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"You butchered theled the lasses first Eased theently from life-- then I chopped theifted any of them with this life

They were hu er!" she said

He smiled And then she knew

"I killed them because I am a beast As you are," he told her

"You killed the his mind You lured him away, hypnotized him, and made him think thatOh, my God, I don’t care what they do to me!

I will kill you!"

He never had tie unlike anything she had ever known She ripped with her nails and teeth, battered, tore

And he screaery She had nearly coreatest sin of her own kind, the only infraction that could bring about her own execution: She had nearly severed his head from his body

She didn‘t care

She would kill hiladly die herself

Ar her away

Lucian Taking her away

She felt a rush of darkness and light, time and shadow Heard his words "Don’t do it, don’t do it!

He is badly injured, it could take him centuries to heal" She closed her eyes Life was an abyss She didn’t care She despised this life She couldn‘t bear it

She heard an evil, cackling laughter

Aaron Carter He was threatening her

The cackling, like ti about leaving work She didn’t care what Sean or Maggie thought The killer was no fool He wasn’t coh Ma in the world wasn’t always exactly what it seeris there was in the world, either She didn’t knohat she thought about the fantastic story Maggie Montgomery had told her

She considered herself safe, even in the underbelly of New Orleans She’d taken several steps into that underbelly, and she was a part of it There was nothing to scare her there She’d seen as frightening in life, and that was poverty She’d grown up in a four-room apartment with seven brothers and sisters; she’d eaten rice until she’d thought it would grow back out of her head, and she’d heard babies cry all night because they were hungry No, only one thing could scare Ma the underbelly of New Orleans She had connections No one would mess with her

Yet, it was late, really late, when she left work And aly, in a city that seldom slept, the streets were absurdly quiet

People are afraid of thein The jazz clubs would be in trouble

And the sex clubs and strip joints She hoped soht Moon riding high in the sky behind shi encased in ht

She shivered, and walked faster Heard footsteps Behind her

She stopped, turned around Nothing No one She told herself that she had the heebie-jeebies, and that was that She started walking again

But just to be safe

If she turned into the alley, she knew a shortcut through one of the old teneh it She happened to know the way because the building had been there when she was a kid

She turned

And heard the footsteps again

She remembered her watch, and pressed hard on the face of it She kept walking fast

She paused, swinging around, looking back

She turned again, and froze

She blinked She shouldn’t have been surprised to see him Tall, sleek, handsome in black silk shirt and neatly creased trousers His face was pale; didn’t match the darkness of his hair Dye job? she wondered

Then she wondered what it mattered He’d come to kill her

"Hello, Maain Time If she could kill tiht her arth

She opened her mouth to scream

His hand fit over her mouth before she could inhale

"You sold hed, and licked her cheek with the fullness of his tongue "U you all up, Ma her throat "Sweeter than candy Yeah, lady You soldto have a really good time, just like the invisible rinning

And Ma to die

Sean held the aard electronic tracking instrument out in front of him He’d called in for back-up and he knew that Jack and others would quickly be on their way, but he kneell--gut instinct--that tiht now