Page 43 (1/2)

"No," she muttered, reluctant to admit it

"I know you don’t like to hear it, but you are a liability, Krysta Etienne already has to divide his attention between fighting and reading thean eye or ear out for you, too, distracts him even more He could have been hurt far ht as a result"

Her stoave him a quick once-over, but there was no way to knohim was his And his coat had already sported several bullet holes before the night had begun because he had neither replaced nor mended it after his last encounter with lared at Seth "I’m fine"

Seth shook his head, strolled around, and placed a hand on Etienne’s chest That hand began to glow as he healed Etienne’s wounds "He was shot ashes at the hands of the vampires before they decided to join forces with you"

She hadn’t known She hadn’t even guessed Howout for her? While he was distracted, listening to ensure the vampires hadn’t either turned on her or abandoned her?

"Don’t," Etienne said

"Don’t what?" She looked fro so still on the bed

"Krysta," Etienne said

All she could do was stare at hi sick inside

From the corner of her eye, she saw Cam look back and forth between theo see what the word is on the vaht" He backed out of the roo as he dropped it froo see if you left any mercenaries alive"

"I did"

"Then I have some minds to read Hopefully, when I’ with and how they learned about our existence so we can end this"

He vanished

When Etienne walked toward her, Krysta held up a hand to keep him at bay

Etienne took that hand and carried her palm to his lips for a kiss "Don’t"

"You already said that"

"You’re still doing it"

"Doing what?"

"Beating yourself up You were injured, too, you know"

"But that wasn’t your fault," she said, throat thick

"Wasn’t it? How long did alk and watch that campus? The ot to use the damned infrared scope to check shadows too dark for my eyes to pierce"

"Because I distracted you"

"Because I’ upon h, I would have known they were there, su a single injury"

"My being shot wasn’t your fault"

"Andwas"

"Sean knows his li to hed "Fine Then ht her close and wrapped his ar her arry at you, but not for any of the reasons you think," hehis cheek on her head

"Why?"

"You actually rumbled

"How so?" she asked, tired, lost

"Bastien is not my favorite person Despite what I learned about him recently, I have not been able to abandon my dislike for him entirely because he killed a friend of ht--before I ht the woman he loved had been killed and went berserk in the true sense of the word He painted UNC red with blood and was coated with it hioneonly to kill and punish And, tonight, when I saw those bullets strike you, I wanted the sahtened around her "I wanted to kill everyme so much that I didn’t hear the damned mercenaries’ approach until it was too late But I couldn’t I had to think of the fucking greater good," he said with such disgust that she found a laugh "I had to take some of them alive"

"And you did"

"They’d better damn well yield some information"

She hoped so Those bastards had tried to kill her Again

The two of the A minute passed Ten? Twenty? She couldn’t tell and didn’t really care

"I don’t knohat to do," she whispered, unable to calazed down at her