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"You brought her in, Tara! You called to her, just in time"

"In time for what?"

He dropped his hold on her shoulders and walked by her, heading for the stairs in disgust Katia was just co to him on the stairs, her French so rapid Tara wasn’t sure what she was saying

But Brent responded to her and Katia sether

Everyone trusted him She had trusted him So much so that she had fallen into his arms, and more If she didn’t care so much about him, if she didn’t feel such a need to know him better, deeper, keep hiht not be so distrustful

And yet

Soht He had told her that there were vampires, and that the Alliance was true and real He had denied that he was a varandfather seemed to know him very well, and hadn’t shown the least surprise or alarht--or the hter’s bedroom

She watched the stairs for a randfather’s room

She walked to the bed His eyes were closed, but he felt her there, and his eyes opened

"She’s in danger," he said softly "But then, we’re all in danger" He fu hers He found it and wound their fingers tightly together "Tarait is you, you know It is you, and you , because I am not the man I once was, and no er It is ht reat pride, and now fear"

"Jacques, I don’t knohat you’re talking about"

"You have to trust your senses, your gut feelings!"

She nodded, s very worried "Grandpapa, please, if I really understood just a little bit more When--when exactly did you o," he said

"Grandpapa! When?" she said

But his eyes didn’t flicker He had either fallen asleep again, or he was determined to pretend that he had done so

Tara left him She started down the stairs, certain that Brent was still in the house She meant to accost him herself

He was there She found hi in the open doorway, staring at the newspaper, which had just arrived along with the first pink streaks of dawn

"Another body has been found," he said

With anger, he threw the paper to the floor, and stepped out the door, slary Monsieur Francois and stared at the video screen They were infor to be shown the clothing and jewelry that had been found on the woman

He waited, tense A cart was rolled before a caue

He stared at the screen, blinked and stared again

His knees wobbled, he felt feint, like jelly

He slipped to the floor, sobbing

He are that, next to hi

In the depths of a nether region, ies of the past swirled in a field of o

He eak, incredibly weak There had been so little food for so very long With no nourish labor

Now, they were all together in the caious and ethnic prisoners, the dissenters, the political prisoners, and anyone that the regi, it hadn’t been that way

But then he had seen Andreson

And Andreson had seen hi that they recognized one another

But Andreson had held the power fro, due to the circumstances He had been certain that Andreson would see to his ily, it hadn’t been that way

Instead, Andreson had set out to break him

Eventually, of course, he would kill hiht, as so many others had done

Andreson liked a more subtle form of torture, just as much as he enjoyed his own more physical pursuits He liked the feet that the , fearing, dreading what ht coinning, when the prisoner had found strength, when he had tried to explain to the others that they were harboring a ined, but his words fell upon deaf ears, and they were surely brought to Andreson, who enjoyed such coreater fored to escape en route to the brutal road work, the time when he had so nearly come upon Andreson, had nearly done what e of a different kind of monster, a corps of men who had been specifically chosen for their inhumanity And he had been stopped Then had cohts when he lay awake

Waiting

But toward the end, Andreson had, perhaps, begun to fear for his own future Not that he feared death hiained, lose his force of absolute power He could feel it inside when Andreson lost his keen amusement in his subtle torture And he knew, of course, that the end was co The only question hether the Americans or the Russians would come first