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I pulled one by the tinore va, because it would certainly makelike a child, Secret," Holden insisted, sitting comfortably in the chair at the end of my bed "Let’s have a talk, shall we?"

I threw the covers back down but refused to look at him It had been a month since I’d seen him, and in that time he hadn’t once tried to talk to me I was also still a little ticked off about the role he’d played inwith the Tribunal Not to mention how he’d ruineda deep breath "You want to talk? Where would you like to start? Maybe hy you threw me under the bus with the Tribunal? Or why you haven’t even tried to talk tome why Charlie Conaway called you brother?"

I’d expected hi but I was mistaken

"I told the Tribunal the truth You did put us all at risk," he began I let out a protesting grunored me "And I haven’t spoken to you in a month because the Tribunal wouldn’t allow it"

There was a long pause as hethe white cuffs of his dress shirt I knew he hadn’t forgotten et anything After the silence dragged on for half a ain "Charlie called me brother because ere made by the sae did not change, even when the topic shifted to so so personal

"He was older than ht me a lot about what it o" He s to say

He reached into his jacket pocket, withdrew so familiar that filled me with a sense of anticipation and placed it on the end ofwithout work, I felt a bubbling of unexpected joy to see one of those envelopes again I hadn’t realized how badly I’d er blacklisted for work Tihtly

"The last tiroused, trying not to show my excitement

"Yes, well" He stood and offered me a hand "You also diced up four vampires and convinced the world Charlie Conaway became a recluse after his newest action-thriller failed to find backers"

"But a Cokenext to hi we hadn’t addressed was our interlude in the hallway outside Charlie’s hotel rooured weit had never happened It had just been one of those things One of those super-hot, s Yup, this wasit never happened

I picked up the envelope, and alked out of the bedroom, him a few feet behind me

"You knohat they say," he said "If it doesn’t kill you, itthe wax seal, I slid the card out and was thankful to not recognize the nae to see what I had in the way of blood on hand

"They’ll keep saying that," I replied, pulling out a donor bag of A positive, "until it actually does kill me"

Holden picked up the card froenuine amusement "Well, there’s always next time"