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"Go away," Santiago shouted as the steel door shuddered beneath the impact of Styx’s size-sixteen boot There was another shudder, before the cean to crack and buckle

Roke

It had to be

There was no other vampire who had his particular effect on physical structures The powerful va) earthquakeGaius’s seething anticipation

"Santiago, what the hell is going on?" Styx called through the door, his oerthe side of the door, o curse at Roke’s persistence

He had to keep them out of the rooht mean he was trapped on the other side with no way to reach Sally or the book

He glanced toward the witch, as studying the cru ith an odd expression

"Do you have a phone?" he de outfit that clearly had no place to hide the clichéd thin die to point out the obvious, and instead caught hiuard when she squared her shoulders and tilted her chin "I can reach them"

He frowned "A spelloh shit" He blinked in shock as she turned her arm over to reveal the distinctive tattoo that crawled beneath the skin of her inner forearm "Who?"

A blush touched her cheeks "Roke"

Taciturn, I-am-an-island-so-don’t-screith-me Roke one ave a nod of his head "Warn them to back off"

"I’ll try" She rolled her eyes as yet another crack appeared "They haven’t listened tothat the witch could convince the vampires to halt their assault on the door, not tothe roof down on their heads, Santiago turned back to Gaius

He hid his stab of shock as he realized that Gaius was a shade paler and several pounds frailer Mierda Even his hair was beginning to fall out

Like he was a dog with e to reach up andto shed

Surely he would sense if the book was starting to make him rot?

With a slow, deliberate aze "Do you knoho I aed "Don’t know, don’t care"

"There are sood," the creature inforance that he’d clearly bestowed on his children "Without o was sublimely unimpressed "God or not, we’ve done just fine without you for the past few ," the creature corrected hiod be destroyed?" Santiago demanded with a lift of his brows

There was a low hiss "The Dark Lord proved it’s possible"

Santiago od"

"Maybe not to you"

"And neither are you"

There was a calculating pause as Gaius no doubt considered the best way tothe witch The fact he wasn’t using his ability to provoke Santiago into a bloodlust spoke volumes about the power of the book

"But I am your creator," he at last said, his voice the dry hiss of a viper "Can you be certain that my end won’t also be the end of all vampires?"

No He couldn’t be certain

Which was precisely why he wasn’t going to let hi to concentrate on anything beyond destroying thisNefri safely back to his lair

"Sally"

He could smell the fee, she moved to stand at his side