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Chapter Twenty-five

HE SMILED DOWN atdown at enerations of WASP breeding; blond hair, blue eyes, ht, but he would have fit in in so an to ic I watched the real Edward fill his eyes and turn them from warm to cold as a deep winter sky The color of his eyes was the same, but the look in the If I hadn&039;t had vaave better e Edward at my bedside would have meant he&039;d come to kill me Now, it meant I was safe We were all safe, or as safe as we could be Edward couldn&039;t do much about metaphysical powers, but I trusted hi skills The ic was my department, but no one did armed combat better than Edward

"Hey," I said, and my voice still sounded dry

His lips twitched "Couldn&039;t stay alive for just a few e of the smile that had been there, then settled to that empty middle-of-nowhere voice, no accent, no hint of where he&039;d started life

"I&039;m alive," I said

"They had to restart your heart twice, Anita"

Lillian, who had made herself scarce, came to stand beside him "I&039;d appreciate it if you didn&039;t scare my patient"

"She likes the truth," he said, without even looking at her

"He&039;s right, doc," I said

She sighed "Fine, but let&039;s ease her into it; she&039;s been mostly dead all day"

It took ave her a look, then turned back toto the vamps, we don&039;t have time to ease you into it"

"Tell ," I said

"There&039;s too , it will be dawn and your little vaood"

"Tell me what I need to know, then," I said

"Jean-Claude used a lot of energy to wake every vamp in the city before he passed out"

"I was there when he did it"

"Don&039;t interrupt," and he ay too solemn for my comfort "The vamps and shapeshifters came up with a plan that they think will net the most power for you to feed into Jean-Claude and Richard in the shortest a me this? Why not Asher, or"

"You interrupted," he said, eyes cold, and face still so serious

"Sorry," I said

Lillian made a noise that made us both look at her "You said she&039;d take the news better from you, but I didn&039;t believe you I believe you now"

He gave her a look

"Sorry, I&039;ll stand over here and stop wasting time" She moved away from us

He continued, "I don&039;t like the plan and you&039;re going to hate it, but I&039;ve listened to their reasoning and it&039;s the best plan we&039;ve got"

I raised a hand

He actually smiled, but it never quite reached his eyes "Yes"

"You think it&039;s a good plan?" I asked

"I couldn&039;t come up with a better one"

I looked at him "Really?"

He nodded "Really"

The fact that he couldn&039;t coh that I didn&039;t argue "Okay, tell me the plan," I said

"You feed the ardeur on the head of another aniy the way you did the wererats&039;" He didn&039;t flinch or hesitate, even though he&039;d only known about the ardeur for a few hours He&039;d landed in the middle of a crisis of metaphysical proportions and it hadn&039;t fazed him, or if it had, it didn&039;t show In that uy-buddy sort of way He&039;d never fail me, or fuck with roup?" I asked

"The swans," he said

I gave hiain?"

He smiled, that cold smile, but it was a real s is not your buddy"

"Not in that way He and all the heads of the aniroups have been over to the house for dinner, but" I shookin my throat that wasn&039;t there, like a phantoht of hiroups in St Louis than the swans"

"You knocked ," Edward said

"I did what?"

"You heard me"

I re no when I went back for that last bit of energy from Rafael "I didn&039;t mean to," I said

Lillian peered around Edward&039;s shoulder "You&039;re just lucky I was one of the feho didn&039;t go down"

"Why didn&039;t you?"

She looked thoughtful, and sad, and then shook her head "I don&039;t know"

"We don&039;t have tireed," Lillian said

I just nodded

"The wererats still aren&039;t a hundred percent, Anita You did a real number on them We can&039;t afford for you to do the same to the werehyenas"

"Not a problem Narcissus is sooo not on my to-do list"

His lips twitched, alhed "I&039;ve met him now, and" He just shook his head, and said, "I wouldn&039;t want to do hih for us He let us have all the werehyenas that we asked for"

A thought occurred to me "If most of our muscle were knocked out, why didn&039;t the Harlequin attack us?"

He nodded "I don&039;t knohy they didn&039;t attack"

"They&039;re supposed to be this uber-fighting team Sort of you as a vampire - they should have attacked"

"Asher and the other vampires have speculated a lot why the Harlequin didn&039;t push the advantage I&039;ll tell you all of it later, but right now" He made a movement as if he&039;d take my hand, and then his hands fell back "Do you trust me?" he asked

I frowned at hiot the defenses covered, Anita But only you can channel enough energy to Jean-Claude to keep the little vas, but he was right I had to trust Edward to do his job, and I did, but "There aren&039;t that many swanmanes in the city," I said

"We asked the werelions first, but their Rex refused"

"Joseph refused to help us?" I was shocked, and let it show

"Yes"

"We&039;ve bent over backward for the lions Hell, I saved his life once, or twice"

"His wife said he wasn&039;t having sex with anyone but her"

"This isn&039;t about sex, Edward"

He shrugged

"The lions would let the vampires die" I said it out loud, because I needed to hear it I couldn&039;t quite believe it

"That&039;s how I&039;d take it," he said

We looked at each other, and I feltthe sarateful bastards

"Less than two hours, Anita," he said

I nodded "Which , Edward Are the swans enough energy?"

"Donovan Reece is the king of every swanmane in this country"

"I know He has to travel fro proble to other cities about hoell our furry coalition is doing here He&039;s not trying to start another coalition, just talking about it We&039;ve actually had so details about hoorks"

"A politician," Edward said

I nodded "Being swan king is an inborn power; I think you actually do come with the skills you need Donovan says that usually a swan queen is born in the saether, but for whatever reason there was no baby born with the birthmark, or the power to help him It means he has double the duty"

"He says that he leaves his swan one for a while"

I nodded "There&039;s only three of them in town"

"They&039;ve stayed over at your house," Edward said

"Yeah"

"Why?"

"They need someone to look after them sometimes"