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As the last vampire in front of hied in his throat

All of her weight was supported by her left leg The smooth fluid movements that had so impressed him last week had been replaced by aard hops induced by a wound on the back of her thigh that had already saturated her pant leg with blood One of her katanas lay on the ground a couple of yards away fro the other at the two va fro in fury, Marcus crossed the distance that separated the one vamp The other backed away toward the odd va with an inscrutable expression

Marcus started toward the pair A heartbeat later, the voyeur varabbed the other from behind, slit his throat, then sank his blade into his victi the abdominal aorta

Shock halted Marcus’s footsteps

The wounded one doubled over, trying to clutch both his neck and his storound His executioner bent, cleaned his blade on the back of the dying vamp’s shirt, and tucked it away in a sheath at his waist

The night fell quiet, disturbed only by Aed breaths

Marcus returned one of his swords to its scabbard and backed toward her until he could feel her dwindling body heat just behind hi out, he took her free hand--ith blood--and squeezed

She squeezed back

"Who are you?" Marcus asked the vae student: of average height with a thin, rangy build Short but shaggy hair somewhere between blond and brown brushed thick, brown eyebrows that hovered over pale blue eyes A couple days’ growth of beard graced his narro

"Roy"

Marcusout his last breath "Have a falling out with your friend there, Roy?"

"He would’ve reported "

Their king? Soht us?"

"Are you Roland?"

Ahtened around Marcus’s

"How do you know that naside a human woman She’s Sarah?"

How the hell did he know about thest va where this would go

The boy nodded decisively "I’e ava he could help me"

Marcus took a step forward "I can help you"

The boy stumbled backward "No! No You’re immortal I’d rather deal with Bastien"

"Bastien is immortal, too," Marcus informed him Perhaps all of the vampires hadn’t heard yet

"I know, but he lived with valanced over his shoulder "Look, there are , which ," Roy insisted, reading Marcus’s doubt "I saw Dickie make the call I don’t kno many, but it could be a dozen or h another round And he would not risk her life for a shot at getting a little inforested "I’ll take you to Bastien ot A away "They’ll follow And when they see hoeak Sarah is, they’ll attack her first and use her to bring you down Leave now, and I’ll head theht or left us all for dead and are long gone"

"You don’t look dead," Marcus pointed out Nor did he look as though he had been fighting for his life and doing his dae hunting knife

Marcus released Aer or shuriken

But Roy didn’t attack He drew his blade across his own face, sliced his chest open, then sank the knife deep into his own thigh

Behind Marcus, A the same astonishh clenched teeth "Tell Bastien I’ll be at what’s left of his lair toht"

As soon as the words left his lips, he turned and sped away in a blink

"Aren’t you going after him?" Ami asked behind him, her voice hoarse with pain

Marcus swiveled to face her "No"

She was as pale as ht off her right leg, she stood hunched over slightly, the knife handle sticking obscenely out of her back Her shirt and pants were saturated around and below the blade "But--"

"I knohere he’ll be to his phone, Marcus dialed Seth’s nu with hiritted out "It could be a setup Another a his arm, she hopped closer, leaned into hi, Marcus wrapped his arht to voice mail

Was Seth always this difficult to reach? Marcus rarely called hi to have to take the knife out"

She nodded "Give me a three count"