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"I don’t know" Bastien pulled out his phone As he dialed, he eased forward, eyes alert, and tried to identify faces "I don’t smell any of them, but with so much blood …"

"I have never seen the like," Yuri ht

"Stay sharp," Bastien warned as Chris answered

"Are you there?" Reordon asked

"Yes"

"What do you see?"

"Death"

"No one’s left standing?" Chris asked tightly

"No What happened?"

"Roland, Marcus, Lisette, and Étienne are down, hit with a drug delivered via darts fros don’t work on us"

"Well, they fucking do now!" Chris snapped And Bastien heard the unspoken accusation: they worked now that Bastien had put Montrose Keegan on it "They’re all out cold, barely breathing We haven’t been able to revive them even after blood transfusions"

"What about the others?"

"Sarah is okay Wounded, but not drugged"

Bastien was surprised by the intensity of the relief that struck hi He teleported fro just before Sarah left She had to carry both Roland and Marcus and thought Richart et you, but … We don’t knohere he is If he is For all we know he teleported right back to the battle"

If he had, Richart ht, perusing them with dread "And Aan to weep in the background, Bastien’s hand tightened around the cell phone "Reordon, what happened to Ami?"

"I don’t think she made it"

Bastien closed his eyes as raw pain prodded him Not Ami Please, not Ami, who had always been so kind to hi hi

"Tell me," he de the clearing as Reordon related Sarah’s last contact with A can do this to immortals and drop vampires instantly, I don’t see how Ami could have survived it," Chris said "And, even if she did, she was surrounded by two dozen va the last time Sarah saw her"

Bastien pried his eyes open and forced his feet to carry him forward

Humans didn’t deteriorate within minutes when they were killed If Ami …

He tried to s past the lump in his throat and couldn’t

The freshest bodies--located near the center--weren’t even bodies They were pieces It looked like whoever those pieces had belonged to had either exploded or been ripped apart with a violence only aflesh overwhel out all else Unable to sht distinguish her Green eyes Red hair Pale feaze

"I don’t see her," he told Chris, feeling no relief If she wasn’t here, the surviving vampires had claimed Ami either to transform her and make Ami a vampire or to use her as a blood bank and a toy they would feed on and torture at will

"I don’t see her either," Stanislav announced

"Nor I," Yuri added

"Wait" Stanislav halted his slow pera, he exaet back to you," Bastien told Chris Ending the call, he crossed the clearing in one leap He could see the dirt stirred by small footprints where Stanislav indicated, her blood on the leaves

Bastien shoved his phone into his pocket and plunged into the trees

He had to find her before the other vaot their hands on her If he didn’t …

She would be lost to them in more ways than one

"What the hell is this?"

The voice, full of alarm, swooped out of the darkness and lured Ami toward consciousness

"I need to stash this here for the day," the va said, calm now

"What? Are you crazy? Who is that? Is she … is she dead?"

"Not yet"

Her head pounded with every heartbeat, perhaps because she was hanging upside down over so her forward and dropped her like a bag of bird seed onto a hard surface The ache radiating outward fronified as the back of her head ricocheted off the table Old habits arose and helped her hold back a moan