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She thought of her date with Axe "Toht?"

"I have it off I’ll coo to your place Especially if we’re going to be talking about her I don’t want anybody to overhear anything"

"Fine And Elise, I’m sorry"

"For what?"

"I don’t know I’ll see you to in e treh her body--and at first, she assu But then … no, that wasn’t it

Putting the phone down, she looked around, but co in a darkened corner--in her all-white hts on

Leaving her phone behind, she went out into her bedroom Glanced in all the corners, of which none were dark because she had all the lights on in there as well

Except she wasn’t exactly scared

More like pricklingly aware--

"Axe?" she said out loud

Even though Elise was in her pink bathrobe, she padded out into the hall Followed the instinct down to the main staircase Proceeded to the first floor--

Fresh air Someone had just come into the house

And … Axe’s scent It had been he who had been let in Moreover, thanks to the blood she’d taken froht before, she knew precisely where he was

Snapping her head to the left, she saw that her father’s study was closed up

Making no sound at all, she whispered over the marble floor to the parlor that was located behind his private work space Inside, the peach-and-silver loveliness of the wallpaper and the drapes was lost on her as she went to a built-in shelving expanse that had a scalloped top and Herend figurines of roosters and waterfowl and other birds of all kinds on its levels

The release was hidden on the right at shoulder height, the kind of thing you couldn’t see and wouldn’t guess at--and when she toggled it, the entire unit, built soed fro into the hidden passageway, she pulled an old-fashioned metal cord with a wooden handle on the end … and back the shelves went,so seamlessly that the priceless porcelain collection wasn’t disturbed in the slightest