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.Every day I looked inthe mirror it was getting harder to recognize the woman looking back at me.Barrons paced a slow circle around me."Are you sure you're all right, Ms.Lane? You seem a littletense."I rotatedat the center, turning withhim."I'm just ducky," I said.His eyes narrowed."Did you findanything at the museum?""No.""Did you search every exhibit?""No.""Why not?""I didn't feel like it," I said."You didn't feel like it?" For a moment Barrens looked perfectly blank, as if the idea that someone mightdisobey one of his orders just because they didn't feel like it was even more inconceivable to him than thepossibility of human life on Mars."I am not your workhorse," I told him."I have a life, too.At least, I used to.I used to do perfectlynormal things like date and go out to eat and see movies and hang out with friends and never once thinkabout vampires or monsters or mobsters.So don't go getting all over my case because you think Ihaven't performed up to your exacting standards.I don't plan your days for you, do I? Even anOOP-detector needs a break every now and then." I gave him a disgusted look."You're lucky I'mhelping you at all, Barrens."He closed in on me and didn't stop until I could feel the heat coming off his big, hard body.Until I had totilt my head back to look up at him, and when I did, I was taken aback by his glittering midnight eyes, thevelvety gold of his skin, the sexy curve of his mouth, with that full lower lip that hinted at voluptuouscarnal appetites, and the upper one that smacked of self-control and perhaps a bit of cruelty, making mewonder what it would be likeWhuh.I shook my head sharply, trying to clear it.From my two brief encounters with V'lane, I knew that Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlmerely being in the same general vicinity with a death-by-sex Fae caused an extreme hormonal spike in awoman that did not go away until it was released somehow.What V'lane had done to me today had leftme so awfully, icily aroused that it had taken more orgasms than I'd thought possible and a long frigidshower to calm me.And now it seemed I hadn't done a good enough job, because I was still sufferingresidual effects.There was no other way to explain why I was standing there wondering what it would belike to kiss Jericho Barrons.Fortunately, he chose that moment to open the mouth I'd been finding so disturbingly sexual and beginspeaking.His words abruptly restored my perspective."You still think you can walk away from this, don't you, Ms.Lane?" he said coolly."You think this isabout finding a book, you think it's about figuring out who killed your sister but the truth is, your worldis going to Hell in a hand-basket and you're one of the few people that can do something about it.If thewrong person or thing gets its hands on theSinsar Dubh , you won't be ruing the loss of yourrainbow-hued, prettily manicuredworld, you'll be regretting the end of human life as you know it.Howlong do you think you'll last in a world where someone like Mallucé, or the Unseelie who's got hisRhino-boy watchdogs stationed all over the city, gets the Dark Book? How long do you think you'llwantto? This isn't about fun and games, Ms.Lane.This isn't even about life and death.This is about things thatare worse than death.""Do you really think I don't know that?" I snapped.Maybe I hadn't beentalking about everything he'djust said, but I'd sure been thinking about it.I knew there was a bigger picture going on out there thanjust what had been happening to me, in my little corner of the world.I'd eaten ketchup-soaked fries andwatched the Gray Man destroy a helpless woman and I'd wondered every night since who was fallingvictim to him now.I'd gotten an up close look at the Many-Mouthed-Thing's many mouths and knew itwas out there somewhere, feeding on someone.I'd wondered if I could jump forward in time a year ortwo what Dublin would look like then.I had no doubt the dark territory of the abandonedneighborhood was expanding even as Barrons and I spoke, that somewhere out there another streetlamphad fizzled, emitting a final, weak flicker of light before burning out, and the Shades had instantly slitheredin around it and tomorrow, according to Barrons, the city wouldn't even remember that block had everexisted.Such worries weren't just on my waking mind; they were invading my dreams.Last night I'd had anightmare in which I'd been floating over a Dublin that was pitch-black except for a single, blazingfour-story stronghold in the middle of it.In the surreal manner of dreams, I'd been both above the cityand down inside the store, looking out the front door.So much of Dublin had fallen to darkness that I'dknown, even if I'd begun walking the instant the morning sun crested the horizon, I wouldn't be able tomake it to another lighted sanctuary before nightfall, and that I was stuck at Barrons Books and Baublesfor the rest of my life.I'd woken up thinking about things like prophetic dreams and apocalypses instead of entertaining myusual blissful early-morning thoughts of what I was going to eat that day and what pretty outfits I mightwear.Oh yes, I knew this was about worse things than death.Like being expected to go on living after yoursister was killed.Like watching everything you believed about yourself and the world in general getunveiled as one great, big, fat lie.But the big picture going on out there wasn't my problem.I'd come toDublin to find Alina's killer, get whatever justice I could, then go home, and that's what I still planned todo.O'Bannion was no longer a threat, and maybe out of sight was out of mind for Mallucé.MaybeBarrons could save the city from the Fae.Maybe the Queen if anything V'lane had said wastrue would find the Dark Book without my help just fine, send the Unseelie back to prison, and our Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit
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Tematy
IndexWarren Adler Wojna państwa Rose 01 Wojna państwa Rose
§ Menzel Iwona W poszukiwaniu zapachu snów 01 W poszukiwaniu zapachu snów
Lachlan M D Synowie boga 01 Synowie boga (2)
Robbins Harold Handlarze snów 01 Handlarze snow
§ Rudnicka Olga (01) Zacisze 13 Zacisze 13
Reynard Sylvain Piekło Gabriela 01 Piekło Gabriela
Kalifornijska noc 01 Kalifornijska noc Adler Elizabeth
Alexandra Bracken Mroczne umysły 01 Mroczne umysły
Carey Mike Felix Castor 01 Moj wlasny diabel
Worth the Fight 4 La