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She gaveI can sense it I am sorry I cannot protect you in what is to coet out of this that easily!"

She gave a small nod "It will take time before I return to et rid of rip loosened on my wrist, and her arm dropped to her side

"Stand back, Kara," Eilahn whispered, then her head sagged to the floor I looked down to see that the bleeding had stopped, and light was beginning to stream fro raggedly as the light increased to near-blinding levels A few seconds later a ripping crack filled the roo left but a smell of sulfur and ozone and a faintly discolored patch on the carpet

I don’t kno long I stood there, staring at that dark patch, but it was probably only seconds later that Ryan burst in, gun at the ready, gaze sweeping the rooone too"

A heartbeat later I heard the sound of splintering wood from the back door, and then Zack was there as well His eyes went to the stain then widened "Fucking hell"

"What happened, Kara?" Ryan asked "Are you all right?"

"What happened to you?" I de on hione!" I was shouting, and the next thing I knew he’d holstered his gun and had grabbed ," he said, face twisted in pain "The signal grew garbled as soon as you went inside Zack and I were co up to the house to abort the e that knocked us flat" His hands squeezed ot here as soon as we could"

I let out a shuddering breath "He threw a rock…sorenade Made me puke, but she could barely move He said he needed ain er "He shot her Didn’t even hesitate"

I pulled away fro house apart"

I took out h the drywall in the living rooe As ut the house into a pile of rubble, ave out before ehammer drop while I panted for breath and swiped at ainst the wall then drew h

"For what?" I ainst his chest, listened to the steady thuh "I’h all this I’m sorry you seem to be in constant peril And I’m sorry I can’t fix it all"

"It’s okay," I said, then pulled back and swiped atis, all that shit sucks, but y’knohat the worst part is?" I didn’t wait for hi "The worst part is that I don’t trustover and over, and I’ve been wasting ti down hunches and suspicions I even thought Ro--I wasn’t a hunk net "And now ht was best," he said, giving ress You found out that Tracy was the su to simply tear this place apart, or do we have sohtening my shoulders, I did ht giveout what this is all about," I said, gaze sweeping the living roorandparents’ notes or books and stuff"

"Or maybe he caested

I nodded "Either way, I want to find any notes or papers or anything that we can If I knoe’re up against, weable to stop it"

"And you don’t think this unknown thing we’re facing is so nice and tame, I assume" Ryan’s mouth twisted in a sardonic s again, this tih drawers and closets, but, as I’d expected, Tracy hadn’t left any useful information out where anyone could easily find it But I’d been on enough search warrants to know that there were a lot of places to hide stuff, especially if the stuff was only papers or a notebook I let the guys bash walls in, and I focused on pulling every one of his books out of the bookshelf and riffling through the pages

Two hours later there were holes in all the walls, the books were all over the floors, the mattresses had been slashed, and ere still completely empty-handed And exhausted

Ryan looked around as we slouched on what re at histhis place If so, I don’t think he’s getting his deposit back"

I burst out laughing "Sucks to be his here So where the hell is he doing thehtened and looked to Zack "Ask Jill if she can check the property tax rolls to see if Tracy owns any property in the area"

The blond agent grinned and pulled out his phone Ih it proved to be difficult with all the crap we’d strewn all over the place

"Jill says there’s nothing in that name," Zack said after a brief moment

I chewed my lower lip as I stepped over detritus "Have her try Rayles"