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should improve with each treatment as longas you don't use it."
She was fiddling with the brace, doing thingsthat Maggie couldn't see. And
Maggie's heart wasbeating hard with anger and an unreasonableprotectiveness.
I can't let her do that to Delosbut how can istop her? There's no way. If she
sees me, it's allover... .
"There," Sylvia said. "That should hold you fora while."
Maggie ground her teeth.
But at least maybe she'll go now, she thought. Itfeels like about a century
I've been sitting in herelistening to her. And this stool isn't getting
anymore comfortable.
"Now," Sylvia said briskly, tidying. "Just let meput your gloves away-"
Oh,no,Maggie thought, horrified. On the shelf beside her was a pile of
gloves.
"No,"Delos said, so quickly it was almost anecho. "I need them."
"Don't be silly. You're not going out again-"
"I'll take them." Delos had wonderful reflexes. Heput himself between Sylvia
and the wardrobe, andaninstant later he was holding on to the gloves,almost
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tugging them from her hands.
Sylvia looked up at him wonderingly for a longmoment. Maggie could see her
face, the creamy skin delicately flushed, and her eyes, the color of
r-drenched violets. She could see the shimmerof her pale blondhairas Sylvia
shook her head slightly.
Delos stared down at her implacably.
Then Sylvia shrugged her ft-agile shoulders andletgo of the gloves.
"I'll go see to the feast," she said lightly andsmiled. She picked up her
basket and moved gracefully to the door.
Delos watched her go.
Maggiesimply sat, speechless and paralyzed.When Delos followed Sylvia and
closed the door firmly behind her, she made herself get slowly offthe stool.
She backed away from the curtainsslightly, but she could still see a strip of
thebedroom.
Delos walked unerringly straight to the wardrobe."You can come out now," he
said, his voice flatand hard.
Maggie shut her eyes.
Great. Well, I should have known.
But he hadn't let Sylvia come in and discoverher, and he hadn't simply turned
her over to his guards. Those were very good signs, she told herself stoutly.
In fact, maybe she wasn't going to haveto persuade him of anything at all;
maybe he wasalready going to be reasonable.
"Or do I have to come in?" Delos said dangerously.
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Or maybe not, Maggie thought.
She felt a sudden idiotic desire to get the dust out of her hair. She shook
her head a few times, brushing at it, then gave up.
Terribly conscious of her smudged face and slaveclothing, she parted the
linen hangings andwalked out.
"I warned you," Delos said.
He was facing her squarely, his jaw set and hismouth as grimas she had ever
seen it. His eyeswere hooded, a dull and eerie gold in the shadows.He looked
every inch the dark and mysterious vam pire prince.
And here I am, Maggie thought. Looking like...well, like vermin, I bet. Like
something fished outof the gutter. Not much of a representative forhumanity.
She had never cared about clothes or hairstylesor things like that, but just
now she wished thatshe could at least look presentable. Since the fateof the
world might just depend on her.
Even so, there was something in the air betweenDelos and herself. A sort of
quivering aliveness thatquickened the blood in Maggie's veins. That
stirredsomething in her chest, and started her heartpounding with an odd
mixture of fear and hope.
She faced Delos just assquarelyashe was facing her.
"I know some things that I think you need toknow," she said quietly.
He ignored that. "I told you what would happenif you came here. I told you I
wouldn't protectyou again."
"I remember. But youdidprotect me again. AndI thank you-but I really think
I'd better tell youwhat's going on. Sylvia is the suspicious type, andif she's
gone to Hunter Redfern to say that youdon't want people looking in your
closet-"
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"Don't youunderstand?"he said with such sudden violence that Maggie's throat
closed, chokingoff her words. She stared at him. "You're so closeto dying, but
you don't seem to care. Are you toostupid to grasp it, or do you just have a
deathwish?"
The thumping in Maggie's chest now was definitelyfear.
"I do understand," she began slowly, when shecould get her voice to work.
"No, you don't,"he said. `But I'll make you."
All at once his eyes were blazing. Not just theirnormal brilliant yellow, but
a dazzling and unnatural gold that seemed to hold its own light.
Even though Maggie had seen it before, it wasstill a shock to watch his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]