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"Your files"

"Ah" She leaned back

"Lyall returned to the office to check on soh I had ordered him home to bed, only to find all those on duty insensate"

"Good gracious, how?"

"Well, there was not a mark on them, but they were quite solidly asleep He checked the office and found it ransacked and those certain records stolen That hen he cah, by the time I arrived, everyone ake once ested Alexia

The earl nodded "That does see scent was on the air It would have taken quite a considerable amount of it too Few have access to such a quantity of the che major scientific and e shipments of chloroform, but my resources are always taxed at full htful "There are a nuanizations around London these days, are there not?"

Lord Maccon shifted toward her, his eyes soft caramel and affectionate "You can see that there is further concern for your safety? Before, we could assuht you just an interfering daylighter Now they know you are a preternatural, and they know it means you can neutralize the supernatural They ant to dissect you and understand this"

Lord Maccon hoped to ier She could be very stubborn over these kinds of things Tonight, being full moon, neither he nor his pack could keep watch over her He trusted his other BUR agents, even the vampires, but they were not pack, and a olf could not help whom he trusted uard on full moon--all the huht In fact, he hiht now He should be ho an eye on everything Especially, he realized, he should not be around Alexia Tarabotti, whoes had taken an overly proprietary interest in There was a reason olf couples were locked in the saether on full il in bestial form, vicious and relentless, but passion was passion and could be channeled intoas the female was equally cursed and so able to survive the experience How, he wondered, would it be to weather the moon in human form, held there by the touch of a preternatural lover? What an experience that would be His baser instincts urged such s on, driven by the damnable neckline of Miss Tarabotti’s dress

Lord Maccon picked up the paisley shawl and shoved it at Alexia’s chest area "Put that back on," he ordered gruffly

Miss Tarabotti, instead of taking offense, srasp, and placed it carefully behind her and out of his reach

She turned back and, greatly daring, took one of his large rough hands in both of hers

"You are worried for uards were ht I have no doubt they will be equally co"

He nodded He did not withdraw his hand from her tentative touch but turned it to curl about hers "They reported the incident to me just before dawn"

Alexia shivered "Do you knoho he is?"

"He who?" asked the earl, sounding like a donkey Absent caress

"The wax-faced lazed with memory and fear

"No Not human, not supernatural, not preternatural," he said "A one astray, perhaps? He is filled with blood"

She was startled "Hoould you know such a thing?"

He explained "The fight, at the carriage? When they tried to abduct you I bit hi the way the earl had only changed his head into wolf form and how he had wiped the blood from his face onto his sleeve

One shapely ust "That meat was not fresh"

Alexia shuddered No, not fresh She did not like to think of the waxher personal information She knew Lord Maccon would do his best to see her protected And, of course, last night had proved that thesehad fundaed with the theft of the BUR papers But now that the wax-faced man and the shadowed man with his chloroform handkerchief knew she was soulless, Miss Tarabotti felt somehow terribly exposed