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I’d been lucky The people in the squats hadn’t gotten off so lightly If the guy who lit the blaze wasn’t serving consecutive life sentences--well You could say I’d like to see hi worse

Fire Forout our back door into the woods Someday it would catch up with ed a smile

"Is Chance okay?" I offered Chuch a hand and tugged The et him on his feet, and I suspect he didn’t help much

"Define okay He’s stir-crazy and obsessed hether you’re doing the cop Worried about his reat Booke came up with some more info on the ritual and e- over the stuff inside"

A fine wire of tension uncoiled If anything had happened to hiiven myself I didn’t knohat I could do to protect hiuard him somehow Even if I couldn’t be with him, the world would be cold and dark without him in it

"Good"

Maris’s pale face haunted me A life cut short over what? What did she know? All I had to show for ht’s as a dead witch and a cop I didn’t knohat to do with

Chuch favored , narrow-eyed stare "You look like shit, but I don’t think you got any That’ll cheer hi et jealous" That reh As we headed inside, I shared part of what I’d learned fro Lenny Marlowe, Delta Security, and IBC, ned the warehouse where we’d been hit "So it wasn’t a total loss, and he’s getting "

I didn’t mention the murder scene Just couldn’t, because to speak it aloud would bring back all the es I’d never seen anyone mauled like that So ifted seganized If he didn’t know, I probably shouldn’t be sharing the info

Chuch nodded "Good work, herive a ed froht the impulse to reassure him, but apparently it didn’t matter Wordless, he came over and wrapped his arms about n he knehat I needed, even if I didn’t co for it

Damn hi the difference between him and Saldana Where the cop carried his muscle lean, Chance crossed the border to thin I felt his ribs as he heldwell, still looked iht in the year since I’d been gone I wondered whether I had anything to do with it

I stepped back and let Chuch do the talking Right now I needed another shoanted to try to wash away the memory of the dead witch’s face It shookabout my mother than I had in all the years since I’d lost her Maybe I was entle women who practiced the art didn’t seeh chitin in their arically, I felt as though everything connected soh distance, I’d see all the ift, not et involved in this

The hot water ran overin the steam I sank down in the shower stall and tried to cry I ached for ht between demons and promises, I didn’t see how I could survive Señor Alvarez h I ed to put on clean panties and a blue T-shirt before sinking down on the bed Everything hit me at once and I shook, wrapped my arms around a pillow

Chance found leaht; he raised a hand to the daer I remembered he’d never made love to me in this incarnation

"What didn’t you tell Chuch?"

It was pointless to protest He knewweighing on me from the moment I walked in the door That hy he held h I’d driven hiht and half the next day

I closedhim about Maris in a whisper Before I finished, he drew me to him, but I took care not to touch his back He would bear scars because of me, as I carried them for him

What bond did that bespeak? I wasn’t sure it was safe or healthy, but I didn’t knohether I could resist its pull either Chance held such dark sorcery in the amber of his eyes, and his scent alwaysbodies

I wished he’d loved me more

I wish I understood what drives him

Then I took the leap and shared the rest

"So there are others like you," he said "An organized network, much different than the odd talent we’ve run across When did you plan to tellme feel like there were miles between us, as if his mind was ulti

"I just did What does that matter, Chance? Or do you want the address of the club so you can look for soathered, pooled between us I sensed it in the turning of his mood "Nobody can take your place, Corine Even if I found a hundred people with your gift"

"You won’t" My tone sounded nasty, even to ive me a reason "It’s rare"

He searched n "I already knew that about you"