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Shewith hio back on his word But why? What purpose could it serve? She had no illusions that she was so sex bo ical about her lady parts were so slim as to be idiotic And at nearly two thousand, Tam didn’t harbor those kinds of fe she’d ever thought it would be She hated that he’d been right about the fantasy thing Yes, Cain had starred in a few, but he was just so hot and evil That was like moth and flame with her After all, once upon a ti about that

Their past affair wouldn’t stop hiht save her for last Sheabout it

Ta the sheets around herself She s in the doorway He was fully dressed, like he’d been out She frowned Was that blood on hileam in his eyes

"I killed Michael," he said, his voice flat of elee

One of the coven

"What? Why?"

"We had a fight It was an accident"

"Where is he?"

"Buried"

The word held soback"

Jack shook his head "No He isn’t It’s the loophole, Tamar The one I didn’t think about e all bound our blood together We can kill each other Really kill No ? Shouldn’t he display soot out of the bed slowly With that crazed look in his eyes, bolting like a spooked deer would do her no favors But surely he didn’t want to kill her, too There had always been a darkness in hied

"I feel different," he said "Very different" He crossed the roo," he whispered "I want you to scry and find out what"

She’d done as he’d asked and still wished she’d refused and found a way out of there Once he’d known killing the others could ether He’d let her have some of the kills, split his poith her, then they’d do another spell to boost it But she’d been disgusted by the idea of going on a killing ra those who had stayed near and dear to her for centuries They were the only people she didn’t lose Her only true family after everybody else had died off

She’d fled and warned the others to disperse and hide A few of the woain in London in the early 1800s, ether--especially with the unlikely identities they’d created But he’d sensed their cos

Tam stood frozen as Jack looked up She retched when she saw the bloody tableau in front of her He put the knife down and s her body as if they’d been lovers only yesterday

"You’re a fast little rabbit, but not fast enough We can still be together I’ll let you have the other kills"

She shook her head and bolted down the alley, fighting to erase the ihter following her well past the point she should have been able to hear it

Taain She didn’t want to see the guilt or the tear streaks All of it was her fault She’d used her gift to find the cavern She’d written the chant She’d scried for Jack after his first kill Her evil for her, and the evil lover she’d just been anted to keep her around until he got bored No ether, she wouldn’t fall for a pretty h power, she put her things in the ic book, poured the salt, and lit the candles It took less energy to undo a spell than to create one--at least when you were the creator of the spell Undoing another witch’s ic was a near impossibility half the time

Just as she finished, a dey ball and threw it at hio noncorporeal

He growled "What are you doing, Witch?"

"Unpacking arded her and the pile of boxes and bags in the circle suspiciously

"Go getto eat," she said, suddenly fa and sex with a deic Anybody would be ravenous "I’m human I still need food Did you think I survived off sex with your evil leader?"

He grumbled but left the tent, presumably to address her food demand

She stepped outside to yell after hier and so stupid an herbivore would eat like an apple or vegetable" Who knehat deone, she peeled the dress off and returned it to the trunk, then changed into so less slutty: jeans and a T-shirt

Tam sat back down in the circle and pulled her tarot deck out of a bag She unwrapped the red silk, shuffled the deck, and laid the cards out, focusing on her intent as best she could at the ood The death card was still in there, and the tower, and the lovers The pretty epicRo episode The tower usually represented a rude awakening, war, or some type of dramatic shake-up in one’s life The lovers, of course, were self-explanatory And the death card in this spread? Well, it didn’t seeoal, as she filled with soThe cards couldto kill her, or Cain was It could o down It could be about her for with Cain now

Ta to look at them anymore In the scatter, they all turned face down--except the death card It was hard to read one’s own cards anyway You couldn’t be as objective, always seeing what you wanted instead of as there Though there was no interpretation of those cards that sounded like a fun time

There was a disturbance outside the tent, raised voices Taathered the cards and wrapped the toward the doorway She heard Cain and a deuard on the other side

"Why is only one of you still here?" he snarled "What is with this sudden rash of disobedience?"

"That witch of yours was doing ic in there Mace went in to check it out and came back with a scorch er run I don’t knoe’re keeping her alive She’s a danger to us We should kill her now We don’t owe the other preternaturals anything"