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Sylvia cussed once, succinctly

Eli wrinkled his nose and swore, saying, "I smell it from here"

CHAPTER 11

So Let’s Get It on, Baby

It ell after noon when I got back to the B and B, and instead of going inside I went straight to the garage and kicked open the door This tihten the place Instantly I s hurt the vaht around his ry child

It had worked well last tiroaned and covered his eyes with skeletal hands There were ragged talons at the tips of his fingers and his beard was growing, a tangled scruff I wasn’t sure I had ever seen a vary," he said from behind his hands

"Stop this," a soft voice said fro at the door, which she closed with a tolerant, quiet sound "You will not hurt this vaave her ain "How many humans in that house just off of Orleans Street did you drink down and kill? Huh?" I felt Soul at , "How , and if it started out as a pathetic gallows laughter, it ended up the goading taunt of the unrepentant killer He dropped his hands and opened his eyes in the dark, staring at loohter grew in power and resonance, seee walls, "I remember them, each and every one I drank down their terror and their whimpers I sucked down their fear and panic like the elixir of life it was"

I felt Soul step back I smelled her reaction and so did our captive With that fluttery, feathery ripping the silver supports of the cage with one hand, his pal where they touched the metal He pulled himself to his feet and crouched, his hair a scant inch froe top His bare body was covered in scars and welts and fresh skin fro

"Co to Soul "I will show you what I do to women I will show you how I drink them down" He closed his eyes at the re a noise like rubber tires onIt leftthe helpless to death

Soul turned and left the garage, closing the door with an entirely different sound I didn’t kno she could direct emotion into the sound of steel on steel, but I felt it Soul would not try again to interfere with my treathed, the sound low and vicious "She should have stayed I would have told her howand begging"

My foot slashed out and hit the cage so hard it slid across the sripped the cage, stinking of a with the force of e of the Naturaleza of this city now that Esther McTavish is true-dead?" I asked

His face changed, his eyes bleeding back to near-hu back into his e "She is dead?"

"Yeah Headless, in the living room And the basement was full of dozens of dead humans and several other vamps, all staked with silver" Francis’ eyes lost focus at the thought, and when he didn’t reply, I said, "It looked like there had been a fight A Blood Challenge, e They die by blood feud They die by war And each war is different from the others How did my mistress die?"

I smiled this time, and his eyes widened at the expression "She was staked through the abdomen and her head sawed off Not hacked off Sawed" I chuckled slightly "It’s the way I killed Lucas de Allyon, and it takes determination, a lot a free tiain, and this tie "You are the creature who killed my master?"

"Yes In ht have killed your e now?"

"There are three possibilities" Francis sank back onto the cage floor and wrapped his arive you one possibility for each Naturaleza bloodto dicker, because I knew that nothing acquired--or given up--easily is truly valuable, so I thought about his offer and who I could hit up for blood meals while I let the silence build "All three names," I said finally, "today, for one drink, Fame Vexatum style"