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Layla had never been out close to dawn before, and she found it interesting to note that there was a real change in the air, a vitalization she could sense but not see: The sun was indeed powerful, capable of illu illumination made her skin prickle in alar her noas the tio

"How you doing?" Xhex asked fro evening They had been on the outskirts of Caldwell for hours, circling in the darkness, tracking Xcor and his fighters - which had proven easy enough to do Her sense of the hted location, her tie to hio as yet unfaded And on his side Xcor appeared to be so caught up in his fighting that he did not know she was on the periphery; certainly if he are of her vicinity, he did not approach her, and nor did the other soldier

"Layla?"

She glanced over at the feht where he is He hasn&039;tabout"

Layla had to sht had been the sy as such Xhex was razor-sharpas a male physically, but there was a warmth to her that was at odds with those traits: She had never once left Layla&039;s side, hovering like a , ever solicitous and careful, as if she knew that socircue

"I&039;m fine"

"No, you&039;re not"

As Layla refocused on the signal of her blood some two blocks away, she stayed quiet

"I&039;m sure you&039;re already aware of this," Xhexhere"

"I know He&039;s changing positions"

"Yeah, I can sense that"

Abruptly, Layla turned toward a lofty, glowing beacon to the west: the highest skyscraper in the city As she focused on the lights that blinked white and red at its apex, she i cold atop thehis claim to the city

"Do you think he&039;s evil?" she asked roughly "I mean, you can sense his emotions, yes?"

"To a point I can"

"So is he evil?"

The other feretted what she had to share "He wouldn&039;t be a good bet, Layla Not for you, not for anyone - and not just because of the Wrath issue Xcor&039;s got some sinister shit in him"

"So he is a dark soul"

"You don&039;t need to read hi"

"Yes Yes, indeed"

Fro ently "He&039;s dematerialized"

"This is it This is where you come in"

Layla closed her eyes and shut out all of her senses except the instinct to find her own blood "He&039;s reed, the two of them traveled a mile and reconvened; traveled another five miles and reconvened; traveled another ten, and another ten with Layla&039;s instincts acting as a co their course

And all the while tiing in the seat of the sky and getting stronger

The final leg of their race found theood mile to a one no farther

"I can get you closer," Laylaanywhere?"

"No, he&039;s not"

"Then you go Now - go!"

Layla took one last look in the direction he was in She knew she had to depart - for if she could sense him, he could perhaps sense her as well The expectation, of course, was that if he did, he would not be able to react fast enough, that her disappearance to the mhis-protected environment up north would stop her trail and sty of her destination, but scra his blood sense so totally, he would be sent in a different direction like light bouncing off the surface of a mirror

Fear nizing it as ether when he had fed froin Scribe, she had condeht -

No, she corrected He had done that to hi the Band of Bastards&039; living arrangeht it would, Xcor had set the wheels of his dooht be the conduit, but his actions were the electrical charge that was going to stop his heart

"Thank you for giving ," she told Xhex "I&039;ll go hoht now"

With that, she de in on the ht was beginning to sting her eyes

It was not tears doing that No, those were not tears - it was the co dawn

Tears shed for thatof her on too many levels to count

"We need to go, buddy"

John nodded as Qhuinn spoke to hi in thefrom a kind of culture shock

The cupboards were bare The pantry was empty So were all the drawers and the two closets The bookcases over the built-in desk The desk itself

Walking around, he circled the table that was in the alcove, re the dinners Wellsie had served on it Then he a her bowls of bread dough draped with dish towels, her cutting boards with piles of diced onions or sliced mushrooms on them, her canister of flour, her crock of rice At the stove, he almost bent down to breathe in the arohetti sauce and theaway, he walked over to his best friend and then kept going, heading out into the living room Shit, it was like the place had been bos had all been stripped froers left where they had been hung: Everything in a frame had been ainst each other, separated by thick terry-cloth towels

The furniture had likewise been shifted all around, the lot of it sorted into arrangements of chairs, side tables, lahting, and that had meant there were, like, a hundred lamps of different shapes and sizes in the house

Sas She&039;d hated wall-to-wall, so there were Orientals - had been Orientals - lying everywhere on hardwood andelse, they had been rolled up with their pads and organized into a cordwood-like stack against the long wall in the living roos and all of the artere going to be brought north to thea U-Haul truck for the relocation What was left over would be offered to Safe Place, and, if declined, forwarded on to Goodwill or the Salvation Army