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14

I woke to early , and only after I could see through the warm dazzle of it, did I wonder, where am I? and why am I on the floor? Why was I naked on the floor? Without turning s and the little raised area that was my breakfast nook Okay, I was in the floor of my own kitchen, naked Why?

I heard the soft sounds of movement before I felt a hand brush ht, downon the floor, more nude than I was I still had the res The tuxedoto Micah after we got hoo out and save one of Richard&039;s wolves I re I remembered that Daged himself down to his coffin Trust the undead to recover quickest

Soroaned, and it wasn&039;t Nathaniel, and it wasn&039;t me

I suddenly found I could turn my head, a lot quicker than I had before Adrenaline will do that to you

Da light, as if his white skin had been dipped in honey Part ofthere in a pool of bloodred hair and golden light, butfor his leg before ue Nathaniel was beside ht

He ake noake and screaht, but the kitchen faced east and north, and the rooht Da his body into theht he could melt into theet hihtat his skin like so to bat away their darkest fears, when those fears are crawling on their body But sunlight isn&039;t spiders, and you can&039;t brush it off of you

I grabbed a flailing wrist and held on I yelled above the screaht for a grip on the other arht and into the curtained di Even e put hiainst the wall, in the cool near-dark, he still shrieked Theat his skin again, as if he were putting out invisible fire

But it shouldn&039;t have been invisible flaht, and they flash burned, hot white fla invisible about it They burned, and if they didn&039;t get out of the light, they melted, even bone It takes a hot fire to ood

Nathaniel was kneeling, trying to co at things we couldn&039;t see I stared down at Daon Damian&039;s terror I couldn&039;t think past it I could barely breathe past it I threw up shields, put ainst his fear, and tried to think I looked down at Damian&039;s white skin, and there was not a blister, not even a red spot He wasn&039;t burned He wasn&039;t burning I didn&039;t knohy not He should have burst into flaht touched him, but he hadn&039;t, and if he hadn&039;t burned with the sunlight drowning hi to burn here, in the dark

I could hear the phone ringing in the other room, but it was dim over the sound of Da If it was the police, they&039;d call back If it was a friend, they&039;d call back If it was another eency, it could wait One disaster at a time

I knelt in front of hi "Damian, Damian, you&039;re safe You&039;re okay You&039;re not burning" I put my hands on either side of his face and screamed back at him, "Safe, you&039;re safe!"

His eyes stayed wide, the pupils like pinpoints He wasn&039;t hearing anything It was like shock, but worse If it had been an old movie, I&039;d have slapped him, but I wasn&039;t sure that would help What do you do with a hysterical vampire? What do you do with a hysterical anybody?

The front door burst open behind us My eyes were dazzled by the sunlight that spilled over us Gregory, one of ht I don&039;t knohat I would have said, because Damian let out a sound that was beyond a scream It was a sound that should never have co like a white and red blur, darting farther into the house, out of the warht

Nathaniel followed him in that faster-than-the-eye-can-see speed that shapeshifters have, and they&039;d both turned the corner before I got to it I expected to see the basement door open, but it wasn&039;t Moveht my eye, and I saw Nathaniel clear the last step and vanish down the hall In his panic, Damian had run up, not down, up into the part of the house where the vampires rarely went Up into the part of the house where the drapes were open and the ht streamed in Shit

15

I was nearly to the top of the stairs when I heard Gregory behindon?"

I didn&039;t kno to answer the question, so I ignored it The upper hallas a blaze of light, the bigat the end open to the risen sun The hallas eht, where are they? and I knew I could feel theuest room I hadout as if all the de into the room across the hall, which was the bathroom Unfortunately, it had a , too All the rooet hi out of the bathroom and fell, and scrambled on all fours like an animal toward the next open door He vanished inside, only his piteous screa back out to tell us he&039;d found another open , another wash of sunlight

"Was that Daory asked

I nodded

Nathaniel came to the first door Damian had run out of, blood ran down his shoulder, and he was cradling his arm He looked at me, and his eyes held all the sorrow in the world "He&039;s gone crazy again"

