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Upstairs in her bloodred bedroo outside, she had triggered a chain of events, the culuess at She only knew that destiny&039;s hands were e&039;s velvet curtain, and when the two halves opened again, so to be revealed
She wasn&039;t sure she trusted fate to have the next act in the play be one she would enjoy But she was stuck in the audience with nowhere to go
Except that wasn&039;t entirely true, was it
Going to her door, she cracked it open and looked down the Oriental runner to the head of the grand staircase
The hall of statues was off to the right
Every tiliures in their ed corridor and was fascinated In their formality and their frozen bodies and their white robes, they reminded her of the Sanctuary
In their nudity and their n
If she could go outside, she could go down and see the statues up close She absolutely could
Whispering down the runner in her bare feet, she passed the Pri&039;s study, which was at the top of the stairas closed off, and the foyer far beloas empty
As she rounded the corner, the statues stretched out for what seemed like forever Positioned to the left, they were illuhts and separated one froht, opposite every other , there were doors that she assu If she had designed the house, she would have put the bedrooms on theside so they would have enjoyed the benefit of garden views As it was now, if she had triangulated the layout of the , the one that bracketed the far side of the front courtyard Attractive, true, but better to have architectural landscapes in hallways and vistas of gardens and mountains in bedrooms At least, in her opinion
Corhts like that lately Thoughts about things and people and even prayers that weren&039;t always of an approving nature The random opinions made her uneasy, but she couldn&039;t stop the not to dwell on where they came from or what they meant, she made the corner and faced off at the hallway
The first statue was of a youngby its size¡ªas draped in rich folds of robing that ran froht shoulder to his left hip His eyes were trained on the round, and his face was composed, neither sad nor happy His chest was broad, his upper ar yet sleek, his belly flat and ribbed
The next statue was sied differently And the next was in yet another position The fourth as well except that one was fully nude
Instinct made her want to rush by Curiosity demanded that she stop and stare
He was beautiful in his nakedness
She looked over her shoulder No one was around
Reaching out, she touched the neck of the statue The marble arht up above was its heat source
She thought of the Primale
They had spent one day in the same bed, that first day she was here with him She had had to ask if she could join him in his room and lie beside him, and as they had stretched out beneath the sheets, aardness had been a blanket of thistles over them both
But then she had fallen asleep only to wake up to a huge ainst her hip She had been too stunned to do anything but acquiesce as, without words, the Pri froht of his strength
Indeed, speech was not always necessary
With a slow caress, she ran her fingertips down the statue &039;s war at the nipple on its flat base of muscle Down farther, the ribs and stomach were a lovely pattern of undulations Smooth, so smooth
The Primale&039;s skin was just as smooth
Her heart beat hard as she reached to the statue&039;s hip
The tingling heat she felt wasn&039;t about the stone in front of her In herIt was his body that was beneath her fingers It was his sex and not the statue&039;s that called her
Her hand drifted down farther until it hovered right on the top of the male&039;s pubic bone
The sound of so into the mansion ricocheted up from the foyer
Cormia jumped back from the statue so fast she tripped on the hem of her robe
As heavy footfalls stormed to the stairway and pounded up to the second floor, she took cover in a &039;s alcove and peeked around the corner
The Brother Zsadist appeared at the head of the stairs He was dressed for fighting, with daggers on his chest and a gun on his hip¡ªand by the hard set of his jaw it looked like he was still in coht, she heard knocking on what had to be the doors of the king&039;s study
Moving silently, Cor at the corner next to where the Brother was
There was a barking co&039;s voice resonated through the wall she leaned against "Not having fun tonight, Z? You look like someone &039;s shit on your front lawn"
The Brother Zsadist&039;s words were dark "Has Phury been hoht? Not that I know of"
"Fucking bastard He said he was going hos Why don&039;t you four-one-oneherself in hopes of being less visible, she prayed that no one came down the corridor What had the Pri California rolls out of lessers"
The king cursed "I thought he told you he was going to stop"
"He did"
There was a groan, as if the king were rubbing his eyes or maybe his temples "So what exactly did you walk into?"
There was a long pause
The king&039;s voice dropped even lower "Z,with if I&039; about hi was knocked off, and he had a burn th of chain He was leaning over a slayer&039;s belly with a dagger in his hand Goddas at all Didn&039;t look up atlesser, and if I had been? He&039;d either be getting tortured right now or he&039;d be deader than dead"
"What the fuck auy?"
