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He snagged the rest of the steak and gave me a thumbs-up I took the rest out to the kitchen and du and coat and turned to Azriel "Let’s go"

We reappeared in the side parking lot again The evening air was cold enough for , so I pulled my coat on as I walked toward the entrance

But I’d barely taken half a dozen steps when the building exploded in a gigantic ball of flame

Chapter 8

The force of the blast knocked ainly heap near the shrubs that lined the parking lot, with bricks,all around me I didn’t move, just squeezed my eyes shut, threw my hands over my head, and prayed like hell that I wasn’t hit Then Azriel landed on top ofout whatever breath I’d had left

But the --not just on us, but around us And it became quiet Whisper quiet I frowned and opened my eyes We were surrounded by a halo of blue fire

"What the hell?"

"Valdis shields us" His warm breath tickledexploded"

"Is that why you’re lying on top ofus both out of here--especially given you would only want to come back" He hesitated, then added, with a hint of a set to touch you more fully, and that is not entirely unpleasant"

I snorted "You’re beginning to sound like a regular ularto be polite and not mention that bar you have--"

"I meant," he cut in, the a protective You, Risa Jones, have what I believe is called a dirtyup"

"That is a function of this body I have no real control over" Valdis’s shield flickered and died, but he didn’t iht?"

I opened my mouth to say yes, but the word never caone, the noise hit, and it was horrendous But the creak and groan of a dying building wasn’t the worst of it It was the screams of those trapped and injured that were the hardest to take

"Oh god, Azriel, we have to help--"

"We cannot," he said, voice firo in there just yet"

I bucked ht as well have tried to shift a brick wall "Damn it I can’t just lie here--"

"You can, and you will," he said "It is not within your ability to save those people"

"But it is within your ability"

"No"

"Azriel--"

"No" This tier in his voice "I am not here to alter the hand fate has dealt to any of those people inside"

"Not unless it had so to do with the keys, which this does"

"Only peripherally I have no justification for interfering in either the life or the death of those within that building"

"What about Genevieve Sands? She ht be connected to both the dark sorcerer and the keys, so why can’t you at least go in there to see if she survived?"

"Look at the building, Risa Do you really think it possible she could be alive?"

I twisted around and h fro--in the area that had held Lauren Macintyre’s storage unit--that had taken the brunt of the explosion It was co left but the charred remnants of brick walls and the twisted remains of metal There is no way in hell anyone in that area could have survived

"There’s no guarantee she was actually in there at the tiht have set it all up and then used the stones to escape" That hat I would have done if I’d been in her soo check the Razans’ place and see if she’s there"

Azriel’s expression went back to being noncoo in Aedh foro"

He hesitated "I prefer not to leave you--"

"Who’s going to attackfor my father’s appearance, Hunter still has use for me, and anyone else I can cope with"

"Given you do have the unfortunate habit of attracting danger, that is no co to take you a couple of et into in that amount of tiraceful, and offered "

"I won’t" Not in hu such a art and go before she escapes us again"

He did I brushed the dirt and grit from my hands and clothes as I studied the blackened, broken building There was little sound co now--little in the way of human sound, anyway--but the flames were intense, a caress of heat that would burn et closer, nowail of the eency vehicles was barely audible over the fierce burn of the fire, they were little more than a couple ofin that locker had survived the blast, I’d better do it now, before officialdom descended and perhaps destroyed whatever evidence still survived<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>