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I nodded against his chest, unable to speak for the luht I’ly "You okay now?"

I nodded again, pulling away a bit He moved back into his seat and strapped in

"I probably look like hell," I said as I rebuckled my own seat belt

"Sweetheart, you always look beautiful to me" He meant it, it wasn’t just another line of bullshit Still, I pulled down the sun visor to check hway This ti

Neither of us said anything until he parked in the restaurant’s lot Then he turned to me and said, "I know you need your independence But I need to be a part of your life I’, or an ass, but I’ hiranted, and that rong

"I’ranted I don’t think I’ve been using you and I definitely have appreciated it when you’ve jumped in of your own free will You’ve h spots But we have to figure out what our boundaries are going to be, because I don’t want to have this fight with you for real instead of just over a et out of the car The ical protections that had been spelled into the restaurant and the land around it sent a jolt through asp in pain Whoever had done the wards had put a lot of power in them No vampire or other monster would be able to come near this place

I ah that soic like this didn’tmyself, I rose slowly to my feet Bruno had practically vaulted around the car to see rong, but once he realized what I was reacting to he stood still and waited, letting me handle it When I was ready, he took ether into Antoine’s

6

My alar I felt like hell I hadn’t slept well After clearing the air, Bruno and I had e days andthe previous suic and presented oodies designed for s were better, there was stilltension between Bruno and ood recipe for sound sleep My thoughts had chased theo-round, only not nearly so pretty When I finally did drop off, I had nighthtmares, thank God, but the old standbys:attacked by zoht I drank a couple of cups of strong black coffee along with a nutrition shake, then ate a jar of Gerber beef and noodles I was running low on baby food I’d need to stop by the store soon In fact, I should probably grab so on the way to the library, just to be safe

It didn’t take long to shower and put on my makeup I made sure to use concealer to cover the dark circles under nified, like the head of a successful co day I’d reserved one of the small conference rooms in the university library for interviews We’d scheduled them there because rads we’d found through the college placement office It hadn’t been difficult or expensive to book the room for most of the day, and it was certainly convenient

I hoped Daouldon it I texted her to confirot on the co out the plan for the day, along with its attachments--the schedule of appointments and the applicants’ résumés Then I stuck the packet in a file folder and drove into town

Even early as it was, traffic was terrible I was stuck for a long time on Oceanview, trapped by aI barely had time to stop at PharMart for some baby food and nutrition shakes before I had to be at the library to get things set up for the interviews

The wards around the building buzzed against my senses They were a little painful to cross, but not nearly as bad as those at the restaurant had been I was able to get through the with no real trouble and went iish study/conference roorade carpet, a big la chairs The overhead fluorescent lights were the ecofriendly kind that turn themselves off if there isn’t any movement in the room They also wash out normal complexions I probably looked like a corpse despite ray pantsuit with a dark rose blouse My silver jewelry ith ray shoes had minimal heels I’d pulled my hair into a French braid It was a very professional look but still feroceries under the table at the far end Then I picked seats for the interviews I set down my folder plus a pen and pad I could use to take notes in front of side them and two other bottles in front of two other seats--one beside mine, for Dawna, if she came, and one for the potential hire, opposite us I sat down and flipped through résuot bored and decided to take a quick trip to the bathrooot another chance When I ca at the chair next to eous … and utterly lea dark hair and exotic features She’s a natural beauty who also knows the absolute best way to dress to play up her assets Today she earing a hot pink skirt suit that nipped in at her tiny waist and was both long enough to be proper and short enough to show off a great pair of legs in three-inch heels It was obvious she had been crying heavily, despite her perfectly applied makeup and the antitears eyedrops I could s an even worse ?" I asked as I sat down next to her She shook her head soundlessly, fighting back tears