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As the demon Devina wandered up and back across cold concrete, her path was not straight, but full of curves Winding in and out of rows of bureaus, the discordant tick-tocking of hundreds of clocks drowned out the clip-clip of her Louboutins

Everything had been given a place here, her collection safelyThe location was perfect, just outside of Caldwell&039;s don, and to appear legitimate and uncontroversial, she projected an illusion that a human resources fir: As far as people were aware, a hustling, bustling business had rented the place to accommodate its expansion

Stupid hu or could afford hand-holding when it ca by a Hepplewhite bow front that had been made in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1801, she ran her hand over the inal finish was still on the piece, but then again, she&039;d kept the thing safe froht it over two hundred years before In its draere baskets full of buttons and rows of spectacles and jus in boxes The other bureaus had similar objects, all personal items fashioned out of various metals

Aside from hershe had It was the tie to her souls down below, the tethering security she needed when she felt insecure or stressed-out here on earth

As she did now

The probleht, however, was that for the first tio, she was not cal around this repository of objects, she was su proved to e so useful

And what see should have been "a seminal moment," as her therapist called them, a time to center herself and savor her accoainst Jih he and Adrian and Eddie had infiltrated her previous lair, she had safely gotten her things installed in this new, secure facility

She should have been fucking ecstatic

But shit-on-a-shingle, even the scent of fresh death drifting over froave her no pleasure: To protect her mirror, she needed sohad to offer, and the new sacrificial virgin she&039;d strung up over her tub was bleeding out nicely - getting ready to be useful, not just decorative

Everything was going her way, at least on the surface, and yet she felt so

Ennui, she believed it was calledand what a lovely name for such a crappy, unmotivated state

Maybe she was just exhausted fro up after the move She had about forty bureaus full of acquisitions from all eras of humanity, and whenever she was forced to reestablish herself in another place, she was co with the essence of the victiered in the metal She had yet to start on the contact ritual, however, and was a little surprised at herself Usually, she could focus on nothing else until she fractured time, stepped into the space between thy process

She supposed her therapist would have seen this as progress, considering the compulsion was typically proypt to Gothic France to the Civil War and the present here in the States, hat tied her to home when she was so far away

Still, there was no panicky rush to snuggle up as hers for eternity All she seemed to want to do was mope around and pace

It was all Jim Heron&039;s fault

He was just too defiant Dominant Extraordinary

He had been chosen by her and that supercilious sonofabitch Nigel because Heron was equal parts good and evil - and as she had learned through the ages, when it came to mankind, evil alon In fact, she&039;d assu but a tedious bore, the kind of thing she had done toago

Insteadit was she who had been sucked in and seduced

Heron was just sounownable Even when he had turned hi with hi hi, unyielding

And that strength made him unattainable

She had never known that before Fro was, it was in her very nature to take over: She was a perfect parasite, niggling her way in and replicating her essence until what she had entered becae to her was intoxicating, a slap in the face, a breath of fresh air But it also see else

Pulling open a drawer, she took out a thin gold bracelet that had a little dove char off of it The inscription on the inside was in cursive and just precious Frohter With a date from the year before Blah, blah, blah

She hated the nainwhat a thorn in her side The purpose of that Barten girl had been to protect the mirror Now the little shit had some kind of connection with Jiile h her, as if a lover&039;s touch had passed not just over her flesh, but through to her very bones

Ji to her

Ditching the bracelet, she hip-checked the drawer closed and ran down the row to an ornate floor-length mirror that functioned only to check her appearance As she went, she changed her forravity-defying breasts and an ass withher hair, she s Willing it upward, she pivoted and flashed her shs and perfect calves

Suddenly, she was alive

Well, alive wasn&039;t technically correct But that hat it felt like: In the space of a

Except she was not going to be stupid about this

Confident of her hemline, her neckline, and her hairline, she went into the bathroom

"How do I look?"

She did a little twirl in front of the youngupside down over her tub Except he didn&039;t have anything to say, even though his eyes were open

"Oh, what the hell do you know"

She bent down and dipped her fingertips into the blood that had been steadily draining out of his carotid artery Impatient with the delay, she quickly traced around the doorjaet more The purity of his essence formed a seal that was better than any security alarm any human could ever create - plus, the process rid the world of one more mortal creature

Made her job easier

Closing herself in with Mr Chatty, she turned to face the ancient y frao The leaded-glass surface had a constantly shifting reflection, waves of dark gray and black swirling around a background the color of a rug stain The thing was a hideous portal, and the only way for her to get to her well of souls

"Hang out," she told the stiff "I&039;ll be back"

Stepping through the surface of the ave herself over freely, the body she assuh the wored at the base of her well, spit out of the te no time to recover

As she patted her hair, and sht how stupid it was not to have a ain, she didn&039;t care what her minions&039; opinions were, and her soulsoh, her lovely soulswell, they had other things on theirher head back, she looked up at the miles of shiny black walls that rose up froainst the confines of their viscous prison, faces and hips and knees and elbows straining for a freedom that they would never attain, their woeful voices multi-layered and muffled

"How do I look?" she shouted upward

The chorus of

For fuck&039;s sake, couldn&039;t she get a witness somewhere? Anywhere?

After a last double-check of herself, she granted access to Ji him forth And as she waited, her heart beat triple-ti every inch of her skin with an electric sizzle But she was not going to show it Cool Keep it cool

Jiht

The chosen savior was the very best of theand lethal, his body was an instru Raw, pounding

"You want me," she said in a low voice

His eyes narrowed, and the hatred in them did more for her libido than the best plate of oysters anyone had ever served up "Not like that, sweetheart"

Oh, how he lied

Swaying her hips, she went over to the worktable and trailed her fingertips across the pitted, discolored surface Melistening from use, made her breathe deep

"No?" she said "You called me Not the other way around"

"I want you to tell el turned you dohen you asked him, did he"

"Didn&039;t say that"

"Well, I find it hard to believe you&039;d come to oing to tell you?"

"Yeah, I do"

She laughed in a violent burst "You should knohat I&039; to tell me"

"Why in the world would I "

His hand lifted to his heavy chest and slowly, oh, so slowly, drifted down his stomach

Devina sed hard And then her s

"I have sohly "And vice versa"