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Chapter 26

Falling does not cover the speed and abruptness of being thrown froh I sainst it to take some of the momentuh slid i slow about it I collapsed at the base of the wall in a crues that didn&039;t quite e that ca, dark hair dangling froue rolled behind broken teeth; so black and thicker than blood spilled with a plop out of her mouth

I pushed to my knees and found skeletal ar-filledhard and stiff poked ht in my jacket Hands that should have been weak as dried sticks were like steel bands

"They broke the truce, "

I had a lance up and find Jean-Claude on his knees with both hands extended towards Janos Janos still stood, but he did nothing else I had a few et free of the two vas and body fluids, I drew the Browning I fired it point-blank into the rotted one&039;s chest She staggered, but didn&039;t go down Fangs sank into un exploded from across the room, but there was no ti the blonde offskull of the brunette She finally collapsed onto the floor in a puddle of liquid and jerking limbs

I turned back to Jean-Claude and found him nearly prone on the floor, a pool of blood in front of him He had one arm still held outward towards Janos

Janosmotion, and blood flew in an arc from Jean-Claude&039;s body He collapsed to the floor, and power rushed outward, blowing backcorpses

I gagged and pulled the trigger on that long black body

Janos turned It seemed like slow motion, as if I had all the tiain, but soer the second tiered, but didn&039;t go down

I sighted on that round, skeletal head His white hand came up and slashed the air And impossibly, I felt like some invisible claw had slashed razed the side of his face

He slashed at ain, and I saw blood start to drip down my hands Scare tactics It didn&039;t hurt that ot his hands on gered as a bullet took hiun out

My vision faded, as if fog was rolling in behind et of his upper body and pulled the trigger again I heard Larry&039;s bullet go high and wide into the wall behind me

A startled, "Hey!" let o for the door, like watching slowso thick I could barely see I fired twice more and knew I hit him at least once When he was out of the room I fell forward onto all fours, and waited for hmotionless in a pool of his own blood The question that came into my head was, Is he dead? A stupid question about a vaht of

I glanced behindbits of the two fe at the them far away from each other, as if by sheer destruction he could wash ahat they&039;d done to him

Bruce lay on his back by the wall Blood had soaked into his tuxedo I couldn&039;t tell for sure, but he looked dead Ivy and Kissa were nowhere to be seen

Larry was still standing across the rooone He was frowning Everybody was up, everybody wasexcept Jean-Claude Shit

I crawled towards hi myself to stand withtiht wasn&039;t working quite right

My vision was ot to him I knelt in a thick pool of his blood and stared down at him How do you tell if a vampire is dead? Sometimes he didn&039;t have a pulse, or a heartbeat, or didn&039;t breathe Shit, again

I holstered the Browning There was nothing here right now to shoot, and I needed my hands I bled on my shirt and looked at ernails had scraped down both of them, a little deeper than normal, but they&039;d heal Probably wouldn&039;t even be a scar

I touched Jean-Claude&039;s shoulder and the flesh was soft, very huainst the floor with a bonelessness that only the dead have Soain The most human I&039;d ever seen it, except for the fact that no one was that pretty

I checked for the big pulse in his neck I heldSoainst ht But I wouldn&039;t cry, not yet I wasn&039;t even sure I wanted to

When is dead, dead for a va as CPR for the undead? Hell, he breathed some of the ti couldn&039;t be a good thing

I positioned his head, pinched his nose closed, and blew a breath into his mouth His chest rose with it I tried two more breaths, but he didn&039;t breathe on his own I unbuttoned his shirt and found the spot above his breastbone, and pressed, one, two, three, four, all the way to fifteen coered over to one?"

"I don&039;t know" I puh to break ribs on a hu, but he wasn&039;t hu only when I moved it, as loose and boneless as only the dead can be His lips were half-parted, his closed eyes edged with the black lace of his thick eyelashes His curling black hair still framed his pale face

I&039;d pictured Jean-Claude dead I&039;d even thought about killing him myself once or twice, but now that his death was a fact I didn&039;t kno to feel It didn&039;t seeht him here I&039;d asked him to come, and he came And noas dead, well and truly dead And it was partiallyIf I killed Jean-Claude, I wanted to actually pull the trigger and watch his eyes as he died Not like this

I stared down at hiht about no rave it so richly deserved I shook my head I couldn&039;t let that happen, not if I could save hi that all dead respected, craved Blood I tried to breathe life into him one more time, with one difference I smeared my blood on his mouth first My lips touched his, and I tasted the sweet,

Larry knelt beside us "Where did Janos go?"

He hadn&039;t been able to see through the fog, but I didn&039;t have ti that coo?"

"Sure" I&039;d forgotten about the girls I&039;d forgotten about Jeff Quinlan I&039;d have traded them all for Jean-Claude to blink his eyes at me Not if the choice had been offered to ers He wasn&039;t

"More blood, maybe," Jason said softly

I looked at hi?"

"Neither of us can feed hi, but I&039;ll help," he said

"You fed hiht already Can you donate twice?"

