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"Please," Billy entreated "You have to understand I’ you I’ll do anything, anything at all And how can you?" he demanded

"You’re the Keeper--can’t you see that she would be an asset to our co, his shoulders sagged and he lowered his stake

"Fine Kill us both," he said in resignation

"Billy" Abigail protested, putting a hand on his arht, itin back of Billy, clutching the broad young shoulders of the one she loved

And facing Billy--him With a rock hard deterly as Billy had vowed to do Was she in love with hiail was in love with Billy? He didn’t know He did know that there was so between them He did know that he felt as if he had waited several lifetimes to feel for someone the way he did about her

"There is no easy solution," Fiona said softly, sadly

Jagger was electrically aware of her standing behind hiainst his own Felt her whisper against his skin and trembled inside at the sound of her voice Love

Was it real? So roaned softly "What do we do?" she whispered "In the na his head for a uess we steal a corpse," he said at last

Chapter 7

During the following hours, Fiona decided that she was insane

She kept wondering what her parents would have doneHandled it They would have handled it Gotten there earlier, they would have ail was dispatched before

Maybe Or maybe not

Billy had probably hovered over the corpse froue, maybe even proclaimed his love

Would her parents have been so uncertain? So hesitant to act?

Maybe They had certainly believed in love They had known all about evil, along with good, and they had coped--because they’d always had each other

As she--er and Billy started explaining the situation to Abigail The girl was still in shock, still whining that her sto at it

Billy tried to explain that the faster she paid attention, the faster they could appease that hunger Jagger was a stronger personality, and he dispensed with the preliminaries and demanded that she listen to hi into mist, and hoas iet her out of there Quickly

Finally she tried it herself At first, she was so bad at it that Fiona began to regret their decision to let the girl "live"

But finally Abigail got it

"Billy, you can’t coer told hi you in a ail’s corpse--and er demanded

Billy understood He clutched Fiona’s arm "You’re the Keeper," he whispered to her "You’ll--you’ll take care of her, right? Keepers don’t lie, not to anyone they’re responsible for"

"I proet her out of here," Jagger told Fiona "Follow as soon as you can"

She nodded, knowing he was far ail panicked or so

"Meet atinwardly, certain that her sisters would be expecting her to coht not like it, but they er

But she couldn’t bring a freshly turned and coail had turned into mist, Fiona followed Billy out to the desk She’d put on surgical gloves before she entered the building, not wanting to leave fingerprints, and now she looked around for a weapon Finally she picked up the computer keyboard from the desk and creaue, and she didn’t regain her shape until she reached her car She drove away, praying that no one saw her, and headed for the French Quarter

Though she had never been inside Jagger’s home, she knehere it was, two blocks in from Rampart, halfway between Canal and Esplanade

It was one of the few houses that had survived the great fires in the early 1800s, standing on afacade He lived behind a wall and gate almost as tall as hers, but his courtyard was in front of the house, rather than behind, and his property stretched froate opened as she arrived; obviously he’d been looking for her car She drove up to the front of the house as the gate closed and locked behind her

When she got out of her car, Jagger was already there

"Co," he said softly

She nodded

Though he’d said he wanted her to move quickly, for a moment he paused and stared down into her eyes Then his lips touched hers with a kiss that was tender and yearningand brief

Then he caught her hand and hurried her into the house The entry was large and i stairway to one side

They hurried past the stairway toward the dining rooh both roole detail At the rear of the kitchen there was a door, and when he opened it she saw a stairway heading down, and she realized that the lot had been built up to allow for a small basement in an area of the country that was prone to serious flooding, because most land was--barely at sea level