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Ryan flicked a questioning glance ave hi a society wife," I explained "With Rachel’s cooperation and assistance, Elena could return to Beaulac and play the tragic --"

"--and rear daddy"

Streets whizzed by as Ryan drove, a frorinkling his forehead "So what is Rachel going to do now? We don’t have any evidence to prove she killed Brian, so it’s going to be assu one important detail"

He cocked an eyebrow at me

"I’m a tenacious, stubborn bitch," I said "We can prove that Harris killed Carol Easy DNA I’ll get the phone records to prove that Harris called Davis And I’ll find a way to prove that Rachel was in the car with Davis if I have to track down every piece of surveillance video in this city And I’ll grovel and apologize to Detective Fourcade in Mandeville and ith him to pin Elena’s death on Rachel as well--surveillance, trace evidence in the condo, whatever it takes"

Ryan’s expression turned gri it out and that she can’t walk away fro up in her face"

"Shit It all makes sense now Rachel did pro bono work at the neuro center and nursing homes, not out of the kindness of her heart but--"

"--to be near people whose essences she could slurp up," Ryan finished for me

"And when she killed Brian, she couldn’t pass up that juicy essence--"

"--and then she ran into one of those psycho pixies and got a lot stronger"

"Yes," I replied, "and stop finishing ?" His eyes flashed with humor

"Smart-ass She must have wondered why Tessa didn’t have any essence, so she came to the house and she ran into a psycho pixie" I sobered quickly If I hadn’t taken all the wards down, she’d never have been able to get in "And this means that she doesn’t need any weapons to kill" A horrible thought struckhis cell phone before I could even finish the sentence I listened, nerves on edge while he told the dispatcher that he needed a bolo--a be-on-the-look-out alert--on the subject that the a that Rachel Roth was a erous I watched his face as he listened, seeing his eyes narrow

Finally he hung up "They can’t raise the ahanything that could have allowed me to stop Rachel sooner

"It’s not your fault," Ryan cut intomy lower lip I could see the hospital a couple of blocks ahead "Wait! Stop!" I pointed to a parking lot across from the hospital, where I could see an ambulance parked crookedly

Ryan whipped the car over, soet clipped by the sedan behind him He bounced over the curb and screeched to a stop beside the ambulance

"You check the back!" I ordered I jumped out of the car and ran around to the front of the a as I saw the driver slu with sick dread at the dark-haired young wo brown eyes I didn’t need to check for a pulse I could feel what had happened

I stepped back as Ryan closed the back of the arim It was too easy for her One was in the back with her, and then she reached through to the cab for the other one I was distantly aware that Ryan was on his cell phone again, calling it in to the dispatcher, but my attention was suddenly focused elsewhere as I realized where ere

We were in front of the neuro center

Chapter 33

I started toward the door, but Ryan grabbed my arm to stop me "Wait," he said I looked back at hirip It wasn’t painful, but it was solid, and it was pretty dao until he could say whatever he needed to say

"Don’t put ain," he said, voice low and just as strong as the grip onflippant--a shten the ht I suddenly realized how terrible the aftermath of my death must have been for him He’d seen me eviscerated, my chest and stomach sliced open by the claws of a demon He’d watched me bleed out onto the white tile floor, and there’d been no reason to believe that he would ever see ain And for nearly teeks he had lived with the knowledge that I was dead

I could see the naked emotion in his face For this one instant he’d dropped his careful guard, letting ain, that he wouldn’t be able to survive it a second ti more? I wished I could tell

"I won’t," I replied quietly "I proh we both knew that there was no way to ensure that such a promise would be kept But I knew that it was more than that He wanted me to promise that I wouldn’tto make before

I putdown That I can promise"

He smiled, but I could see the flicker of unease in it He knew I hadn’t given him the promise he wanted, but at the saive Rachel wasn’t as big a baddie as a demonic lord under the control of the Symbol Man, but I still had to stop her

But he didn’t say anything, just released rab him and hold him and tell him what he wanted to hear, but there was no time and I had no idea what could be said

We ran up to the front door together I flashedor breaking stride, then bypassed the elevator for the stairs I wanted to take the stairs two at a time, but I really wasn’t in the best shape for advanced stair-running, plusother than agonizing Luckily, my aunt was only on the third floor, so I didn’t lose too much tiaveseveral seconds before I did