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When they backed off, shefor the table, and hissed in warning as Mason stepped to- ward her As Jacob watched, she worked her way around the edge until she got to him It all struck hie syringe from Debra The cylinder appeared to contain a cup of a blue seruht A pretty potion that would kill hi his lady a chair Perhaps when this was over, they would all--except for him--return to the Ball Such was the way of life for va and civility so intertwined it colored their entire world in a way that no human would ever estured, looking uncomfortable but determined "The serum is delivered directly into the heart " She an to move The woman immediately backed off After a tense ers treh her face remained i down her throat, a hateful serpent of disease eating away her beauty Yet no physical blemish could mar the fierce beauty of her soul, the wild purity of it he&039;d had the pleasure to touch and experience

"You choose now to flatter your Mistress, when you&039;ve disobeyed her to the point I don&039;t know of any punishh to inflict upon you " "No, my lady " He closed his hand over hers when she rested her hand on his bare chest, the black shirt sliding free with the pull of gravity, pooling on either side of hih so that Uthe could step close and slide the rest off, leaving his upper body bare His insides felt as though they were boiling, but suddenly he was cold on the outside, feeling the surface of the table, his nerves acting up,here, waiting to have his life taken frorip of his hand on hers, feeling her sli the soft skin on the top Her nails had already blackened, and it appeared two of the fast "I never should have given you that third mark They couldn&039;t have done this to you " "Ah, my lady " He cupped her face, the fear washed away by the aching need to ease the pain he heard in her voice "Look at h to brush her lips "I would have coaxed you into it From the day we met, you&039;ve never been able to say no to ether hard andShe averted her face when he tried to touch the wound Debra approached now cautiously with stethoscope and blood pressure cuff "To ed to wrap it around his biceps efficiently, despite being pinioned under the cold stare of those green eyes "Not the usual accessory for a ball gown " He coughed, catching the end of her stethoscope and tugging on it for elance flickered toward hiers on his chest, marked with a swab the entry point for the needle where it apparently wouldn&039;t strike a rib Then she put the stethoscope to his chest

He could have told her his breath was starting to labor, a symp- tom his lady wouldn&039;t display But she had ones that told the The blackened skin on her wrists was creeping upward like the slow ooze ofof her hands had increased There was a twitching motion to her head that he didn&039;t know if she had noticed Her fingers spas pain The ser, and when her other hand went to her abdo inside He felt it intensifying in his vi- tal organs, though it was not eating away his skin as it was hers Sweat collected on his skin and his body jerked of its own volition, just as hers did the saht "Hurry, " Jacob said sharply No No "We&039;d do this with an IV if we could, my lady, but there&039;s no tih to wait for her word, Lyssa reflected, though she knew that wouldn&039;t be for long They were clustered around her like vultures Only instead of wanting to feed on her death, they were forcing her to accept a life she didn&039;t want "Did you tell her she looks beautiful?" Brian looked at her, startled "My lady?" "Debra looks beautiful in her dress Did you tell her that?" He blinked Debra shifted her attention to the vampire queen "Of course she looks beautiful " Brian see with a mentally unbalanced patient He flinched as Lyssa&039;s hand closed on his wrist over Jacob&039;s body, her eyes glittering "MyLord Brian " Despite the rasp in her voice, she conveyed h to capture his complete atten- tion "That&039;s not the question I asked " "My lady, there is no tiaze down to her sternuht was only in her chest had burned through to the outside, a charred expanse of flesh visible and spreading The fire ht Brian&039;s wrist and yanked hie of the e the needle into his chest at the spot Debra had marked He cried out at the pain, screaer "No, no" It took precious seconds for Lyssa to fight free of Ma- son, who&039;d lunged forward to hold her back until Brian injected the serum fully into her servant&039;s body Lyssa shoved hi Brian&039;s are fell to the floor, the large glass vial shattering Several vampires started forward, but Brian cut a sharp hand at the them away from her "It&039;s done It all went in Debra, start the ti to a tense half circle on the other side of the conference table The stillness was bro- ken only by Jacob&039;s gasping as he tried to accept the pain like fire burning hiBranded all over for you, my lady All over, in- side and out" "He does not have to be conscious for this, " Debra said urgently "Brian--Master" "No " Jacob forced the word through clenched teeth "My ladyPleaseWill you hold ht she was still angry with him She wrapped her hand around his, despite the fact she had to see the beauty of his strong fingers overlapping her hands where the skin was peeling away, exposing an to burn She&039;d borne pain before, knowing it would not kill her, that it was just a period of time to bear Now she bore it the same way For even this was just a ht be her last with Jacob To be part of his mind, one with his soulThe seru of the inside of his artery walls Her own pain , al visions through agonizing torture She couldn&039;t stop the moan that broke from her lips

