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"Yeah Well, if he dies, we’ll lose any and all info he gained froive me vaht and inspected the wolf, the light flashing over the bloody body so fast, I couldn’t tell what ," Eli said "Blood loss, shock Leo owes you a boon The so-called big honking boon You could call hiers poised overorth a lot more than a olf’s life Which was a horrible, foul, selfish thought; ripped me in her cruel hands and twisted But that boon could save odchildren How much was Brute worth? I hadn’t realized I had pulled my cell until after I’d dialed Bruiser

"Jane," he answered, warmth in his voice With just one word, I could tell he was tired, sleepless, like hter, except for the short nap inup ht Brute’s hurt I need him alive to tell us what he knows about Santana Joses Whoever And I have to call Jodi, to report the three women Santana killed, so I need Brute handled stat"

Bruiser rephrased carefully, as if he wasn’t sure what I had said "Santana fought Brute and the olf is still alive?"

I looked around the garden, only now seeing what my nose had told me Blood was spattered everywhere There were broken pots and overturned lawn chairs "Yeah" I bent low to hear the soft, wheezing escape of air fros "Barely"

"I’ll be there in ten" The call ended

I stared at the cell Bruiser hadn’t asked where I was He didn’t have to Bruiser knehere I was All the ti the cell that was a leash and a prison and a spy, thinking Wondering if I had exhausted the ways that I could turn the cell to e

Beside ht, the beaht my eyes teared up It was the brilliance, not the vision of the battered dog, that broughtIt wasn’t a dog covered in blood, seeping frolazed eyes A wolf A olf

One as dying One who had saved ainst corass Getting anywhere near an injured ho couldn’t shift to heal hi said as suicidal "Medical pack" I held backinto"I am not predictable," I said as I unsnapped the pack and pulled on nitrile gloves They were Pepto pink Cute

"Sure you are, babe I’d treat the throat wound first And try to not get bit"

"Thanks," I saidsure the sarcasm was properly expressed

I eased my hands under Brute’s jaw and applied pressure to the olf’s throat, to either side of his esophagus, so he could still breathe He was unconscious or too close to death to snap at me His breath rate was fast, his heartbeat was faster, stuttery, uncertain His body s to hiers, like bone orpressure with the heels of ers follow the shape It revealed itself to be a chain, like a dog collar, but it was too thin, too delicate The heft and shape werefrom loops on it I slipped it from the folds of the wound and discovered that it rapped around Brute’s bloody jaw Keeping my flesh away from the wickedly sharp teeth, I eased it free and handed it to Eli "What is it?"

A long moment later Eli said, "If Alex can recover any data froold chain and covered ere-blood, itIf the blood can’t be cleaned away, then you’ll have a nice necklace"

"Ju?" Eli nodded and I said, "Reach said that Satan’s Three took his data They could have used jump drives"

"Or sent it to themselves Or to the cloud Or just copied the hard drives"

"Adrianna had marks on her throat near where she was bitten by the Son of Darkness" Marks that could have co as it was ripped off her The gold chain that was dangling in Eli’s fingers, the links the same size as the marks on her neck Reach’s data? One chance in acouple hundred Maybe

Santana was a child of the Roman Empire and had been kept prisoner for the last hundred years He’d had only a few days to learn about the s he needed to survive: food--human cattle--shelter from the sun, a safe place to lair up Electronic hardware had to be way down on the survival list If he took the necklace fronificance, like ical powers And for us, ets here Get the Kid working on it Tell him I’ll buy him a whole computer store if he can save the data"

Eli chuckled and disappeared into the night, taking his flashlight with hi olf, Brute’s blood on ently "If you die now, you’ll never have a chance to get revenge foryour nose open" Brute didn’t react, but he didn’t stop breathing either, which was good enough for the moment

In less tiarden, three shorter forms behind him By their smell, I knew they were vaitated, va ones va frenzy "Bruiser? You sure about this?"

"Not in the least, but he assures e to remember that they are Mithrans, not siic rose; icy prickles danced along nature A fourth forht, lithe, and so powerful it hurt where his ic touchedvaroup ca vaarden weren’t vamps who had been drained by Joseph Santana the day he escaped Vamps who had been prey to Santana