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Violet drew a deep breath through her nose, her ht with deter?"

"Or soreed easily "But you won’t lose consciousness and you’ll re moment, then said, "I don’t remember that much about what happened"

"Tell me whatever you recall," Duncan said, and sent her estion to re where to start "The first party I ever went to," she began, "ith Lacey"

With every word she spoke, Duncan wove himself deeper into her memories He was appalled at the les of s that had no bearing on what Victor had been trying to hide Duncan was ashamed on behalf of his kind that a vampire lord as powerful as Victor could have been so incompetent, or so cruel Slowly, he teased out bits and pieces of truth, each new revelation freeing Violet to re, not wanting to cause her any ical distress than she’d already endured

Violet smiled when she spoke about Lacey "She was so pretty, so full of life All theher at the parties When she crossed a roonets Or maybe it was the other way around It never affected her, though Not like soot all bitchy and looked down their noses Lacey thought the whole thing was a gaa at those parties A husband h to ask what it was"

"You’re talking about the parties at Victor’s house?" Duncan clarified quietly

Violet nodded "The one in the e white one Nice place, but the inside was more like a fraternity house than an embassy It was odd"

"What happened at these parties?"

She shrugged "Nothing at first They were typical Washington stuff The rabby, especially theones anyway It wasn’t until Victor invited us to the other house, the one in Leesburg that I feltuncomfortable"

"Why?"

Violet tensed up, and Duncan reached out, soothing her with both his hand and his mind "No one can hurt you here, Violet You know that, don’t you?"

She nodded quickly "Yes I believe you"

Her words of trust added a fresh burden of responsibility to Duncan’s soul It was minuscule compared to that which he already bore, but he felt it nonetheless

"Thank you, Violet" He waited a moment, then said, "Why did you feel unco party?"

"It was my first time at one of the weekends Lacey had told me about some other house, in Annapolis, I think, but that had been only one night and everyone left before dawn The party at Leesburg was supposed to be for a whole weekend I didn’t want to go, but I re soot to the date of the party, the ed, as if even now she couldn’t understand it But Duncan did Victor had clearly planted the suggestion in her ot there," Violet continued, "there were only a few uards I assu, but except for three other woht after me and Lacey, no one else came And when I realized it was just us and thosedown her cheeks again, but that was the only sign of her distress as she kept talking<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>