"My lady, break the link " Brian&039;s voice was sharp "If you try to share his pain, you can put your body under worse duress " Mason&039;s hands clamped on her shoulders "Da hi her attention to hiin&039;s wedding dress and sweat pooled under his body on the table He was bleeding froivable in ht dully, tuony "BreakIt, my lady Talk to meWith your beautifBeau- tiful l-lips I&039;ll hear youYou don&039;t have to share my pain to atoneFor Thomas He knew He understood As I do " If it was possible, the words tore into her with even sharper claws than the pain She shook her head, clutched at his arers remain, bruise the skin instantly "I don&039;t want you to leavethe thickness in her throat "You&039;ve left meTwice before I won&039;t tolerate it You&039;ve disobeyed h today " His face contorted Fire rose in her, a reflection of the fire in hi He was mortal He shouldn&039;t have to endure this "Please, my lady, " he pleaded "I can&039;t bear to cause you more pain PleaseA last request " With an oath, she broke the link, but only because she knew if the pain ratcheted up any further, she&039;d lose consciousness As awful as this was, knowing she&039;d wake up on the other side of a faint and find hiid with physical anguish, his ex- pression eased Her tears burned down her cheeks "It never occurred to you, did it?" She spoke soft ly, not because she cared if they heard, but because she had no strength left to raise her voice His clear blue eyes found her as she stroked his cheek His liht to focus on her words She suspected any otherWithout the connection, she couldn&039;t feel the level of his pain, could do noth- ing but wait to take his life force from him like a parasite

"W-What, my lady?" His lips had dried out and now cracked so that more blood seeped from the full and sensuous bottom one she&039;d nipped more than once "That I wouldn&039;t want to live in a world without you in it " Her sentimental Irishman Her wordshand to her face, his thumb found the track of wetness from her own "Ah, my ladyYou know you don&039;t th to stroke her with the reassuring, calm touch he&039;d always used He even reached out an arm, drew her away from Mason and closer so she lay half on his chest and could hear his heart thundering, racing, running out of tithIs restored, you&039;ll say it wasThe disease Making you talkLike this " Jacob could feel her weakness It only reinforced what he knew he had to do He would save her She would live "You bastard " She clung to him "You know it&039;s not that " He tipped her face up He tried his best to fight past his own ag- ony, to put his heart in his eyes There was too ainst his wishes "WellWhen you&039;reAll better, I&039;llMy spiritWe&039;ll wait to hear you say it again, and know youyou " Getting hard to focus She sed "I order you not to do this " "Too late " This you cannot command, my lady, because my first duty is to protect you I will serve it faithfully, always He touched her lips with his, despite the charred skin on her face, despite the blood still running from his nose over his lips That didn&039;ther tears, un- able to speak anyhts In this life and the next There will be a next I&039;ll never leave you alone Not ever Lyssa pressed her forehead to Jacob&039;s shoulder "I will not tolerate this, " she said again into his flesh

