Chapter 12

“Rory, you’ll be careful, won’t you?” Blaise asked in a low voice.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to me.”

“You had better not. My heart won’t go on without you.”

Rory reassuringly patted her neck. It was strange to him that Blaise had actual feelings, ones that could be hurt just like his. They hadn’t been programmed into her head, not like the Ranger’s training manual and regulations had been. She’d learned them, probably from him. She was an ingenious meld of machine and living organism, constructed specifically for him. She was supposed to be the most dangerous weapon in his arsenal: a thinking, learning machine.

She was that, certainly. But she was also his friend, a phenomenon he couldn’t even begin to ponder, much less explain.

“Yes, my darling. I’ll be careful.”

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