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"They could expose us to mortals," Damien said
"They could hunt us to neutralize the risk we present to theested
"They could al y with the vampires," Geoffrey threw in "I wouldn’t put it past Syre"
Adrian nodded, knowing Syre was hurting now, having lost his daughter forever when Lindsay had exorcised Shadoe’s reincarnated soul from her body "That’s the most likely scenario of the three"
The three Sentinels didn’t knohat it was like to lose a piece of one’s heart--they hadn’t been compromised by human emotions as Adrian and Syre had been Adrian didn’t doubt that the varief, and the lycan revolt would give Syre the perfect htness She shook her head vehe Elijah lives to hunt vamps, and he wants Vashti’s head on a platter for what she did to Micah"
"And Syre, Torque, and Vashti want his because of Nikki’s abduction," Adrian said, "but vengeance can be postponed with the right incentive"
He softened his voice, knowing she considered the lycan a friend "You never thought he would revolt and he did"
She bit her lower lip, her eyes reflecting her concern Even now she worried about the Alpha
Adrian brushed across her entle caress to calm her, because he couldn’t bear to see her troubled It wasn’t just Elijah’s fateher anxious, but Syre’s, too She wasn’t the va Shadoe’s soul inside her had left a mark--she’d been exposed to Shadoe’s hter’s love for her father While they weren’t her memories, Lindsay felt the erieved their loss
She shot hi him of her demand that he not " her because he didn’t perceive that as
Lindsay caught his wrist and i his h him She was so ful of vitality and humor despite the many blows life had dealt her He was so different fro been created to punish and i hi her light into his darkness
And he row, to be the sort ofa smile to her face and happiness to her life Because she was his soul Who was he if not the man who loved her beyond al reason and self-preservation?
The phone began to ring in his office They al heard it despite the distance frolass patio door that closed off his workspace fro accusto the corner The glass panel slid aside as he approached and he wil ed his wings away They dissipated like fog in a stiff hen he stepped inside, affording him comfortable movement as wel as the ability to blend withand his gaze held Lindsay’s as he settled into his chair
"Mitchel ," he greeted the cal er
"Captain Siobhán here"
He leaned back in his chair, settling in He’d tasked Siobhán with studying the disease ravaging the va ceaselessly on that mission for weeks It was she who’d inadvertently discovered that Sentinel blood cured the il ness when a Sentinel working with her was bitten by one of the infected, resulting in the infected returning to a nor the tens of thousands of vampires in North America alone and the less than two hundred Sentinels left in existence, it was information they couldn’t afford to have the vampires discover before an alternate cure was found "How are you progressing?"
"Slowly but surely I’ve got a dozen infected in stasis now We can keep them alive with steady blood transfusions, but they have to stay anesthetized or they’re impossible to control"
Adrian had seen the monstrosities in action firsthand He kne her brain function?"
"How far do you want riet them If you want a play-by-play of what happens from exposure to il ness, I’l need to deliberately infect healthy subjects"
"Do it Our blood is a cure, so we can reverse the da, but the ends justified the means When Nikki had attacked hih to speak to him coherently How recently had she been exposed? Had she been an example of someone who’d been recently contaminated? Or someone who’d been il for a while? "Have you been able to spot any patterns in the rapidity of progression?"
Some vamps were dead within a few days, others lasted a feeeks, and stil others appeared to be iard" Her exciteh in her voice The pixielike Sentinel was ravenous for knowledge "I’m not entirely positive yet, but it see on how far re their vampiric hierarchy For example, Lindsay is once removed from Syre Her infection would advance ed, ould be twice removed from Syre And so on and so on"
He set his elbows on the arether "You need to test Fal en blood"
"It would be helpful, yes," she conceded, certainly knowing how difficult it would be to attain "Then I could see if it at least slows the develop it," Lindsay interjected "As a varegate"
Adrian’s response was ied him--the distinctive irises of a va the others with ease, but as stil frail in many ways His Sentinel blood would protect her froht and wouldn’t hesitate to kil , but she’d stil be vulnerable and he wouldn’t be close enough to protect her And there was the fact that while most minions would have no idea who she was, some of the Fal en did because of Syre and Shadoe She wasn’t total y anonymous
He couldn’t risk her, couldn’t lose her "No," he said again, pushing the negation into her rowled
Siobhán’s melodious voice floated out of the phone’s speaker "I’ to need enical y stored, for identification and genetic testing purposes "Anything else?"
"Perhaps…" She hesitated a elic blood sael Preferably both Perhaps we Sentinels aren’t the only ones who carry the cure in our veins"
"You don’t ask for h el in the lowest sphere--were theblood from one was no easy task "I’l see what I can do Keep aze never leaving Lindsay’s face She was careful not to openly chal enge him in front of his subordinates, a circumspection she’d always displayed and he had always appreciated But she’d chal enge him in private He would never tel her how much it aroused him when she did so He’d just continue to show her instead… "We need a plan B, Lindsay Work on coh his hair, his heart pounding violently, his gaze on the woman sprawled prone on the bed Vashti’s hair was a cri sinuously atop her back and shoulders Her face was turned toward hi exhalations Her clawed hands fisted the fitted sheet, and trails of tears were stil visible on her pale cheeks Not due to hihtmare she’d suffered that had woken him
No…please…stop… Over and over in a broken litany Whih his vitals
He would never forget the bloodcurdling screa on the floor in his lupine form