You will, ht A vampire&039;sNature is to embrace life LiveTo the fullest "Shut up, " she said, a sob choking her "I don&039;t wish to hear such things from you now " Debra discreetly inserted a needle in his ar at a quick step to the microscope There were painful flashes of color in his vision Sharp, knifelike silver, the red of blood, the glaring yellow of a too hot sun Gods, he&039;d never hurt so ht hazily My lady needs uish called hirateful that he could still be coherent in his er accomplish verbally You al- ways hoped that your sacrifices for RexThat one day it would be enough He would become the man you wanted him to be That&039;s not the way it works He has to deserve the sacrifice My lady, you deserve the sacrifice You deserve everything I can give you and more When he turned his head, pressed his lips to her te inside Lyssa&039;s heart cracked, an audible sound Why didn&039;t any of theo Had she not suffered enough loss over the past two years to prove it, lived enough centu- ries, coh? Perhaps she would like to live in this world longer, but for once with no expectations of her She&039;d been prepared to die because Ja- cob was going to die She couldn&039;t iuide her on the other side of this She could choose to meet the sun once she was restored to herself, and Mason had as much as said no one would stop her But where would Jacob be by then? If they went together, as irrational an idea as it ht be, it was in her mind that he couldn&039;t be taken fro no soul Now she only worried about not hav- ing hiht be Damn it all, she&039;d always provided her own compass Why should this situation be so different? She was not helpless; she never had been Jacob was right A vampire&039;s natural desire, contrary to their dark reputation, was to embrace life

How could she embrace it for both of them? "My lady, it&039;s ti Brian&039;s light touch As she heard the terrible words, she met Jacob&039;s eyes, inches from hers "No, " she whispered Her eyes filled with tears anew, thinking of life draining out of that clear gaze She knehat death looked like there, the cloudy glassiness She couldn&039;t bear the idea How had he come to mean so much in such a little tiht it the distorted effect of the disease Thoht it was because they shared a link that extended far beyond the past handful ofJacob had said or done during the short tiether From the very first he&039;d made an impression like a launched arrow, and the shaft of his presence had embedded itself more firmly every moment since then She didn&039;t care that they saw her tears Brian was shifting, obvi- ously warring with the need to press her and the automatic reaction of their kind to draw back froive her the courtesy of privacy She felt hilance with Mason, and Mason start to step closer to her again "Do not push me on this, " she said You can lead a horse to wa- terThe h to push the forer able to pay attention to as going on in the roo every feature in her face, just like the first time she&039;d seen hiht, " she said "Impulsive, brash man You know that?" I knew you wouldn&039;t leave You wanted h his eyes broke her heart further His voice in hernow She laid her hand on his chest, watched it shake with his movements "Liar, " she whispered "You were ner- vous You lie to your Mistress now, even on your" "Deathbed " He finished the sentence when she couldn&039;t Thread-ing his trean to apply doard pressure to her nape, even as she began to resist

