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A fortunate thing considering he had barely blinked when the sound of a high, piercing scream abruptly shattered the air

"Sacrebleu Shay"

Chapter Twenty-Six

It was like one of those horrible night to flee fro into a thickslower and slower

She could see Daht She could see Evor struggling as his life flashed before his eyes She could see the short distance she had to cross to halt the relentless blow

But no matter how fast she traveled she couldn’t reach the ied into the troll’s treacherous heart

A scream of fury and fear renched from her throat

Evor wasn’t the only one to see his life passing before his eyes, and it was all so brutally unfair

For so ranted She had even cursed the iven to her Certainly she had never wakened with a fierce desire to leap fro

Now she at last had that She had Viper And the thought of dying now filled her with unbearable despair

Continuing to run despite the futility of it all, Shay abruptly felt the earth buckle beneath her feet She fell to her knees even as the stone around the entrance burst inward to shower her in a cloud of pebbles

Not at all certain what had happened, she cleared her eyes and peered through the cloud of dust

What she saas a very large, very terrifying gargoyle A gargoyle who reached out to bat the i thud the imp hit the far wall and crumpled onto the floor Even frole of his neck and the wide eyes that were blank with death

Holy freaking cow

Too stunned to even appreciate the fact that Daan to scoot backward as the loo Evor off the floor and hold hioyle that now held the troll didn’t look in any e and fierce and entirely capable of sing theave a s the crap out of her

The dely he held up his free hand in a motion of peace

"Shay, it is I" he ruard hiue "It is Levet"

"Levet?" Shay slowly rose to her feet, her gaze belatedly taking in the beautiful wings that were now as large as a s teeth that could snap her in two "It appears that I have rescued you once again from your own foolishness"

Rescued Blessed saints She was rescued The relief flooded through her Or at least it started to flare through her It hadn’t gone very far when it was replaced by a flare of fear

Viper

Spinning about she turned just in time to watch the beautiful, silver-haired vampire take the head off the Anasso

This time the relief went unchecked It was over Truly, truly over

She took a step forward to rush to Viper’s side She wanted to throw herself in his arh his hair and kiss hiet the horror of the past hours

Her steps halted, however, as Viper slowly slid to his knees and an expression of deep sorrow touched his face

He had just been forced to kill a leader he had obviously respected for centuries He deserved a few moments to reconcile himself to the painful death

With an effort she slowly turned back to the waiting demon behind her He didn’t look at all like her beloved Levet Well, except for the eyes They could never change

A shaky smile touched her lips "I didn’t know you could alter your shape" Levet shrugged "Oh, we all have our little secrets"

"He didn’t do it I did," a female voice firmly interrupted Shay’s eyes widened as a curvaceous woman attired in a sheer bit of cloth stepped froarded the gargoyle with a lift of her brows "Good grief, Levet, you have been a busy boy"

"It looks as if you’ve been a little busy yourself That one is still alive" He pointed a claard Styx as beginning to stir on the floor "Do you want me to squash hi arave a slanced into the pale face of the vampire at her side

"Viper?" she questioned softly This man had just lost his leader She wouldn’t pressure him to also lose a friend