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"Do you stock herbs?"

"Yes," he said

"Do you have water lily?"

"Yes"

"Where?"

"Laboratory, third cabinet"

"Good" I rolled off of him I’d have only a second to do this and I had to do it precisely

Saiht hook He never saw it co and didn’t brace himself My fist landed on his jaw His head snapped back His eyes rolled over and he sagged down

Lucky I ran to the lab

It took a hell of a lot of practice to knock someone out You needed both speed and power to jolt the head enough to rattle the brain inside the skull but not cause pere Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t even try it, but these weren’t nor in to eat e, he would fix it Considering what he had done to his body so far, his regeneration would make normal shapeshifters jealous

Third cabinet I threw it open and scanned the glass jars Dread ularia przewalski Latin names, why me? Lilium pardalinum, Lobelia siphilitica Come on, come onNymphaea odorata, pond lily Also known to Russians as odolen-trava, the s unclean That would do

I dashed to the door, twisting the lid off the jar A grey powder filled it - ground lily petals, the most potent part of the flower I slid open the lock The ward drained down, and I jerked the door ajar

Ereeted me I hurled the jar and the powder into the hall A woman wailed, smoke rose from thin air, and Badzula materialized in the middle of the carpet Skinny, flabby, filthy, with breasts dangling to her waist like two eled hair and hissed atstumps of rotten teeth

"That’s nice Fuck you, too"

I swung It was textbook saber slash, diagonal, froh the wound Badzula’s body toppled one way, her head rolled the other

The weight dropped offno longer see rabbed the head, tossed it into the elevator, dragged the body in there, sent the whole thing to the ground floor, sprinted back inside, and locked the door, reactivating the ward The whole thing took five seconds

On the floor, Sai Good I went back to the island I deserved soood stuff

I sat by the counter, sipping the best coffee I’d ever tasted, when the big screen TV on the wall lit up with fuzzy glow Which was ic was still up and the TV shouldn’t have worked

I tookthe TV Sailow flared brighter, faded, flared brighter In ancient times people used mirrors, but really any solossy enough

The glow blazed and materialized into a blurry male In his early twenties, dark hair, dark eyes

The uard" His voice carried a trace of Russian accent

I nodded and slipped into Russian "Yes"

"I don’t know you What you do o in in an hour " Hewith fear In fact, I et my shivers under control " I drank my coffee

The o, I’ll make sure you both walk out alive You hear that? I don’t knohat he’s got over my wife, but you tell hio I’ll be back in thirty minutes You tell hihed and nudged Sairoaned and sat up

"What happened?"

"You fell"

"Really? What did I fall into?"

"My fist"

"That explains the headache" Saiain I want to be absolutely clear Atteain and you’re fired"

I wondered ould happen if I knocked hiht there, just for kicks

"Is that my arabica coffee?" he asked

I nodded "I will even let you have a cup if you answer my question"

Saiman arched an eyebrow "Let? It’s"Possession is nine-tenths of the law"