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Stephan leaned closer "They’re al over the ht You’d expect to see an outward spread from one point, but it looks like there were four, as if they were deliberately spaced to speed the rate and area of infection We know Sentinels raided a nest outside of Seattle, and you can see that’s one of the first known cases"

Elijah shook his head, knohere this was going "Adrian’s clean on this"

"You sure?"

"Yes Doesn’t mean a Sentinel isn’t responsible, but Adrian is in the clear"

"Shit" Vash began to pace, briefly distracting hiile stride "And the Sentinels won’t act without his orders, so that leaves us hat? De, she looked at hiels’ Point while under Sentinel guard"

"Then they al owed it to happen"

"Not to this woeddon first"

"Would he? Hmm…" She spun on her stiletto heel and left the cavern

Elijah was right behind her, fol owing in her cherry-scented wake He was damn near dizzy by the ti on a deep breath that cleansed his lust-addled brain He watched Vash pul an iPhone out from under a crimson bra strap and hit a speed-dial button A moment later, the vampire leader appeared on her screen via a video feed

"Vashti" Syre greeted his second-in-command arm familiarity "Are you wel ?"

Elijah interjected "You didn’t care about that when you sent her to me alone and unarle the screen in Elijah’s direction "Ah The lycan Alpha You’re precisely what I expected"

"I expected you to be smarter" Elijah crossed his arms

"You’d be an idiot to harm my lieutenant I would hunt you down and spread your hide in front of "

"My hide is worth the saave a shit about the respect--or lack of--that she was shown by her commander

"If you’d been able to take her down, yes She’s a damned fine warrior, armed or not"

Vash flipped the phone back around to face her "How did you get your hands on Lindsay?"

The hair on Elijah’s arms and nape rose with his sudden fury He’d pinned the vampress to a tree by the throat before she knehat’d hit her

Vash found herself flattened into the coarse bark of a tree trunk by over six feet and two hundred twenty pounds of bristling, growling lycan Her fury over being caught unawares was exacerbated by her prickling dislike of Elijah’s proprietary feelings toward Lindsay Gibson

"What?" she taunted, catching the wrists of his hands presently wrapped around her neck His heavily h was shoved between hers and his lean hips pressed against her pelvis in a way that set her heart racing "Got a hard-on for Adrian’s wo "Why do you care?"

"Lindsay saved my life"

"I knew I hated that bitch for a reason"

"She’s with Adrian"

Elijah’s head turned toward the iPhone on the ground and Syre’s steely-eyed visage "Is she unharmed?"

"If she’s stil alive, she’s healthier than she’s ever been"

A chil slid down Elijah’s spine He looked at Vashti, whose eyes were bright with chal enge While a mortal would have lost consciousness by now from lack of air, the vampress was merely flushed, which made her even more beautiful "What did you do to her?"

"What she wanted done," Syre answered "Release my second, Alpha, before I decide you’re more trouble than you’re worth"

"Not yet" Maybe not ever, if his growing suspicions were realized His gut knotted as the fear deepened

Vash sht to rowled "There’s a vampire nest in Southern California?"

"We prefer to cal the on the size" She turned her gaze to Syre "Did they tel you how they got her out of Angels’ Point?"

It was no secret that Angels’ Point, Adrian’s coh above the city, it was guarded by Sentinels and lycans--before the revolt--as wel as the finest electronic surveil ancewheels in Syre’s mind were evident in his contemplative tone "I assumed they’d acquired her somewhere between her work and the Point"

"We need to talk to the"

"I’l see to it And I’ve sent the Alpha’s blood sample from the scene of Nikki’s abduction out to be analyzed for anticoagulants, as you requested

I’l let you know the results when I have theht there, Vashti?"

The circle of her fingers released Elijah’s wrists, freeing her hands to slide up his ar hiularly, so I can be certain"

"Yes, Syre"

Yes, Syre Elijah was deterhly…while she was beneath hi cock That he could want her and want to kil her at the sa with his head Rachel’s pain was a vice around his chest…Lindsay had lost her mother to Vashti’s viciousness…yet stil he craved the vampress with a ferocity that shook hith, which just happened to be the exact pressure he most enjoyed Her hands ran down either side of his spine, kneading, before reaching his ass and palue peeped out and slid over her ful lower lip "You can’t have Lindsay, you know She’s brain-dead over Adrian Gave up her life for hi to wrap him with "What--exactly--did you do to her, Vashti?"

"You’ve been a Sentinel dog for years Bet you’ve never seen Adrian look twice at a woman Why her? What’s special about her?"