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"You&039;ve destroyed my pride," he said

"No, Jacob," I said, "you destroyed it when you put yourself on the wrong side of me and mine"

He looked at me then, his eyes so wide there was a flash of white to theet here Oh, yeah," he said, "I feel the to your rescue, as if you need rescuing" He laughed, but not like it was funny

"Go, Jacob," Nicky said

Jacob looked at me "If your name ever comes up in connection with another job, I&039;ll turn it down"

"No matter how much money they offer you?" I asked

He nodded "There isn&039;t a price big enough to get un in his hand under Ellen&039;s body I watched him think about it "I&039;ll make you a deal, Anita Blake You don&039;t come near me, and I will leave you the fuck alone"

"Deal," I said

Nicky hugged , Jacob"

"I know that" He looked at me then, his eyes so wide there was a flash of white to the to be able to leave I&039;ll gather everyone up, and we&039;ll leave you and your n above St Louis for all the hired thugs, if I could"

"What would it say?" I asked

"Here is a bigger motherfucker than you are"

Jacob returned my weapons and trusted e of the cemetery with Ellen in his arms and only when he was about to enter the trees did he turn and look at me Maybe I should have shot hi hio In the world of lions, he wouldn&039;t be back Here was hopingabout

The first hint of dawn showed above the trees, ht I felt Jean-Claude&039;s frustration He could not coht worked just dandy for, and as if I&039;d called the of theuns, and other dark figures came with them The cavalry had arrived

They held uys They had Nicky at gunpoint, on his knees with his hands behind his head He looked like he was fa, which I never did "I thought they&039;d kill you"

"When you didn&039;t coone hoainst mine "Then we couldn&039;t find you, and you missed the call from the other marshal about the vampire execution We went back to the restaurant you had lunch in and Ahsan, the cute waiter, told us about two an to kiss his way down one, all our connections to you were broken I thought you&039;d died" He hugged ainst ed him, and Micah keptwith energy, but we knew you were hurt; that much we felt before it all went black" He caroup hug

Jason&039;s voice ca?"

I pulled away enough to see hi "Sorry Isunproof housing for the vampires"

"I felt his frustration that he couldn&039;t get here before dawn"

"Frustrated is one word for it Insanely angry is another," Jason said, and wiped at the tears on my face

"What do we do with this one?" one of the guards asked

I turned to look at Nicky, still kneeling at gunpoint "He&039;s with me," I said

Everyone looked at me "I needed help to heal froh power to raise the dead so they didn&039;t kill you guys I rolled him The dead Rex said that he&039;d seen male vampires that could do what I do; Brides of Dracula"

"Brides of Anita?" Jason asked

I shrugged

"Are you sure you can trust hiave Nicky wasn&039;t friendly

"I don&039;t know, but I do know that he protected me from his own pride, and almost took a bullet for me"

"Would you have survived without hiht about it, and then said, "No"

Micah went to Nicky and offered hiuards didn&039;t like it, but they knew not to argue with all of us Micah stared up at the tallercare of her for us"

"I helped kidnap her, you know," Nicky said

Micah nodded "I know"

"Is he co home with us?" Nathaniel asked

"I hadn&039;t actually thought that far ahead," I said

Then Nicky looked at me, his eyes stricken "Don&039;t leave me, Anita Please, don&039;t leave le for an expression, but finally he collapsed to the ground and crawled toward me He extended one hand "Please, please, Anita, I don&039;t understand everything, but the thought of you leaving "

I looked at the other ed uys, so I don&039;t think I get a vote"

I hugged him with the arm that wasn&039;t around Nathaniel "They threatened to kill you; you get a vote"

He came to stand with us and looked down at the man with his hand still out "Touch him and let us feel the power" That was Jason, so much smarter than he pretended he was

I reached out and took Nicky&039;s hand The moment we touched, the power ju rush that caressed Nathaniel&039;s skin and crossed to Jason Nathaniel made a small sound Jason said, "Tasty"

Micah caoose buun "You mind-fucked him"

I nodded "Yeah"

He kissed my cheek "I&039;m sorry you had to do that" And in that moment I realized that he understood what it had cost me to take Nicky the way I did I kissed him back and ainst the war into my back a little

Nathaniel and Jason were helping Nicky to his feet The bigger ht that I would cast hi htened eyes while Jason tried to co fro the line of his shirt

I went to Nathaniel and kissed hiainst ainst each other He drew back laughing "I love you, Anita"

"I love you, too"

"Let&039;s go horeat"

We started walking toward the woods Jason jogged to catch up with us I realized that Nicky was still standing back by the grave I looked at him, so tall, so muscular, and so lost

"What do I do with him?"

"What do you do with any of us?" Micah asked

"He&039;s a stranger, and he tried to kill us all"

"He would do anything you told him to do, Anita," Jason said "He seems to have even less free will than the rest of us do"