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There were two things the glyood funeral

With the slaughter of Lash&039;s parents, they had both

Phury sat in front of the co center&039;s office, a headache directly behind his left eyeball He felt like the wizard was taking an ice pick to his optic nerve

Actually, it&039;s a drill, ht Of course it is

Is that sarcasht You&039;d planned to be a washed-up junkie and a disappointment to your brothers, and now that you&039;ve succeeded you&039;re getting cheeky You know, perhaps you should start a seony&039;s ten steps to success at being an utter, irredee? Let&039;s start with the basics: being born

Phury planted his elbows on either side of the laptop and rubbed his terounded in the real world instead of the wizard&039;s boneyard

The colowed, and as he stared at it, he thought of all the shit that was colye he&039;d sent out to theed the aristocracy to get out of Caldwell and take shelter in their safe houses He&039;d been careful with the wording, trying not to incite panic, but evidently, he hadn&039;t been dire enough

Although you&039;d think the slaughter of their leahdyre and his shellan in their own hoh

God, there had been so ht and given the gly to be le aristocratic fanificant portion of the glymera was at risk for exposure And the poor kid didn&039;t have to give each of the addresses out under duress, either If the lessers got into just a couple of those homes, they&039;d find clues to soschedules Lash&039;s leaks were going to be like an earthquake hitting a fault line, blowing the whole landscape apart

But was the gly to be s to the e-otten frooing to their safe houses Instead, they had toloss of such a well-appointedanother party

No doubt so that they could wage a power struggle for ould be the next leahdyre

And in closing? The guy had tacked on a little ditty that the gly on the debt owed to Lash&039;s family as a result of Qhuinn&039;s actions

Well, weren&039;t they givers It wasn&039;t like they wanted the cash for themselves to say fete a new leahdyre Oh, hell, no They were "safeguarding the i that bad deeds were punished"

Sure they were

Thank God Qhuinn was free of theh Wrath&039;s appointment of the kid as John&039;s ahstrux nohtrum was a shocker Bold move, especially as it was retroactive And just over what appeared to be a fight that Qhuinn had stopped in an inappropriate way? There had to be so that was being kept on the do Otherwise, itto know Wrath was protecting Qhuinn, and the appoint at solad that was the way it had all shaken out John, Blay, and Qhuinn had been the cream of the trainee crop, and Lash well, Lash had always been trouble

Qhuinn ht have had the mismatched eyes, but Lash had had the defect There had always been so off with that kid

The computer beeped as another e-mail landed in the Brotherhood&039;s inbox This tiht-handstance against what is a tragic series of losses, but ultimately a low threat to our secured abodes It is best at this tih the appropriaterituals for our dearly departed"

Okay, talk about stupid Anyone with half a brain would pack up their htail it out of town until the dust settled But no, they&039;d rather get their spats and their gloves out and make like they were in a Merchant-Ivory movie, with all the black clothes and the ceremonial expressions of condolence He could just hear the elaborate, phony-ass syes they&039;d volley back and forth to one another while en in uniforht for political control ensued

He only hoped they would coh they pissed hi up dead, so to speak Wrath could try to order them out of Caldwell, but chances were that would justand the aristocracy were not friends Hell, they were barely allies

Another e- and throwing a party

Man, he needed a blunt

And he needed

The closet door swung open, and Coreway to the tunnel There was a lavender rose in her elegant hand and a graceful reserve to her face

"Cored her name to Trixie or Irene so?"

"I don&039;t ested" She turned around as if she expected the butler to be right behind her "Ah he brought ht just be payback froht before And didn&039;t that lad"

Well, ht word Unfortunately, his urge to s else with hiswould still be involved

Another e-h, and the laptop let out a peep They both looked at the coo¡ª"

"I&039; he already had a headache, there was no reason to keep banging his brain up against their stubbornness Tragically, there was nothing he could do until the next bad thing rolled out and he e-h, would it He&039;d been riding the keyboard only because everyone else&039;s hands were busy doing dagger business

"How are you?" he asked to shut himself up And because the answer mattered

Coruessed this was down here"

"Would you like a tour of the place?"

