Page 13 (1/1)

The linens were shades of greens--natch--froous four-poster of black wood carved with vines and flowers Two chairs nestled at a dainty, antique tea table were upholstered in pale, shimmery fabric that looked like silk I didn’t knowthat said this was stuff Edht with him into slavery to Leo Master-vamp furniture And that meant that Leo had allowed him to keep it More secrets to discover about the vampire Edmund Hartley

Carefully, I lifted Ed position on the edge of the bed My right ar stuck with tiny needles all over its skin, froertips to thethe feel of the healed but still tender flesh, and gathered upmy cell in a boot botto and weapons Zilch Somebody had made off with my stuff, hopefully to clean the body fluids off it

However,over the doorknob, and I carried what I had left from the room, to put on in the hallway One-handed wasn’t the easiest way to boot up and get into coed it and turned on the set as I moved down the hallway in the direction of the elevator "Jane Yellowrock here," I said into the s Good to hear you up and around"

I caainst the wall Juas the real-world name for one of Derek’s men He was a sharpshooter home between deployments when I first met Derek I had ridden Bitsa, et perue vaeted me, a dead-on hit with a laser scope betweenthere, running security after a breach, but I’d find that out later First, it was likely that I had to establish boundaries Most of Derek’s men see on T-shirt, I’d better start right away "Twizzlers, Juwan," I said

Twizzlers had been the code word Derek had used to hed, his voice mellow over the in-house coet the moment when Uncle Sam’s finest has the spot between your shoulder blades all lit up like Christht?"

"USMC M40A5"

The M40A5 was essentially an AK-47 "Ouch That one hed "Yeah, maybe I hear you’re kinda hard to kill" Not happy that I was an ongoing topic of gossip, I grunted, and he went on "Course, shootin’ you froht through you and taken down one of Derek’s other guys He’da been pissed Sorry I hear you don’t like the way , the wayto be confronted and defeated Lucky uy someday soon Just not today, please, I silently asked the ceiling I stretchedpainfully beneath the sleeve and bandage, the ht The entire ar, knowing there had to be a carinned into it, showing teeth "You wanna e, we can do that, Juwan But understand If you challengeso stupid as polite conversation, when I beat your butt, it’ll go on YouTube so all your et your backside handed to you by a skinny Cherokee chick"

Juwan laughed over the headset, the confident tone slowly changing to one less certain as he saw my expression over the security camera

"Think about it" I pushed off the wall and continued down the hallway "And while you’re thinking, do a search of archived footage fro room Make sure you want to pursue this Otherwise, we’ll just let it go and pretend this little convo didn’t happen"

"Yeah Roger that"

I could hear little faint tappings, the sound of fingers on a touch screen "Meanwhile, I need to knohere the priestesses are Are either of the that you asked They turned off the system at thirteen hundred forty-then they entered the library on the floor where you are now Take a left and a right, and you’ll see the door It’s closed but not locked They used the re that I asked? "Gotcha Thanks"

"Welco the state that you asked, Ithat the priestesses had probably told him to send me in the moment I woke up Outside the library door I pulled my cell and flipped open the armored case I texted Alex with, Why Juwan in security? He alone?

Instantly I got back the answer to the last question Angel with hi for civilian life I interpreted the e to read that Juas out of thea new life

I sent back K, knocked on the door, and waited until I had perado y Aguilera and Bethany Salazar y Medina sat together at the library table, in the afternoon, with the sun still up outside There were no s, so it wasn’t aany vah of a rarity to throw me off my stride A pile of old books, teapot wrapped in a quilted cozy, and teacups sat on the table between them The aroma of tea mixed with the scent of old books, leather chairs, and wool fro fusion

As I ers found ht, the skin tender Even aftermore than to curl up with a cuppa and maybe a novel--not that I read books Not ever But the smell here made me want to try

There were other cups on the table, and as I approached, Sabina placed one on a china saucer, the kind shaped to hold the cup secure and catch any minor spills She placed it at an euessed that was my invitation to join them