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"Hard choice," I ainst the warm, hard planes of his body "But I’ve never really had the chance to test that expression out"

"Then perhaps we should"

"What, here?" I raised an eyebrow and glanced around the Visitors Center "I ht have olf blood in me, but I’m not that ently "I y swept around me even before I could finish ht Makeup sex was the best kind

Needless to say, we did not arrive at Hallowed Ground on tiood twenty ton Parade and Simpson Street, not far away froround--the Melbourne Cricket Ground The club was situated in a rather unusual two-story, redbrick building that had an old-fashioned concrete turret on one corner and sularly spaced intervals The entrance was nondescript, and it would have been easy to pass by and think it was nothing more than an apartn above the door did little to give it away

Azriel opened the white-painted wood and glass door and ushered reeted me, and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust The rooe at the back of the rooh the e She was playing soe and yet so at the various tables scattered throughout the roo with so close to rapture in their expressions

I walked across to one of the tables sitting in the deeper shadows of the room and pulled out the chair "Is she a dark spirit?"

Azriel hesitated, studying her as he sat down next to me "It is difficult to tell She has so you can’t break past it?"

"I could, but then she would sense that I aels, but they generally will not take a chance and remain in our presence if they sense us"

I studied her for a ernails Handy for plucking lute stringsor slicing stoht, and shivered

"Why would she have a shield up if she wasn’t up to no good?"

"She is sitting in a roo their telepathic powers to seduce or influence the thoughts of others It is natural she would have some means to protect herself from such events"

That did e There was so about her thatmore than my desire for this hunt to be easy

"She’ll have to take a break soon We can interview her when she does" I leaned back in lanced at Azriel He was little htly--al? A I wanted was her hissing like a banshee in my brain

Banshee not Her tone was a trifle huffy Maybe she’d been taking lessons froood reason for the huffiness," he replied evenly "And I thought we’d moved past that"

My eyebrows rose "You heard her?"

He nodded "Through you And a banshee is a spirit; she’s a derouched

I snorted "Tell me, do all demon swords have such attitude?"

He smiled "The attitude of the sword very much depends on the attitude of the owner"

"So you’re saying I’ht my hand in his, drew it to his lips, and kissed it "Would I dare say anything else?"

"Usually, yes"

"Then ood mood"

"Good sweaty sex will do that to you every ti the corners of his eyes andmy heart do several little happy skips "Then perhaps I should get in a snit hed The sound seeh the darkness, and the woh she didn’tin her shoulder and arm muscles

"She knohat I am" Azriel squeezed my hand, then released me "Get ready to move I believe she’s about to finish her set"

The wo, then rose and bowed to the audience They didn’t iht died and she walked froe, it was as if a spell had been released and they all began to clap--soh the tables, planning to cut the wo deceptively fast, however, and slipped through the curtains and disappeared fro the curtains aside and following the sound of her retreating steps down a dark corridor Somewhere up ahead, a door opened and closed I slowed

Valdis’s blue fire flickered across the walls, highlighting the peeling paint and dusty cobwebs I shivered, not wanting to think about hen I was chasing a woest spider

"I cannot sense her presence in the room ahead," Azriel said

"Does that mean she’s escaped us? Or is it si to block you?"

"It could be either"