The last tione mad, he&039;d killed several people, butchered them, not just fed But that had been because I was his master, and I&039;d left town I hadn&039;t knoas hishiic, or whatever you want to call it, would

If it had been ain I was his master now more than ever; I had to be able to fix this

"Gregory, close the drapes Start with the ones at the end of the hall" His blue eyes ide, and his face held a dozen questions, but Gregory could follow orders when he wanted to, or you ue, just started doard the end of the hallway

I went for the rooone into, but I neverback out of it and nearly ran rabbed him, but my touch didn&039;t calm him, and his didn&039;t calm me, not today He slao of his ar on and got slammed into the wall on the other side of the hallway Shit

I yelled, "Damian, stop it!" But either he couldn&039;t hear me, or I&039;d lost the power to ood When he tried to slas and used his own th drove hiave under the is bared, his face thinning down, his hu away, until what pinnedthat savedmy throat torn out was that little extra bit of speed I&039;d gained froave me the time to throw one hand across his throat and one hand into his chest I held hiers curled around his throat Normally, I&039;d have thrown an aret a hand there in time, but the last two times I tried that maneuver with a vaers in his throat and ainst his chest, and tried to hold him off me

His teeth snapped and snarled aton the end of its chain Saliva splattered my face, trailed froled mindlessly to reach me, to sink those teeth intolike a person he&039;d have used his hands, his ar like a person So he fought ainst the force of my hands, as if that were all that ainst the push of an to press my arm inward I don&039;t know if he&039;d been sane whether my new metaphysics would have helped er than sane It was like trying to bench-press pure an to bend, and I knew that if he got close enough, he&039;d tearin them but a ht have been able to tear his throat out I didn&039;t know if I was that strong now, or not But he wasn&039;t a master vamp, and I didn&039;t know for certain that he&039;d heal if I pulled his throat apart If he&039;d just been a bad guy, I&039;d have torn into him and done my best to take hiuy, and whatever rong was somehow my fault I couldn&039;t kill hih to handle him

He pressed hi him away from my face and throat My arms started to shake with the effort, andHis face filled my vision, and his saliva dripped onI could think of, I yelled for help

Gregory was there, his hands on Da to use supernatural strength against supernatural strength He slowed Damian&039;s push toward el dust, stronger even than he&039;d been, because there was no one houlate his force He was all about that force, and his goal in life seerabbed Da down his arm, but it had slowed Which meant Damian had found a way to injure him that didn&039;t include teeth or nails, those wouldn&039;t have started healing, yet I think with the two of theht have made it, but Nathaniel&039;s bloody ared, but all vampires, even revenants, react to fresh blood

His neck turned inhis into Nathaniel&039;s arory was a fraction too quick, and a fraction too slow He et his arm halfway around Damian&039;s neck, which put his wrist almost in the vampire&039;s mouth Damian did what any aniory screamed and tried to pull away It worked, and it didn&039;t He pulled away from us, but the vampire ith hiainsttoward the sounds of fighting farther down the hallway, before I&039;d gotten to ory pinned on the floor, worrying at his arory&039;s screa his arms around Damian&039;s waist He lifted hiory&039;s broken arory was pulled to his knees by the pain and the fangs locked into his arm

I was almost to them, when Damian remembered he could fly He pushed off fro hard enough that plaster dust rained down on theround he rolled out of Nathaniel&039;s loosened grip Daory had the strength, they didn&039;t kno to fight Strength without training was noin the hallway, except for Daot one foot planted and had a heartbeat to see him, think what I&039;d do, and do it Years of practice in judo, and ht up I used his own ainst him, one arm and his hip as the pivot points, and I threw him, as far and as hard as his own motion would let me

He ended at the top of the stairs, crouched, and turned toward me, before I had time to marvel at how far I&039;d thrown hi hu up the stairs It was Richard Zee place at the worst tirown out just enough to give some curl to his woefully short locks, that the white T-shirttan summer-dark with contrast, that he was still one of the most handsome men I&039;d ever seen Then the vampire turned, noticed him, and launched himself at Richard He balanced theht took them both, and Richard fell backward down the stairs, with the vaht, and over the sound of their bodies falling down the stairs, I heard a woman start to scream

