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"Exactly" A shiver of revulsion skittered down her spine "I would never have invited hihtfully "Do your kind need an invitation?"

"The full-bloods do I don’t" She tapped her fingernails on the ar if it’s possible that she could have given hiate the power of the threshold?"

"Beats the hell out of uess anything is possible"

Kaitlyn stood and began to pace the floor As her mind cleared, she realized that the fact that Daryn was kinworse What would her father think when he found out Zack had killed one of their kind? Her father hated the Others; this would just ood--she refused to think he had intended to kill her--and surely her father wouldn’t condelanced at Zack, suddenly afraid for his future She had seen her father when he was angry, and she had never forgotten it She had told Zack her father in a rage was a scary sight, but that didn’t begin to describe it Her father hadn’t raised his voice or anything like that, but he had suddenly seeated one of his brothers Preternatural power had rolled off her father, so strong, so overpowering, it seemed to suck the very air fro froh her father had never raised his hand She had known instinctively that, had he wished it, her father could have killed Ciprian

And now, because of her, Zack’s life h once she explained what had happened, she was sure her father would understand She had to believe that

"Why was Korzha after you?" Zack asked

"I don’t know" Sitting on the sofa again, she fidgeted with her hair "I haven’t known hi In fact, I met him about the same time I met you"

Zack leaned forward, his forearms braced on his knees "He was like you, a Romanian vampire" It wasn’t a question

She nodded "He was one of randfather had a lot of wives" That was an understatement; he’d had twenty "And they had a lot of children" Another understaterandfather’s favorite wife and her children lived at the Fortress with him The other wives all had horandmother back then" Kaitlyn smiled inwardly Her ed drastically after Kaitlyn was born Liliana had grown kinder, Elena had said, htful of others

Zack leaned back in his chair, conte children, living in castles like old royalty It was a hell of a story

"I didn’t grow up at the Fortress," Kaitlyn said, "so I don’t know all of randfather’s wives all kept their ed to which wife"

"Sounds like he had quite a hares considered, it appears that Korzha was after you for some reason Do you think he intended to kidnap you, and if so, as his motive?"

"I don’t have any idea" She chewed on her lower lip a o, before I was born, my father killed one of Daryn’s brothers" It was an old story, one well-known by covens throughout the world

Zack grunted softly "Sounds like a good, old-fashioned case of revenge to me"

"After more than twenty years?" It seemed a farfetched idea, and yet, in the back of herto check up on her not long ago He had said so about a rumor he had heard, and almost in the same breath, he had mentioned Daryn and his mother Was it possible Nadiya was behind it all?

When she asked Zack what he thought about it, he shrugged "You knohat they say, revenge is a dish best served cold"

"It would have to be frozen by now," Kaitlyn retorted "Zack, you have to leave here Or I do If my father finds out what happenedYou kno he feels about the Others And if he finds out you killed one of us" She shuddered, not wanting to dwell on what her father ht do She had no future with Zack She knew that, but she didn’t want anything to happen to hi," Zack said "I like it here"

"Then I’ll go"

"I’m not afraid of your father"

"Well, you should be!"

"Calirl There’s no reason for you to be so upset And no reason for your father to be angry withexcept probably save your life I’d think he’d be grateful for that"

He was right She was overreacting because Zack was one of the Others But she couldn’t help it Her fathersomeone he considered an enemy of her people--even if that so else entirely