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"And killing humans is part of a vampire’s nature?"

"Well, yeah At least soet a vampire to kill a human"

"Even someone they cared about?"

Lex blew out a breath "Yeah, probably If the witch was strong enough"

"Is it so you could do?"

There was a pause When she replied her voice was stiff "Are you accusing , Cruz?"

"No, no," he hurried to say "But there’s a vampire here who claims she was forced to kill a bunch of woirls, but she was sort ofcoave her aso he could scratch Shadow beneath her collar The bargest licked his hand appreciatively "Obviously I’ve never done that," Lex said at last "But yeah, I think I could I’h"

"Okay Thanks, Lex"

"Wait! If there’s a rogue boundary witch running around LA, I should probably know about it Can you keep me updated?"

He pro up the phone feeling a familiar rush of internal satisfaction He’d fit a piece into the puzzle He could now explain to Scarlett and Molly hoas possible that Molly had been forced

Then his elation faded A rogue boundary witch running around LA That couldn’t be good But ould she have against Molly?

Chapter 10

As expected, the eot the bleeding under control, thanks to Jesse’s tourniquet, and the ER doc gave me a local and some stitches He offered me a prescription for oxycodone, but I declined I needed to be sharp when I got out of there The whole tiI didn’t have any phone numbers memorized and I would be fine Luckily, eren’t at the hospital where my brother worked If I’d buotten out of there

The moment after the last stitch went in, two uniformed police officers shouldered their way past the doctor to ask me questions I kept it very si a hard ti back to my van someone rolled do and shot me I told the police I didn’t have any ene

Under other circuo at that, but they were suspicious about the tourniquet onthat I’d done it hbor had called the police may have seen Jesse with , and I couldn’t remember what he looked like

The hardest part of the conversation was ht amount of shock and fear: I wanted to look as upset as a victiun violence should, but not so upset that I see it I also wanted the cops to drop the whole investigation, so I had to iuns--without see to walk that fine line after blood loss proved to be exhausting, and in the end I didn’t need to work very hard to look shocked or confused

The cops still insisted on going through a bunch of background on ular activities They were clearly hoping I’d reveal secret connections to the , but the joke was on theht Dashiell had made sure of that On paper, I was a freelance housecleaner who lived with her bartender boyfriend in San Marino I had a perfect tax history, thanks to Hayne’s CPA brother, plus health insurance, good credit, and et the iether

That was a little hilarious to s considered, but it worked Afterthe saave up I’d like to think that I wore them doith my personality

When Jesse finally walked in, I was in thewith a nurse na the hospital of responsibility when I walked out "I’ll sign the AMA," I insisted, "as soon as you give me some scrubs to wear out of here"

"Nuh-uh Those are hospital property," she countered