16

I went to the stairs, expecting to see the on the steps, but the stairs stretched e Richard had taken the fight out into the living roos and arh that the valimpse of Daht side of his face Richard took the extra seconds that the vaave him to do a beautiful roundhouse kick to the other side of Dah that blood flew in a thin arc Daone down, but he buet set up for another kick Back foot set, front foot, set but loose, body partially turned to give that pivoting strength, the hen you land a fist you turn the fist into the skin for that extra little bit of har at Richard with all his attention on the vampire, his body tensed and ready, hands held in loose fists, even though he was setting up for a kick, I was reth that did kno to fight There was blood on his left hand, and I couldn&039;t tell if it was Damian&039;s blood or his own

A s roo near the television set She was pale, dark-haired, and scared I didn&039;t have ti to sightsee

If Daotten un and finished him, but he wasn&039;t a villain It was Daun and just shoot him For one of the few times in my life I was frozen, overwhelmed by my choices, or the lack of the--fifteen, thirty seconds--that I thought the fight ht have actually kicked so The vampire cae with a kick to Damian&039;s chest It wasn&039;t a pretty kick, not like the roundhouse, but the sound of its impact was thick and meaty If he&039;d been human it would have dropped him, but he wasn&039;t huered backward, and I could have almost reached out a hand and touched his back Damian went very still, like the old vamps can, as if he were some beautiful statue Then I knew, knew that he was about to move and not toward Richard

I had an extra few seconds to react, when he turned in a whirl of white skin and red hair, turned so fast that the colors blurred so he looked like a ind of snow and blood

I threwover the back of the couch I ended up on the other side of it, on the area rug I had a heartbeat to stand, and Damian was onto brace for a freight train There was no stopping it, or fighting it I was just suddenly falling backith Daht the fall, I used it When my body met the floor I had one foot in Dae throw is the only throw in judo where you commit your whole body to it Most throws have variations you can do at the last e either works or it doesn&039;t You fail, and your opponent is on top of you in a perfect position to pin you But I hadn&039;t chosen the throw, it had been the only ht or have hiave it all I had I&039;d forgotten that all I had was h the air again, but it wasn&039;t his supernatural powers this time I rolled over in tih to crack the paint and leave a partial imprint of his body on the wall, when he slid to the floor

I heard someone behind me say, "," and it wasn&039;t Richard, because he was nearly up beside lance behind ory, because two bad things were happening at once

The first bad thing was that Dah that I think I&039;d hurt hi up, still not unconscious The second bad thing was the wo Damian across the room, she was the closest person to hih the air, otherwise she&039;d have been almost where he landed, but when he turned around, she&039;d be a yard away Not good

Richardup, and not toward us She was backing up toward the open front door There was so thatRichard had time to say, "Clair, don&039;t" I had time to say, "Don&039;t run" But it was too late She ran, just as Da a cat into a roo one first

Richard was et ahead of Damian and block the door All Richard had time for was to rush Damian, to crash into him and take them both to the floor

He had the vampire down but not pinned Richard screamed His shoulders blocked my view, and I had to move around to their heads to see Damian&039;s mouth buried into Richard&039;s upper chest

I knelt to help pry Damian&039;s mouth from his flesh, but Richard rabbed Damian by the hair and pulled him off of hiood grip, you don&039;t just yank it off Yanking it off causes o on its own, or prying it loose I guess the exception would be a venoer it bites you the more poison it pumps in, which may or may not be true, but vampires aren&039;t veno the vampire&039;s th have their price Richard&039;s shirt ripped away froreat, bloody hole showed in his upper chest, alainst Damian&039;s shoulder, suddenly went li teeth into Richard again was Richard&039;s grip on his long red hair

I put a hand on Damian&039;s shoulder and pressed, and unlike every other ti vampire, this time it worked, at least a little Let&039;s hear it for preternatural strength

A gobbet of flesh fell out of Das into s froain, and iti or not, he was suddenly fighting with only one arm

