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I don&039;t ree of all the cars aroundpurr greeting ot into my apartment and locked the door behind me

The vahinto ht, all over The roos almost seemed to blur a little, then to settle when I focused on so I throbbed Every tientle pang of pleasant sensation

So inside me couldn&039;t help but love every second of it Even counting the times I&039;d been juiced up in a hospital, it was the best drug I&039;d ever had

I stumbled to my narrow bed and dropped onto it Mister caet up and feed him "Go away," I heard myself mumble "Stupid furball Go on" He put one paw on my throat, and touched the area of burned skin where the sunlight had struck the sh ot some cold cuts out of the icebox and dropped them onto Mister&039;s plate Then I stuht

It hurt

I shielded my eyes and studiedThe skin on h fro asleep outside on a suerous I couldn&039;t find any marks on my throat, so the vaood thing So a link to a victiotten intoone of the Laws of Magic

I stu to sort outbody ain, but I shoved hinore him

"Focus, Harry," I mumbled to myself "Got to have focus"

I&039;d learned to block out pain, when necessary Studying under Justin, it had been a practical necessity My teacher hadn&039;t believed in sparing the rod and spoiling the potential wizard You learn very quickly not to iven the correct incentive to avoid the out pleasure was a ed The first thing I had to do was separate my sense of enjoyment It took me a while, but I slowly marked out the boundaries of the parts of me that liked all the wonderful, war happiness itself I foundtoo slowly, then started shutting down perception ofthe any good Giddy delight went next, leaving only a dull fuzz across , chemically unavoidable

I closed s

Lydia had fled the shelter of the church, and Father Forthill&039;s protection Why? I thought back, over the details of everything I knew about her Her sunken eyes The tingle of touching her aura Had her hands been shaking, just a little? I think they had, in retrospect I thought of what I had seen of her in the van, of the bracelet on her wrist Her beating pulse Had it been slow? I&039;d thought so, at the ti I focused on the ht She&039;d been around sixty beats per minute My own heart rate was about a sixth of that at the moment Had been half that, before I&039;d slowed it down to quiet the song of the drug in , why the hell did I have it shut ahen I could just lower the walls, listen to the music, lay here all happy and quiet and just feel, just be )

I took a ain Lydia&039;s heart rate had been at hu limp and still, much as I was, now Kyle and Kelly had poisoned her, as they hadso quickly, in comparison?

She left the church and had been taken, perhaps, by the Nightuidance, and gotten an invitation in But why go to Malone&039;s house? What did he have to do with anything?

Malone and Lydia They&039;d both been attacked by the Nightether?

More questions What did the vampires ith her? If Kyle and his sister had been after Lydia, that ue with the Nightmare? If she hy the hell would she need to use her irl, if she was possessed by Bianca&039;s ally?

And how the hell had the Nighth the threshold? An even better question, how had it gotten through the protection offered to Lydia by host should have been able to offer her any direct har It didn&039;t make any sense

(Why should it? Why should anything need toat all? Just sit back, Harry, lay back and feel good and relax and let your blood sing, let your heart beat, just ease down into the wonderful, war, drift and float and )

The walls started to cruled, but sudden fear ainst the pull of the poison in le only made me more vulnerable, more susceptible I couldn&039;t fail, now I couldn&039;t People were depending upon ht -

The walls fell, and ed up with a roar

I drifted

And it was nice

Drifting turned into sleep Gentle, dark sleep And sleep, in time, turned into dreams

In my dream, I found myself back at the warehouse down by Burnha my duster, my black shirt and jeans,Michael stood besidein the winter air, dressed in his cloak, his full mail, his bloodred surcoat Amoracchius rode his hip, a source of quiet, constant power Murphy and the other ations all wore dark, loose clothing and their flack vests, and everyone had a gun in one hand and so else - like vials of holy water or silver crucifixes - in the other

Micky Malone glanced up at the un in both hands - he was the only person relying upon raw, shredding firepower Hey, the guy had a point "All right," he said "We go in and then what?"

"Here&039;s the plan," Murphy said "Harry thinks that the killer&039;s folloill be drugged out and dozing We round theriht "Tell them what&039;s next, Harry"

I kept uy we&039;re after is a sorcerer It&039;s sort of like being a wizard, only he spends all his energy doing things that arethat doesn&039;t fuck someone up"

"Which rowled

"Pretty ot power, but no class I&039;ht have a de - that&039;s what the et the demon to work for him"

"Demon," breathed Rudolph "Jesus, can you believe this shit?"

"Jesus did believe in demons," Michael said, his voice quiet "If the creature is there, do not get close to it Don&039;t shoot at it Leave it toand run while it screams"

"That&039;s pretty much the plan," I confir them to me or Michael I&039;ll take Kravos&039;s powers out, and you guys grab him as soon as we&039;re sure the demon won&039;t eat us I deal with any other supernatural stuff Questions?"

Murphy shook her head "Let&039;s go" She leaned out and pu the rest of the SI tea went according to plan In the front of the warehouse, a dozen young people, all with that lost, lonely look to the amidst fumes that made me dizzy The remnants of a serious party lay all over the place - beer cans, clothes, roaches, empty needles, you name it The cops fell on the kids in a dark-clad swaron in under ninety seconds