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Standing in the foyer with his brothers, Tohr had a bad feeling about the way the night was going to go Then again, he&039;d woken up fro, the one he had had from time to time, but only truly understood since Lassiter had provided the context He kne that the tere in the In Between, huddled under a gray blanket in the

They were graduallyoff into the distance

The first time he&039;d had the vision, he&039;d been able to pick out each individual hair on his shellan&039;s head and the quarter-ernails and the way the blanket&039;s rough fibers caught the strange, aht

As well as the contours of the tiny bundle she cradled against her heart

Now, though, she was yards off, the gray ground between the that he tried to cross, but was unable to cover And just as dire, she had lost all color, her face and hair now tinted with the gray of the prison she was trapped in

Naturally, he&039;d been insane when he woke up

For fuck&039;s sake, he&039;d done everything he could to move on in the last few months: Put the dress away Gone down for First and Last Meals Tried cocksucking yoga, transcendental bullcrap, and even gotten on the Internet to research grief stages and other psychobabble bullshit

He&039;d attempted to not think of Wellsie consciously, and if his subconscious burped up a memory, he quashed it When his heart ached, he pictured those f-in&039; white doves released fro stars, and a bunch of other dued on motivational posters

And still he&039;d had that drearay

And still Lassiter was here

It wasn&039;t working -

"Tohr? You with us," Wrath barked out

"Yeah"

"You sure about that" After aback to the rest of the group "So we do this V, John Matthew, Qhuinn, and Tohr on me Everyone else in the field, ready to coreeh the vestibule

Tohr was the last through the door, and just as he got to the ja made him stop and look over his shoulder

No&039;One had stepped out froe of the depiction of the apple tree in the floor, her hood and robe one 3-D

Tiround to a halt as hehi , he had seen her at meals, had forced himself to speak with her, had pulled out chairs and helped to serve her as he did the other females in the house

But he hadn&039;t been alone with her, and he&039;d never touched her

He felt like he was touching her now, for some reason

"No&039;One?" he said

Her arms unfolded from out of her sleeves and her hands lifted to the hood that covered her face With grace, she revealed herself to him

Her eyes were luminous and a little scared, her features as perfect as they had been back in the spring at the Sanctuary And doer, her throat was a perfect, pale coluertips that treer struck hi his fangs, parting his lips -

"Tohr? What the fuck?"

V&039;s sharp voice broke the spell, and with a curse, he looked over his shoulder "I&039;&039;s waiting for you, true"

Tohr glanced back across the foyer, but No&039;One was gone As if she had never been

Rubbing his eyes, he wondered if he&039;d i Had he exhausted himself to the point of hallucination -

If he was seeing things, it wasn&039;t exhaustion, some part of him pointed out

"Don&039;t say another word," he odda under his breath, it was obviously a litany of all of Tohr&039;s faults, real and i the fucker&039;s mouth busy as they strode out toward Wrath, John Matthew, and Qhuinn

"Ready," Tohr announced

None of the-tih

Seconds later, the five of the you could keep an arically, only the oas in residence, because that was all that was left of the bloodline

They had been to so many houses like this over the last few months Too many And the stories were all the sa, not living

The Brotherhood did not take for granted that these visits elco And they did not take chances: With their guns in their hands, the formation they assumed as they approached the door ith Tohr in front of Wrath, V to the rear, John at the king&039;s dagger hand, and Qhuinn on the other side

Two o and they could take a breather -

What went down next proved that tits up could happen in an instant

Abruptly, the world started spinning, the sprawling antique house twisting and turning sure as if it had eggbeaters for a foundation

"Tohr!" sorabbed him Somebody else cursed

"Has he been shot?"

"Motherfucker - "

With a curse, Tohr shoved everyone off of hiained his balance "For chrissakes, I&039;rill, the bastard was practically inside his nose "Go home"

"Have you lost your mind - "

"You&039;re a liability here I&039;ue, but Wrath just shook his head "You need to feed, my brother It&039;s time"

"Layla&039;s prepared for it," Qhuinn tacked on "I&039;ve been keeping her going on this side"

Tohr looked at the four of them and he knew he&039;d lost Christ, V already had his phone to his ear

He also knew on soht But, God, he didn&039;t want to face that ordeal again

"Go hoe&039;s ETA is - bingo"

As Hollywood appeared, Tohr cursed a couple of ti them or his reality

With all the enthusias a lio find the Chosen Layla

Fuck

Through his binoculars, Xcor watched the venerable Assail stride into a massive kitchen and pause at athat faced the direction of the bastards

The male was still sinfully handsome with dark, viciously black hair and tan skin Features were so aristocratic, he actually looked intelligent - although that was the thing with the glymera Often people with fine countenances and fit bodies were mistakenly assumed by others to have the brains to match

As the vampire fell into some kind of activity, Xcor frowned and wondered if he wasn&039;t seeing things Alas no It appeared that the un as if he were used to doing so And after he tucked the weapon under that precisely tailored black suit jacket, he picked up another and went through the sa had warned him there could be trouble on the visit? But no, that would be daft If you were the seat of power for the race, you would not want to appear under siege

Especially if in fact you were

"He&039;s departing," Xcor announced as Assail appeared to head for the garage "He is not ht - or certainly not here Let us cross the river Now"