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"You limmer of a smile flickered over her bow-shaped lips "Yes, I did, didn’t I?" She laughed h every inch of uish he could have spared you if he’d only given you up at the beginning Because, like I told him, the end result is still the same I will drain you dry of every drop of fiery blood until all that is left is an eain, but this time the sound was colder

"Why?" I bit out "What makes my blood so special to you?"

"Oh little human Wyr, I could use it in ways that you can only dreaoddess" Her eyes gleamed "A fantastically powerful one, but still there are those who seek to bring me down because I am not as pure as they would wish Your blood will help me destroy them into dust Just a few carefully placed drops mixed into their hed coldly, but I noticed that her fists were clenched

"If you’d just asked," I coive you a few drops"

The expression on her face was scornful "And let you loose for someone else to use? I don’t think so Besides," she flipped her hair self-consciously, "I need a constant supply Your blood has certain…addictive qualities thatthe need, the desire for it, in one ofable to control that supply" Licking her lips in a way that made me shudder, she added, "I need it all"

I felt a cold shiver run throughbloodfire that was cha to be let loose Part of , that it hadn’t been me that she’d been after – and that it hadn’t beenI didn’t really care what she did to her ene to let her use part of n And I would have e for John, Julia and all the others

"Overlightly "Suits me There are plenty of ways to kill your mind but keep your physical body alive" And with that she lunged forward, trying to grab hold ofhands, and turned on ain I watched her stance carefully, taking note of the shifts in her oing to try to strike her with the dirk until I could be sure of on, this is going to be ht" She shot up into the sky and disappeared

I whirled, squinting up above one A faint whistling cahtened Suddenly, I felt a huge force cuff rass feeling its blades rip into the skin onout "Don’t bleed too round I kicked out at her leg, connecting with her flesh She howled in surprise and so out with the blade I felt the satisfying

"So," she hissed, "the little human can use silver I’od It won’t hurt od, Iabartu, otherwise you wouldn’t need me And when I stick this into your heart, it will hurt you A lot"

I was more confident now She wasn’t entirely invulnerable and now I knew that I could reach her This was not going to be impossible I ran at her, dirk in front of me, ready to slice her and ht into the air before clawing her taloned fingernails at me They connected within midair, and exaers, a fascinated expression on her face

"I can feel the fire from here," she ain, stabbing at her as the flames inside me roared in approval The silver sank into her arm before she could pull away, and a dark liquid welled up around it I rip on the hilt and held onto my now only workable weapon whilst Iabartu pulled back sharply My slice didn’t quite have the devastating effect that I’d been hoping for but at least I got a reaction as her face twisted briefly in pain