She hesitated and brought forward the perfect lavender rose which was the color of the bracelet John Matthew had given to her "I think my flower needs a drink"

"I can fix that"Wanting to give her so, he reached over to a twenty-four-pack of Poland Spring and pulled a bottle out Cracking the lid, he took a swig to lower the level and then put it on the desk "Plenty in here to keep her happy"

He watched Cormia&039;s hands as she put the rose in the makeshift vase They were so lovely and pale and they really needed to be on his skin

All over him

Phury untucked his shirt as he stood up and ca sure that the tails covered the front of his slacks He hated sloppy dressing, but better to schlub it than run the risk of her seeing that he was aroused

And he was Totally He had a feeling that it was always going to be like this around her: Soht before had changed everything

He held open the door into the hall "Co facility"

She followed hi the things that were done in the gy range She was interested butto say to hiuess what it was

She was going to go back to the Other Side

He paused at the locker rooe The classrooms are down here"

Christ, he didn&039;t want her to go But what the hell did he expect her to do? He&039;d left her with no role here

You have no role here, the wizard pointed out

"Cos out

He walked her into the one he used, feeling a curious pride at showing her where he worked

Had worked

"What&039;s all that?" she asked, pointing to the blackboard, which was covered with figures

"Oh yeah" He walked over and picked up a felt eraser, quickly running it over the casualty analysis on a bo in don Caldwell

She crossed her ar herself than a big defensive thing "Do you think I don&039;t knohat the Brotherhood does?"

"Doesn&039;tto go back into the Brotherhood?"

He froze and thought, Bella must have told her "I didn&039;t know you&039;d heard I was out of it"

"I&039;m sorry, it&039;s none of my concern¡ª"

"No, it&039;s fine and, yeah, I think lanced over his shoulder and was struck by how perfect she looked, with her backside braced against one of the tables the trainees sat at and her arms intertwined "Hey mind if I draw you?"

She flushed "I suppose well, if you wish Do I need to do anything?"

"Just stay where you are" He put the eraser back on the blackboard&039;s lip and picked up a piece of chalk "Actually, would you take your hair down?"

When she didn&039;t reply, he looked back at her and was surprised to find her hands up at her hair, working at the gold pins One by one, sections of blond waves came down and framed her face, her neck, her shoulders

Even under the dulling fluorescent lights of the classroom, she was radiant

"Sit up on the table," he said in a hoarse voice "Please"

She did as he asked and crossed her legs and, holy hell, didn&039;t that robe of hers fall open, splitting wide up to her thigh When she tried to close the gap, he whispered, "Leave it"

Her hands stilled, then shifted back and flattened on the table to support her upper weight "Is this all right?"

"Don&039;t Move"

Phury took his ti over her body, lingering on her neck and the swell of her breasts and the curve of her hip and the long, ss He e onto the blackboard, the sound of the chalk a rasping noise

Or ood," she said at one point

He was too busy and greedy with his eyes to answer her, too preoccupied hat he i to her when he was finished

After an eternity that lasted only a moment, he stepped back and h there was a sexual undertone to the composition that even she had to see He didn&039;t want to shock her, but he couldn&039;t have changed that aspect of the work It was in every line of her body and her pose and her face She was the feminine sexual ideal At least for hihly

"Is that who I am?"

"It&039;s how I see you"

There was a long silence Then she said with a kind of astonishment, "You think I&039;m beautiful"

He traced the lines he&039;d drawn "Yes I do" Silence expanded the distance between the him feel aard "Well, now" he said "We can&039;t leave it up like this¡ª"

"Please! No!" she said, putting her hand out "Let er Please"

Okay Fine Whatever she wanted Hell, at this point, she could have told his heart not to beat, and the thing would have complied with the order quite cheerfully She had beco she told hiet for her, he would No questions asked No care of the means

In the back of his mind, he knew that all of this was characteristic of a bonded male: Your female commanded you and that was that Except he couldn&039;t have bonded with her Right?

"It&039;s so beautiful," she said, her green eyes on the board