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Stu continued to look around, obviously confused over what he was doing with "athered hie, True Can’t afford a haircut?" he said and sneered, before strutting off

Anyan’s hurowl, and I laid a hand on his knee I appreciated his irritation at Stuart, but I was used to the idea that Stuart was, indeed, a funda person What I was not used to was Stuart stuue, apocalyptic threats

"Bigger fish," I hest, as I turned to the others We all huddled up around the bar to confab

"What the hell was that?" I asked, watching as A to Tracy and Grizzie The look of concern that had lit up their faces when Stuart shaot up andthelamoured and sent away like children, but for their own safety (and sanity) they shouldn’t be party to our conversation

Amy’s thin mouth bent into a frown "We don’t know," she replied "But it’s been happening all over Rockabill"

"Since when?"

"It started about a week after you and Anyan were attacked"

I gave her my own frown "Do you think the two are connected?"

"In a way," said Anyan "We’re thinking the attack was a first atte access to the territory Kill e"

"But why? Gain access to what? I h to hire professional hitelse "And what does Blondie have to do with all of this?"

"Blondie?" Iris asked, confused

Anyan chuckled "It’s what Jane called"--and here Anyan ain--"e didn’t knoho she was"

Iris grinned "I like ‘Blondie’ better Her real name hurts my jaw"

Amy nodded "Hell, yeah Blondie it is Cuz that bitch can party!"

I looked at Aured it out "Do you mean the Blondie?" I breathed

Amy nodded "We rocked the seventies," was all she said, leaving me awestruck

But Amy’s former lifestyle wasn’t the issue Our Blondie, however, was

"So what the hell was she doing here anyway? Why was she following us? And where is she now?" I probably sounded ungrateful toward someone who had apparently saved my life numerous times, but I didn’t care If soo a little bananas, that person was gonna be suspect in athering inforer--she’s the only one who could pu when you were bleeding out, rateful But that still doesn’t clarify what she was doing here"

Anyan gestured to our seats, and all of the supes in attendance moved our bar stools so that we could sit and see one another Nell levitated herself to sit on the actual bar while Trill wiggled into the space between our circle of knees This was going to take a while, as Anyan cleared his throat like he had to give a speech

"A lot has been revealed while you were sleeping It’s all been going on for a while, but e discovered about Jarl’s operation here in our Territory brought things to a head Basically, the schism we’ve seen here, between those who strive for purity and those who either ignore or encourage interaction with hu all over the world Territories are either picking sides or splitting asunder fro," Anyan intoned

Despite the fact that they had to know all of this already, everyone still looked alht have been hearing about this war for the first tie obviously didn’t make it sit any better withto know there was an evil renegade such as Jarl in a position of power, and another thing entirely to know that "renegade" was anything but and was, instead, part of a power structure that could bring real war to our lives Meanwhile, everyone was looking equally worried, not least because although my supernatural friends had undoubtedly been in their shares of fights and disputes, Anyan and Caleb were the only real warriors in the Sty that night

"But what does this war have to do with Rockabill?" I asked, and then thought of a horrible answer to ht here, is it?"

Anyan shook his head no

"The war definitely won’t be here To be honest, I don’t knohere it will be this tiht before We have too much to lose, in terms of huht "It’ll be a new kind of war--a modern war But it will be just as bloody and just as violent"

Way to sugarcoat it, I thought, taking a glu to be here," I said, after I’d sed, "why is all this stuff happening here?"

"So powerful So that the other side wants"

"What do you ’ and by ‘wants’?" I asked

"We don’t know exact details yet," Anya told one Once you were stabilized, she went back out to try to find more information"

"So what do you know?"