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"What we do here is dangerous," Terry said "Working against governencies, undercover assassins, vampire hunters ant to exterer added, "the vampires thee of the around their secrets, they see us as a threat It&039;s not always possible to explain in time"

Serena closed her eyes slowly "This is a lot It&039;s just a lot"

"We know," Ginger told her "But that&039;s about all the inforive you for now If you decide to stay, to join us, you&039;ll be entrusted with reat deal more Our history, case files fro, and , as well But all of that is for later

And you don&039;t have to ht now Stay with us for a few days Recover your strength

We&039;ll begin searching for clues about your baby Maybe she&039;ll be the one who leads us to the rest of the uest and relax If you want to go back to your old life in a few days, that&039;s fine We&039;ll trust you to keep knowledge of us secret We know you will, because we&039;re the only hope you have of finding her"

Serena nodded "You&039;re right about that I wouldn&039;t betray your secrets But I don&039;t need a few days to think about it"

"Careful, Serena," Ginger said "This is not a decision that can be undone If you join this sisterhood, you join for good There&039;s no going back to your old life"

"I have no life to go back to All I had wasfor her andsure they can&039;t keep doing this to woer slid a look at Terry, who shrugged

"I&039; from one to the other "I want to join the Sisterhood of Athena"

Ginger nodded "So be it, then I&039;ll ements for the Dedication Ceremony But you&039;ll still need a few days to recover, and to prepare There are lessons, in" She turned to the other woman "Terry, why don&039;t you show our new sister to her rooms now?"

Ethan opened the rear door of the stable, and it side onto a grassy moonlit meadow, five acres in size, all enclosed by a white wooden fence that seeround A bubbling strea a supply of fresh water And beyond the an, then thickened into a full blown forest that stretched all the way to the mountains that formed a backdrop to the view

He loved it here

He went back inside and opened first one stall, then the other His co told that it was their tiht through the back door, barely pausing long enough to accept his strokes as they went

Ethan watched the, they tossed theirin joy as they raced into the night

No one liked being shut in Being captive Even knowing they would be released each night, they always reacted as if they&039;d been locked up for years and were just catching their first taste of freedoht, the way he&039;d felt when he&039;d escaped fro, when the sun set and he awoke to freedom

He took a fork and shovel andtasks of cleaning the floor and putting down fresh bedding

He wouldn&039;t risk his freedo Not even for Lilith God, he wished his brother were here to tell hi She could be faking the amnesia She could have been sent to kill him It was, after all, inevitable that they would send someone sooner or later And even if she wasn&039;t the one, she could have been followed, all the while being totally unaware of it

She was a risk A threat to his freedo his head, he realized why Because it would do no good To send her aould risk her telling others where he was The only way to ensure that never happened, would be to keep her hereor kill her

He paused in his work, leaning on the shovel&039;s long handle and closing his eyes He knew daood and well that he couldn&039;t kill her He&039;d wronged the wouilt ever since he&039;d been forced to leave her behind And he&039;d wanted to go back for herbut he hadn&039;t

Because he would have had no chance of surviving Because he hadn&039;t even known if she was still alive

Because he&039;d thought if he could only find his brother first, maybe the two of them could save her And most of all because he&039;d known she would refuse to leave that place without taking every other captive along with her And that would be ione back for her And he knew da her the truth about how they knew one another was because it wouldwhat he had done That he&039;d saved hi his soul bit by bit ever since

Finishing the stall-cleaning in record ti her alone in his haven made him nervous as hellhe returned the tools to their places, closed the rear door and headed out the front, then along the winding pathway back toward the house

Through the , he saw her fralow, and the sight of her stopped him in his tracks She was beautiful

For years, at The Farm, he&039;d watched her from a distance, and early on, he&039;d feared for her Al to submit to the rules or learn the lessons or vow obedience to the DPI More recently, she&039;d been in trouble for trying to stir revolt in the others They two of them had barely even talked But eventually she&039;d noticed hi at her when they passed on the compound The DPI kept their captive uarded, their everyto limited recreation They were told when it was time to take to their cots in their barracks, and told when it was tiin another day Even their bathrooidly scheduled There was little time to form friendships or have casual conversations

He always saw her airls as they walked from their barracks to the classroo the opposite way, after co

When she noticed hi Day in and day out, that was their only coht he&039;d left

That night, he had crept into her barracks, avoiding the guard, risking everything for this one moment

And as the others slept, he&039;d slipped silently between the ts of cots, straining his still- face, until he found her

She lay awake, eyes open, but not truly seeing She&039;d been in isolation for the past week, drugged, punished for her ongoing disobedience He couldn&039;t iine what had been done to her And he didn&039;t want to

He thought she&039;d been aware of him, even in her stupor, ever since he&039;d clih the open , and he&039;d paused momentarily when he met her curious, unfocused eyes Then, when she opened her er to his lips to silence her

At last he moved closer and knelt beside the cot She rolled onto her side, propped her head on her hand and stared at him, a thousand e that could not be concealed, even by the drugs still coursing through her veins

Without a word, he cupped her face between his palms, leaned closer and pressed his lips to hers He felt them part, felt them tremble, and then felt the warmth of her breath as she released it all at once At last her arht fire He kissed her erness that thrilled him On and on they kissed, until someone in another bed stirred, and the soundhard So was he, and nearly too aroused to force hiht He was certain that she was every bit as innocent as he

Leaning closer, his lips against her ear, he whispered, "I&039; up every ounce of willpower he possessed, he rose It was almost physically painful to turn away frolazed eyes But he did He walked away from her, slipped out theand put his plan for escape into h it had ive hies of each book on his bookshelves, explored every cabinet and closet, and still I had found no clue as to his past Orthe fa at all Maybe I sensed that he was near and turneda few yards froh theat ht of hireat was my relief that had actually come back And in spite of my fear that I would see it open

He remained still for only a moment, as his eyes met aze we shared Everything inside me seemed to quiver with an unnaht when he started walking toward me It was only a few steps, and yet they were powerful, deliberate strides, and I shivered in delicious longing

I only h to let hih As soon as he stepped across the threshold, his arainst him He lowered his head and took ry forinside h his hair and kissed him back as ht about the workings of the hue, though, re and reproductionat least as such things pertained toour kind The Undead And yet I had never, I thought, understood or expected this feeling that engulfed ht, realized that there would be this fire

Or had I? Because his kiss was familiar

When he finally lifted his head, I opened , as if this fire I felt was burning in him, too, and had made itself real, visible there in his eyes

I couldn&039;t look away "Aremy face

A wave of tiredness washed overMy knees felt weak, but I stiffened the spine, as well

"You&039;ve kissed ain he nodded

"You have to tell me Please, Ethan, I want to knoant it as badly as I wantas I want you"

He al at the corners of his delicious low faded, seemed to convey worrya worry I didn&039;t understand At last he nodded "I&039;ll tell you I&039;ll tell you all of it But there&039;s a lot, and we&039;re out of ti, but my eyes felt inexplicably heavy, and ht of my head

"You feel it I can see you do The sun&039;s about to rise, Lilith We need to rest noish to God we had a choice in the htly, keeping one ar h to close and lock the door, never letting go of his hold on uided ainst his powerful shoulder as we climbed, and my body slu arms I curled my own arms around his neck and was asleep before we reached the top of the stairway