Z&039;s voice took on a tight tone "I don&039;t want him kicked out"
"Not your call And don&039;t look at me like that¡ªI&039;m still your boss, you hotheaded SOB" There was a pause "Shit, I&039;oddaer to hi to hiotten jacked by the CPD¡ª"
"There were cops involved in this, too? Christ¡ª"
"So, no, I didn&039;t gurew muffled until the Brother Zsadist said more loudly, "You consider what that would do to him? The Brotherhood is his life"
"You&039;re the one who brought this to my attention Use your head A week off rotation and a little vacay is not going to be enough to fix this"
There was another silence "Look, I need to go check on Bella Just talk to Phury before you burn his house down He&039;ll listen to you And give hi heavy hit as likely a desk, Coruest rooms A moment later she heard the Brother Zsadist&039;s heavy footsteps as he went down to his rooer to himself and others
She couldn&039;t picture the Pri himself in harm&039;s way because he was careless But ould the Brother Zsadist lie?
He wouldn&039;t
Suddenly exhausted, she sat on the corner of the bed and idly looked around The room was done in the same shade of lavender as her favorite rose
What a lovely color, she thought, letting herself fall back against the duvet
Lovely, indeed, though it did nothing to soothe her agitated nerves
The Caldwell Galleria o stories of Hollister, H&M, Express, Banana Republic, and Ann Taylor, located in the exurbs of the city With JCPenney, Lord and Taylor, and Macy&039;s anchoring the ends of the floor plan&039;s three spokes, it was solidly in the middle tier as e and one part restless soccer mom Food court had McD&039;s, KuikWok, California Smoothie, Auntie Anne&039;s, Cinnabon Kiosks down the center aisles sold knitted shit, bobble-head dolls, cell phones, and animal calendars
The place smelled like stale air and plastic strawberries
Holy shit, he was in thebelieve that he was in the mall Talk about your trippy full circles
The place had been given a surface upgrade since he&039;d last seen it, the shades of beige having been replaced with a pink and ocean green Jae cans to the fake potted plants and the fountains screamed, We be jammin&039;
It was kind of like a Hawaiian shirt on a fifty-year-old man Cheerfully and unattractively out of whack
God, how things changed The last tiing along behind a bunch of other unwanted kids Now here he ith fangs in hisbody that people didn&039;t want to get in the path of
He was still an orphan, though
And speaking of orphans, man, he could remember so clearly those field trips here to the es to the Galleria before Christmas Which had been kind of cruel, as none of the kids had had money to buy any of the shiny, pretty stuff that was for sale John had always been afraid that they&039;d get kicked out or sos to validate the group&039;s use of the bathroo to be a probleht, as he patted his back pocket In his wallet was four hundred dollars he&039;d earned working in the training center&039;s office
What a relief to have green to burn and to belong aet your wallet?" Blay asked
John shook his head Got it
Up ahead by a nu quickly He&039;d been in a rush since they&039;d walked in, and as Blaylock paused in front of Brookstone, the guy looked at his watch with bracing impatience
"Let&039;s hustle it, Blay," he snapped "We&039;ve only got an hour before closing tiht?" Blay frowned "You&039;re tight as hell, and not in a good way"
"Whatever"
They walked faster, passing groups of tweens that hung together like schools of fish, each by species and sex: Girls and boys didn&039;t le The lines were very clear, and John remembered exactly how all that worked He&039;d been on the outside of every group, so he&039;d been able to watch all of them
Qhuinn stopped in front of Abercrombie and Fitch "Urban Outfitters&039; too core for you We&039;re going to A-and-F your flow"
John shrugged and signed, I still don&039;t think I need a ton of new clothes
"You have two pairs of Levi&039;s, four Hanes T-shirts, and a set of Nikes And that fleece" Fleece was pronounced with the same enthusiasm as fresh roadkill
I also have workout sweats
"Which will abso put you on the cover of GQ My b" Qhuinn headed into the store "Let&039;s do this"
John followed along with Blay Inside, the ht and the pictures of the models on the walls showed lots of perfect people in black and white
Qhuinn started flipping through rows of hanging shirts with vague disgust, like the shit was sorand-mother would wear Which made sense He was definitely an Urban Outfittersfrom the blue-black jeans and the Affliction T-shirt with the skull and wings on it and the black boots that were big as your head His dark hair was spiked up, and he had seven gun froe
John wasn&039;t entirely sure where else he was pierced Sos you just didn&039;t need to know about your buddies
Blay, who fit in at the store, branched out and went over to the distressed-jeans section, which he see back, less concerned with the clothes than the fact that people were looking at them As far as he are, humans couldn&039;t sense va a lot of attention for some reason