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Chapter 7

I stepped out of the crowd like I was flinging aside a curtain My skin tingled with thebodies, but I stood alone on the last step The screa for the exits But here, just above the ring, there was nothing The silence lay in thick folds against h the thick air Magic But whether vampire or cobra, I didn&039;t know

Stephen stood closest to ant Yas her naked upper body She had tied the shirt up to expose a tanned expanse of tuuerite stood beside her The black woh heels and stood flat-footed in the ring

Jean-Claude stood on the far side of the circle with t blond vampires on either side He turned and stared at me across the distance I felt his touch inside htened; sweat broke on o closer to hi private and too intihtTwoto one side The cobra reared over the tower of

The round at its feet? tail? One of theuardrail until ers ached I was so scared I could taste bile at the back of my throat My skin was cold with it You ever have those drearound you can&039;t walk unless you step on them? It&039;s al in thedown on me, and all I can do is scream

Jean-Claude held out one slender hand towards ers Everyone else was staring at the snake Jean-Claude was staring at me

One of the wounded men moved A soft e tent Was it illusion or had the sound really echoed? It didn&039;t matter He was alive, and we had to keep him that way

We? What was this "we" stuff? I stared into Jean-Claude&039;s deep blue eyes His face was utterly blank, wiped clean of any emotion I understood He couldn&039;t trick me with his eyes His own marks had seen to that, but mind tricks--if he worked at it--were still possible He orking at it

It wasn&039;t words, but a coo to hirip of his hand The softness of lace against ripped it to keep froames now? We had other problems, didn&039;t we? Or didn&039;t he care about the snake? Maybe it had all been a trick Maybe he had told the cobra to run amuck But why?

Every hair on er had just brushed it I shivered and couldn&039;t stop

I was staring down at a pair of very nice black boots, high and soft I looked up and met Jean-Claude&039;s eyes He had left his place around the cobra to co to hih power to stop the creature"

I shookabout"

He brushed his fingertips down h the leather jacket I could feel his touch like a line of ice, or was it fire?

"How can you be hot and cold at the same time?" I asked

He s me, and we can tame the creature We can save the men"

He had ainst the lives of two people What a choice

"Once I let you inside my head that far, it&039;ll be easier for you to corabs for anybody&039;s life"

He sighed "Very well, it is your choice" He started to turn away frorabbed his arm, and it arm and fire and drowning deep, like the bottom of the ocean, and just as deadly His oer keptin; alone I would have been lost

I sed hard enough for it to hurt, and pulled ainstbad Maybe I had

"Will silver bullets hurt it?"

He seemed to think about that for a second "I do not know"

I took a deep breath "If you stop trying to hijack my mind, I&039;ll help you"

"You&039;ll face it with a gun, rather than with ot it"

He stepped away fro

I vaulted the rail and landed beside hi towards the creature I pulled the Browning out It was nice and solid in yptians worshipped it as a god, ma petite She was Edjo, the royal serpent Cared for, sacrificed to, adored"

"It isn&039;t a god, Jean-Claude"

"Are you so sure?"

"I&039;m a monotheist, remember It&039;s just another supernatural creepycrawlie to me"

"As you like, ma petite"

I turned back to hiet it past quarantine?"

He shook his head "Does itin theThe snake charmer lay in a bloody heap to one side of the snake It hadn&039;t eaten her Was that a sign of respect, affection, dumb luck?

The cobra pushed towards us, belly scales clenching and unclenching It &039;s floor

He was right; it didn&039;t otten into the country It was here now "How are we going to stop it?"

He ss Maybe it was the "we" "If you could disable its mouth, I think we could deal with it"

The snake&039;s body was thicker than a telephone pole I shook my head "If you say so"

"Can you injure the mouth?"

I nodded "If silver bullets work on it, yeah"

"My little marksman," he said

"Can the sarcas to try to shoot it, I would hurry, ma petite Once it wades into my people, it will be too late" His face was unreadable I couldn&039;t tell if he wantedacross the ring The cobra stoppedtower It stood there, if sos could stand, and waited forme

Jean-Claude was suddenly beside me I hadn&039;t heard him come, hadn&039;t felt his to worry about right now

He spoke, low and urgent; I think only I heard "I will do my best to protect you, reat job up in your office"

He stopped walking I didn&039;t

"I know you are afraid of it, Anita Your fear crawls through my belly," he called, soft and faint as wind

I whispered back, not sure he would even be able to hear me "Stay the fuck out of myin a two-handed grip, pointed at the thing&039;s head I thought I was out of striking distance, but I wasn&039;t sure How far away is safe distance froer than a Mack truck? Two states away, three? I was close enough to see the snake&039;s flat black eyes, empty as a doll&039;s

Jean-Claude&039;s words blew through my mind like flower petals I could even have sworn I smelled flowers His voice had never held the scent of perfuive us its back before you shoot"

The pulse inso hard, it hurt to breathe My an to move, ever so slowly, away from the vampires and shapeshifters The snake&039;s head followed me, as it had followed the snake charmer If it started to strike, I&039;d shoot it, but if it would just keep ive Jean-Claude a chance at its back

Of course, silver bullets , the aht not do more than irritate it I felt like I was trapped in one of thoseno matter how much you shoot it I hoped that was just a Hollywood invention

If the bullets didn&039;t hurt it, I was going to die I flashed on the i as they went down The lump was still visible in the snake&039;s body, like it had fed on a really big rat

The tongue flicked out and I gasped, sing a screaiant ht

Every hair on my body stood at attention The power that I&039;d felt the snake charh that the thing was poisonous and had teeth big enough to spear reat