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To Evan I said, "How ’bout you give the kids a bath?" To Eli I said, "And uys looked at the kids and then at each other Eli said, "Message received" He would put all the guns in the hidden room where we kept our armaments, and do it while the children were upstairs and not able to see the secret room

Without another word, I spun on a heel and took the side door into the dark, heading for Katie’s The chill hit ht that Louisiana didn’t have a winter I had been wrong It was just winter Deep South–style, wet, icy air, a little road ice, the cold spells broken up with long periods of warlike air We had been in the wet icy part for the last three days, and it would be later in the week before the seventies hit us again, a tropical stor in off the coast We’d have rain, rain, and thenAnd some more rain Inches of it But at least it would be warm

I jumped to the top of the splintered boulder pile inbrick as a handhold, and leaped, pullingdown It wasn’t ahuman was overrated

I knocked on the back door of Katie’s Ladies and felt h the dynarade I had installed when I first ca Easy There was another camera, smaller and better hidden, in the corner Most people would never look for a hidden ca, obvious one And uys wouldn’t think about a hidden camera after they had disabled the obvious one The door opened--a steel door with no s, a far better security arrangeinally installed Troll looked down at rinned "Little Janie Co for you in her study You know the way"

"Little Janie," I gru used to the s, by some of the security experts in the city Maybe it was dumb, but nicknames made me feel at home, welcomed, in some obscure way And helped to alleviate some of the discomfort I always felt in Katie’s presence I had never been comfortable with her, but, to o, and it’s hard to excuse that kind of thing, even for me--and I understood a predator’s drive to dominate and feed

I blew out a breath, shook off thedown the hallway to Katie’s office Katie was the heir to Leo Pellissier, the Master of New Orleans and the Southeastern US, except for Florida She was do, and a little scary, with less control than the MOC, less charisma, but, possibly, more raer Katie was the first sane vamp I’d ever ot to New Orleans

Her office was h the walls were now painted a cooler, darker seafoareen, and the hardwood floor was covered with a new silk Oriental rug, a burnt persi the border with a darker green and burnt orange sea serpent crashing through the waves in the center The rug was modern and luxuriant and probably costaccount, which was a lot The leather sofa still faced the desk, two leather chairs to either side The bar and e were on the left wall, and Katie’s ancient blackwood, hand-carved desk with the leather center was to the right, lit by a brass lamp in the shape of a swan, its neck arched back to ruffle its half-lifted wings

Also on the desk tonight, however, and totally unexpected, was a computer monitor Katie was a Luddite She didn’t understand the es She es And yet she was sitting behind the desk, her eyes wide and entranced--in the hu the wide screen

"Uhhh Katie?" Great entrance Almost as if I’d practiced it

She looked up and tinkled a laugh It was delicate and soft and feh, which was ," she said "I have no idea why I feared it for so long" One fragile-looking hand waved me closer "Come See This is marvelous!"

I stuck my hands intoa dark orange-red sheath dress with her hair coiled up in a chignon, was staring at some sort of financial spreadsheet, one with dollar a the pennies And the total at the bottoures

My eyebrows rose all by themselves "Yeah Cool" I ain, for the second tier a fearful place" She whipped her head toand no one"

I ed not to take three quick steps back, which was ss that run away I held esture and tried to controland heart rate "Good by me, Katie No wos flipped back into the roof of her mouth with a faint click She hadn’t vamped out--her eyes had remained fully human It was a demonstration of control I hadn’t seen in her before, one worthy of aafter I arrived in NOLA, and to save her undead life, she had been buried with the blood of all the clans of New Orleans, so And o when she see time It was nearly seven thirty, the kids’ bedtime, and I needed an update on Molly I wanted to be at hoirls?"