"PleaseMy lady Coive you life It will beMy honor " He sucked in an abrupt, laboring breath His body began to rip- ple, the precursor to a convulsion His hand clutched involuntarily against her throat and dug into the rotting skin there Hurry Please,to shatter with the force of the grief that swept her With a cry of ani his neck to hold him, to convey her presence, her awareness of his sacrifice even as she took what he of- fered His life for her own The serum was there, a taste that made the blood evenwith the taste of Jacob she loved, that she wanted uncorrupted She remembered her first taste of him had been spoiled by the inning was the end Full circle She&039;d seen that proven throughout her life Now she knew it held an iony of this s Her hand found his other hand, lying across his bare storipped hard, and he gripped back She knew she was giving herself an unwelcorip would slacken as life left him No one lived up to expectations, most especially herself But once the soul could find a way to swimire, it would reach a quieter plain See someone as they really were, not as the artist intended him, not the interpretation of the viewer, but what he was, the sis were si of that reality, because soca- cophony of illusion Hell was noise, and Hell could close in every day In the silence that descended upon her, the pain was just a backdrop, a roaring wall like the water at the ave Jacob the secondoutside of where she sat next to hi that lived was her and the man on the table A soul is a soul Thomas&039;s words Jacob was Jacob, whether in the body of a sa both acy Even as he spun the tires of his bike and made Bran chase him, Bushido had been his life and his philosophy, whether he knew it or not The way of the warrior, spiritually, physically Serious, aruntled to hear her think of hiing hi No, he wasn&039;t appropriate to be a servant Not by the definition that existed in the vampire world But when the expecta- tions fell away, disappointed, there he stood inside her, everything she&039;d ever wanted He also was exactly what she needed, and she wished she&039;d realized it sooner, so she wouldn&039;t have ht so hard to earn her realization of it She was a queen, and a vahter of a Fey lord She had her co her now, only to the iven it freely To whoiven her heart in a way she hadn&039;t to anyone else,not in her entire long life As a vampire, she didn&039;t possess the humility that mortals with their short life spans had to cultivate She expected things to occur the way she wanted the to accept this outco?" "Perhaps she needs the additional strengthShe was so close to the end" Disparate voices, worried murmurs, irritations only The lesion on her hand disappeared The one on her breast closed, healing into s like their wor- ries Their awe and auely reached her, as did Brian&039;s sense of trius, felt it speed through Jacob&039;s body and e with the antivirus seru on inside hiht her heart in a fist, the feel of those syste, the pro- cess of death she knew intih those passages, quicksilver es that had been filled with blood she&039;d drained from him Just a littlethrough her like a hal- lucinogenic, only in reverse The clarity of her reality was now so sharp it was as if everyone in the roo in extre pressure as she held theo to the place he de- served, but he would still want to see he&039;d done what he swore to do Protect her to the end But I haven&039;t released you You are still my servant, and I coo Silence A void Her soul suddenly emptied as if it had been tipped over, obscenely quick She knehat having a servant die felt like Thomas had been the worst of all those she&039;d lost, until now A never-ending emptiness, the very definition of loss What she wanted didn&039;t appear to matter She looked, searched desperately within hilit- tered in his syste but inert "He&039;s gone " Debra&039;s voice, soft, co over his heart, just above their linked hands His hand was heavy, wanting to fall, drop away from hers Lyssa wanted to kill Debra, silence her forever for saying those words "Lady Lyssa, it&039;s over " Lyssa lifted her head, her fangs marked with the remnants of his blood Traces of ethereal silver mixed with it "She" Uthe&039;s eyes widened, flicked to Jacob "She turned him " "She tried to turn him " Mason stepped forward before panic could sweep the room "She was unsuccessful The man is dead "

A pause, where she could hear her heartbeat One, two Thuone, but she wasn&039;t going to survive the tearing agony of Jacob&039;s death He was gone, no longer in herSo iy exploded through her Lyssa arched back, screa as the transformation clamped down on her, tore her into pieces The dress split Her fingers, rising to untangle herself frothened with the razor-sharp claws of her talons It was as if by e her reserve of conversion fluid into Ja- cob&039;s blood, there had been a reaction between Brian&039;s seruh her own syste enough to take the reaction Like Mason and the Council, her own body had ignored her wishes and was forcing her to grasp at life Whenever she transfor she could control with careful precision, as Jacob well knew froht she&039;d taken him on the forest floor She&039;d transformed portions of herself between human and Fey as needed without effort Not now Her other self literally exploded out of her va screams from her throat as she inadvertently dropped Jacob&039;s lifeless fingers His hand flopped to the side, his blue eyes staring, glazed over She snarled, her fangs lengthening to curve over her chin With serpent- quick ed onto the table as Brian started forith Uthe and Belizar Now they stopped as she hissed, going to a crouch "You will not touch hi into the room from a different reality Ten feet froood portion of the chah the mental impact was far ainst the wall "Holy Christ, " Brian murmured "My lords, I didn&039;t take into accountThere was no time

