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"And"--I closed ht Adrianna back to life after I staked her because you thought she s you wanted to know You kept her alive even though she was a ticking tis" I opened my eyes and met Leo’s "And you let all that happen because you knew there were ical artifacts on these shores and you wanted them"

Leo sat back in his chair His power rose in the rooy, faue, this tie coer to the hind reaches of my brain I backed two steps and

"The witches are my affair You are not my adviser, nor my priestess; you are my Enforcer It is a position of power and honor, which you claie, you are not one to be bound Within the confines of that position, you will not work against y, or my needs And I will have respect from you, Jane"

I flinched and sank into the chair He didn’t know that Beast was bound Fro that had been done to me, had been a decision on my part or had led froest that even the involuntary feeding and binding had resulted directly fro the position, I had tacitly agreed to be fed upon and bound The Mithran version of a forced Vulcan mind meld had been the result It had been an intiical part of ht It wasn’t fair It wasn’t legal in a huhead it was all that and h me, my body, flat on my back, held in place by the vas extended The pain as he ripped into e was not much help at the moment

I had been such an idiot, and Leo had used ht not beby the seat of my pants

Adelaide reached over and took my hand The contact was a shock, my hands like ice "She doesn’t know, Leo She doesn’t understand about the council and the witches"

Which wasn’t what I was reacting to, but I wasn’t going to share hts Leo considered me, his eyes narrowed, his face still a thunderstorm He took a breath he didn’t need and blew it out hard "That is not a topic to be discussed tonight," he said to Adelaide "We have more immediate issues to resolve"

CHAPTER 12

Do We Call the Police?

Leo went on "The gather to my mind back to the present "To welcome the applicants from Mexico, and to formally announce to my people the intent of the European Council to visit The latter is known, of course, but the announcement must be accomplished pro forma I have also been informed by Ray from Africa They will be accorded the sah I’d never met the man, I remembered the name Micheika was a rare African werelion, and was the leader of the International Association of Weres, and the leader of the Party of African Weres--PAW Surprised, I asked, "Is Ke?"

"I was not informed of the identity of the arrivals," Leo said sourly, "only that three cats were to arrive, along with a grindylow and several servants"

"So you’ll be housing Mexican va your newest applicants for ad"

Eli chuckled "That’s a FUBAR waiting to happen"

"What is a fubar?" Leo asked

Quesnel, the soh the door before I could reply and started pouring the wine He held the bottle up high and let it gurgle into the glasses, which I thought was highly entertaining As Quesnel passed the glasses around, Leo stood, the genial host "A toast," he said, lifting a glass "In honor of lass

And the best part? The MOC was stillstiffly I had put a whaood

• • •

Eli, Wrassler, and I spent the rest of the night going over all the security protocols and i area out back The Kid called in thenew to share It wasn’t a necessary call from an informational standpoint, but it made me feel better to know that so Molly, Bliss, and Rachael We were going in circles trying to find the about the passing ti out and beating up someone Neither would be productive