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CHAPTER 10

I Have the Scratches to Prove It

I woke in my own bed, when a heated body climbed in besidein sin," Bruiser whispered back "And your partners are gone to roceries, so we have the place to ourselves"

"Yeah?" Igroceries was strictly a New Orleans ter from Bruiser’s mouth

"Yes," he said, a low thrum of need in his voice He pressed his lips to the back of my neck, his hands spread wide across my stomach His scent filled the tent of the covers, his usual citrusy cologne changed to so that smelled like blue cypress and oak moss, with a small amount of frankincense and a hint ofcatnip In bloom

I rolled over in his arht ood," I said

"I’ ers slipped beneath my T-shirt and slid it off over hed into hissound

"I had it blended with you inwe said for a long, long time

We were dressed and brewing tea and coffee when the guys got back, banging through the side door with bags of groceries The Kid dropped three bags of veggies and one of canned, pasta-based dinners and sugary cereal on the kitchen table and took off to his tablets,about encryption coding Eli entered reen stuff, and steak on the table beside his brother’s He looked back and forth between Bruiser andenough to judge, but rurabbed a carrot and a stick of string cheese tostuff on the top refrigerator shelf, he asked Bruiser, "What’s the latest on the action at vaot hit pretty bad yesterday"

Bruiser s back a leather satchel, a cross between a backpack and a briefcase, but looking expensive and orn "Leo, Del, and I went over the data froested so material from the library" He set the satchel on the kitchen table and re with sealed files of loose papers, the files made of acid-free materials that had been treated to preserve antique paper, papyrus, sheepskin, and anything else the ancients had used for writing He laid the books to the side and spread out a cloth on the table before placing the files atop it He donned white gloves, siven a classical education,that he could read ancient and es He had previously been translating a Latin-ish history of witches froinal hand-bound manuscript, and so far, he had discovered a lot of history that we , but nothing about the bag of bones for around the city killing people Not a thing Research into things historical and not yet scanned into the clouds of the Internet wasthan I’d expected He had been at it for several weeks

"The escape of Joseph Santana," Bruiser said, "and the deaths in the bar have necessitated a change in Leo’s usualht assist our research Of course, having access to Reach would have beenwhat I can get"

Reach--the world’s fores va a visit by some particularly nasty vamps and a human torturer They had hurt him and I hadn’t been able to discover how badly or where he was now I hoped healing on so on his tan Reach was a treacherous, double-dealing, entrepreneurial backstabber, ould have sold his hest bidder, but we had done business for a long time, and no one deserved to be tortured No one

"With the focus now shifted from the European Mithrans’ visit to Joseph Santana," Bruiser said, "I’ve done so for na to find infor sound while putting away three dozen eggs, a bunch of celery, and a big bag of sweet potatoes

Bruiser gave hih, the search led me to the arcenciels, also called serpentes iridis"

Eli closed the refrigerator and leaned a hip against the counter "What do the dragons of light have to do with Santana?"

Bruiser said, "They, or the huical iold I’d seen on Santana, at neck and at wrist And the wyrd that had fried mented by an ancient artifact? What if the wyrd had been a spell created by the arcenciels or ancientnew for you all," Bruiser said, and I got up to freshenthe Council House apart looking for docu to Joseph Santana--properties, habits, huht still be alive to offer him a lair Second, the address of the lair froinally disappeared The room was supposedly sealed and remains untouched to this day It’s a remote possibility that Santana, in his currently unstable ht return there to lair, as a place that he remembers as comfortable and safe Or there may be papers there that will lead us to a current lair" With two fingers, he extended a folded slip of paper to Eli "This will take you there The caretaker has the keys"

I let ainst the kitchen cabinet for just aon Bruiser, showing hiave me back was a little more warm and made me think about his efforts in the bedroo my hair slide forward, overmy heated cheeks