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"Yes," Jaden sneered, baring his fangs "She can outfight you, because I taught her to I’ back, LaSalle And neither are you"

Without his knife, the decapitation was quick but gruesoh, to end any vae sound behind him slowly penetrated the bloody haze in which he was ensconced, crouching over LaSalle’s body and drinking in shallow little sips of air The rage was as dark as anything he’d ever experienced, fueled as it was by the memories of his torment The scars on his back burned as if fresh

Lyra I have to help Lyra This isn’t finished

Jaden rose and turned, and was greeted by an unexpected sight Lyra stood over the corpses of the other Ptoleer in her hand She was a little battered, but there was sooddess of war The oddity of her even having a dagger was quickly explained when he realized that they were no longer alone A sroup of olves had joined the at hi, sier in it without a single question, and he turned to finish severing the head of the Ptolemy whose throat he had torn out, just to be sure

"The bodies should be burned," he said flatly as he returned, handing the dagger to Dorien The fury receded, leaving an odd numbness in its place It was hard to fathoo, he’d been as happy as he could reed to spoil even that It seeood in Jaden’s life no matter what he did

"We know We’ll take care of it," Dorien said He was as somber as Jaden had seen the man, and he wondered, dully, if the wolves would use the attack as an excuse to run hiht left in him But when one of the other wolves spoke, a shorter, barrel-chested hts, his words were far fro Jaden expected

"You didn’t run You defended Lyra," he said The man had the audacity to sound surprised Jaden wanted to snap, but he er still in his system, not as called for now

"I did," Jaden said "But she did a hell of a job defending herself"

He saw the smile, s way toward cale The rest vanished the moment the ho had addressed him stepped forith his hand extended It took Jaden a ister the expression the man wore, since it was one he saw so rarely

Gratitude

Jaden, du life, accepted the hand being offered and shook it

"I rong about you You defended a felloolf, and our home For that, you have my thanks"

"I--you’re welcome," Jaden stammered, even more shocked when the other wolves caesture Siave a curt nod before shaking hands too

"I told Lyra I’d be watching you Looks like not all vampires are without honor From now on, as far as we’re concerned, you’re welco the siain He had shed blood for them He had acted in defense of Lyra, and of their home So they, in turn, had decided to accept hiht of the honor These wolves must think poorly of his kind indeed to assume he would leave Lyra to the mercy of these vampire killers

But since plenty of vampires were much like these Ptolemy, he supposed he couldn’t blame Simon and the others for the bad i here?" Dorien wondered aloud, prodding one of them with his toe "All these years, we’ve barely seen a one of your kind Noe’re soave a barely perceptible shake of her head She was right--it o over as well if they kneas the one who had drawn the Ptoleht it was odd the intruders had found him deep in olf country, of all places Had he been followed from Tipton? That prospect didn’t seem likely, and he’d been careful

A puzzle, and one he needed to sort out Putting innocents in danger because the Ptoleive up their claim on an entire bloodline was unacceptable to hier acceptable, no matter whether the truth hurt him or not

"They were here because of me," he ad tiotten over the fact that I, and er under her purview"

"Will there be more of them, do you think?" Sied "Not sure This lot won’t be reporting back, at least Beyond that, I couldn’t say" He looked at Dorien "I’ht the tracked"

Dorien looked at his colleagues and grunted "Not worried A few stragglers here and there is just good practice for et to rip into actual vamps These don’t seem to have caused much trouble, even with you outnuhter who seemed no worse for wear despite the blood Then he shook his head wonderingly