"I&039;m a olf I heal quick Besides, my blood has more kick to it than a human&039;s, more power"

I really looked at hi black smear covered most of one cheek His blue eyes didn&039;t look wolfish; they looked haunted, hurt There are things that harm a lot more than physically

I took a deep breath and slid one of my knives out of its sheath I sliced my left wrist The pain was sharp and iainst Jean-Claude&039;s lips Blood welled into hisinto a cup It seeped out the corner of his mouth and slid down his cheek I stroked his throat to h to know I&039;d finally opened a vein for him More blood spilled from his unresponsive lips Daot a taste ofin ht one word at hih the body The throat convulsed, sed I pulled back froht rip hurt I could feel that unnatural strength that could break bone His eyes were still closed; only the grip on ress

I put a hand on his chest He wasn&039;t breathing on his own yet No heartbeat Was that bad? Good? Indifferent? Hell, I didn&039;t know

"Jean-Claude, can you hear me? It&039;s Anita"

He raised up in a s wrist to his asped He used both hands to press my wrist to his ood; now it just hurt

"Da?" Larry asked

"It hurts," I said

"I thought it was supposed to feel good," the blonde girl said

I shook my head "Not unless you&039;re under hypnotic control"

"How long will this take?" Larry asked

"As long as it takes," I said "Watch the door"

"Which one?"

"Oh, hell, just shoot anything that cohtheaded Howa little woozy here" I tried to pull ed to et him off"

Jason pulled at the pale hands, but couldn&039;t budge theet you loose, but"

"Yeah, Jean-Claude would be pissed" Dizziness was co to build in the pit of o of o of me, dammit!"

His eyes were still closed, his face blank He fed like a baby with single-downto pound inthe blood faster Feeding hi in front of ht I drew the Browning

"What are you doing?" Jason asked

"He&039;s going to kill "

"I&039;ll still be dead"

"So around at the head of the stairs," Larry called

Great "Jean-Claude, let go of un to the flawless skin of his forehead Darkness was eatingbites Nausea burned up my throat

I leaned over hio It&039;s your o" I sat back up

"Va," Larry said "Hurry up"

I stared down at that beautiful face locked onme alive, and squeezed His eyes flew open Idown

He lay his head back onto the floor, still holdingHis un was still pointed at him

"Ah, ma petite, haven&039;t we done this before?"

"The gun," I said, "but not this" I drerist fro cradled in my lap Nausea and darkness flew inside my head like clouds driven by the wind

I saw Larry crouched by the foot of the stairs, gun out But it was like looking down a tunnel, distant and not as important as it should have been

Jason lay down on the bloody floor I blinked at him "The neck hurts less," he said, just as if I&039;d asked Jean-Claude crawled on top of hi asked Jean-Claude pressed his bloodstainedpulse in Jason&039;s neck I saw the s into the tender skin

Even if I&039;d known the neck hurt less, I wouldn&039;t have offered it It looked too much like sex The wrist at least letintimate

"Anita!"

I turned back to the stairs Larry was crouched there, alone, with his gun The two girls hadhysterics again Couldn&039;t really bla in a teacup grip, and pointed it at the door I needed the extra arm to steadyto help h the roo my skin You could almost smell it like perfuiven off that kind of pohen he&039;d fed offwhite appeared in the doorway It took ure out what it was A white handkerchief tied to a stick

"What the fuck is that?" I asked

"A flag of truce, ma petite"

I didn&039;t look away from the stairs to that thick, honey-dipped voice Jean-Claude sounded better, or worse, than ever, each word like fur rubbing along h to wrap around all the aches and pains He could o away I just knew it

I sed and lowered the gun towards the floor "Stay the fuck out of ies, ma petite I can taste you in my mouth, feel your frantic heartbeat like a treasured memory I will curb reat effort" He sounded like I had let hilanced at hi beside Jason&039;s half-naked body Jason was staring at the ceiling, eyes heavy-lidded like he was half-asleep Blood trickled from t puncture wounds in his neck He didn&039;t look like he&039;d felt ood I&039;d taken the edge off Jean-Claude&039;s need, and Jason had gotten a smoother ride Bully for him

"May we talk?" A voice from the hallway, atrouble focusing on anything, let alone who the diseed to

"Anita, what do you wantof truce," I said My words felt slurred, though they sounded clear enough I felt alerous downer

Magnus stepped into the doorway For a second I thought I was seeing things It was so damned unexpected He was dressed all in white froainst his dark skin His long hair was tied back with a loose white ribbon He had the handkerchief-coated stick gripped in one hand He walked down the steps in a graceful, allide, but it was close

Larry kept his gun trained on him "Stay where you are," Larry said He sounded a little scared, but like he un was pointed nice and steady

"We&039;ve discussed the fact that silver bullets don&039;t work on the fey"

"Who says this gun has silver bullets?" Larry said

It was a good lie I was proud of hiht of it

"Anita?" Magnus looked past Larry like he wasn&039;t there, but he didn&039;t come down those last few steps

"I&039;d do what he says, Magnus Nohat do you want?"

Magnus smiled and spread his aruess But I knew, and Larry knew, that weapons weren&039;t what erous "I mean you no harm We know that Ivy broke the truce first Serephina offers her ies She asks that you come directly to her audience chaivably rude to a visiting master"

"Do we believe him?" I asked of no one in particular

"He speaks the truth," Jean-Claude said