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"I wasn’t planning to duot a look in his eye that on anyone else would have looked aluish, but he couldn’t quite carry off even the hint of naughtiness His furious blush counteracted the glint in his eye "I actually found so"

I noticed, though, that he didn’tat lared at me as if to warn me away froe me withanimals dislike me was tooit I wished for ame

A split second later, she ju leap off the sofa, and darted out of the roo the doorhere she’d disappeared "Sometis even I don’t sense or see"

"Oh, cats do that kind of thing, for no good reason," I said, trying to keepto admit to Owen that I’d just zapped his cat It looked like I still had access tothat kind of power offered some unpleasant temptations

We passed the rest of the day without ic books while I stared at my laptop screen and pretended to work on a report I was just starting to think itto bed when Owen’s doorbell rang He got up and returned a moment later with Rod

Rod looked stricken There was no other way to describe theof horror and worry on his face "What is it?" I asked him

"It’s Marcia," he said

Twenty

"What about Marcia?" I asked,in my chest before I even heard what happened People tended not to look or sound like he did when they had good news

Rod paced in front of the fireplace, talking as he walked "I called her at the office this afternoon to ask her out Her receptionist said she wasn’t in, and they didn’t knohere she was or when she’d be back She’d gone out to lunch and hadn’t returned Then I tried her at your place, but there was no answer, and I tried her cell phone It went straight to voice o, and your other roommate said she wasn’t home yet She sounded worried I take it this is uncharacteristic of Marcia?"

"It’s certainly uncharacteristic of you," Owen muttered "You didn’t just move on to the next candidate?"

Rod scowled at hio out with her, not with the next person on ht now"

"Yes, it is uncharacteristic of her," I said, stepping in before they could start squabbling They weren’t kidding when they said they were like brothers "She’s obsessive about keeping us posted on where she is and when she’ll be soe, she’ll return your call the ht up in all this?"

Rod shrugged He looked utterly miserable "I don’t know, but isn’t it suspicious that she disappeared while we’ve got Ari?" It see on had already spread within the coht struckto do with Ari Philip and Ethan were supposed to have awith Sylvia Meredith today, and that hen they were going to tell her that Philip planned to press his claiet his co one of ht have known--but they got the wrong roo over to his desk

Before long, it seeathered in Owen’s dining room, which made Owen visibly uncomfortable He’d spent the ti his piles of junk around I wasn’t sure whether he was cleaning up for coe anything

Merlin, Philip, Ethan, Rod, Owen, and I gathered around Owen’s unusually bare dining table over Chinese food to strategize In spite of the food piled in front of us, none of us feltPhilip’s lips were pressed into a thin, white line Rod had lost even the pretense of cool Owen paced the room, and even Merlin looked unusually tense Ethan was the only one who seemed relatively at ease The possibility of exciteine