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Maybe Aubrey Delacourte had done reatest favor of my life

Once I’d had to worry about what path my destiny would take--the olf life or the vampire life Now my dual futures had been obliterated and there was only one life

And that life was sitting across the table froht

My happily ever after wasn’t o off without a hitch Apparently even as a hu the better part ofin the Sheep Meadow of Central Park with my head in Desmond’s lap and ot called back to reality

By Lucas

Dusk had settled over the city when Des back to the apart "Maneater" cut through oddamn phone I should have thrown it in the Bethesda Fountain when I’d had a chance Hell, I should have hopped on a plane to Las Vegas with Desmond the second we’d realized what had happened to et both of us as far froet

But we’d stayed, and now I had to deal with ain

"What do you want?" I asked, not really caring what his response was

"Where the hell have you been?" roared the response from the opposite end of the phone "I told you very clearly you had a week to get her back, and three weeks later she shows up? In that ti clue where you’ve been or if you’re co to him shout and curse and shout some more When he finally took a breath, I interjected, "First, you didn’t give ave , but I did bring Kellen home, didn’t I?"

Silence

"And can you tell me the last time you went into a different plane of existence, Lucas? Do you have the faintest clue of how time functions in a fairy world?"

"A…what?"

"Yeah If you’d stopped your bitching for ten seconds and actually asked me what happened to her, I would have told you Your sister was kidnapped by fairies"

"Did you say--?"

"Fairies F-a-i--"

"Okay, I heard you"

"I wasn’t sure Sometimes I think you only hear the sound of your own voice"

Des slow progress towards e, since he’d certainly be able to hear every word Lucas was saying, even if the billionaire hadn’t been shouting at the top of his voice like a petulant toddler

"Yes, she is home," he said "But she won’t talk to me She won’t talk to anyone She’s been locked in her apart? That was news I’d reh the gate, but I’d written it off as some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder That had seeirl I was surprised to learn she was still upset over her ordeal Maybe more had happened to her with the fairies than I’d had a chance to learn about

If that scu to her, I didn’t care how ate and kick his fairy ass into another dio see her," I said

"Secret…" Des his typically cal the mouthpiece of the cell

"I don’t knoe have a second" He pointed down the block to where a group of sixin our direction Their purposeful strides toldour way They were co able to smell them forit was six against two and I didn’t have any kind of supernatural strength on , I didn’t think I’d be ainst six olves

"Yeah," Desmond whispered, unable to hide how uneasy he was

For the first ti to be a liability to soo" I hung up the phone before he could reply

Even if I wasn’t going to bethat could do da my cell back into my purse, I withdrew my SIG, pulled uys weren’t here for Desmond, they were here forthe group