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She waved her hand and lost her clothes Samuel watched her speed twenty feet away and stretch out on her side, on the stone floor thatthat ripped through hiain fear and pride split him; a terrible fear that his woman lay, completely vulnerable, this far away from him, and pride that she’d reached beyond her previous convictions, setting them aside, to save another ascender’s life

A second explosion, closer this tirid wall He thought about Duncan and as his grayle power flowed, he extended his senses Duncan was nearby

Vela, hoe doin’? he sent

Duncan’s about thirty yards from here

I can sense him now Saht… Samuel continued the count so that the other warriors could hear "Seven, six, five, four…" Leto and Thorne both leaned forward "Three, two…" A grid wall exploded not five feet froe, not even a hair’s breadth Wall debris, like black ash froh, three ear, shotguns over shoulders

Big motherfuckers

"What the hell is this?" The leader stared down at Vela Like the description of Sharav, he wore three braids on either side of his face, clipped back in low hanging loops All thestinks here" The wrecker on the left backed away froet the hell out of this tunnel" Sanal, a forward slice of his arm in Vela’s direction

And just as the wreckers lifted their heads to look down the tunnel, Samuel folded He reappeared, at the same time as Thorne and Leto, behind thealun fell to the floor But a second later, the bastard turned to face hih he’d barely felt the wound He topped Samuel by at least two inches, and his skills rayle power, adding new streaht his opponent’s eyebrows up a couple of notches

"Surprise" Gaood in his hand, or his neer so nificent as in this moment when he battled the bastard who had said, ‘Let’s waste her’ Both Leto and Thorne had taken on a wrecker and a sword-fight ensued so that the sound of ainst metal echoed up and down the tunnel Because the eleainst-vampire

Chapter Seven

The moment the explosion had sounded, Vela had leaped to her feet, waved a hand and got dressed She hurried back to join Alison and Fiona She watched in awe as Fiona allowed Alison to access her body, to essentially take her over so that Fiona’s obsidian flaure weapon identification In the process, Alison’s body grew lax against the darkening grid wall, present-but-not- present

Fiona gave herself a shake When she moved, she even brushed her hair away froed, Fiona turned in the direction of the three weapons that had slid toward the her back "Are you sure?" She turned to Vela and touched her forehead "Don’t worry I can do this" Alison again, speaking fro at Vela fro these weapons now And I can feel it in every cell of my body that I can do this" Fiona, now Alison,toward the nearest weapon

Vela held her breath as Fiona stretched out her hand The weapon fleard her

"Please work, please work, please work," Vela murmured

Beyond, the men battled

The weapon reached Fiona’s hand and even at this distance, Vela felt an electric current pass up and down the tunnel Fiona held up the weapon "One down," she called out

Vela let go of a huge sigh of relief

At almost the same moment, one of the wreckers fell to the stone floor and Thorne took his head

Vela wanted to look away, but couldn’t She’d never seen a battle close up before, not like this The one she’d witnessed at the Superstitions had still been at a greater distance and within the safety of the darkening

Thorne turned in Leto’s direction, and in a blinding move, folded, reappeared behind the second wrecker and shoved a dagger into his lower back

As the Third Warrior arched at the sudden unexpected pain, Leto drove his sword through his chest When he withdrew the blade, the wrecker also toppled to the floor

Leto removed his head

Thorne turned, extended his hand in Fiona’s direction She didn’t hesitate but tossed the reconfigured shotgun to him