Between the two of us we could keep Da up completely, but we couldn&039;t keep hi upward, teeth slashing the air, sounds co from his throat that were ht, but eren&039;t winning either We needed a different plan of attack

I h that he raised up more, and Richard&039;s eyes ide "I can&039;t hold hi to put an arm around his neck to control his head," I said, "but I need hiround"

"A choke hold won&039;t work on a vampire They don&039;t breathe"

That was half true, but I let it go We could argue later "I&039; to control his head, that&039;s it"

He gave a small nod He didn&039;t look convinced, but he didn&039;t argue about it, and that was good enough I slid in behind Da after Richard, that he didn&039;t seem to notice I knelt behind the vampire, and for the first tiht had sort of made it unimportant What made it important noas that Richard&039;s hand was still in Damian&039;s hair, and his hand had to stay there until I had my arm wrapped around the vampire&039;s neck I needed to have one arlike a son of a bitch, while ainst the back of his head, so he, theoretically, couldn&039;t reach rip and the va intothe process So Richard had to keep his hand there, but now, suddenly,to be pressed into the back of his hand and are froze me for a second tells you how badly I behaved around Richard, or how screwed up about hile and I orried about pressing ainst his hand Focus, Anita, focus Survive first, be embarrassed later

"Hurry," Richard said, and there was strain in that one word Super strong doesn&039;t et tired

I took a deep breath, let it out, and moved into both Damian&039;s body and Richard&039;s hand I had to rip wasn&039;t perfect control If Damian noticed me before my ar Richard could do to save e My hand touched Dah I had to ignore the almost electric reaction I had when my bare breasts brushed the back of Richard&039;s hand One soosebumps But it was more than just physical attraction It was as if the world held its breath Even Damian went still for that frozen moment I felt Jean-Claude wake Felt his eyes open, kneoke in a welter of silk sheets in the sunless dark of the underground in Circus of the Damned He turned in that nest of silk and darkness and touched Asher&039;s body, found it still cold, still hours froh my head "What have you done, ma petite?"

I don&039;t knohat I would have answered, because in that moment the world came back into focus I could still feel Jean-Claude all those miles away, but I was back to the here and now

Damian helped me concentrate on the here and now He twisted in Richard&039;s desperate grip and lunged atsnake I suddenly had rip on his hair and helped Richard hold hiht arainst the front of his neck And he reacted like the only danger was the arht, so that he never tried to turn in against rip on the other side There was no huht to him in that moment No human No vampire I wasn&039;t even sure animal was the word I had no word for what Damian had become In a different century it would have been demon, possessed, daain, "He will be da him back"

I had to shakeinsideI don&039;t know if he heardo of Damian&039;s hair and used my arms to close around his neck in ould have been a choke hold, if he&039;d needed to breathe Vampires do breathe, but they don&039;t have to My arm slid into place more easily because of all the blood, but the blood also rip I putall my upper body to sio of Da up off the floor I tightenedfor the ride I could control his head fro side to side, but I couldn&039;t choke hih to slow hi the bigger ainst Daot my feet under me on either side of theh to do it coht to pull Damian&039;s neck backward I could feel that I could snap his neck I was alht him backward I knew if you decapitated th before to snap a neck this easily, so I&039;d never tried If I snapped his spine would he die? Would he be crippled? Would spinal dae cripple a va to shake and collapse at the elbow I pulled backward, and felt Da to crush his neck before I broke his spine I looked past us and found Nathaniel bent over Gregory at the foot of the stairs Gregory wasn&039;t , but one problem at a time I screamed, "Nathaniel!"

He turned, and there was blood all over the front of his body I didn&039;t think most of it was his His face looked surprised as if he had lost track of our fight, but he carabbed Daiven the vaet Damian leapt off of Richard and was suddenly on top of Nathaniel I was beginning to feel positively useless If I couldn&039;t choke hih to slow hi to break his neck, I was useless I used eight I had to stagger hiet his ar into Daht, he&039;d have been able to dohiood

Jean-Claude&039;s voice, soft, in e the bond between yourself and Damian You ht now," I said