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They allerupted as the firstfa Zach’s neck Reaching up, he felt around and found three darts sticking out of it

Yanking them out, he stared down at them These weren’t mercenary darts They were the darts Dr Lipton had fashioned for the iainst va for the culprit, and belatedly heard the heartbeat behind hihts had drowned out

Casually, he turned His own heart gave a weird little skip Lisette, the French immortal, crouched there, her lovely face expressionless

And her face truly was lovely He had never been this close to her before Her skin was pale perfection, her raven hair pulled back from her face in a braid that fell to her waist Her slender body was clad in a foro pants accentuated with holstered Glock 18s The handles of two sheathed shoto swords peeked at him over her shoulders

She rea

And her scent

He drew in a deep breath She smelled even better than Aht hi which Lisette stared at hi for the tranquilizer to take effect Little did she know the drug would have no more effect on him than it would on Seth

Zach raised an eyebrow

Her forehead crinkled in a frown Quick as lightning, she drew three more darts from her pocket and stuck them in his neck

With slow, deliberate movements, Zach reached up and removed them

She bit her lip

"That hurts, you know," he said softly enough that he hoped those down in the house wouldn’t hear it over the sparring noises and boisterous cheers

A thin wire slipped over his head fro off air

"Not as rowled in his ear

It carried a British accent, so it wasn’t one of her brothers

What exactly was going on here?

Before Zach could ponder further, a figure appeared on the roof beside hi hiuilty as hell--then turned her attention to the man behind Zach

"Hi," Sarah said

"You followed rowled

Ah Roland

"Yes, I did"

"Why?"

"Curiosity You wouldn’t say why you were co back and told me not to follow you, which left me no choice but to do so"

Both spoke as softly as Zach had

Roland grunted

"So," she said

"So?" Roland parroted

"Watcha doin’?"

"Lisette has soht this was the best way to elicit answers?"

"Yes"

"Uh-huh Uh-huh You don’t thinkht be why everyone calls you antisocial?"

"Considering the questions, I thought he would likely be uncooperative"

"Oh" She studied Zach, then looked at Lisette "Ohhhhhh" Her brows drew together "Is this a lover’s quarrel kind of thing? Did he do so to piss you off?"

Lisette looked uncomfortable

"He didn’t cheat on you, did he?" Sarah asked, all concern "I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone"

Zach watched Lisette, ignoring the pain in his throat and the burn beginning to fill his lungs

Lisette visually consulted Roland over Zach’s shoulder "It isn’t about me"

"Then who is it about?" Sarah asked

Roland --Sarah’s eyes blazed a bright lust i around to stand with her husband at Zach’s back "Let ive you a little help with that, sweetie"

In all of his thousands of years of existence, Zach didn’t think anything so peculiar had ever happened to hi

As the husband-and-wife team slowly choked him toward unconsciousness, he pondered what to do He could h noise to draw David’s attention But David wouldn’t appreciate his presence here any more than Seth would

He could teleport away But anyone touching hio with him So he would only escape Lisette, and she was theperson here She was the reason he hadn’t yet attempted to secure his freedom

Roland planted a boot in Zach’s back and pulled harder