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The pri with the info that Leo and Gee were being treated by the priestesses She assured us that they would both be okay, but it would be to of vampires and whatever species an Anzû was, that sounded pretty oant, dressed in a monochrome blend of blond tones thaton her shoulders I reylimpse, but it looked as if Del knew her way around sharp objects

When she finished her report, I asked, "Can you tell us what Leo was saying when the thing flew into the room? It sounded like, Lepree lumyear Larcencel Larcencel"

Del’s eyes flicked down and back to me I wasn’t sure what the reaction meant, other than she wanted to be done and outta here She stood and said, "The Master of the City said to give you this" She passed a folded scrap of paper to me On it ritten in a shaky hand, hat looked like a ballpoint pen, the words, Grand danger, rave;re L’arcenciel

It wasn’t Leo’s usual fancy, calligraphy-like script, and I’d never seen him use a ballpoint pen or write on a torn piece of paper, but the words on it had the right Ls in the "Okay What’s it say?"

Toneless, she replied "It says, ‘Great danger,with his heart? Did the bite dae it?" For that ot my mouth closed before I said those words

"I believe that Leo is calling you his heart," Bruiser said, his tone droll

"Oh Okay No" I looked at Del and finally was able to deduce her expression as an unwilling possessiveness Del and Leo had begun a relationship that included , and this read like I was poaching on her territory Though how that all worked when Leo was still sleeping with Grégoire, I had no idea "I’m not his heart He just calls me that to tick me off"

"I see Wellif you need me, I’ll have my cell and in-house radio" She turned on her expensive two-inch heels and left the room I followed her into the hallway, but she cut me off with a terse, "I don’t have time now, Jane"

I stepped back fast at her abrupt words An eh me I don’t make friends easily and--

"Sorry," Del said Her shoulders sluet headaches much but Del looked like she was in pain "It’s been a difficult week"

Tentatively, I said, "Leo giving you a hard time?"

She dropped her hand "I’ with," she said stiffly, as if she had heard the words once too often recently "He’s still grieving for George, and there’s nothing I can do to take away the fact that he’s lost his right-hand et up to speed I don’t knohere things are located, filed, or stored I ala Leo has planned We got a delivery of ‘substandard, even for American swill,’ wine that I liked and that cost a sle one Quesnel was horrified"

Which sounded like underling-speak for the boss was being a pain in the butt Was the jealousy a misread on my part? I said, "Ouch Sooo, because you don’t have instant recall and superpsychic powers of vahtly "Metaphorically speaking"

"Want hter, which hat I had hoped for, her pale co "I think not Job security, you know"

"Yeah I bet it’d be hard to find a new position as primo in today’s job market" The words felt familiar, as if I’d said theed jobs recently

Still chuckling, Del stretched her shoulders back and then let them relax She said, "I’m sorry about my tone in there Girls’ day out soon? I know this town has excellent spas and I’irlie stuff, e once and it had been fantastic "Soon," I promised her with a nod, and then added, "Leo doesn’t understand the concept of ive you anything you want except that" Without watching for her reaction, I opened the conference roohts were off in the rooe up on the oversized central s, I’ll look over the footage again later for anything weshows on the ca, whatever Leo called it, entered the gym"

"Okay," I said as I slid into a chair at the head of the table Belatedly I identified the voice as Angel Tit, one of Derek’s men, a former active-duty marine and IT security specialist And the scent besideHe h the other entrance I could feel his eyes on ital footage fro up half of the screen, two by two I’d installed the cameras to cover all aspects of the workout rooe that had been aligned by tiyht Instantly, all the cameras had splotches of white-out and partial white-out, in the blocky shapes of ruined digital feed

Angel said, "I’e that are still okay, so we can get a view of the fight This is all I got at this tiht of the TV and showed the creature entering the roolistening s, followed by a sle changed, and changed again as it flew across the rooht to Gee," I said "I thought it was angling for Leo and got Gee instead But it targeted Gee DiMercy first Anybody have any ideas about that?" No one answered, but I could feel a growing discoht, and finally fleay, then did it again, and again, as Angel replayed the footage The uneasiness ht have been the result of the appearance of ould have passed for a dragon in y, or maybe the part where Bruiser and I both vanished froies, but whatever caused it, the humans in the rooe appeared showing e that no one brought that up, I decided not tothe better part of valor, or I a like that