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"Kill humans myself?"

"Yes" She hadn’t wanted to ask, in part because she wasn’t sure she would like his answer

"I don’t feed from huht, I will kill any huht, she wondered, me or mine? Then called herself a fool "But, you do need blood?"

"Yes I assuave me blood while I was unconscious?"

She nodded "He, ah, bit your wrist and fed you or whatever"

"Nors The huularly, so we don’t feed directly from humans unless extre blood Gross

"We don’t drink the blood," he said "Our fangs carry it straight to our veins"

Right That’s what Richart had said "Are you reading ain?"

"No Your face sort of scrunched up with disgust"

"Oh Sorry about that" It wasn’t his fault he needed blood

He smiled

Damn, he was handsome when he smiled

Hell, he was handsome when he didn’t

Etienne leaned forward a bit "Listen, about the hu that there were other humans out there who knew about all of this "Yes?"

"Their top priority is to protect us, to protect immortals, or Immortal Guardians as they call us"

Wasn’t that sort of backward? The weakerthe powerful immortals? "They protect you?"

"Yes They have a vested interest in doing so After all, we’re the only thing keeping vahting to protect humans for millennia So, the network--"

"The network?"

"That’s e call the organization of humans who aid us The network not only provides us with blood, it protects our identities and keeps the general public froifted ones exist Our ability to hunt and destroy vaether, if an to hunt us"

"But wouldn’t they help you if they knew? Why would you think they would?" A sickening dread soured her stoone after Etienne earlier "Is that what happened at Duke? Humans found out about you?"

He nodded "We dealt with another such threat recently, but quashed it I’ht should not have happened Should not even be possible No mortals outside of the network should know about us"

"Except, those solders did And" Oh, crap "I do"

"Precisely" He shifted the ar on the back of the futon and cupped her shoulder in his large hand The waruard She had assumed vampires--and immortals now that she knew about the to want to talk to you," he told her somberly And the concern on his face est threat to her His face said so different

"You say talk," she voiced "I hear interrogate and make disappear"

"It won’t be like that"

"Are you sure? Because you look worried"

"I’ in French, then turned back to her "All right I won’t lie to you I am worried The head of the East Coast division of the hu us from perceivedI should run? That we should run? Because Sean knows about this, too"

"No, don’t run It wouldn’t do you any good Chris could find a white dove in a blizzard"

"Who is Chris?"

"Head of the network"

"Great"

"I don’tas you don’t view us, I us, then everything should be fine In fact, once Chris finds out you’re both gifted ones and that you can successfully hunt vampires, he will likely want to recruit you"

That was a lot to take in And could potentially be a good thing How cool would it be to have other people working with her to eradicate the vaet paid for it?

Paid Awesoood, actually"

"Yes, it does," he agreed "You and Sean would fare much better if you worked for the network and had their support"

"Then why don’t you look happy about it?"

"Because until he assures himself that you and your brother pose no threat to us, Chris will be a hard-nosed bastard and I don’t want him to upset you"