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Ryu’s htened "Yes Anyan Where did he run off to, by the way?"

"He took off after Con," I replied, leaning back on the stairs and wearily shutting e Then we leave Sound good?"

"We don’t have to leave, honey We can stay here, draw Conleth out, fight him here We’ll protect you"

I cracked open one incredulous eye at Ryu

"Are you serious? Hell no Look at this fucking place, Ryu I’ the people I love vulnerable What could a huainst Conleth? Even Iris wouldn’t have lasted two ainst him, and she, at least, has some power Gods, if he’d come after Grizzie and Tracy, or ht of what he’d do toback to Boston," I concluded, using my "final answer" voice

"Jane…"

"No, Ryu We’re leaving And we’re not co back here till Conleth is found I will not risk everyone by staying here"

Ryu was silent, frowning at istics

"You’re probably right, Jane You are safest with ht "And I have to adh I hate that it’s because of this attack I never wanted you wrapped up with Conleth"

I shrugged "I know you didn’t But how the fuck did he findfor Con, and we even found hi Then, a couple of days ago, Julian, he’s our resident techie as well as our portable charger, went to put some new software on my coht in the Commons I don’t use it much, and never for work, so we didn’t panic Hell, we thought we could use it to our advantage Use it to trap hiuiltilymy eyes "But that’s how he ured out who you were E-mails and pictures and stuff"

"Shit He read our e-mails?"

Ryu nodded and I frowned, really uncomfortable If Con had readabout me Ryu and I wrote each other a lot, and I told hi about my life as it was at that moment All ofabout the supes, and the supes didn’t really care too much about my human life Iris did, to be fair, but she was so scatterbrained Only Ryu bridged that gap between my new supernatural existence and my more mundane, human life I could tell Ryu aboutwith Nell, and he seemed equally interested in both Now I felt really vulnerable knowing Conleth knew so ure he cah you, not expecting to find you so well protected But he got a nasty surprise instead Too bad we never e-mailed each other about how Nell is secretly the Ternome shell"

My frown deepened as I re his hand out toward ht, the more questions I had After all, if Con had just attacked from the other side of the field, closer to the house, he would have hit ht; Con would never have guessed how fierce was our resident gnos But there was sos had played out, and about the look in his eyes when he’d reached out to me, that caused , standing up as I did so I was just skeeved out, tired, and stressed I needed a swi would seem less portentous, less dire

"Take me to the ocean, Ryu Then take me home," I commanded "Your home," I amended hastily when he cocked an eyebrow at me His would have to do, for now, as I’d ht that made me sad, I realized, as Ryu slipped his arm around my waist and led me off to his car and away from the field of battle

Very, very sad, indeed

CHAPTER TEN

Ryu’s tongue swiped over the pinpricks in entle spash my system He pulledmy head under his chin

"Gods, it’s nice to have you here, Jane," he ers down e,him with a loud snawed at things it had no business gnawing at wondered whether he was referring to my company or my blood For a second, I wondered whether, for Ryu, there waset up to take a shower

It was late, around nine After leaving Nell’s cabin, I’d gone for a quick swiht back to Boston It should have been about a seven-and-a-half-hour drive, but Ryu the Rocket did it in six I was still seeing flashbacks ofbefore me