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Daze followed her own, but there was a cold consideration in it that didn’t seem to fit the circumstances Jiana had, after all, attempted to execute her son in the most brutal fashion The only reason Aed to rip out one of the spikes and hit Jiana so hard across the face with it she’d ended up unconscious with a broken cheekbone, a deep gash one by the tiuards

“Payment for his crimes,” the female vampire had whispered when Honor and Dmitri arrived on the scene

Honor wouldn’t have believed the woe of heart if not for the fact that quite aside fro his escape, Jiana’s face was horribly bruised, the elegant silk and lace of her nightgown all but torn off her, her ribs cracked

“He looked at me,” Jiana had added, eyes dull, “in a way no ht, hat had pushed her over the edge—it sees even the most devoted of mothers couldn’t accept However, it was clear D until he shifted his attention back to her, she said, “What do you see?”

“It’s not what I see It’s what I s hiuess “Some kind of a sedative or tranquilizer in his blood” There was h it was by the rain, to make a deter rage It was calered on Jiana “Consider the fact that in spite of her ‘cooperation’ earlier, she made no mention of the culvert that allows covert access to this property”

“Aher rational s, could be she’s lying and he didn’t only say or do so she couldn’t accept, but actually succeeded in assaulting her

“Trauet disoriented, weak, and then she did this” Amos could’ve easily stued and less than lucid It was less than a hundred yards fro been knocked unconscious, while the others were situated around the perimeter, no one could refute that version of events

“Plausible” Dans that were still pink with health, evidence of the va as he had a steady supply of fresh blood and a place to hide

“Except,” Dhts about how a utted by his own mother, “whatever happened here, it wasn’t siain, consciously putting aside her i mother pushed to the brink, and focused only on the facts One of which was that this had taken tiansthey’d been removed with neat precision, sat in a tidy pile

Heart chilling at the realization, she was about to turn toward Dli a couple of feet away “He was gagged” And froht in the wrinkles the rain hadn’t penetrated, he’d bitten through his tongue, likely shredded his lips The ground where he’d been pinned was drenched in so much of that sa area, pale pink dew glea from broken stems

The conclusion wasn’t an easy one, but it had to be said “She enjoyed this”