was a baby"

"You have no family?"

"No"

Styx frowned He was unfa hu to do with her demon blood

He also assuet his hands upon her

What he needed was aprecisely what sort of demon had spawned her, and what it could possibly mean to the Weres

The abandoned hotel in south central Chicago was hardly the setting for royalty

The roof leaked, the ere cracked, and there was a lingering stench of huh to turn the stomach of the most hardened olf

On the plus side the mutant rats had disappeared only days after their arrival, and the few hu the ruins were easily frightened away by the "wild dogs" that roamed the narrow hallways

They had their privacy ensured, if not their coest of the rooms as his, Salvatore Giuliani had moved the heavy desk next to thethat overlooked the h the cracked panes didn’t especially bother him, and he was a ho kept a close watch on his back No one would be allowed to sneak up on hio was pinned to the wall, and nearer to hand he had a wooden shelf that held a vast array of shotguns, handguns, and wicked knives Spread across the desk were a dozen photos of Darcy Smith

He was a man on a mission A mission that he would accomplish no matter how many wolves, hu his hand over a photo of Darcy walking down the street with a faint smile upon her full lips, Salvatore abruptly raised his head as he caught the scent of an approaching cur

A the orld curs were a lesser Were They were shifters who had once been human but had been transformed by the bite of a olf Purebloods, on the other hand, were Weres who had been born from two Weres They possessed skills far beyond ent They were also capable of controlling their change unless it was a full moon

Unfortunately, purebloods were now far too rare, and even curs were more difficult to create

The venom that transformed a human to Were was deadly to ed to survive Over the past hundred years even that handful had trickled to a halt It had been more than twenty years since the last cur had survived

So had to be done before the Weres disappeared entirely

That hy Salvatore had been sent to America from Rome It was his duty to ensure that the Weres didn’t become extinct And one part of that plan depended upon Darcy Set his hands on her And soon

The door opened and the cur he had scented strolled into the roo vision Tall and lithely muscled, she possessed black hair that fell in a smooth curtain to her waist and faintly oriental features that added an exotic beauty At theh, revealing the long, slender length of her legs