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Dragging his fingers through his own blood, he rubbed it over her lips, sliding his fingers into her ers instinctively, taking in even hed, and cried out in pain, tears leaking from beneath her closed eyelids

Raphael felt his own face ith tears "A little ly He widened the tear in his wrist, letting a few drops fall into her ain, erly as if some part of her understood, even in her unconscious state, that his blood would save her

She sed once ly this ti to her the whole ti into the fluid rhythms of his native Russian Her chest rose in a deep breath and his heart soaredonly to crash again when he began to re and saw the true extent of her injuries

Her ribs were broken along her right side, her chest black and blue where the vest had protected her But the vest could do only so much, and its protection had not extended below her waist The assassin’s bullets had torn into her sto so ans Saephan had been worried about blood loss, but Raphael knew that was the least of it Infection was already spreading through her da him

Anyone else would have been dead already Only her connection to him, fortified by the blood she took froth to survive this long

But his Cyn was not immortal The blood they shared made her seem so to those who didn’t understand But for all their closeness, for all that she was life itself to hi--less than a year, which was not long enough for her to haveability A hundred years from now, she would be virtually immortal, but even then she would still need his assistance to heal so

A spike of pristine fury stabbed hiut He wanted to tear down the walls of his so-called civilized existence, to destroy every human who had dared to harm her, to lay waste to their foolish little town and leave every one of the and broken for the buzzards to feast upon

Cynhier and reacted to it It had hurt her He had hurt her He wiped the tears froently into the curve of his body, tugging the covers up around the else, everyone else, he sank into the depths of his power and pulled Cyn in with hiether

Chapter Thirty

Sophia ith a start, a howl of raer still thundering in her head She sat up, heart pounding with adrenaline, her oer roiling just beneath her skin The sun wasn’t down yet She could feel it clinging to the horizon and yet she ake And she wasn’t alone Doors slammed open down the hall and footsteps pounded past Voices were raised everywhere, shouting orders, de information

Sophia closed her eyes and listened Not to the voices of panic and confusion outside her door, but beyond to that epheift of Vampire

She stretched out her senses as uest here, not welcome but tolerated She had to be careful A second wave of fury shook the walls, silencing the noise outside her door, sucking the breath fro on her oer to insulate her fro fro terrible Raphael was raging, his unbound wrath waking every va to tear the walls down around the the very air to vibrate for those with senses to feel it She’d never experienced such raw pain from one so powerful And she dreaded to discover what could have caused it

She dressed quickly, pulling a t-shirt and sweater over her head, stepping into her deni her feet into low boots She yanked open her door, braiding her long hair as she ran, joining the guards and others ere hurrying in the sareat room upstairs was controlled chaos She s the scent to a location on the far side of the room, near the hallway to Lord Raphael’s private lair Two of his va a couch soaked in blood, another rolling up the rug which had lain before it Across the way, a door stood open to the large rooht and she saw Duncan standing just inside, talking to soht

She headed that way Whatever it was that had happened, Duncan would know No doubt her presence would be unwelcome, but at worst, he’d ask her to leave And at best, she would find out as dead Sophia hurried, determined to find out what had happened before Raphael’s people had a chance to shut her out This had to be connected somehow to the recent murders and to Lucien’s disappearance And she wanted to knohose blood had stained the couch red She could think of no one but Raphael’s e from the powerful vampire lord But if Cynthia had been injured or if, God forbid, she was dying, how had it happened? And had Colin been with her?

She slowed dohen she reached the tall double doors and slipped quietly inside the room Duncan was there with his back to her, the mountainous Juro by his side For the first ti less than sartorial perfection Duncan had clearly pulled on the first thing at hand, a pair of worn sweatpants and a t-shirt, his feet still bare Juro had ed shoes and a pair of dark slacks, but his plain white shirt was untucked and only half buttoned

Neither acknowledged her presence, focusing instead on the third person in the roo rapidly

"It was bad, Duncan, as bad as I’ve seen I don’t know if even Raphael can heal so like that"

"What happened, do you know?" Duncan asked intently