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Marissa nodded as she shifted her cell phone to her other ear and reviewed the order list on her desk "That&039;s right We need an industrial range, six burnerssoo completely blank "May I ah, may I call you back?" She didn&039;t wait for a reply, just hit the end button "Havers How did you find us?"

Her brother bowed his head He was dressed as usual, in a Burberry sport coat, gray slacks, and a bow tie His hornrilasses were different fro on hi staff told me where you were"

She rose from her chair and crossed her arms over her chest "And you have co, he looked around and she could i more than a desk, a chair, a laptop computer, and a whole lot of hardwood floor Well and a thousand pieces of paper, each with so she needed to do on it Havers&039;s study, on the other hand, was an Old World den of learning and distinction, the floors covered by Aubusson rugs, the walls hung with his diplomas from Harvard Medical School as well as a fraction of his Hudson River School landscape collection

"Havers?"

"You have done great things at this facility"

"We&039;re just getting started, and it&039;s a home, not a facility Nohy are you here?"

He cleared his throat "I have co on the sehclusion , and the leahdyre said he&039;s been trying to reach you for the last week You haven&039;t returned the calls"

"I am busy, as you can see"

"But they cannot vote unless all of the membership is in the room"

"So they should reured out how to already"

"You are of the six founding bloodlines You cannot be res stand now"

"Ah, well, how inconvenient for them You&039;ll understand, however, if I&039;"

"I haven&039;t told you a date"

"As I said, I&039;ree with thethe testi You can be heard"

"So all of you with voting rights are in favor?"

"It&039;s important to keep females safe"

Marissa went cold "And yet you turned me out of the only home I had thirty ed your commitment to my sex? Or is it that you don&039;t see race to flush "I was highly emotional at the time"

"You seemed very calm to me"

"Marissa, I&039;m sorry¡ª"

She cut him off with a slice of her hand "Stop I don&039;t want to hear it"

"So be it But you shouldn&039;t iet back at ht a gli on his pinkie God how had they ended up like this? She could remember when Havers was born and she&039;d looked at him in their mother&039;s arms Such a sweet baby Such a¡ª

Marissa stiffened as so occurred to her Then she quickly covered the shock that surely showed on her face "All right I&039;ll go to the "

Havers&039;s shoulders eased and he told her the when and where "Thank you Thank you for this"

She smiled coolly "You are so very welco which he eyed her pants and sweater and her desk of papers "You seem very different"

"I aht, aard expression on his face that he had remained the saly over a hoh luck She was all about rule nu, she made the choices in her life No one else did

She picked up her phone "Now, if you&039;ll excuse me¡ª"

"I would offer e" He pushed his glasses up higher on his straight nose "The fe who stay here will need medical care"

"Thank you Thank you for that"

"I will also tell the nursing staff to be on the lookout for signs of abuse We will refer to you any cases we find"

"That would be most appreciated"

He inclined his head "We are pleased to be of service"

As her cell phone went off, she said, "Good-bye, Havers"

His eyes widened and she realized it was the first tie was good and he&039;d better get used to the neorld order

The phone rang again "Shut the door behind you, if you don&039;t lance at her cell&039;s caller ID and sighed in relief: Butch, and thank God for it She so needed to hear his voice

"Hi," she said "You&039;ll never believe who just¡ª"

"Can you coht on the phone "What&039;s wrong? Are you hurt¡ª"

"I&039; but false calm "Except I need you to co this rabbed her coat, shoved her phone into her pocket, and went looking for her one and only staff en, she said, "I have to go"

"Mistress, you see I can do?"

"No, thank you And I&039;ll be back"

"I shall take care of everything in your stead"

She squeezed the fe on the front lawn in the raw spring night, she struggled to calh to deht she was going to have to call Fritz for a pickup: She was not only worried, she needed to feed, so it was possible she wasn&039;t going to be able to do it

But then she felt herself go As soon as she ed into the vestibule Its inner lock sprang free before she even put her face in front of the camera, and Wrath was on the other side of the heavy panels of wood and steel

"Where&039;s Butch?" she deht here" Butch stepped into her line of sight, but didn&039;t come near her

In the stark silence that followed, Marissa walked in slowly, feeling as though the air had turned into a slush she had to fight her way through Numbly, she heard Wrath shut the door, and from the corner of her eye she saw Vishous rise to his feet from behind his computers As V walked around the desk, the three males traded looks

Butch held out his hand "Come here, Marissa"

When she took his palm, he led her to the computers and pointed to one of the monitors Up on the screen was text A whole lot of dense text Actually, there were two sections of documents, the field split down the middle

"What is this?" she asked

Butch gently sat her in the chair and stood behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders "Read the passage in italics"

"Which side?"

"Either They&039;re identical"

She frowned and ran her eyes over so that see the end before the hter of modern time found in the seventh of the

twenty-first,

and he shall be known in the numbers he bears:

One h ht,

Three lives has he,

Two scores on his fore,

and with a single black eye, in one ill he be

birthed and die

Confused, she scanned as around it, only to have horrible phrases ju Society," "Induction," "Master" She looked up to the title on the page and shuddered

"Dear God this is about lessers"

As Butch heard the icy panic in her voice, he sank down on his knees beside her "Marissa¡ª"

"What the hell a about here?"

Yeah, how to answer that one He was still having a hard tih I am this" He tapped the smooth screen and then looked at his deforht to his palhten or point with

Marissa shifted away from him warily "And this is what?"

Thank God V spoke up "What you&039;re looking at is two different translations of the Lessening Society&039;s Scrolls One we had from before One is from a laptop that I confiscated froo The Scrolls are the handbook of the Society and the section you&039;re looking at is e call the Destroyer Prophecy We&039;ve known about it for generations, ever since the first copy of the Scrolls fell into our possession"

As Marissa&039;s hand went to her throat, she was obviously getting the gist of where they were headed She started shaking her head "But it&039;s all riddles Surely¡ª"