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. Itsounds like he lost most of his research, so he s going to get desperate. Desperate people make mistakes, Milo said. And then we catch them. Bastian? He was interrogated, with both Claudia Burke and a freelance telepathpresent, Kismet replied. They believed him when he said he never shared ourinformation with Thackery.He accepted information from him only regardingcertain scientific applications of his research.He said Erickson s team neverknew where the information came from, so they were cleared, too. Bastian was cleared? I gaped at her.She frowned. Pretty much.He got a wrist slap for not passing along what heknew about Thackery after Olsmill went down.The brass is of the opinion that theHunter known as Evangeline Stone died on May seventeenth, so nothing thathappened to you afterward is their problem.My shoulders were shaking as I tried to rein in my fury. That s what they vedeclared, huh? Thackery slips Bastian info that helps us build a better bullet, sohe gets a free fucking pass? They still want Thackery caught, but, yeah, Bastian remains on the payroll.Iguess they think they re hemorrhaging Handlers and Hunters so fast they can tafford to lose any more people. Her voice was bitter enough to make a lemonpucker.I studied her face the lines of grief bracketing her eyes and the dullness of herskin.Milo had the same basic look, down to the red veins spiderwebbing his eyes.They both seemed overstressed, sleep-deprived, and ready to shatter.Twentydays later and their lives had descended into Hell.Unless it was & Damn. Felix?Milo flinched and his brown eyes went dull, cold.My heart ached.Kismet said,  The infection kept him in ICU for days.It weakened his heart.Asevered nerve in his back has pretty much left him in serious pain all the time.Hecan walk, but I don t  She paused. He ll probably never hunt again, just like Tybalt, Milo said, so quietly I almost He ll probably never hunt again, just like Tybalt, Milo said, so quietly I almostdidn t hear him.I squeezed his hand, not bothering with placating words, and hesqueezed back a gesture of comfort for another hurting soul, small comfortthough it was.His tentative smile never reached his eyes. Anything else happen while I was out of town? I asked, exhausted andemotionally torn a dish towel wrung out hard and left to slowly untwist. Token?Was he found? No, he wasn t, Kismet said. There s been no sign, but all active Triads have adescription.So far no one s seen him.He s either dead or hiding.I was impressed something as unusual as Token had remained hidden for solong.Unless we just hadn t yet tripped over his body.Someone else was still unaccounted for. Reilly? I asked. The guy looking forChalice? Where d he end up? He has a pretty interesting story, actually, she replied. Yeah, well, I didn t think he took pictures of vampire royalty for shits andgiggles. Not exactly.He really is a P.I., though, with some pretty impressive policeassists on the West Coast.He stumbled onto some vampires out there whileworking on a case, and a few months ago his investigation led him here. What s he want? The truth, mostly.And he s gotten a heaping helping of it lately, but I can giveyou those details later.It can wait until you re back on your feet.You feel up tochanging your clothes? Walking out of the library like that s going to be kind ofconspicuous.I snorted.She retrieved a bag from the mouth of the passage.Everyone, Maxincluded, turned their backs while I slipped into jeans that gapped around mywaist and a shirt that, when tucked in, helped keep the jeans up.I wasdangerously thin and needed to put some weight on before a strong wind blewme to Oz.I tucked the PDA into my back pocket, keeping its existence a secret for now.When I tried to thank Max, he held up a stony hand and shook his massive head. I have been in your debt from the moment of your capture by the goblins,Evangeline.I have repaid it. Are you leaving the city again? I asked. For now.Nothing is as it was.Good journey to you. And you.The sun beat down on us from the midday sky, hot and oppressive.Summerwas upon us, and it was only going to get hotter.Terrific.The three of us madeour way through the library without incident or strange looks.The last time I lefthere, I d been accosted in the street by an old friend of Chalice s.No suchdistraction met us on our way to Kismet s Jeep.I settled into the backseat and letthe city go by in a blur.Kismet insisted on walking me up while Milo waited with the Jeep.I didn t havethe energy to protest.I realized halfway up the narrow stairway that led to anequally narrow hallway of tiny apartments that I didn t have a key.It was an absurdthought, really.We had a spare hidden beneath a loose piece of the doorframe.Ipried it out, unlocked the deadbolt and knob, and let us in.pried it out, unlocked the deadbolt and knob, and let us in.The apartment was spotless.The old rug had been replaced by a new one,deep blue and thick-pile.The cement floor was scrubbed clean and still smelledof bleach.Even the walls were freshly painted, erasing all signs of what hadoccurred my last day here Jaron s death, Token s capture and interrogation, andall the blood spilled.Even the hole where Wyatt had knifed Token s hand to thewall was filled in, as if it had never existed.Everything was straight, clean, in its place.Not a sign that anyone had livedhere in quite a while.The sterility of it squeezed my heart.A place that had oncefelt so cozy, so much like home, felt about as welcoming as a motel room.How did I get here?Oh yeah, a psychopath and my not-so-special blood.Speaking ofwhich &  The blood tests. The what? Kismet asked. The blood tests they ran at R&D.They should have had the results the day Ileft.Her expression softened into understanding. They didn t find anything.Whatever your body did to heal from the vampire parasite, it s not somethingmodern science can trace.Guess magic wins this one.I could have told everyone that weeks ago and saved myself a crapload ofagony and heartache.Oh, wait, I did tell everyone that. You don t have to stay here alone, Kismet said. Yes, I do need to be alone. Even if only for a while. Take this, then. She pushed a disposable cell phone at me. Call me if youneed anything.Actually, call me later tonight just to check in.It looked like her mothering was starting to broaden its horizons.I may havebeen much closer to her in age now, but she still had nearly a decade of lifeexperience on me.It would be nice to have a female friend again.I took thephone. If I hear anything from Wyatt, I ll call, she said, turning to go. I ll talk to youlater. Yeah.She lingered in the doorway, as if waiting for me to vanish in a puff of smoke,and finally left.I turned the locks, dumped the phone on the coffee table, thenwandered into the kitchen.The fridge was empty, which was probably good.Ididn t want to have to clean out green-and-gray goop that had once been food.Ifound some bottled water in a cupboard and swigged it warm, then put a fewbottles into the fridge to chill.I still had meals in the freezer, plus cans of soupand boxes of pasta in the cupboards.It was something [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]