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Chapter 13

The s my arms wide as I sat up The clock read eleven ten Five hours of sleep would have to do for the day Shade was already up; his side of the bed was empty

As I pushed back the co next to soht That when Shade didn’t co one ear open for the fall of his foot on the stairs I loved his sers, the lazy, smooth tone of his voice, the safe way I felt around him, as if he could protect h I knew he couldn’t

I love hi around on er It hadn’t come off since I’d first put it on, the day Iit, I took a quick shower and then dressed in jeans and a sweater As I headed down the stairs, h I kneere facing a long day

Camille, Morio, Shade, and I headed over to check out Wilbur’s house, while Smoky attended to some business out at his barrow We always left soie, and the house--and that was especially ione on her honeyical punch that easily rivaled any of our powers, but Hanna was ardless

Vanzir and Roz were on guard duty today Shaone in to work And Trillian had volunteered to tackle the grocery shopping on his own, a daunting task for three people, let alone one

The fire depart ehtly but was no longer in danger of burning Yellow caution tape wound around the structure, but Chase had talked to the fire ation up to us As we picked through the rubble, looking for any signs of--well, anything ireed with you that we need an eht pm, at the Va through papers and I heard hi Tiallon

"Yeah, we’ll be there Nice of the VA to let us use their hall" Va, and a lot of the Supe Community members were shifters of one sort or another

"More than just let you use it Roman apparently sent orders that it be opened, and there will be ambassadors from the Vampire Nation in attendance from the Court of the Crimson Veil" He sounded impressed, and well he should

I blinked Menolly must have put in a call to Roman before she went to bed Roman was one of the sons of the Vampire Queen Blood Wyne She had recently come out of her reclusive state to stand at the helain, and within a short period--three weeks--every vampire conclave across the world had knelt to her Those who chose to ignore her re-ascendance were no longer aboveground Either they’d been staked by her servants, or they’d gone into hiding As Roman’s official consort, Menolly was privy to a lot of secret inforht o’clock then Tim--be careful And we need to talk--"

"About the proxy server? Shauys were up to I’ht on how to route through Just give me a little tih the phone and hung up

"Ti paid I e could offer him more money, but the Supe Community isn’t wealthy" I picked up a charred piece of wood--it looked to be fro table--and tossed it to the side "Soit, Wilbur probably would have died In a sense, hts inadvertently saved Wilbur’s life"

"You’re right The Hags of Fate have a way of weaving their webs, don’t they?" Caed but still fairly intact "I’h Wilbur’s desk"

As she rifled through his desk, Shade and I looked down into the stinking hole that had been the baseone, and the drop looked precarious The ceiling of the basement was on thin ice I didn’t trust it not to cave in And then, an i, as we knelt beside Wilbur in the torrential rain

"Coed to survive the blast, over to where we’d laid out Wilbur the night before

Shade follohile Morio stayed inside with Caht, Menolly found so to In all the excite it up I want to see what it is" I hurried over to where Wilbur had been stretched out on the ground After a ht near where Menolly had been sitting "There!"

Shade cautiously picked it up and turned it over in his hands "Feels awfully heavy for such a s"

"Open it"

"I think we’d better have Morio check for traps or ical spells He has that ability" Shade ot there, Ca at the desk, absorbed in a handwritten journal

"What did you find?" Morio said He was flipping through a sideboard

"I don’t know, but anted you to look it over first You have the ability to decipher

Morio frowned "Some Give it to me" He set it on the coffee table and sat down on the lu away the slightly stale scents of beer, rotting fruit, and cigar se puppy He recorded everything, which can only help us He seeical need to journal every aspect of his day And trust me, you do not want to know all of his secrets There will never be enough brain bleach to cleanse out soery he’s left me with" She shivered

"Like what?" I was a sucker for bad gossip, but more than that, the more we knew about Wilbur, the better

"Like, Wilbur was expecting coht so up, froo and Trent and refers to them both as ‘he’…not Van and Jaycee Here he said they contacted him via phone call to let him know they were in town and would like to le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>