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"Do you feel any more?Hawke!"

Her voice disappeared, then slid back into hearing He felt her weight in his lap, her hands sliding down his legs, lifting his legs, her fingers burrowing under hiers stroked his face "They’re gone, Hawke You’ll get better, now Please get better"

The feel of her hands on his face, war, would assure it His head was still too heavy to lift, his eyelids too weighted down to open But he ainst hiainst his shoulder

"You should have gone with Olivia," he said softly, when he couldabilities were beginning to kick in already In a ain "Do you kno close you ca?"

She pulled back, but he kept one arlared at her Her face was covered in s her look like a er to heal

"Helping you was more important" An irins, but it was enough to raise his spirits She pressed her palm to his cheek "You needed ht Without her there, he’d alht, he could have easily ended up as polar-bear food

His hands slid up her back "I did need you I still do"

Mine The as a fierce growl in his head, echoing through his body, wrapping around his heart like a steel band He curled his hand around the back of her head and pulled her close, kissing her soft parted lips, branding her,her his

"If I can interrupt" The caustic, feminine voice came from the backseat "You’re needed elsewhere"

Faith jerked back Haung around to find the Ilina, Melisande, sitting in the back, hostly mist than form He’d met her once, the day he came back to himself after the spirit trap, but he was still astounded by the fact that the Ilina race existed at all Dressed in the traditional dress of an Ilina s, a knife strapped at her waist - Melisande re blond braid

The tension went out of hi at the woear, Feral?" Melisande snapped "Kougar’s injured They’re all injured, some too badly to mist out We need corporeal transport"

Melisande’s words cleared his head as nothing else could have His brothers were injured Badly He shoved open the car door - the cloud of draden having dispersed the moment he closed them out - and bent to snatch the key out from under the mat, then jumped back in, started the car, and took off down the drive

"The battle?" he asked

"Is over The bad guys ran"

He glanced over his shoulder "Melisande, I need yourfor me There’s an injured lynx in the foyer of Feral House I need him moved to the basement and locked in one of the prison cells Pink can show you where the prisons are"

Melisande made a sound thatelse? Shall I clean the house while I’m at it?" The wo Ferals But her queen, Ariana, had pledged their full support Melisande had little choice but to ith them That didn’t mean she had to like it, and she made certain they all knew that

Melisande disappeared as silently as she’d appeared

"What was she?" Faith’s eyes were as big as saucers

"The Ilinas are another immortal race, one we all believed went extinct a thousand years ago They’d faked their extinction"

"Butare they ghosts?"

Hawke smiled "No Their natural state is mist - noncorporeal - but they can turn to flesh and blood at will The entire race is fear’sall that in, Hawke turned his attention to his driving, to reaching his friends before it was too late Without taking his eyes off the road, he reached for Faith’s hand, twining her cold fingers with his, holding on tight Mine

His hawk screeched in agreeain

Faith held tight to the door handle with one hand, clinging to Haith her other as he zipped through the tree-lined, hilly roads near Feral House Her skin stung in a hundred places from the draden bites But she was alive They both were

Never had she iined so many draden in one place at one time But as horrific as the draden attack had been, it was so else that preyed on her mind

"Hawke?"

"Hmm?" His thumb brushed the back of her hand in a tender caress that stirred the war her heart with affection

"How do you un "You don’t"

Her face went cold "But, what if you hadn’t brought them into their animal, yet?"

"It doesn’t matter Once we’re ht into our animals in a couple of years, we die"

Oh

Hawke squeezed her hand,her diset to the bottoe are involved They’re always involved when things go wrong these days"

And things couldn’t have gone ainst their own Except she hadn’t turned against them Why? Maybe she wasn’t really e disease Right What were the chances?

Minutes later, Hawke pulled the vehicle to a stop on a narrow residential road between a pair of large ho behind a Porsche

"Isn’t that the one Kara, Olivia, and Delaney took?"

"Yes, it’s ours If we’ve got badly injured Ferals, they’re going to need Kara’s radiance Lyon would have called for her the moment the coast was clear Wait here" He reached for the door handle

"Youher with his fierce gaze "The battle’s over, but the draden will still be swaret the injured into the car Stay here Promise me"