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Lucian came before thenor said, you’d be dead noe did We don’t need to practice any rituals, have a full oing on here"

"But," Megan said, "how do you exist then?"

"Not on the hu "But we can, suffice to say that not one of us is a vegetarian"

"We’re wasting tiet to the bottoet started now"

Finn shook his head "I don’t understand If there are so reat powers, why don’t we just go in and clean out the Satanists?"

"Good idea," Sean Canady said "Except--do you know exactly who they are? And even if we could pick off the fringe members, h priest or priestess, surely has the power to add to the nu closer and slipping her arh Lucian’s, "contact has been made

So whoever the person is, he or she has a certain strength already"

"One that I can’t actually combat," Lucian told them

"I’an said "Very, very confused"

"It’s not going to be a battle of sith," Lucian told them "There are powers that have been set loose, and they’ve been set loose through ritual We’re going to have to fight back in the saone on tonight was staged--but none of the starring characters were in on the act Bac-Dal has given his servant certain powers--like the power of ie said, rising frootten into the police files on the Internet, searching for past cri the citizens of the area, but none of us think that we’re going to find anything Except for information on that recent murder in Boston, which we think is related to what’s happening here now"

Finn felt instantly defensive again "I didn’t kill the girl in Boston"

"Probably not," Sean agreed

"But," Lucian said, "you were there And you felt the power, forcing you to stop in Boston And you awoke in thelost hours of time"

Finn shook his head vehemently "That doesn’t matter I don’t believe that thisso horrible I’an

"Notthat you did murder her," Jade said "Just that you were meant to be there when she was killed That way, others would be suspicious of you" She exhaled

Jordan Riley, a petite wonity when she stood, spoke up cal pot of coffee is done"

"Coffee I think I need a straight shot," Megan muttered

Jordan sht now" She extended her hand and Finn sahat they had all been doing around the table

Jade had soe bundle of books froet every clue out of this that we can"

Ann Beaudreaux headed toward the kitchen "I’ll bring in the coffee Please, don’t despair when you see the ah Tara and I are cousins… our grandfather is a part of the Alliance as well, and he is Paris now, a bit too old to travel well, but he has a wealth of researchon this as well"

"I’ve got to go," Rick said suddenly "Old Andy has been left alone at the hospital too long now as it is"

He inclined his head toward Finn and Megan, and excused hiet out the door

Lucian indicated chairs at the kitchen table "Have a seat We’re going to start by going through everything that has happened since you’ve coan looked up at Finn He stared back at his wife and shrugged "What else are we going to do?"

"This has to be one of our dreams," she whispered

He shook his head "Neither one of us is waking up," he told her ruefully

"First off, this is very confusing," Jade said, ushering them to their chairs "We know that certain rituals call for a blood sacrifice, hair, perhaps an object belonging to the person, and blood of ’the anointed’

We know that Megan lost a bracelet; a Halloween decoration at the hotel relieved you both of soon in Morwenna’s shop" She hesitated "And Megan, you dreaht, then awoke to find that you had cut your foot, and that it appeared as if you’d really been walking through dirt"

"What?" Finn dean looked at him "I didn’t want you to know I didn’t want you to worry anythen!" he h his hair

"Except us They don’t have us!" Megan rereed softly

He looked around at the group surrounding them Great He’d been afraid to trust anyone in the area

Anyone

So here they were now, surrounded by…

Monsters