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across his face before he disappeared in a shower of gray dust. Raj
heard a long exhaled breath behind him as Celia died along with her
mate, their lives wound far too tightly by the long mating bond for her to
survive his death.
Serge and Charles fell to their faces, groveling, begging for their
lives, in what they had to know was a useless effort. No one involved
in this operation could be permitted to live. It violated the most basic
tenet of Vampire. Raj didn t even spare them a glance, stepping over
the pile of dust and entering the house. Em could take care of these
two. He wanted to find Sarah.
Chapter Forty-eight
In the basement, Sarah watched with some amusement as Estelle
Edwards tried to jam the desktop computer into a narrow box. The doc
was sweating buckets and grunting like a pig with the effort, but it
wasn t working. She finally gave up, letting the awkward CPU drop to
the floor with a crash. She was swearing viciously, using words Sarah
knew existed, but had never actually heard spoken before. Wow.
The door at the end of the corridor thundered open, hitting the wall
with more force than usual. Edwards looked up in panic before her
mouth tightened into a grim line of determination. This was not a woman
who gave up easily. She pulled the keys from the pocket of her white
lab coat and quickly uncuffed Sarah from the table, grabbing a fistful of
her hair and dragging her backwards across the room to face the door.
Sarah stumbled, her bound feet struggling to find purchase, but the
woman only tightened her grip, bringing tears to Sarah s eyes. It felt
like her hair was being torn out by the roots.
 Don t say a word, bitch, Edwards hissed in Sarah s ear, and she
could feel the sharp point of something poking into her back just above
her kidney.
She heard footsteps coming down the hall, and then more loud
noise as someone kicked in the doors of the three cells. She sucked in
a relieved breath, knowing Trish and the others had been found in time,
but then blew the breath out quickly when the movement caused
Edward s weapon to slice into her skin, drawing blood.
The noise stopped suddenly and she heard a familiar growl that
made her smile. Raj was coming.
* * * *
Raj stormed toward the last door in the corridor, the only one standing
open. He could smell the night air coming through a broken window,
but above that was the scent of blood Sarah s blood. Emelie would
have raced around him, but he held her back with a sharp command,
stepping into the doorway himself to find none other than Estelle
Edwards, and clutched before her, her head wrenched at a painful
angle, was his Sarah.
Raj let his gaze roam over his lover s body, noting the dark bruise
on the side of her face, the purpled swelling of bare ankles where
someone had bound her feet with plastic ties so tight she could barely
stand. He catalogued the injuries, tallying up the damage he would
inflict on this human before he killed her. He looked up and met Sarah s
eyes, seeing the defiant flash of angry gold despite her predicament.
He smiled and said gently,  Sarah.
 Hey, Raj. She managed a grin.  Quite a set up  She cried out
as Edwards jerked her back and Raj smelled the flow of fresh blood.
Rajmund
251
The woman had a knife. And she was cutting Sarah with it.
His rage was so great, it was nearly paralyzing. He snarled loudly,
opening his mouth and baring his fangs.  Emelie.
Emelie came up next to him.  Yes, my lord.
Edwards stiffened, and said,  You let me out of here, or I ll kill 
That was all she managed to say before everything changed. With
movements far too fast for the human eye to see, much less respond
to, Raj crossed the room and spun Sarah away from Edwards, throwing
the doctor toward Emelie who grabbed her and broke her wrist as an
inducement to drop the weapon. Raj s attention was all for Sarah,
scooping her up and setting her safely on the examining table before
whirling to face the human woman who was screaming in pain, cradling
her broken arm.
He crossed the small room in one long step and wrapped his fingers
around her throat, cutting off the noise.  I met your husband, Dr.
Edwards, he said softly. Her eyes bulged and her face began to purple
as she struggled for air, clawing at his fingers with her only functional
hand.  He deserves better, Raj said. He dropped Edwards to the floor
and Cervantes was there, throwing her limp body over his shoulder. He
left the room quickly, footsteps pounding down the hall and up the stairs.
Raj turned back to Sarah who looked up as he approached, her
eyes filled with worry as well as relief. Emelie was crouched in front
of her, carefully cutting away the plastic ties which were buried in the
flesh of her swollen ankles. Raj met Sarah s eyes and smiled grimly.
She had a right to be worried. As relieved as he was to find her alive
and reasonably well, he was furious that she d put herself in this position
in the first place.
He picked up her bound hands and snapped the metal handcuffs,
tossing them across the room. Her eyes filled with tears and she rubbed
her wrists carefully, crying out loud when Em finally got the ties off and
the blood surged back into her feet.
 Emelie, he said softly, never taking his eyes off Sarah.
He felt more than saw Emelie glance from him to Sarah and back
again, and heard her sigh. She leaned in to give Sarah a hug, whispering,
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