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"I’," Ruby said with a wan sht Lord knows, he acts like he has wax plugs in them most of the ti, didn’tHe just had his own very definite opinions and judgheadedof this area" Christine wrinkled her nose "The lingering testosterone is so strong it’ll probably wilt your flowers, Linda"
"Or fertilize thehed "Like little rabbits"
The woave herself over to her lanced at Linda
"I’ve never thought about having boxing gloves as part of the preparations for a Great Rite," she muttered "But we may need them"
Linda had her own concerns, but she’d seen Derek’s face when Ruby left the kitchen after breakfast Whatever was between the As she’d told Ruby, shethrough a rift But she knehenconnection back between two souls who couldn’t do without each other
DEREK MATERIALIZED ON TOP OF A SNOW-COVERED h and drive the breath fro his own death It was a far cry from the tropical Florida climate of Linda’s property, and it was that sharp contrast he wanted
He’d e boiling through his veins He’d walked in just as Mikhael’s knuckles had struck her fair cheek Even now, in hindsight, it didn’tHe’d seen Mikhael kill before, a sharp, powerful bloith his closed fist that had snapped his opponent’s neck with a pop like a carrot stick A woile, not structured to sustain a strike from a man’s hand, because men were never supposed to hit women like that, period
His patience was at an end He’d known she was going down so the blow a split second before it landed, pushed hinize trouble building like a white squall line on the horizon, bearing down on an unprotected s to survive that line; whatever was driving her froainst the angels… I did you a favor
As ruthless as Mikhael was, it was nothing next to what Derek could be when pushed past this line Love at the visceral level he felt for her had no boundaries or rules He’d known he loved her for a long tiic on hi that had happened since, that had ha to hi to her, even if she was the agent of her own destruction, one, he wouldn’t hesitate to embrace Darkness himself, do whatever was necessary to protect her, keep her safe
And there was the key The road she’d chosen had sohter, driven by a love so deep, so grievous, she hadn’t cared about consequences She still didn’t Whichbeyond his reach
Fuck that He snarled, dropping to his haunches like a lion prepared to spring Fighting ithin hie of matchsticks, he took the necessary second to clear the field,in harm’s way Then he let it loose He thrust his hands up toward the sky, as if delivering a fiery ate
His power compressed the air into folds around hi in a cosmic thunder that boomed out over the vast one full Disney Technicolor seared the sky He split it, caught it in nets he conjured straight out of the clouds, channeled it into fore, then spun into funnels of energy that whipped up the air, darkened the sky further
Those black holes could suck the Earth into theo that way He was a man, but because he was also more than a man, when sorely tested, he had Darkness inside of hi Roman, Derek could back it up with a destructive force that could take out half the planet
So many years, so much power From the moment he’d been born, he’d had a connection to the invincible power of the elements, a child of Earth He understood histories and cycles, could stand inside a forest and touch each individual spirit inside every tree Or level the entire landscape with a thought