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father had for Frank was that he orchestrated my abduction so my
father could raise me. Then Frank played dumb for everyone else s
benefit and sobbed crocodile tears at my disappearance, Jade said.
 Shit, that still leaves us with the problem of finding Raven,
Bo swore.
Philippe Laroque stood in the corner of his study, opening the
windows to let the trade winds inside the room. He held a letter,
yellowed from age. Raven Strigoi was in an upstairs bedroom
guarded by two Lamai and three shifters. His mind raced as he
thought about what had transpired over the past week. He worried
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incessantly about Jade. Was she all right? Was she safe? Had Tobias
hurt her?
He used his magick in search of answers, but wasn t happy
with the outcome. She was safe, but somehow changed. The events
that had taken place left an indelible mark on her. To what extent,
he wasn t certain.
And that useless mayor wasn t answering his calls anymore.
Had they turned Jade against him? Filled her head with lies so she
would never want to see him again? Perhaps she finally felt a sense
of belonging with the sister she d lost so many years ago and now
she hated him for taking her away from the only other family she
had.
But Jade was smarter than that.
She had to realize everything he did was for her wasn t it?
Or, more to the point, it was out of his hatred for Tobias. And his
jealousy. That, he was certain, Jade knew.
Jade saw through her father s motives and called him on it
repeatedly. She d asked him to give up this sick game of revenge,
and he constantly told her no. Other than Jade, it was his only
connection to Nicolette this vendetta against Tobias. If he let it go,
that meant he had to let Nicki go. He couldn t, not this time.
In every other lifetime Philippe had visited through spiritual
journeying, he witnessed Nicki choosing Tobias again and again.
He d been in love with other women, but if Nicki s spirit was
incarnated at the same time as Philippe s, he was drawn to her, like
the typical moth to the flame.
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B. Ella Donna
When the price became too high for him to pay and he realized
his own daughter was in jeopardy, for the first time in his adult life
he entertained the idea of letting go of this war. Nicolette was gone,
and nothing he could do, even with all his power, could bring her
back.
Perhaps Jade was right after all.
He d fully intended to make a trade, one daughter for the other.
He knew Tobias would agree to that, but what he hadn t planned on,
what no one was able to foretell, was the evil that lurked inside
Frank Dubois. Like a festering boil, it became rancid inside the
once-genteel man. The sins of envy and lust overtook him the lust
for another man s wife, and the lust for power.
Frank fooled Laroque.
And Tobias. Philippe reflected on that time.
Frank was merely puffing up Laroque s ego, asking endless
questions about magick and contacting spirits, only to turn around
and use everything he d taught in good faith against him. He d used
the same technique with Laroque as he had to cover his feelings for
Nicolette.
Poor Deidre.
She loved Frank, and he took her for granted. She wanted to
raise a family with him, but Frank told Philippe he wasn t cut out to
be a father. He told Deidre his career came first. The timing wasn t
right. The years passed, and no children were born.
Deidre became distant. Though she still loved her husband, she
knew that in his heart, Nicki would always come first. Deidre wrote
to Philippe, pouring her heart out about her suspicions that her
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husband was keeping something from her. She asked whether he
knew what it was.
He was so entrenched in his work in the lab so focused on
getting back at Tobias that he hardly gave Deidre s letters a
second thought.
He should have. He would have had a better insight into the
monster that dwelled inside Frank.
He opened one of the letters and read.
Dear Philippe,
I hope you are well. We received the photos of Jade, and I
cannot get over how big she s gotten how much she looks like
Nicki. I wish you would reconsider bringing her back to us. She
would have a stable life here. I know how you feel about Tobias, but
he agreed to let us raise her.
Frank misses her so much. That s where the ink became
streaky, and Philippe knew instinctively that Deidre had cried when
she wrote this part.
He s not the same, Philippe. I don t know why I m telling you
this, except that maybe you can get through to him. He looks at
Jade s picture and cries for hours. He locks himself in his study and
won t let me in, won t let me touch him.
I have tried to comfort him, but he gets so angry sometimes. I
swear he called out Nicki s name the other night in his sleep.
He claims he dreamt of Jade and must have called out her
mother s name, asking for help to get Jade back.
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B. Ella Donna
I don t know when you ll get this letter, since you re always on
the move, but I hope it finds you well.
Tell our Jade we love her and miss her.
Deidre
The pieces were coming together. Philippe had heard the
rumors that Frank insisted Deidre wear green contacts when she
decided to shed her glasses. In another letter from Deidre she
revealed Frank refused to touch her when she had her hair
straightened and made her wear the same perfume that Nicolette
wore. These facts sat before him in black and white, in the letters
strewn across his desk.
All from Deidre. All written without Frank s knowledge.
Then there was his strange sexual preference of never making
love to her face-to-face. Always in the dark, always from behind
and she  even heard him mutter  sweet Nicki more than a few
times when he did have sex with her.
How had he missed this? On and on, the desperate woman s
pleas for help fell upon his deaf ears. If only, he thought. If only&
His own deadly virus would not be killing him.
Philippe still wasn t exactly sure how Frank had done it, but he
knew it was him. After the night his daughter disappeared, Philippe
retrieved the virus from his den and, upon examining it more
carefully later, noted that one vial had less virus than the others.
He knew exactly how much should be there. Enough to dose at
least three people was missing. Frank was the only person, other
than himself, who knew where he hid the virus.
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Blood Pool
 Excuse me, Mr. Laroque, the uh woman wants to have a
word with you, Mick, the treacherous Lamai, former employee at
Blood Pool, said.
Philippe gathered the letters and placed them in a locked
drawer in his desk.  Good. I want to talk with her as well.
Raven watched Laroque enter the room, carrying a tray with
food. The Lamai stood leaning against the door jamb. Philippe
approached her. She felt the sting of the straps that held her onto the
bed digging into her skin. He placed the tray on the table at the far
end of the room.
Laroque smiled.  You look more like your mother now. Your
mouth is the same, your complexion even your hands are like
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