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"Just take it" Zach was panting, sucking in enough air to hold hiers around the luceria and gave a slight tug It split open and she gasped, dropping it, like it was a live snake, but the luceria didn’tinto place as if it had been waiting its entire existence for this single moment in tiainst Zach He h to let her sit up, but still straddled her legs,anywhere Not until this was done Permanent

Zach s prettier in ht now"

She pulled on the luceria "It won’t come off"

Zach captured her hands before she could hurt herself "You haven’t given me your vow yet"

"I don’t knohat to say"

Zach wanted her forever But to get what he wanted, he had to be smart, tread carefully If she continued to see him as her enemy, she’d never learn to trust hiht Trust was vital to the flow of power between theh he hated the idea, he knehat he had to do If he wanted her trust, he had to offer his own "Proe your ht and you no longer want to be with o"

"What will happen to you?"

"I’ve lived a long time Don’t worry about me"

"Whether or not I trust you, I don’t want to be the one to kill you, Zach"

"You won’t Even if you decide to leave, my death won’t be your fault I’m headed that way fast anyway

Any extra ti my natural life" He just wasn’t ready for it to end yet Not if Lexi could be part of it

With plenty of luck and patience, she’d see the truth and never take off his luceria He would find a way to make that happen

Zach rose from the bed and knelt beside it He stripped his shirt off over his head, unsheathed his sword and made a small cut over his heart "My life for yours, Lexi Forever"

She shook her head, frowning "I don’t like that one Give me a different vow"

The side of his rin "Sorry, honey That’s the one you’re getting It’s your turn"

He pressed a drop of blood to the luceria,it come to life It shrank to fit her slender throat She sed and the reen ribbons of color

After taking a deep breath, she said, "I pro as I want As soon as I don’t want to wear it, then it comes off"

Her voorked He felt the subtle power of it weighing down on hiainst hi her vow inside of hi to make sure it stayed that way

His world tilted and fell away as the luceria revealed to him some treasured part of Lexi it wanted him to see Zach held his breath and let the vision flow over hi stop outside the door of a hway Lexi was standing there, her hair in pigtails She was five or six years old, but he recognized her dainty pointed chin and the defiant set of her shoulders even then She was so cute, so tiny and vulnerable, it ht with the need to protect her

Her nized from the photos in Lexi’s Honda, bent low so she could be heard over the intermittent roar of truckers as they sped by "Do you remember your name?" she asked Lexi

"Lucy James"

"Good And where did we come from?"

She chewed on her lip a moment, then said, "Mini apples"

"Minneapolis It’s in Minnesota It’s cold there"

"I don’t like the cold," complained Lexi

"I know You ood reason for us to have left"

"But what about the ht we left ’cause of the monsters"

"You can’t tell anyone about the monsters Remehter then, but just as baby fine as it was now and it swayed around her sweet face "If I tell someone, the monsters will eat theht It’s our secret, okay?"