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He couldn’t leave like this, as if the night hadhis mother’s medallion from his neck, he placed it around Channon’s and kissed her parted lips

"Sleep, little one," he whispered "May the Fates be kind to you Always"

Then, he shiht Alone He was always alone

He’d long ago accepted that fact It hat had to be

But tonight he felt that loneliness more profoundly than he had ever felt it before

As he rounded the hotel’s building and headed toward his car, he collided with a , huddled from the cold, in a worn jacket She wore the faded uniform of a waitress and the old shoes of a woman who had no choice but to be practical

"Hey," he said as she started past him "Do you have a car?"

She shook her head no

"You do now" He handed her the keys to his Lexus and pointed it out to her "You’ll find the registration in the glove box Just fill it out and it’s yours"

She blinked at hienuine sht the car to use while he’d been trapped in this ti, there was no need for it

"I’s attached I took a vow of poverty about fifteen hed incredulously "I have no idea who you are, but thank you"

Sebastian inclined his head and waited until the woman had driven off

Cautiously, he stepped into the alley and looked around to make sure there were no witnesses He called forth the powers of Night to shield hiht happen by, then he shifted into his alternate forh hied with electrical energy--electrical energy that allowed him to shed one form and shift into another

In his case, his alternate fors out to their full forty-foot span, he launched his and flew into the sky, careful to stay below radar level this ti to do before he could re­turn to his time Yet even as he headed back to the e of Channon from his mind

He could still see her asleep in the bed, her hair spread out around her shoulders He could still feel the texture of the honey-laced strands in his palon form burned with need, and he yearned to return to her

Not that he could One-night stands with hureat

Sebastian crossed town in a matter of minutes and landed on the roof of the museum He summoned the electrical field that allowed the molecules of his body to transform from animal to human and flashed back into his man form

With a flick of his hand, he dressed himself all in black, then shimmered from the roof into the room that held the tapestry

"There you are," he said as he saw Antiphone’s work again Sadness, guilt, and grief tore through hientle face

After he’d sold this tapestry, he had never wanted to see it again

But now he had to have it It was the only way to save his brother’s life Not that he should care Das Damos had done to break him, Se­bastian still couldn’t turn his back on his brother and let the man die Not when he could help it

"I’ustedly

He willed the tapestry from the museum case into his hand Then he folded and tucked it carefully into a black leather bag to protect it

As he began to shi started in the pal frolove Sebastian blew cool air across his hot skin and frowned as a round geon appeared in his palm

"No," he breathed in disbelief as he stared at it

This wasn’t possible, yet there was no denying what he saw and felt Worse, there was a presence inside hi in the depth of his heart that ainst his will, he was ht­ It had to be

Sebastian left thehis next step On the building’s roof, he paused He needed to take the tapestry back to Britain of a thou­sand years earlier He orn to it He’d destroyed Antiphone’s future, and now the fate of his brother was in his hands

But the mark

He couldn’t leave his mate here while he went hoer of being inadvertently struck by an electrical charge was so strong--that was his one Achilles’ heel

Because he relied on electrical ie forms, any kind of outside electrical jolt could involun­tarily transform him It hy his kind avoided any

time period after Benjamin Franklin, the so-called Satan of his people

But Arcadian law demanded he protect his mate

At any cost

Centuries of war had left the Drakos branch of the Ar­cadians virtually extinct And since Sebastian hunted down and executed the evil animal Drakos, their kind would make it a point to track and kill his mate should they ever learn of Channon’s existence