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I kept the relief off one It ht make me a wishy-washy woman, but I wanted Bruiser alive If only so I could torture hi an ass I said, "Fine Get me a healer--Gee, or a priestess, or someone" I left the deadish Leo onmore formal than a damp, bloody towel I also weaponed up in case anyone else had issues with Leo’s current condition
I was standing in the foyer, braidingto keep the sickness at bay, when the first visitors arrived Katie entered through the side door like she had been fired through a cannon, which own and heels she earing I wished I’d seen that But the clothes and her presence meant that she hadn’t been kept safely in HQ Nor had Leo
It also meant I needed a new side door She stalked over the splinters of the old one in her stilettos Gee DiMercy walked in behind her I figured he had flown Neither looked happy I dropped the braid and stood round with a silver stake in one hand and a steel blade in the other Before I could explain or defend myself, the most nutso vamp I’d ever met showed up at the front door with Bruiser over her shoulder She didn’t need an invitation to enter The door blew off its hinges Again This time, crime scene tape bleith it
The priestess Bethany Salazar y Medina was in aze was ee and vengeance Bruiser rested across her shoulder as if he weighed noHe was also out cold, dangling like that shaith artful repose And he was bleeding, his blood soaked through Bethany’s clothing
The pain in ut twisted and went hot I pressed my middle with one hand, the blade pointed away froht at e?" Bethany hissed She cocked her head in that snake-way vaics on , ready to strike She was nothing like the other priestess, Sabina The power that surrounded Bethany was sharp and pitted, piercing and epheics carried a scent si of sha of carda the oldest vamps I had ever seen
I took a breath of icy air to speak but she beat me to it "I smell you on him," she said "I will rip you to small shreds of flesh and cook you over my fire I will eat you and your power--"
"Notopen Unfortunately, that put lance toldwith Derek, who stood in the kitchen area, weapons drawn and uncertainty on his face, as if he wasn’t sure what to do in this FUBARedto be okay?" I asked as I scuttled like a crab,shape, starting to look like puma paws
"He is e I made certain that he is alhen I remade him" Bethany looked at Leo on the floor "You staked my Leo I smell the stink of silver You would kill him true-dead?"
"No," I said quickly "Notsilver stakes" Stupid answer
Her eyes bored into , her dark-skinned flesh looking sht, the toes of her bare feet spread wide on the floor And Bruiser’s blood dripping steadily behind her "I ave to hiift"
"Uh-huh Okay Whatever Leo hurt George," I half lied, to keep Derek alive His eyes ide as he understood what I’d done "How ’bout you put George down and help Leo?"
Bethany dropped George on the floor His head hit first and bounced hard, his body hitting just after, the double blows hty, then, I thought,pain She went to Leo and settled on the floor beside him Katie and Bethany stared at each other across Leo’s body, and it didn’t take a mad scientist to tell that they were not the best of pals Keeping their eyes on the floor grouping, Eli and the Kid lifted George and laid him on the couch in a boneless heap
"What does the priestess ift?" Gee DiMercy askedthe scene with intense but inscrutable interest
"Heck if I know I’m just the hired help Or I was the hired help I quit" I shook nation and decided to kill h, but my eyes were draay from him Shadows and sparkles flowed across the wall of the foyer, reflected onto the living rooic burned on on flowed through the front door, into the house, and across the ceiling It s of dappled sunlight on springwater, and opened its mouth It had teeth like needles and knives and the distorted fun-house-s were fully extended and their span ider than the house, seeh walls and out into the street
The last ti the vampires who attacked me My eyes on it, I took a breath "Eli," I said, my voice soft "I sertips Pelt rippled down ain, just a bit Even the pain began to ease, which should have been a good thing, but instead o up
In the light of the overhead fixture the arcenciel went visible, still glowing, but with a darker line along one side where I had stabbed her She had already healed, but not without cost Can light scar? Her wings cast strealare of a caht sky, an effervescent opalescence, green and gold and pale shades of the rainbow, a feathery luhter motes Her hair hite, striped with red and black and brown Bethany screarab the light To the side, I saw Eli drawing a valy out of the air Derek flashed hand signals to hi as one