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"That’s what this is about, isn’t it? They took care of you Saved your life And now you’re feeling syale Syndrome"

But the suspicion burned in his eyes, navy fire "I’ll give you until to into HQ, and I will take you to see Dennis"

He’d left, and she’d spent the next several hours doing nothing but napping and pigging out on es

Now, curled up on her couch with Mickey in her lap, she dug her nails into the skin of a tangerine, working her frustration off on the poor fruit She didn’t need a doctor Well, she probably did; last night on the way home from the warehouse, she’d suffered another loss of function, the episode leading to people at a bus stop calling paramedics By the tione

In aEidolon on the off-chance that he’d been telling the truth about his ability to help her

She’d gone so far as to say the words on the back of the card he’d given her, but when her brsts tightened and her thighs quivered at the ain, she’d thrown the phone across the room If her hormones were that out of control when he wasn’t around, ould happen in his presence?

She hadn’t known her body could react like that to any man, let alone one asn’t human If someone had told her a man could make her heart race, her breath catch, her sex ache, she’d have laughed, but that’s exactly what happened when Eidolon touched her She craved him even while she hated him

She was an addict, the sa of choice could be destroyed

The phone rang, and she nearly ju indignantly So, and she realized that at soerine and now had juice and pulp oozing between her fingers

Quickly, she rinsed her hands in the kitchen sink but didn’t bother drying theer’s voice made her tense He rarely called, and when he did, the neas always bad This tiiddy, which raised her alert status even higher "Get over here"

"I’ today off"

"Trust me You want to be here for this" Silence stretched, but she refused to give hi about his cryptic response "We caught your deood shape"

Tayla froze Nearly fumbled the phone "Whatwhat do you mean?"

"I mean that if you don’t hurry, you won’t have a chance to watch him die"

Tayla couldn’t afford a cab, but she took one anyway She burst through the Aegis HQ back door, startling the half-dozen Guardians watching a -screen TV

Play it cool, Tay

"Where are they?"

"Basement" Excite room, a far cry from the depressed atmosphere Kynan had led her to believe had taken over The Guardians were practically bouncing in their seats, throwing off anticipation and bloodlust

The fa down on Tayla A de ues They enjoyed knowing that Eidolon was being tortured She’d have enjoyed it, too, a few days ago

Sickened, she dashed down the stairs Several Guardians practiced eapons and fighting techniques in the fitness room, but their halfhearted efforts didn’t fool her They were eavesdropping on as going on in the Cha Tayla, had never seen inside

No, she used to hang out like the others, listening and laughing, because really, they were just deot slapped around a little before they were dispatched?

But the knowledge that Eidolon had been slapped around was somehow different, and she had to steady herself with a deep breath as she opened the heavy steel door

Inside the room, which had been constructed of ceer sat on stone benches, their gazes locked on the nad, bloody body curled in a fetal position on the floor and chained to the opposite wall She nearly cried out at the sight, caught the sound with a palhed "Jagger lost his teet much out of hiot us soood intel"

Oh OhGod Tay stu vomit all over the floor Not slapped around This hat they’d been doing in the roo

I’m so stupid A na&iu, she took in the surroundings, the glowing embers in a brazier in the corner, shelves of barbaric tools, racks of various flogs and whips, a hose, and er had ather her hair and hold it away from her mouth "You aren’t upset, are you? I ht?"

"Yeah," she croaked "Deht, the thought that Eidolon had suffered like that What had she done? Dry heaves wracked her, twisting her gut until sweat poured down her teations, have you?"

She shook her head Even if she had, would she have cared ent on? After all, dehtered innocent hu herself the sa over and over, despite the fact that no matter how often she repeated the "demons are evil" mantra like some sort of protective shield, it didn’t seem to make a difference

"Let me take your jacket" Dazed, as if she’d taken a punch to the head and couldn’t put her rattled thoughts back together, she shrugged out of it and handed it to Jagger

"Co, Taylanext to the body Tayla averted her gaze as she sat on her haunches next to Lori "He’s wearing a necklace with a strange medical symbol Do you knohat it is?"

Tayla didn’t look Didn’t need to It was the caduceus The one that had tickled her skin when he was bent over her Kissing her Licking her

"No," she lied "I don’t have a clue"

Her stoain Her eyes did One tear, small, easily and covertly dashed away by the back of her hand But that one tear contained more emotion than had all of the tears she’d shed since hera moment to compose herself before she could look And she had to Eidolon deserved as ed in her throat The body before her was bloodied, bruised, ht arm was bare, unertip to his neck Her et the e, pounded as if it wanted free of her chest as she tipped the er