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This s shot, and he knew it But he’d been everywhere in the past eight eles coven ht be a whisper of ability beyond the norm In all that time, he had found not the faintest whiff of a Seer or even a hint of anything paranor to be different

He wondered how they would feel if they walked into an actual vampire club Most of thehtened for the few seconds their life would last in one of those places But they ht note that there wasn’t nearly as e wear in undead society as they seeot to his feet, all four of the so still in the bushes all night His cat forh it was of dubious help in places like this The house he was staking out sat just off the town square, and there were only a few scrubby barberry bushes for cover His fur was black, yes, and blended into shadow, but dog-sized cats didn’t exactly inspire the warave a frustrated growl as he accepted the fact that this trip was just another bust He’d been reduced to co ere supposedly A would draw out the sort of human he so desperately needed to find But soon, very soon, Ty kneould have to return to Arsinöe with the news that the Seers had, in all likelihood, simply died out For the first time in three hundred years of service, he would have to adypsy curse that was slowly killing those he was charged with protecting, would continue its dark work until there was no one left who bore the mark of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the oldest and un when Arsin&ouoddess’s dark kiss No other house could clais continued, the other dynasties, eternally jealous of the Ptolee, and reach, wouldn’t even have a carcass to feed upon

The invisible terror had attacked twice more, both ti only one vah to relate what had happened Or in the case of the first atrocity, one nearly-turned human woman Rosalyn, he reut They had brought her back to the co what infor her die a very human death He doubted she had kno lucky she was

Ty, used to fading into shadow and listening, knew that all in the inner circle of Arsin&oureed: it was only a matter of time before the violence escalated even further, and the queen herself was targeted

Without their fierce Egyptian queen, the House of Ptoleht away, but there were none fit to take Arsinöe’s place, unless Sekhrace on one of theoddess even still existed More likely there would be a bloody power struggle that left but a pale shadohat had been, and that petty infighting would take care of whoever the Mulo had left behind, if any And the Cait Sith such as himself, those who had been deemed fit to serve only by virtue of their Fae-tainted blood, would be left to the dubious ht

He could no more let that happen than he could walk in the sun

Ty pushed aside his dark thoughts for the ht, et a quick nip fro open and a woht air

At first he stayed to watch because he was ht the deep auburn of her hair, and Ty stared, transfixed, as she turned fully toward him Utterly unaware of the eyes upon her, she tipped her head back, bathing herself in starlight, the soft s a woht well h, saw the warm exhalation drift lazily upward in a cloud of e spell, it all see suspended for longbit of her soul to the night The long, pale column of her throat was bared above the collar of her coat, the tiny pulse beating at the base of it aular pulse and pound that were her life, until it was everything in his universe Her scent, a light, exotic vanilla, drifted to hi froer vanished froh a certain ahtly into the fabric of his life, he would not deny hiht of what her blood ht taste like Would it be as sweet as she smelled? Or would it be darker than she appeared to be, ripe with berry and currant? Every huular taste--this he had learned--and it spoke voluered only a er, and her heart-shaped face, delicately featured with a pair of large, expressive eyes he was now determined to see close up, imprinted itself on him in a way he had never before experienced Ty’s mind was too hazed to question it now, this odd reaction to her, but he kneould be able to ponder nothing else later

Later Once he had tasted her

When she turned ahen the burnished waves of her hair spilling over the collar of her dark coat were all he could see, Ty found he could at least ain, and he did so with the ruthless efficiency of a practiced hunter Like a predator that has latched on to the scent of its prey, his eyes never left her, even as he rose up, his feline for the straggling bushes

He breathed deeply, drinking in that singular scent with anticipatory relish

Then Ty turned up the collar of his coat and began the hunt

Lily rounded the corner of the house with a sigh of relief