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IT WAS AN ongoing police investigation, but these va in Jean-Claude&039;s power If you&039;re willing to die to avoid being part of someone&039;s power structure, it&039;s only a s to kill to destroy that power structure I norations withbad happened to Jean-Claude, or one of ive e, if it was a choice between losing it or losing one of the people I loved

Was I trying to justify what I was about to do? Yes Was I going to do it anyway? Yes

I moved to the side of the courtyard, out of the way of the crime scene techs and the dozens of extra cops that always seem to flock to a murder scene I found a little piece of alley between two of the buildings Adon through, back in the day when the breas built for just that, but it was shadowed, and away froainst the cool bricks and had what privacy I was likely to get

I didn&039;t have to pick up a phone and call Jean-Claude; all I had to do was drop the shields I kept in place between hi a door that I kept bolted shut, because without real effort to block it, we invaded each other&039;s ehts, even physical sensations could be shared At the most extreme the boundaries bethere one of us ended and the other began blurred; it got confusing as hell, and frankly, scary as hell I didn&039;t like being that far into another person&039;s mind, body, and heart, and I sure as hell didn&039;t want hi that far into me

But it didn&039;t mean that all I had to do was unlock that "door" in my head, and then knock on the shields that kepttoo far into Jean-Claude&039;s head, because we&039;d found that it wasn&039;t enough for only one of us to block If only one of us did it, then we got echoes back and forth at oddsensations, but not always; it could be very random

Jean-Claude opened toin his office at Guilty Pleasures I could feel the sweat on his skin as he wiped his naked upper body doith a towel He&039;d danced, which was rare, since he ner and hts when he danced, the club would be full to bursting omen and men anted to see the sexiest vae He never stripped down as far as his other dancers Nothing as co for s and holes that they didn&039;t hide much more I&039;d learned that most of the time the more dominant personalities liked to keep etting naked The days when Jean-Claude had been anyone&039;s submissive little bloodsucker were years in the past Outside the bedroo down, or at least not first

He looked down the line of that long, lean, finely muscled body, so I could see that the leather pants were the ones with the very open ties that went from waist to ankle, so that it was more like he had the fronts and the backs of the pants on, but the sides were sort of -in-action They were s revealed through the black laces of the leather

Just his looking down his body, so that I could see, tightened things low inbreath I even put a hand out to steady ainst the cool bricks of the wall Jean-Claude had affected me that way almost from the moment I&039;d seen him

He spoke to the empty office, "Ma petite, I love that you react to me so"

I whispered, e; everyone reacted to you that way"

"But that is the lust of strangers, that first flush of desire where all is possibilities and fantasy To have soether, that ine anyone ever not reacting to you like that," I said

He laughed, and it was that touchable, caressing sound, as if his laughter spilled down hty places

"Stop that," I said, "I&039;"

"You do not usually contactenough for him to understand that when I was on the job, I was a Marshal, not anyone&039;s girlfriend Other men had had a problem with that division ofyour life, your emotions, and your people Va for hundreds of years are the ultio crazy You can&039;t dwell too much on the bad stuff, because after a few lifetih bad stuff in just one lifetiine nearly six hundred years&039; worth

I told him the shortest version that I could think of, and added, "Have you heard any rumors about shit like this?"

"Not this precise one, no"

"That means yes, doesn&039;t it?" I said

"I heard ru council of all va here in America There are some that fear that the old council members that remain alive will simply set up shop here, and rule as they did of old To keep that fro was one of the ed, by most, to set up an American vampire council I and the vampires here are more trusted than the old European h of the old council to agree with that," I said

"I had not heard that so nous would drea"

"The va None of them were over a hundred, most of them between fifty and twenty, and then ten years and under"

"Were all of theht about it "I think so"

"A and undead, are an odd lot They value their ideal of freedo the rest of us would drea country," I said

"Yes, in another day and age, Ae, but you cae too late The world leaders, and military, would never allow such conquest now"

"It would be nice to start keeping so for," I said

"Ma petite, are you a secret iuys and girls die on the news, and have nothing to show for it except body bags"

"You have the freedo," he said, voice very rateful they keep trying to blow us up"

"It is at an odd ree"

"These guys illing to die rather than risk blood-oathing themselves to you, but I could sense them as if they were already blood of our bloodline"

"That is interesting, and unexpected Are you certain they are not from our bloodline?"

I took in a deep breath, let it out, and really tried to think about it, feel what I&039;d felt I let hi and let hiet it directly fromback away froht of so to like it, am I?"

"I have an idea, that is all I wish to think about it, and ask opinions of some of the older ones that I trust most, before I share it with you"

"Once, you&039;d have just lied to me," I said

"And once,anything from you"

"I know you," I said

"We know each other," he said "Will you trust me to keep the idea to myself until I think it is ready to share with you?"

"I&039;d rather know," I said