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Venom’s tone was impossible to read when he replied, his eyes still trained on Battersby, “Why do you perceive I haven’t?”

“You’ve never been spotted in any of the usual haunts of those pushing their senses to the edge in an effort to feel soazines that see you, you are alert and aware There’s no sense of boredom to you”

It was true, Holly thought Venouid carelessness when he wanted, but he was never actually careless He was interested in the world, noticed everything Tonight, he sent man, Walter,” he said “But unfortunately, if you’ve crossed the Tower, that intelligence won’t save you”

A fine layer of perspiration broke out over Walter’s upper lip, but he didn’t beg or plead “I accept that I letbelow the surface—I should’ve realized Holly was the Tower’s” Returning his attention to Holly, he said, “In an effort at redemption, I’d like to warn you that much of my information on you came from an individual you may trust”

23

Holly trusted few people And could see none of the her “Who?”

“David Shen”

Holly curled her lip “That weenie? I should’ve guessed” He’d been abrutally hard to cling to normality Of course, David hadn’t known the truth of her transition at Uram’s blood-soaked hands His life would’ve been forfeit had she told hiiven her family

David had been suave and sophisticated and onboard with dating a vaave him a certain cachet in his friend circle—co bastards He didn’t, however, have the balls to handle waking up five tiular

It wasn’t as if she’d bitten him

“What did this ‘weenie’ tell you about Holly?” Venom’s tone hadn’t war an eye on his prey but wasn’t yet ready to strike

Even Holly had to ad

“Mr Shen infor, and that she was only under Tower supervision because of the need tointo bloodlust” Walter took a careful sip of the blood once more in his hand “You haven’t tasted your liqueur, my dear”

Holly tilted up the glass, looked at the astonishingly dark pink color that swirled within the crystal It was pretty, no doubt about it As for the tastethe first sip h quietly “Definitely a drink you could use to seduce your lady friends” Holly had grown up in a cosmopolitan city filled with mortals and immortals both; she’d seen that love had facets as colass—it couldn’t be assumed that a man would always prefer a woman, or that a stable and committed relationship could only feature two people

However, one of the black-and-white ies on the as of Walter with his arm around a woman, his hold openly proprietary Given the way he chose to dress and furnish his home in the fashion of another place and time, the broker struck her as a man as very firm in his inclinations and desires It’d be women for Walter Battersby

Now, his eyes filled with a joy that was at odds with the fear that cloaked hiood to know” Another sip of his own drink of choice “The perfidious David also led me to believe that the Toouldn’t care too much if you simply disappeared—you took up ‘a lot more bandwidth’—his words of choice—than justified”

“Ass,” Holly ht she’d loved David once, enough to excuse his overweening ego and obsession ealth and status It was only after their relationship went down in fla had been built on her desperate desire to be “normal”

She hadn’t loved David; she’d loved the idea of him: normal, mortal, human

So no, theirs hadn’t been a grand romance, but to talk of her as disposable? What kind of person did that?

“I thought the sas did lend weight to his words”

“You, of course,” Venom said, “didn’t rely only on the words of a weak and faithless man”