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What was happening at that vampire mansion? Was everyone okay? Had the vampires accepted Aden without protest?

Clearly, Riley viewed her as weak A hindrance She’d suspected, but this…this was proof And she didn’t like it Wouldn’t stand for it But what could she do?

She couldn’t kidnap a witch on her own That was just craziness One, she didn’t know the extent of their powers or how they wielded that power Even though she’d spent the last few hours studying every book she’d checked out at the library, as well as scouring the Internet yet again, looking for obscure details Anything There was tons of infor

Witches drew their power from the elements Witches drew their power froood, benevolent Witches were bad, evil, servants of the devil Witches liked to perform ritual sacrifices Witches weresidetracked You were thinking about why you can’t kidnap a witch Oh, and two, she doubted she could subdue someone physically just yet And three, where would she keep the witch? In her closet? Her dad wouldn’t find anything odd about that Yeah Right

Still Waiting for Riley, Victoria and Aden to do so witches, but she could do it Riley had taught her how So Maybe she could go into town and count howand where, exactly, they were congregating Or even find out if none were out there Toroup instead of dragging them down

Go ahead and pat yourself on the back Because yeah, it was an excellent plan She wouldn’t get out of the car, of course She wasn’t that stupid She would simply drive around, people-watch--or rather, creature-watch--and take notes And, even better, she would take Penny with her as backup

Yep An excellent plan

Mary Ann left her tank and ja-sleeved shirt, jeans and a jacket She anchored her hair in a ponytail, slipped on her tennies, grabbed her purse and stuffed her cell, keys and voice recorder--a gift frohts--inside, then wrapped the long strap around her shoulder and hip

Excited, nervous, she switched off her la in it At the roolass and peered don Her bedroom was upstairs, and there were no nearby trees to scale S up her supposed only way down But he hadn’t been able to alter the shape of the roof If she dropped a wee bit, she would hit the first story Frorass below Simple Easy Please be simple and easy She’d never snuck out before Never really broken any rules before Now, she was breaking every single one of them But this was a neorld, she reminded herself, which meant new rules were needed And the first new rule she was i was that the survival of her tearee, her conscience shouted

Well, Dad didn’t have all the facts

Pal, Mary Ann hoisted herself out Sheher legs to dangle Deep breath in, deep breath out The air was no longer layered with o Her feet hit--thud--and her knees buckled She slid along the shingles before catching herself on the gutter, sprawled out, scratched and bruised Well, more scratched and bruised Her workout with Aden had left her unbelievably sore And in places she hadn’t even known she possessed!

She panted, grateful for the shadows as she waited for her dad’s light to turn on and his head to peek out hisOne , no ulped Riley? Had he spotted her?

Probably not, she quickly decided He would have called her cell, texted her, so So who did that leave? His brothers? She knew they were out there, patrolling the area and fighting goblins, but she’d never met them And if they had spotted her, they would have contacted Riley Right? Right So again, she would have been called or texted That she hadn’t been had toher

Okay You can do this Slowly, she inched her way over the final edge The shaking in her arled Had the first-story roof always been this high up? Couldn’t have been She would have noticed Just do it

Mary Ann let go and fell

When she hit, her legs were jarred, her kneecaps sla farfro her mouth

Thank God she still hadn’t eaten She would have vomited for sure But it was odd, her lack of appetite More and ht of it, the smell of it Ick Even odder, she wasn’t weak from lack of nourishment

Two days had passed Shouldn’t she be shaky?

Think about that later She popped to her feet and stue oak next to Penny’sLucky

Stars winked over Mary Ann’s eyes as she gathered a few small pebbles and tossed the Would people wake up if she shouted "fire"? ’Cause this was ridiculous

Three lass rose and Penny stuck out her blond head She rubbed the sleep froht for whatever had disturbed her Her hair, usually straight and gleales around her face

Her jaw dropped when she spotted Mary Ann "What are you doing?" she whispered fiercely