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I felt hi the flap aside and stepped inside The tent had just one ring, the center ring Gregory lay in a naked heap in the center of that ring, hands bound behind his back with thick grey tape His body was ain his legs, jagged and here they&039;d broken his legs Cos That hy he couldn&039;t walk out on his oer They&039;d broken his legs

There was a s around the ring Vivian and Fernando were in the ring, too I&039;d missed the, hidden froround, tape across her mouth, one eye bloody and swollen shut Fernando shoved her face back to the ground, showing her hands bound with tape Shohat he was doing to her He drew himself out of her, wet and finished at last He patted her bare butt, giving her a s towards theotten over the railing in spike heels and a floor-length skirt I didn&039;t re his pants, sained for her freedom, I&039;d have never been allowed to touch her My father doesn&039;t share"

I kept walking I had one of the knives out, held to the side of the dress I wasn&039;t sure if he&039;d noticed, or if I cared I helded How are you when the lady&039;s ar He touched Vivian with his foot, casually, like you&039;d poke a dog "She&039;s beautiful but a little too subht to the his pants, running his hands up his chest as if re "C&039;t&039;une bonne bourre"

I knew enough French to know that he&039;d said Sylvie was a good lay I balanced the knife It wasn&039;t , but in a pinch it&039;d do

There was the faintest shadow in his eyes, as if for the first time he realized that there was no one here to save his A blur of speed and round When they came up, Richard was on top of him

I yelled, "Don&039;t kill hiot there first Ja to hi hi beside him, but it was too late His throat was crushed His eyes ide, frightened; he tried to breathe but it wasn&039;t working His legs spasrabbedI could do Either he&039;d heal it or he&039;d die

I screaed his hand into Fernando&039;s stoers digging in the flesh, searching for the heart He was strong enough that he&039;d dig it out unless we stopped him

I stood and Jao, but his eyes would haunthis name: "Richard!"

He looked at me with amber wolf eyes in his human face He reached towards me with one bloody hand, and the mental shields that kept us safe from one another crashed

My vision went black, and when I could see again, I was kneeling in the ring I could feeltheir way through thick flesh The blood arh of it He wanted to use teeth to open the belly and was fighting the urge

Thomas knelt beside me "Use your marks to calm him before he kills Fernando"

I shook h flesh I had to press ainst my eyes to remember what body I was in I found my voice and that helped separate us Helped me knoho I hat I was "Shit, I don&039;t kno"

"Then take his rage, his beast" Thoht, not to hurt but to help ripped his hands and stared into his face like a drowning woman

"I don&039;t kno, Thomas"

He made an exasperated sound "Gideon will have to intervene until you can calm him" It was almost a question

I nodded Sure, I&039;d been about to kill Fernando myself, but I knew that if we killed him, ould never see another dawn Pad at Thorab Richard Felt him pull hi hiround, then leaped on hiet on top The only thing that kept it froht was that both held onto their huht like they had claws But Richard&039;s beast was growing inside hi hi someone else

Thomas touchedhis face I was seeing Gideon&039;s strange eyes from inches away as my hands tried to crush his throat But they weren&039;t my hands

"Help me," I said

"Just open to his beast," Thomas said "Si a channel of escape Give it one and it will flow into you" I knew in that instant that Thomas and Gideon were part of a triumvirate just like ere

"I&039;m not a lycanthrope," I said

"It does not matter Do it, or ill have to kill him"

I screa to it I reached out to that rage That power that he called his beast came at my touch I smelled like hohstorm of heat and power It was similar to the times I&039;d raised poith Richard and Jean-Claude, but this time there was no spell to use the power on Nowhere for the beast to run It tried to crawl out my skin, tried to expand inside my body, but there was no beast to call I was e until I thought I would burst apart in bloody frago

I screaed shriek after another, as fast as I could get breath I felt Richard crawling towards round, felt theinto a sensuous art, a stalking thing He appeared abovehair fell around his face like a shadowing curtain Blood glistened at the corner of his mouth I felt him want to lick the blood away but stop himself, and bound this closely, I knehy he stopped For me Fear that I would think he wasto find a way out of my body It wanted the blood, too It wanted to lick the blood off his face and taste at his mouth Wanted to wrap the warmth of his body around itself and become one His power cried out like a frustrated lover for him to open his arave it a name apart from himself, his beast, but it wasn&039;t separate In thatfrom the power It was him Just as the furred shape of hie, the destruction, was pulled from his very human psyche His beast was for into our consciousness in the worst of our nightmares Not the dreams where we are hunted by the monsters, but the dreams where we are the monsters We raise bloody hands to the sky and screahter The cathartic e our hands into the hot blood of our ene on their graves

