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He flinched, but a e didn’t remain in the employ of a temperamental vampire without a set of titanium balls He pasted a smile on his lips as he s an intihs

"I may have my faults, but you need me"

She polished off the last of the blood and set aside the goblet

"Unfortunately," she conceded in disgust She deeply resented having to rely on the treacherous rat But while Kata had soical talents she was a mere human and Marika had no powers to keep her alive Not unless she ht, but one she couldn’t afford to indulge Not when she’d lose her one last connection to thechild "It would be sohis hands between her thighs to caress her with a skill that took centuries to perfect

"Perhaps easier, but you would one," he husked

"So sure of yourself?"

The pale eyes shimmered with ready heat "I fulfill more than one purpose"

With a blur of motion she planted her foot in the center of his chest and sent hi fro Kata Let aze "Are you deaf as well as stupid? I said let ei dusted off his expensive suit and stiffly moved to the heavy wooden door across the rooe fumbled with the lock and at last led her into the barren room carved from stone

She curled her lips at the stench ofbeneath the stone Unlike her innate powers that called upon nature, Sergei was forced to use blood and death to create his spells

Magical hack

Bypassing the stone altar stained with blood that was set in the center of the floor, he halted beside a s at the edge, he waved his hands over the surface,words beneath his breath

Marika iei was attehtly skinning was nothing coan to swirl, as if being stirred froh the cavern

At last he reached beneath his jacket to withdraw a slender stiletto and sliced a ser One, then two drops of blood hit the water, spreading over the surface with a strange shian to for a woman as stretched on a narrow cot in a dark, iron-lined cell

A wo resemblance to Marika

The same black curls and pale, perfect features And if her eyes had not been shut they would have flashed as dark as ht

Even her lush curves were the same beneath the shroud that covered them

Perfect twins

Or at least they had been before Marika had been turned

Once she’d awoken as a va her family, had been severed Or at least they should have been

Any otten, but there had been a persistent voice whispering in her head that refused to be ignored For weeks she’d struggled to rid herself of the annoying buzz Then she’d spent the next weeks hunting down the source of the aggravation

It’d been a nasty surprise to discover an exact replica of herself living aypsies

Her first impulse had been to kill the bitch

That would put an end to her intrusion into Marika’s e there was an identical copy of herself walking around

But some mysterious ilimpsed into the future to sense she would have need of her dear, sweet sister

"You see," Sergei said "Sleeping Beauty safely tucked in her bed"

Marika frowned, infuriated by the stab of fear that pierced her heart Kata h her veins Which meant she possessed a unique ability to injure a va her tender heart had been reluctant to do in the early days Back then she still thought of Marika as her beloved sister Stupid feei had released her fro out so swiftly that it had been a miracle that Marika hadn’t been harain "She’s stirring," she hissed

Sergei frowned as the woman in the watery vision turned her head, al watched "Yes" He shook his head "That shouldn’t be possible" "It shouldn’t be, but obviously it is Find out why" "I could wake her and …"

His words were squeezed to a halt as Marika grabbed hihly heall

"No"

He sh his pain "You’re still worried about the curse?"