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Rick’s Frenchy eyes followed the curve of my jaw like a tender hand I shivered under the not-touch and felt so hard and cold start to ivenout of me

"You’ll take me in?" he asked, his voice a purr of sound "Like a lost kitten?"

"We’dhis, purr for purr

"Yeah We would And George? You take his froze solid "That was low"

His eyes hardened "You saying you aren’t interested in the MOC’s sex-and-bloodyour Soul in?" I countered "How about your crazy wolf and the grindy who’d kill us in a heartbeat if we tried to have sex?"

So, velvety and thorny, like fear and need, anger and joy, all coether I wanted to reach out and touch him, to break that cold/hot wall between us, but before I could lift my hand, Rick turned to the front of the house, his paper clothing crinkling The door was still hanging open to the night "We have co none of the eh the dark, a van and a car Crime Scene techs were here, and they’d be ticked that we had entered

"Good," I said, on the knot of anger rising insticky in here"

"I like them hot and sweaty better," Rick said But he’d turned and was at the door, stripping off his paper and nitrile Not quite sure what had happened, I followed, picking up a few things I thought wein a pile with his, re a time when I’d had to separate our clothes, which had been tossed onto the floor, so we could dress I’d lost so much by my own stupidity My life sucked

I waited in the SUV for hi the SUV’s suspension, Rick slammed the door and looked at the stuff in my lap "You took evidence from a crime scene?"

"Yeah Arrest , no" I gave him a hesitant smile and he said, "What do you have?"

"Amulets At least one witch was a ht "One an earth witch, if you go by the garden And one was an air witch" I held up the dried leaves I’d stolen from a bowl on a las and pine needles everywhere, but nothing is scented, like for potpourri And I can feel the htly and s from them "The bowls of windblown leaves are probably set equidistant on the points of a pentacle"

"Not bad" Rick started the engine, pulling slowly into the night along the narrow drive, the oak trees sheltering us from the moon until we pulled onto the secondary road Rick tensed

"Full- my tone cal for my reply, he hit PLAY on the SUV’s sound system and flute music skirled out It was a spell, created byEvan to control Rick’s need to turn furry for the three days of the full ic woven into his skin, prevented his turning, and he had nearly gone insane with the pain until Evan had found this treat I had been cut off Yet knowing that Rick was as aware ofthat Bruiser and Soul and our past together stood between us, as real as if they fought, swords drawn and blades clashing

Under my T-shirt was another theft, an old photo of an A boots, and a feather woven into her braided hair Not Cherokee Maybe Choctaw She had been staring atme to steal her photo And for reasons I didn’t understand, I had

CHAPTER 13

Make Ceree of the bed in Esmee’s house, I took out the old black-and-white photo and studied it The wo with shoulders back, wearing a Western cowboy hat, a gun belt around her hips, Annie Oakley style Her dress was short for the era, stoppingthe boots that looked like deer hide, embroidered with porcupine quills and beads The picture frarooves that looked exactly like bird footprints, down to the talons at the end of the toes, the wood stained with soreenish-bluish tint that had penetrated the pattern carved into the wood,the bird feet stand out sharply The terh school art history class: counter-relief, or intaglio Weird to remember that I had sucked at art