She isn&039;t full vampire This must be a mutation of the seruure out what has happened" The wildness of her souloff all yokes of restraints She had nothing left to lose She laughed, the rasping sound of a harpy&039;s deadly hiss whispering through the trees at a soulless hour of night "I aine, Lord Brian I aid control over her words and ac- tions to achieve her goals for her own species, to protect her servant, to try to love a husband unable to accept love Always knoas expected of her, never resenting it, knowing the advantages that power gave her to live her life as she chose Until now They would knohat it meant to try and wrest power from a queen Lord Belizar&039;s eyes narrowed "It is not aher head, she placed her claws on either side of Jacob&039;s head, covering hi "If you are clever enough to figure that out, Lord Belizar, you are clever enough to letto rowl "Lady Lyssa, " Helga said, "you cannot convert a servant It breaks ourwhat he could be, particu- larly converting hier Lady Lyssa Perhaps she never was " This from Carola "She is your queen, " Mason snapped, despite the fact his atten- tion was riveted upon her, his expression one of fascination and aesturing angrily in her direction "Look at her She has deceived us, for how many years? We cannot follow one such as this Nor will anyone follow a Council that does As head of this Council, I order her execution for her deception Her servant&039;s body should be burned and so should hers " "Over my dead body " Mason"With all due respect,courtesy when the air was rife with barely suppressed violence

"A human body cannot take the serum She has not converted him I tell you without doubt that Jacob is dead I could study the effect of the serum on him If you burn him--" Lyssa blinked "You think I would let you dissect him?" The harsh menace of her voice in this for even if she was in a mild mood, so she appreciated that he squared his shoulders and an to respond "My lady--" "She is not to be addressed thus " Belizar was practically frothing at the mouth It took visible effort for him to look at her Lyssa re- membered how Jacob had looked at her the first tiray skin onder Making her shiver with longing "We have not voted, " Lady Helga said Over the shouts and argu-point, Lyssa met Brian&039;s confused but not unsyet Jacob&039;s body Would not set fire to it Would not cut it up None of them He was cold All the steps of mortal death, followed by the slow rot of his corpse The blue eyes would decay and disappear How could God bear the inevitable end to one of His most beautiful sculptures? Did none of it matter? Were all the noble principles sined them to a Divinity who didn&039;t care? If that Divinity didn&039;t care that Jacob&039;s body had been destroyed, then Lyssa couldn&039;t iine It would care if she turned the walls in here red with the blood of the very Council she&039;d created "Kill her" Belizar&039;s command Seconded by another Council member And another She&039;d known vampires were like this, had ac- cepted it as a weakness even as she appreciated their strengths What was reh to becoed, proved itself to be no less self-serving and motivated by fear than any other form of prejudice, human, vary for blood Anyone&039;s blood would do at this point If they didn&039;t stop their cacophony, she would impose silence in a way that wouldherself Mason was at her side, his body still, waiting His eyes had narrowed, his lip curling back He pulled the sword hidden in the cane he&039;d brought with hiripped the wooden shaft in his opposite hand Only on Belizar&039;s face did she see cory and confused So to follow Belizar&039;s lead, but not with the odds so decisively stacked in her and Mason&039;s favor But just like a scene froentlemen were so certain that all that was needed to win the as their honor, so her Council still clung to the naivety that their "purity" ed, she kneithout a doubt she and Mason would kill theain lawless, leaderlessShe struggled to care, but all she felt was the weight of loss and fury "Take her now, " Belizar thundered His voice ed by a muted roar outside the cha had been shaken on its foundation Distant screah the walls, under the door The shtened senses Several vampires had thrown themselves forward, but now came up short in confusion Lyssa cared not for as happening out- side of this rooed into the air Her ingspan cut sharply through the air, talons reaching with deadly chaotic and unpredictable intent Her barbed tail lashed out like a whip as she hovered over Jacob where none could get to hi under the ht next to a Fey warrior all his life "Earthquake? What--" "No, " Lord Mortimer said He stood at the wall, still uncommit- ted to Belizar&039;s suit "Explosion " Belizar&039;s eyes were focused inward "Malachi says we are under attack byVampire hunters, " he said tersely, affront in his tone at the very idea "

