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.”As an experiment, she backed away as far as the hallway.Her shakes started again.Close to Xia, she was fine.Normal.Not a care in the world.Away from Xia, the shakes came on.“Alexandrine.” Xia took a shaky step forward.Kynan’s hand shot out to steady him.Another two steps away, and her lungs couldn’t draw air.Then she took five steps forward, and the sensation that she was suffocating eased.She closed her eyes, and all she saw in her head was Xia—not the amulet, which didn’t exist anymore, anyway, but Xia.Her heart lurched.“Oh, shit.”“Get inside, both of you,” Kynan said.He steered Xia back to the bed, leaving her to make her way alone.He put out a hand and blocked Alexandrine’s path to the bed, where Xia was now sitting, cross-legged.“I’m not letting you get close enough to touch him,” he said.“Hell knows what that might do to him.” He grabbed a chair and swung it around to face the bed, gesturing to her.“Pull, and you’re dead.Clear?”Uh-oh.She didn’t doubt for a second that he both meant it and could carry out the threat without breaking a sweat or suffering a twinge of conscience.In fact, she was pretty sure he’d think it was fun.“Sometimes it just happens,” she said.“I can’t stop it.Or make it happen.”Kynan looked to Xia for confirmation on that one.Xia nodded.“Fiend,” Kynan said, “we need to have a little talk about you and your witch.” He studied her next, and though she didn’t have his attention for long, she felt raked over when he was done.“You aren’t going to talk to him about sex, are you?” she asked.“Because, lucky for you, I’ve already had the talk with him about your fertility thing.”Kynan turned on Xia.“Tell me she doesn’t mean what I think she means.”Xia shrugged.“Xia’s a big boy, Kynan,” she said.“He knows what goes where and why.” She was feeling like she needed a chair, but she wasn’t going to give Kynan Aijan the satisfaction.“So do I, as it happens.It was good, in case you’re interested.Really, really good.Fantastic, actually.”“Sit down, Alexandrine,” Xia said.She stuck her tongue in her cheek and counted to five.“Xia, what you and I did and what either of us was like when we did it is none of his business.”Kynan touched the top of the chair he’d pulled to the side of the bed.The motion was a caricature of a gentleman assisting a lady to her seat.“I’m not going to pick you up if you fall over.In fact, if you do hit the ground, I’ll count this as one of my better days.”She glanced at Xia and assessed whether she wanted to stay where she was and risk falling on her ass or sit down and risk giving Kynan Aijan even one iota more of satisfaction than he already felt.Xia’s panther-marked hand was open and faceup.He didn’t look so hot to her.If she touched him, she knew she’d feel a fever.She walked forward, but Kynan stopped her with an outstretched arm.“You don’t touch him.” He backed her away from the bed until she hit the chair.“I need answers from both of you.” He gave her an ugly smile.“Five,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.“You don’t like that one? All right.How about… Constantinople? Or 1066.”“I don’t care if you die,” Kynan said.“I really don’t.I’d be happy to make it happen right now.”“I thought you were trying to hurt him,” she said.“You’re a witch.I was checking to see if he was alive.”“That’s exactly what you’d say if you were trying to kill him, isn’t it?” She kept her shoulders straight and looked him directly in the eye.“How do I know you’re not on their side?”His eyes flickered from golden brown to smoky quartz.“Whose side would that be?”“One of the men Xia was fighting back at my apartment.A mageheld.”“You can’t tell the difference between a mageheld and a free fiend?” he shot back.The air started to feel thick at the same time she got a chill in the back of her head.“Kynan,” said Xia.“She doesn’t know what you are.She really doesn’t.”“Honey,” Kynan said.He had a sneer to go along with the endearment.Lucky her.“If I was working for Rasmus, you’d already be dead.And so would Xia.” His eyes flickered again.“In fact,” he said in a low, hard voice, “considering Xia’s condition, I ought to be asking you that question.What the hell did you do to him?”She rolled her eyes in Xia’s direction.“Are all your friends this charming?”“Yes.”She pressed her lips together.She didn’t trust Kynan Aijan.Not an inch.Heck, not even half an inch.“With your attitude, pretty boy, I don’t see much point in telling you anything.It’ll be faster if you decide now that this is all my fault, because I’m the big bad wicked witch in the room.”Behind her, Xia sighed.“It’s all right, Alexandrine.I promise you, he’s a friend.More or less.Kynan, please, will you at least listen to what happened?”“Go, Xia,” Kynan said.All of Alexandrine’s energy evaporated.She hit the wall with no more strength to call on.She sat hard on the chair [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]