The power flared insideout towards him as he knelt over me Fear filled his eyes, and it wasn&039;t fear for me or of me It was the fear that the beast was the reality and that all the carefulhe was or ever had been, was the lie

I stared up at hiht and darkness Eht Goodness is stronger than that"

He dropped fro himself on his elbows His hair brushed e to rub my face back and forth in it This close I could smell his skin, after-shave, but underneath that was him The warm scent that was his body I wanted to touch that warmth, to wrap my mouth around it and try and hold it forever I wanted hihts excited it, made it harder to control

He whispered, blood still trickling froer? I want to lick the blood offmouth onto yours I want you to feed off my wound That is evil"

I touched his face, the barest trace of fingertips, and even that made power jump between us "It&039;s not evil, Richard It just isn&039;t very civilized" Blood was building into a single treainsthot His power flared upward and took me with it It wanted to--I wanted to--lick the blood off Richard&039;s face Part of h to run lips,his face I lay back doith the salty taste of him in my mouth and wanted more The more scared me I was just as scared of this part of hiht of the full h that hadn&039;t helped, or that he&039;d handled it all so badly The memory that haunted was the moment I&039;d been carried away by the pack&039;s power, and for just an instant I&039;d wanted to drop to my knees and feed with them I was afraid that Richard&039;s beast would take as left of my humanity I was afraid for the same reason Richard was afraid But what I&039;d said was true It wasn&039;t evil, just not very hu kiss A sound ca his ainst mine, until it either bruised or I opened ed insideon mine The cut inside his mouth filled my mouth with the taste of him, salty, sweet I held his face in h A s sound crawled out of my mouth into his The sound was made up of need, frustration, a desire that wasn&039;t civilized and never had been We&039;d been playing Ozzie and Harriet, but anted from each other was more Hustler and Penthouse

We ether My hands slid over his chest, his back, and so deep inside me clicked and relaxed How could I ever be this close to him and not touch him?

His power tried to spill outward, but I held it back I held it like I could holdit build until I couldn&039;t hold any longer

Richard&039;s hands slid up ers traced my naked spine and I was undone

The power spilled upward, outward, filling us both It flared over us in a rushing wave of heat and light, until my vision swam in pieces, and we both cried out with one voice His beast slid inside of hie, thick string, spilling inside of Richard, coiling into his body I expected to feel the last bit of it spill between us, like draining the last drop of wine from a cup, but that drop remained

Somewhere in that rush of power, I&039;d felt Richard take control of his beast and send that pulsing warmth outward into Jamil I wouldn&039;t have kno to do it, but Richard did I&039;d felt Ja rush of power

Richard knelt with me in his arainstSweat had broken over his body in a light dew I licked the sweat from his chest and stared up at him

His eyes were heavy-lidded, dazed You&039;d almost have mistaken the look for sleep, but not quite He cupped his hands on both sides of my face The wound on his mouth was healed The rush of power, his beast, had healed it He lowered his soft lips toto do?"

I held his hands againstto do e came to do"

"Then what?" he asked

I shook ainst his hands "Survive first, Richard Worry about the niceties later"

So filled his eyes with a sudden rush of panic "Jamil, I could have killed him"

"You also healed him"

He let that take soot to his feet and went to his fallen enforcer An apology at the very least was needed I couldn&039;t really argue with that

I stayed kneeling, not sure I could walk yet, for a variety of reasons

"Not the way Gideon and I would have done it," Thomas said, "but in a pinch it will do"

I felt heat rush up ize," Gideon growled "It was a lovely show" He crawled towards us, one arainst his body Blood dripped down the arainst the white shirt I had absolutely no desire to lick the blood off his body I was grateful for that

"Richard did that?" I asked

"He was beginning to change form when you called hi to one side, bleeding a little puddle on the floor, but he never asked for help, not by word or expression But Thomas reached out to hiesture Their power strengthened in a skin-prickling rush that oozed over me like a cold wind, but if I hadn&039;t been able to sense it, I&039;d have never known

"Is this just European reserve?" I asked, "or are Richard and I doing so?"

