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But if it didn’t o today, keep replaying over and over in her head?

"Well, Gem, what is your answer?"

She looked over at her parents, ere busy serving guests in their backyard--the annual spring barbecue they hosted for the clinic staff they worked with As Sensor demons, her parents were ter’taceo, demons who lived and worked in the human world, and none were the wiser Life in the earthly realh; every six round deeneration ritual

"I’ve thought about your offer," she said in a hushed voice, "and the answer is no You can’t pay e you to reconsider"

"Never"

"Never say never, doctor" Insane laughter crackled over the airwaves The bastard hung up, leaving her shaking and feeling ill

"Ge, you don’t look well"

Startled by herWork issue"

"Must be some work issue" Her arita in her hand "Looks like you could use this more than I can"

Geh she rarely drank alcohol Too ated the effect of the protective spells she’d had tattooed on her body in order to control her dearita, but now, as she searched her parents’ house, hoping they were here despite the bloody evidence to the contrary, she thought about breaking into their wet bar and drinking everything they had Right now, letting out her inner de

She saved her old room for last, the one her parents kept exactly as she’d left it when she o to attend medical school--two years early, thanks to her parents’that had put her ahead of schedule in college They’d always hoped she’d coraduation asdid until they’d been mated off by their parents But Gem wasn’t a Sensor, and while she loved the fa her as an infant, she’d needed her own space to discover who she was and where she truly belonged

She also had no desire to suffer an arranged

Her room, decorated in black, crimson, and blue, had driven her mom nuts, which had pretty much been the point Rebellious from the start, Gem had probably, on several occasions over the course of her twenty-four years, ret their decision to raise her But they’d also loved her, and she had no doubts about that Her , and her father had set aside the third Saturday of every month to take her so she’d need to blend in, they’d provided her with a very normal hu As long as she avoided the securely locked basement, she could alh she didn’t expect to find anything, she searched her bedroo The Ghouls really had nabbed her parents, the sons of bitches She moved toward the door Halted as she passed the dresser

No

But she had to She’d avoided this for far too long

Heart pounding, she opened the top drawer and fuers found the thin photo album duct-taped to the underside of the top She re so badly that she nearly dropped the small leather-bound book

She al felt heavier than it was, the phantoht of memories that should have been but never were

God, she was such a drausted with herself, she opened the book and flipped through the two dozen pictures All of people who didn’t know they’d been captured on film All taken at a distance

All of Tayla Mancuso and the slayer’s now-dead ht

It took threeas it was to kill hiht benefit more from his survival At least, that’s what she told herself Anything to keep fro too hard about the fact that he had saved her life, and she owed him

Afterward, Tayla showered, dressed in ratty jeans and a tank top, and checked his breathing and bindings once led on his back, his arms stretched over his head and chained to the bed fra there, unconscious, he was beautiful She’d been hesitant to look too closely before, when he ake and would knohat she was doing Now, she could spare a moment to admire a body so perfect she could only compare it to an athlete’s

Thick layers of muscle cut valleys across his bare chest and down to ripped abs that spoke of hours of situps His caduceus pendant had slipped to the side, pointing to a thin, almost invisible scar on his shoulder When she leaned closer, she saw more of the but the ht pouring through her

Geez, he looked like he’d been scored by a thousand paper cuts that had healed but left shadows

Tentatively, she trailed a finger along his shoulder and up his right ar ropes of vein That arm had wrapped around her Held her No one had held her Not since herher thoughts take her in a direction she had no business going in, she darted out of the apartment

It was cooler outside than it had been earlier--apparently Mother Nature hadn’t gotten the newsflash that it was spring and should be war back for a jacket She wanted to get back before Hellboy woke up, if possible

She took two trains and a bus, and forty-five is HQ

Headquarters sat on the ree three-story house where the two Regents, the married heads of the New York City cell, lived and sheltered dozens of Guardians The nearest neighbors were nearly half aprocedure required an approach froh a secret entrance hidden in a copse of trees a quarter-ht Tayla into the wooded, enclosed backyard, where two et practice Trey couldn’t hit the ocean if he were in the ainst Warren, a recently transferred Guardian from a London cell Another Guardian, Cole, fiddled with so in his hand

An explosion rattled her eardruh the air She ducked in ti foot

Near the guest house that was ho remains of a mannequin smoldered