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Tokala took the back and she sat in the passenger seat, her fingers curled around the steel bar

Lees?

We’re colanced at Mal, his stern profile illuhts and dashboard "Is he at the enclosure?"

"No, he’s where he wants to be for this That’s where we’re going"

She knew the location Though not as elevated as the knoll in her drea plain that passed through the blue line of the African portal, and beyond that, the sea Three different possible worlds to visit

Jere his end, but she was sure they knehere he’d gone She wondered what kind of good-byes he’d said to the to her like a shield until they pulled up and stopped, just twenty feet away fro He had his knees drawn up and hands linked around the on the point of his buttocks as he looked up at the vast sky, the spray of stars across thee I can’t do this I can’t

She looked toward Mal then, her eyes pleading "Say so to help me do this"

"I don’t want you to do it I want to take you hoht now, and protect you from this I don’t want you to feel one more moment of pain in your life"

Mal’s quiet words were so fierce, the heat blasted over her chilled skin What she’d taken for stoic acceptance was hiding a great deal more She nodded He knehat she needed to hear He didn’t want her to do this, but she had to do it She knew she had to do it

She got out of the Jeep, Tokala with her, and turned to look at Mal "Do you need to"

He shook his head "He and I have said our good-byes You’re sure you want ht an ache in her throat that threatened to becoo Need you to be there"

"All right, then" He held her gaze "I’ll be in your mind, Irish flower You can do this He needs you, and you are better at being needed than anyone I’ve ever met in my life"

He slid out of the Jeep, because he’d use his vampire speed to return to the house, but as he ave her a last intent look A wave of pure feeling ca out inside her like an amorphous blanket she could wrap around the chill A moment later, he’d disappeared into the forest

When she looked up at Tokala, the ht close" He nodded to the tree a stone’s short throw from Jeremiah "When he’s ready, you just motion to me, and I’ll come closer"

Her throat too dry to respond, she started walking

Jerereen eyes now criot there, she spread her skirt, lowered herself to the ground next to hilance "So here we are," she said softly "Sure I can’t interest you in a gaht a bicycle for h players for cricket" The blood flow from his tooth extraction had stopped, so now, for the first ti al his pals, if they would also turn to ash at sun’s first light He’d cleaned hiotten rid of the shirt He was clad in just the trousers she’dout, she stroked his hair away from his forehead, the first time she’d ever done it without caution or calculation That hardly see at her face "It’s thirty minutes until dawn"

"I know" Her voice quavered, but she quelled it, pressing her fingers into his flesh as she dropped her hand to his shoulder "I know you’re not a little boy, Jeremiah, but can I hold you? Would you like that?"

In answer, he shifted so he was underneath her ars over her lap so she could pull him close to her side He laid his head on her shoulder, his hair brushing her neck, his lips pressed close to it,her feel that always-present va beneath her skin

"I won’t bite you," he murmured