Tho wrong In fact, I feel quite cheated" He patted Thos "There are ways to share power that are quieter, and less showy But for today you did what needed to be done It was a desperate thing and called for desperate o No need to explain how often being around Richard ended in such "desperateJamil sat up with Richard&039;s help Zane had untied both the wereleopards He&039;d led Vivian over to Gregory They both knelt by hiot ot there before I did He stroked Gregory&039;s tangled hair out of his face until the wereleopard looked up at hiory nodded, lips in a thin tight line that reminded me of Cherry

"We need a hospital for this," I said

Richard looked up at un to reknit like this Anita Every nment is another minute that they heal, badly"

I stared down at Gregory&039;s legs He was totally nude, but the wounds were so fearful that it wasn&039;t es fro way I had to close my eyes and look away If it had been a corpse, I could have looked at it, but Gregory was still bleeding, still hurting Made it worse sos would heal like that?"

"Yes," Richard said

I stared down into Gregory&039;s frightened eyes They were still the surprised cornflower-blue of Stephen&039;s They looked even bluer from the mask of blood that covered his face I tried to think of so to say, but he spoke first

His voice was thin, scratchy, as if he&039;d screamed until he was hoarse "When you left withoutto let them keep me"

I knelt beside hi to keep You&039;re a person You deserve to be treated" To say, "better than this" seemed too obvious I tried to hold his hand the way you&039;d coers were broken so badly, I didn&039;t even kno to touch him

Vivian spoke for the first time "Is he dead?" Her voice was breathy, husky, soirl and a seductress She would be great on the phone The look in her eyes was neither childish nor seductive; it was frightening She stared past us to where Fernando lay, and her hatred was a hot, scalding thing

Not that I blamed her I went to check on our little rapist Gideon and Thoone near him until I did Why did I think that they didn&039;t like hi people off It seemed to be his only talent

His bare sto his intestines out, but the wound was healing Filling itself in like a fast-forward motion picture You could actually see his body rebuild itself

"He&039;ll live," I said Even to me, I sounded disappointed

"Yes," Thomas said, and that one word sounded as disappointed as I felt He visibly shook himself, and turned sad brown eyes to me "If he had died, then Pad you Make no mistake, Anita, Padma loves his son, but more than that, he is his only son The only chance he has of having an heir"

"I wouldn&039;t think a vampire would sweat that," I said

"He comes from a ti Nowe live or e are in the end, we start out as people We never quite lose all that ere during life It haunts us over the centuries, our humanity"

"You&039;re human"

He smiled and shook his head "Once, perhaps"

I opened , but he held his hand up "If there is ti with you and Richard at length on what a triumvirate can be, but now, you ht hours he is in charge of us"

My eyes widened, and I looked at Gideon "But he&039;s not alpha enough to take on Gideon"

"Padma is a harsh master, Anita We obey or we suffer"

"Which is why," Gideon said, "you must all leave as soon as possible What the petit batardwould order us to do to you if he awoke now is best left unsaid"

He had a point Gregory screa Richard had said the legs had begun to heal, bent backwards I suddenly realized what that ory would have been crippled," I said

"Yes," Gideon said "It was Padroaned, eyes still shut We had to get out of here "I need ue They just gave theured I wouldn&039;t shoot Fernando while he was unconscious They were right, though he&039;d earned it I&039;d killed people for a lot less than what the rat-boy had done, a lot less

Gregory had mercifully passed out Richard held him as carefully as he could in his arms They&039;d found wood from somewhere and used Richard&039;s shirt to tie the s Vivian leaned heavily on Zane as if her legs weren&039;t quite working She was also trying to cover her lower extremities So hurt she could barely walk and she was embarrassed about her nudity We were sort of out of clothes to offer her The coat I&039;d brought was in the outer area

Tho her his spiffy red jacket It was large on her and covered enough Justit outside the tent to the midway made un in each pocket The un was already across my chest

Thoh last "Thank you," I said We both knew I didn&039;t mean the door

"You are most welcome" He closed the door behind us, and I heard it lock

I stood in the hot suood to be outside in the daylight But night was co, and I still didn&039;t knohat price Jean-Claude had bargained away to get Vivian and Gregory out of there But the thought of Gregory&039;s lovely body deliberately crippled forever, and Vivian passed around like so ained I wouldn&039;t say that whatever the price, it would be worth it, but close Jean-Claude had said no rape, no actual intercourse, noalive The list had seeo