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" You want rowled at the closed door " Open up,"

"No Heroom

"I’ll take my chances"

My eyes filled with tears and I shook my head "He’s not worth it" I took a deep breath, pasted on a s room… I rubbed my eyes and, hello, the bat patrol was still in the rooy Tony still cowered in his chair and Darinned and winked What the hell had just happened tothe virtues of Kevlar Apparently I hadn’t gone to Da sex with an audience I sent Dato happen "What do you think, Glory?" Diana was obviously waiting for me to answer What did I think? That Damian Sabatini was a dead man

Chapter Twelve

Twenty-four hours had passed since the bat patrol had returned with the bad news that Westasn’t taking h about vampires to stay locked inside his ranch house after dark, surrounded by thugs arht slohat Westwood considered a predator Twenty-four hours had passed since Da out Damian had taken mind control to a whole new level Could other vaood defense So I should learn to do But not with Da him like the bird flu And if I did have to be in the sa up a block the size of Mount Rushmore

At least Diana, Derek and I had been a hit with the non-flying vampires Derek had found out that wooden arrows couldn’t coh velocity to penetrate Kevlar, even if Westwood started using a crossbow So Kevlar vests Others who hadn’t been spotted by Westwood yet were investigating heat generating devices We’d found battery operated socks that hunters wore, surely there were other heaters we could wear on our chests Maybe a battery operated T-shirt Of course in suht present a problem Austin has really hot su a Kevlar bra You kneasn’t going to wear a bulky vest, didn’t you?

I mean how e over the heart region That ht be workable I’d ordered some Kevlar material from the Internet Expensive and when it came I’d have to find a seamstress But I’d already developed a cover story Worked with a knife thrower in the circus Sometimes he et the fabric and I had this one night off before I would be back in the shop again I could lock myself in my apart my name So Diana, Flo and I decided to head to the nearestanywhere without me" Valdez hopped out of the car before I could shut hied on n that says service animals only" Diana patted Valdez "Sorry, fella, that means you stay in the car"

"Not necessarily" I looked around the dark parking lot As long as I had Valdez byin lasses a custorabbed Valdez’s leash

"See? I’m a service animal"

"Just behave If I have to play blind, you have to play serious guard dog"

" Don’t I always?" Valdez pulled et out of the open" Flo and Diana followed us And didn’t I feel like a fool groping for the door?

"Would one of you lead the way? Flo, take us to the nearest shoe store with a big sale going on"

"You got it, girlfriend" Flo stepped out with Valdez right behind her

Diana grabbed ot a few sympathetic looks and felt like a total fraud

"What color boots do you want? High or low heels? Ankle or knee high? Suede or leather?"

"Gee, Diana, I’ bitchy This blind thing was going to be a pain

"Sorry" I gave Diana a rundown of what I was looking for

"Here we go" Flo stopped in front of a store with a Sale sign, then stepped inside "Please excuse ets to go shopping"

Poor thing? Valdez took exception to the salesuide dogs welco shoes Apparently metallics were in and I stopped myself just before I picked up a particularly cute pair of bronze sandals I groped my way to a chair