A significant force in numbers, if not capability They somehow planted explosives on the verandah and have swar over Lord Welles caught her by the waist, steadying her No one in the roo a servant abruptly with no tiainst the loss Hadn&039;t they just seen an ex- ample of it moments before? "Tristan, " she whispered Jacob&039;s loss was like a fire roaring through Lyssa&039;s blood, squeez- ing her vital organs She was going to go mad Hold, lady Mason&039;s voice Be our queen "Malachi says the explosion wounded perhaps sixty, killed a dozen servants at least They targeted the upper levels and are taking advantage of the surprise to advance We will go to their aid, " Beli- zar said shortly His gaze rose, met Lyssa&039;s "You have your head start, Lady Lyssa If you do not want this Council to hunt you down and bring you to justice for your deception, then you should e the memory of your hybrid existence from our ranks " "If you have so little value for your life, " she responded, red eyes glittering, "come and find me, for I will never hide from the likes of you It is not so difficult to defeat a e " Belizar&039;s eyes flashed, but abruptly his expression suff used with shock "The vampire hunters have breached the inner walls, but there isAnother group " His attention snapped back up to Lyssa "Varoup of va the humans to attempt an overthrow of the Council They are on their way here, led by--" He stiffened Though he a, his face still went rigid with pain "Malachi " "Who?" Mason stepped forward, his eyes narrowed "He did not" Belizar shook his head, struggling to overcome the effects of the severed link "He couldn&039;t show me before they took his life They must have seen him He exposed himself to be sure of what he saw "

"We knoho it is, " Lyssa said flatly "It is Carnal and his car- rion eaters " Lord Stewart snarled "We should have known He has been in- creasingly defiant " "Joining with humans to attack us?" Mortimer scoffed "Carnal, who despises humans far more than anyone else?" "Perhaps Carnal was able to overcoths He has a bit more adaptability than this Council Unfor- tunately, he&039;s also a sociopath, " Mason observed contereat deal these days, " Lyssa said She didn&039;t want to be involved in this, didn&039;t want to care, but she was speaking despite herself "Recruiting for this, I suspect, and he ise enough to choose those ere in his ca out " "You foresaw this--" Belizar accused "Oh, good Christ You all foresaw this You fools just assumed he would use the Council floor to try to initiate his coup In all your civility, you&039;ve forgotten that the root of a vampire&039;s nature is vio- lence, particularly when the end he seeks is total do You should have staked hio " So in the end, it is your cynicisest fool of all Mason glanced at her No, my lady To try to make your world a better place and fail is far nobler than to never have the faith to try He turned his attention back to the Council "If we are to stop this we need to get out there Now " "Where we cannot tell friend fro this, the most horrible moment of her entire life, she refused to let someone like Carnal take control of what she&039;d worked so hard to build She felt the horrid stillness of Jacob&039;s body beneath her, re his face, re-hi What are you waiting for, oddarin on Mason&039;s face as he caught the thought and reen- eral principle It would heal, after all "Your opponents will be Carnal and the territory leaders who have been seeking pre-Council ways " Where vae unchecked in the human world, which would spell vampire extinction She played for just a blink with the idea of letting it happen, and then let that go All she had to do was remember Danny, Devlin, MasonTho, she&039;d have the immediate opportunity to kill someone Many so At least of the things that ithin her power "That means he will likely have twenty percent of the overlords with him They&039;ll have armed their servants, " Uthe spoke "There&039;s no tiression or they corner us here Mason, it&039;s your home Malachi said they de- stroyed the verandah What way are they likely to take to get here?" "The west corridors are the quickest route Theysomeone around the east side to cut off escape " "We have allies out there " Lyssa found it easier to concentrate on the problem at hand instead of the terrible reality of the still body on the table "Any of you who have a blood link to a va That was the point of Carnal&039;s alliance with the hunters, or however he accomplished their presence here Those loyal to Council are out there fighting hu- man hunters By the tiroup, they&039;ll have us cornered and slaughtered " "Do it, " Uthe said, since Belizar seeazed into space for a moment, mirrored by other Councilseveral times, she started at the click of the link, like the blast of a television turned on at high volue S and sprawled Limbs ampu- tated The chaos and noise of battle

