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Chapter 243
“It’s just a guess on my part, but yes. It’s one reason why we waziri kept such a low profile for so many centuries. The xenorians are zealots. And like most zealots, they are ruthless in following their beliefs. They do not care how many innocent people suffer in their quest to destroy anyone with magic. They have killed far more ordinary humans than they have people with magic, but to the xenorians that is simply the cost of what they seem to think of as a holy quest. They are totally heartless in their zeal.”
“This is way worse than I thought,” Cali said. “The woman was totally creepy, for sure, but I never expected anything like this. Maybe you and Leesa need to get away from here, at least until we know Smith, Jones and Rome are gone.”
Leesa watched anxiously as Dominic pondered the idea. She did not want to leave, especially with Rave gone. With no means to contact him, how would he ever find her when he returned? I
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 244
The next week, zombies returned to Leesa’s dorm. Not the lurching, lumbering, flesh-eating kind that you needed to stab in the eyeball with a pen to kill—no, these were Leesa’s schoolmates, turned zombie-like by the arrival of midterms. The transformation had begun on Sunday night, but really picked up steam on Monday and Tuesday. Long hours of reading and studying combined with little or no sleep turned many of the kids in her dorm into creatures resembling the walking dead. They had dark circles under their eyes, slack jaws and lank, unwashed hair. Fortunately, Leesa was not among them—not too badly, at any rate. Her midterm schedule was really pretty favorable: one test on Monday and Tuesday, followed by a day off on Wednesday, and then two of her easiest exams on Thursday. She only had four tests instead of five because Dr. Shader had assigned papers to her English class in lieu of a midterm, and had very kindly not made the papers due until the following week.
Leesa's Advent Chapter 245
“I’m pretty sure this welcoming committee is not here for me,” Bradley said, smiling. Leesa dropped down onto one knee and wrapped her right arm around Max’s shoulder, using her other hand to give the golden retriever his favorite greeting, a vigorous chest rub. His tail wagged furiously as he panted into Leesa’s ear. Finally, she stood up. Her mom was waiting for her, arms outstretched. Leesa melted into her mother’s embrace, certain she would never tire of hugging her. For most of her life Leesa had received nothing more than perfunctory hugs from her withdrawn mom, but that had all changed since Professor Clerval, with some help from Rave, had injected her mom with the blood of a grafhym, a one-fanged vampire. Her mom was pretty much back to normal now, and Leesa was enjoying it immensely. As she stepped out of her mother’s embrace into an almost equally warm hug from Aunt Janet, Leesa marveled at how much her family life had changed. For most of her child
Leesa's Advent Chapter 246
The last thing Leesa thought about before she fell asleep that night was the sound of Max’s four short barks and the feel of his wet tongue across her cheek. She was certain that woof, woof, woof, woof just had to mean “I love you, too,” and the lick could have been nothing else but a kiss from Rave. After all, Max’s tongue had felt unusually warm, hadn’t it? And Bradley had been the first to voice that interpretation, so that gave it extra credibility.She drifted off to sleep with a peaceful smile on her face.Rave carried her in his arms, holding her tightly against his chest as he ran through the woods, moving faster than any forest animal could dream of running. The scent of the green growing things filled her lungs, awakening her senses. Rave’s chest felt even warmer than usual and she turned her face into it, feeling the hard beat of his heart against her lips.His every movement echoed through her body; each footfall f
Leesa's Advent Chapter 247
As if responding to her unspoken thought, the magical bed tilted slightly and she found herself in Rave’s arms. He returned her kiss, opening his mouth and tracing the inside of her upper lip with his tongue.Leesa’s fingers curled into Rave’s thick, dark copper hair as their kiss deepened, her body pressing hungrily into his. As always, his amazing magical heat flowed into her, but she knew that somehow, in this place, his fire would not harm her.With no need to pull back, their tongues explored each other slowly, in no hurry, yet filled with love and passion. This was what Leesa had been waiting for, and it was even better than she had imagined it would be.Finally, their lips parted, and a soft, satisfied sigh escaped into the magic of Azure.Leesa had never felt so loved, so cherished, so fulfilled. And yet a part of her wanted still more.“Rave…” she whispered into his neck as she held him cl
Leesa's Advent Chapter 248
A little more than an hour later, Leesa and Cali sat across from each other at their favorite table up in the fourth floor stacks, their books and notebooks spread out in disarray in front of them. For once, they were actually here to study, not to practice magic. Leesa was also here to meet with Dominic so she could tell him about her dream and find out if she might be in any danger because of it. Still paranoid about the BSI agents’ ability to listen in on her calls, she had simply told Dominic that she needed to talk to him, and that she would be in the last place they had seen each other. She said she would be there all day, so he should come whenever he could. The library made a perfect rendezvous point—it was a good place to study as well as the safest place she could think of to meet.For the first time since they had been coming here, Leesa and Cali did not have the fourth floor completely to themselves. Several other students had chosen the stacks as the
Leesa's Advent Chapter 249
It was nearly midnight when Leesa and Cali finally gathered up their books and headed home from the library. Except for two brief food breaks and a short walk after dinner, they had been studying all day. Leesa was exhausted—she was afraid if she spent any more time studying, she would be too tired to take her tests. She was going to set her alarm early and squeeze in some last minute studying in the morning, but for now, she was done.The night sky was starless and a cold breeze blew into their faces, but Leesa noticed neither. She was too busy concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. When she got this tired, her limp sometimes became an issue and she had to be careful not to trip. Cali seemed to sense this, because she had hooked her arm inside Leesa’s without saying anything. Arm in arm, they trudged back to their dorm, too exhausted to even talk much. The walk seemed longer than Leesa remembered, but finally she saw the dorm up ahead. Plenty of
Leesa's Advent Chapter 250
“So, why did we have to get away from your dorm?” he asked Leesa. “Were you worried there might be volkaanes coming around?”Leesa knew she had to be careful with her answer—she did not want to give Stefan any hint that the volkaanes’ magical fire had been weakened. If the vampires knew that their long time foes were vulnerable, they might decide to go hunting.“No, not that,” she said after a moment. “Rave has been gone for more than a week, and I don’t expect him back for a little while yet.”If Stefan was at all curious about Rave’s absence, he gave no sign of it, for which Leesa was glad.“What then?” Stefan asked. “If not volkaanes, what should a vampire be concerned about?”“Have you ever heard of xenorians?”As usual, Stefan’s black eyes remained expressionless—black mirrors, Leesa usually thought of them as, except
Leesa's Advent Chapter 251
The next two days passed in a bit of a blur for Leesa. Thursday she had her two exams, which she did okay, but not great on. Stefan’s visit had kept her up later than she had planned, making her a bit tired and sluggish during the first test, especially. She had crashed early that night and slept in late on Friday, but one night of extra sleep was not enough to offset a whole week of stress and studying.Cali was out celebrating the end of midterms with Andy, so Leesa was just spending the evening hanging out alone in her room, reading and watching television. She thought about going to the library to practice her magic, but even the four block walk seemed like too much effort tonight. She didn’t think one more day without practice was going to hurt her meager progress.She was watching a rerun of Two and a Half Men—one of the good ones before Charlie Sheen experienced his epic meltdown—when someone knocked at her door. Pushing herself up off th
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