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My cheeks heated and I couldn’t control the speed of my heart rate I sure as heck couldn’t control the scent of my pheromones, which were suddenly all over the place The vamps in the roo up cues froht rather have wished kept private What did this public announcement mean to and for Bruiser? In the odd silence of the room, he let his s over the desk, aze for a longthat predatory stare toas he scented the air I could feel the ice of Leo’s gaze as he spoke, but I kept my eyes on Bruiser "Are you certain, priister quondahtly hoarse As if the words were pulled from him, as if they hurt as they left hison, but it sounded important Life-or-death important And everyone in the room seemed to think so too There were a lot of wide eyes and very little breathing, even from the humans

Del, her face white with shock, mouthed a translation Master of this City My for?

Bruiser sh so a painful, raound in an oddly eain much more, dominantem civitati," he said And the lesion in the dark, empty place within me seemed less painful somehow

"It is done," Leo said "Factum est Consummatum"

Which sounded like a death sentence Or the end of the world Or so equally awful But Bruiser’s smile widened, and it didn’t droop when Leo leaned forward and added carefully, "All of ulations and proscriptions shall stand And you will reht, before the sun seeks to rise"

Bruiser hesitated only an instant, as if , "Yes, Master of this City I shall abide by all regulations and proscriptions that pertain to me"

Leo looked like that was less capitulation than he wanted, but he went on "I require that Jane Yellowrock re with Derek Lee, for the duration of the Europeans’ visit Derek and I have reached a settleree, Jane?"

I looked back and forth between Derek and Leo and held out ot a pen? A piece of paper?"

Without speaking, Del leaned forward and took both fro them to me I half folded the paper so no one could see what I riting and penned a number on the paper 1,000,00000 I folded it and passed it to Leo He opened the paper and burst out laughing, the laughter again eous Monsters are supposed to be ugly; Leo silistened with amusement The black hair he usually tied in a little queue ca, he passed the note to Grégoire, whose blond eyebroent up in surprise that quickly translated into aneur," Grégoire said, his tone formal

I didn’t knohat that oire pulled a ring froer and passed it to Leo, I realized that they had bet on my reply, and Leo had won I narrowedonto his pinkie The ring was gold, the band smooth and worn, centered by a ruby cabochon It looked old and valuable, and a lot like the ring thedownstairs I sat back in my chair, irritated for reasons I didn’t understand

"Half that," Leo said "No more However, I will also pay expenses for you and salary for your crew Take or leave it,the room full of books and papers in the basement, and decided to up the ante "Leave it," I said Leo looked up fros, surprise on his face Yeah, he hadn’t expecteda vamp It happened so seldom with the old ones and their expressions were priceless "This is a negotiation, so you don’t get to deer’s salary, and also access to everything in every vae available to you, no e, about the history of witches and Mithrans, and the existence of otherthat you and any of your people have"

Leo ain Are your loyalties divided,me to clained according to who I a toslowly, sain is acceptable toaze from Leo’s to Bruiser’s "Reach?" I’d shared my suspicions about the enius with Bruiser previously, and had since proven theathering and selling infor proprietary info secret I still hadn’t decided what to do about him For that matter, I didn’t knoe could do about hi for the customer who offered him the most money; he had no blood-bond with Leo to keep his that bordered on the mystical Once he had his electronic claws into a system, it was nearly impossible to remove them I more than halfway believed that he had his claws inI could do about it

"No, we have not been infiltrated" Leo waved a lazy hand as if wiping away the thought of Reach "I have a well-placed and well-paid infiltrator on the European Council of Mithrans"

Every eye in the place settled on Leo, and he gave a languid s the astounded stares and olfactory responses "You have a spy in Europe?" I half asked, half stated "Dang"

Leo’s s "Yes This person has been in place for many years"