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"I will take that chance," Sabin said, every word careful, showing the effort it took to speak.
"Did Cassandra tell you about my offer? If we can't cure you tomorrow, I'll let Jean-Claude mark me.
Tonight you only have part of what you need for the spell. You need me, Sabin, one way or another, you
need me." I didn't tell them I was already marked. They obviously hadn't felt it. If they knew I was
already marked, all I could offer was to die tonight with the boys.
Dominic shook his head. "I have searched Sabin's body, Anita. Tomorrow will be too late. There will be
nothing to save." He dropped to his knees beside Richard.
"You don't know that for sure," I said.
He laid the still-beating heart on top of Richard's bare chest.
"Dominic, please!"
It was too late for lies. "I'm marked, Dominic. We're the perfect sacrifice. Open the circle, and I'll come
inside."
He looked at me. "If this is true, then you are all far too dangerous to trust. The three of you together
without the circle would overwhelm us. You see, Anita, I have been part of a true triumvirate for
centuries. You have no dreams of the power you can touch. You and Richard are more powerful than
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Cassandra and I. You would have been a force to be reckoned with. The council itself might have feared
you." He laughed. "They may forgive us for that alone."
He spoke words that curled power over me.
I walked to the edge of the circle and touched it. It was like my skin tried to crawl off my bones. I fell
forward and slid down something that couldn't be there. Jean-Claude shrieked. It hurt too much for me
to scream. I lay curled by the circle, and even when I breathed, I could taste death, old, rotting death in
my mouth.
Edward knelt by me. "What is it?"
"Without your other parts, you do not have the power to force this circle, Anita." Dominic got to his feet,
raising the sword two-handed for a downward blow.
Dolph had passed the circle earlier in the room where they had taken Robert's heart. I grabbed
Edward's shirt. "You pass the circle. Now. And kill that son of a bitch."
"If you can't, how can I?"
"You're not magic, that's how."
It was one of those rare moments when you understand how great trust can be. Edward knew nothing
about the ceremony, yet he didn't argue. He accepted what I said, and simply did it. I wasn't a hundred
percent sure it would work, myself, but it had to.
Dominic brought the sword down. I screamed. Edward crossed the circle like it wasn't there. The sword
bit into Richard's chest, pinning the beating heart to his body. The pain of the blade drove me to my
knees. I felt it enter Richard's body. Then I felt nothing, like a switch had been turned off. Edward's
shotgun blast took Dominic in the chest.
Dominic didn't fall. He stared at the hole in his chest and then at Edward. He pulled the sword out of
Richard's chest and slid the still-beating heart off it. He faced Edward with the sword in one hand and the
heart in the other. Edward fired again, and Cassandra leapt on his back.
Harley crossed the circle then. He grabbed Cassandra around the waist and pulled her off of Edward.
They fell, rolling to the ground. A gun sounded, and Cassandra's body jerked, but her dainty fist came up
and smashed downward.
Edward fired the shotgun until Dominic's face vanished in a spray of blood and bones, and he fell slowly
to his knees. His outstretched hand spilled the heart onto the ground beside Richard's terribly still body.
Sabin levitated upward. "I will have your soul for that, mortal."
I ran my fingers over the circle and it was still there. Edward started to turn the shotgun towards the
vampire. The naked heart pulsed and shimmered in the cross's glare.
"The heart, shoot the heart!"
Edward didn't hesitate. He turned and shot the heart, exploding it into so much meat. Sabin hit him a
second later and he went flying. He ended up very still on the ground with Sabin on top of him.
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I pushed my hand forward. It met empty air. I fired two-handed at Sabin as I walked towards him. I put
three shots into his chest, forcing him to his feet, back from Edward. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]