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A Marcus If she had been killed during the big skirhtered the bastard for not protecting her He had overheard a conversation between her and Darnell earlier today and wanted to tell her not to bother defending him when the other immortals blamed hi But she would only ignore hinored Seth, David, and Darnell when they had urged her to keep her distance from Bastien in the early painful days of their acquaintance

His cell phone rang as he squeezed the excessblack hair

He looked at the display

Unknown caller

Picking it up, he answered "What?"

"Sebastien Newcombe?" a female voice asked in a near whisper

"Who the hell is this?" he countered The only woman who knew his number was Ami

"Melanie Lipton"

He frowned There was a furtive quality to her speech, as though she feared being overheard And, though her name sounded fa?"

If anything, her voice quietedyou If they catch me … I’m not sure what they’ll do We’ve been on lockdown for a week now, ever since the night Marcus and Ami were nearly killed"

If she knew about Marcus and Ami, then she was either an immortal or one of the humans the network employed Thanks to the power they possessed, immortals tended to be bold This woman, on the other hand, sounded tinition dawned

"Did you say Melanie Lipton? As in Doctor Lipton?" he asked, dread pooling in his stomembers of the vampire ar the immortals in that disastrous final battle, the three had surrendered and voluntarily moved into apartments at the network’s primary research facility, full of thus-far futile hopes that the doctors and scientists there could help them stave off the madness that had infiltrated their brethren

"Yes," she exhaled with great relief

"What happened?" It must be bad news, or she wouldn’t have called

"There’s been an … incident here at the lab involving Vincent" Of the three, he had been infected the longest "He’s been er and aggression He’s been having night about thehtun to seep insidiously into his mind and shame him in his more rational moments He had confessed as rettably, were not as often as he would like, because Bastien was only allowed to enter the network facility and have face to face contact with the vampires when accompanied by another i Vincent for over a year They had, in fact, begun before he had entered immortal custody

Had they worsened?

"Today," Dr Lipton continued, "he … he flew into a rage Several people were badly injured and …" She sniffed "There weren’t any iet him under control, so the only way he could be stopped or overpowered was through blood loss He was shot … so many times" Her voice warbled He could al down her cheeks This woman cared She didn’t view the vaues did She truly cared about his htened on the phone "Did they destroy him?" If they had, he did not doubt that she had tried to stop them

"No They waited until he nearly bled out, then restrained hi hiiven blood And food But, when he’s lucid …" She sniffed again "He really wants to talk to you And Cliff and Joe are pretty devastated Not to mention scared"

"I’ll be there within the hour"

"Wait," she said, before he could hang up "I wasn’t kidding This place is locked down Security is tighter than I’ve ever seen it and …" Her voice lowered evenpast would barely hear a breath, but her experience working with his ht herthat you may have tipped the vampires off to Marcus and Ami’s location, so I don’t think they’ll let you in the building"

Oh, but they would

"I tried to get them to let Vincent call you, but they refused They think it’s too big a risk" Disgust entered her voice "He isn’t plotting against the i he, Joe, and Cliff have told me about you, I don’t believe for one ainst theht be the only people in the world who believed that

"If you’ll hold on for a minute, I’ll see if I can sneak my phone into his room and--"