She and Devlin were fighting back-to-back, fending off a quartet of hunters Praying she would not distract her to adverse effect, Lyssa fed her the informent As she tore the head off a hunter, Lyssa appreciated not only the viciousness but the creative suggestion related to Carnal&039;s origins Danny kicked the body out of her way and went after another Slaround, she ducked as Devlin launched a pike and took ato the aid of her current victi it will be before she can act on it, I don&039;t know She&039;s under siege " The other vampires reported similar results Mason&039;s eyes nar- rowed "An unexpected aerial attack will slow Carnal down, confuse the hunters It will give those we&039;ve contacted tiive us cover to get out there " Lyssa shook her head "I won&039;t leave Jacob here alone " "He won&039;t be I&039;ll stay here, " Mason responded "You are as powerful as she is, " Helga pointed out "We need you to fight " Brian stepped forward "I will stay by him, Lady Lyssa As I live, he will suffer no desecration, not even froaze, and he bowed "Iyou want lanced down, slid her talon along the side of Jacob&039;s brow She couldn&039;t bear the dead expression of his face, but she couldn&039;t close his eyes, not with her hands like this She tried tothat was typically easy for her, but there seeer, the famil- iar path back to herself Debra stepped forward Brian reached out a hand to hold her back, a protective gesture that brought her to a halt "Please, my lady, " she said soft ly "Let me help " "There&039;s no tiical He didn&039;t have Belizar&039;s ambition, just the desire to see the world as she&039;d envisioned it

Nevertheless, at the moment Lyssa still wanted to destroy him with all the others Lyssa inclined her head Brian did not release Debra&039;s arm "My lady" "I will not har you wanther altered for, he allowed his servant to move for- ward into the shadow of Lyssa&039;s tensely poised body Debra gently closed Jacob&039;s lids Re the Celtic knot symbols for love, she took out the hooks and laid the disks on his eyes When she lifted her head, Lyssa saw no revulsion, only a sorrow that wrenched her own up several notches It was easier to handle her grief when she kneasn&039;t shared by anyone in the room The tears in Debra&039;s eyes could undo her "Jacob had more honor than any man I&039;ve ever met, Lady Lyssa We will" "Hoe know she won&039;t get out there and join theer flushed Mason&039;s expression "Daiven more to this Council and our way of life than anyone in this room You--" "Because Carnal was responsible for my husband&039;s death He drove Rex to complete noring the gasps "I want him dead I can assure you I would not stand with Carnal for any reason, even if it meant the de- struction of this Council, or the end of the universe for thatto stay alight for God knehat reason Was the desire to see Carnal dead the only thing she&039;d have left after this night? "However, if you do not swear to me that you and the Council will leave Jacob alone, then I will sit back and watch what happens to you " "After all your years of dedication, you would abandon us now over this dead human, " Belizar sneered, but there was desperation in his face as more screaent "After all my years of dedication to this Council, you shunned me in less than a blink

Turned your back on me because my blood is not as pure as yours " Belizar&039;s jaw clenched A long, tense moment commanded the chare- nades, bullet fire snapping Roars of rage Sounds of death Getting closer "Done " Belizar nodded his head A quick jerk "He will not be touched by any in this roo aloft, she burst through the arched design of glass above the double doors, her wings pinned back like a Stealth fighter