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"I kno this happened," I looked around at the devastation It wasn’t as good as what I could do, but it was impressive anyway

"Lissa, what else can you do?" Gavin gavetone

"Uh, blow things up with , but Merrill had other things on hisattention when I mentioned it"

"What did you blow up?" Gavin frowned deeply, his brows drawn together orry He never showed this much e was this te atI had, this store would have been scattered for a mile, I think" I looked up into Gavin’s concerned face

"Lissa, you frighten me at times," Gavin said

"So, noe have the hoe just don’t have the why," Bill said

"What is the other lead?" Tony asked I ignored hi to hi us deeper into trouble as time went on We climbed into the van and drove to the second crime scene

"Hafer was here, with the other va around the second convenience store At least it was still intact This clerk was also dead; his blood still per here, just as it was in the last place "Why are they hitting convenience stores?" I couldn’t figure this out at all If the hu stands up and down the street "Was this one robbed?" I walked over to Bill

"It was," Bill nodded "But we think that’s just a cover"

"What if it isn’t?" I asked "What if they can’t get cash orsomeone?"

Gavin had his phone in his hand so fast I never saw him reach for it Charles was on the other end in seconds

"Have any accounts been frozen recently?" Gavin asked curtly

"We got a few names from the shapeshifter," Charles replied "The Honored One hadthem now; they have killed in the course of a robbery," Gavin infor at Charles’s elbow listening in, because he was on the phone i?" Wlodek de infors of Larry Frazier and Admiral Hafer, as well as the unwelcome news that Larry still had soiven it to at least one of the vampires to duplicate my talents Wlodek cursed when Gavin infors explode with my mist

"Re her ho to look forward to My life wouldn’t be complete unless I was in trouble with sootten froelo--Rafael Rivera, Alphonse Bouvier and Cyrus Falcone All three vaured the vampire that had blown up the first convenience store had been pretty pissed about so talent by accident, but he certainly had a weapon in his hands now, as long as Larry could keep supplying him with my blood The questions were, ould they choose to destroy with that talent and how much of my blood did they have left?

"Why didn’t I know about all these things you can do?" Winkler quizzed me later as alked toward the van

"I’ve learned these things as I went along," I wanted to elbow hiht have happened if I’d known all this fro Would Winkler or Weldon have tried to control my talents? I still didn’t knohat the Council’s intentions were toward ns on Tony; I could see that from a mile away What did they want froet me to do as much for theest frown on your face," Tony said as he opened the van door forinside and scooting over on the bench seat so Gavin could slide in beside me I wanted to yell at Tony I didn’t That wouldn’t solve anything, and both of us would feel worse afterward We needed clear heads to deal with this problem

"Lissa, I do not think Wlodek will be overly harsh," Gavin said He was thinking back to Wlodek’s words when he’d spilled the beans aboutmist trick

"You two ers crossed, "but he wants to yell at ets" Winkler crawled in on Gavin’s other side and closed the door, Tony and René loaded into the third row Bill was in the front passenger seat and our driver, who’d waited for us inside the van, put the vehicle in gear and drove us back to our hotel

"Lissa, you should eat and then try to sleep," Gavin said e reached our rooht re to do?" I asked

"I will assist René," Gavin replied I waited until he left the roo into Roff and Michael’s roo ain quickly

"Her blood does this?" Xenides hadn’t felt like laughing with glee in a very long time Some of the talents that Lissa bore were more than extraordinary He would keep her alive and under his thumb for this latest reason alone He’d intended to keep draining her blood for other reasons, once she was his, but this--no other vas Xenides had always envied the misters--all he had was mindspeech With the little princess’s blood, however, he could destroy anyone and anything

"And the effects lasted for nearly half an hour," Rafael said "More than enough tienius, ave us additional information we did not have before" Rafael had no talents in ht have , however, he’d been able to fly as invisible mist and had destroyed the convenience store when the clerk pulled a gun on his hu of de the solution from the Frazier huht need every bit of blood left to accooals for Xenides