DH CH 4

Chapter 4

As it turned out we only stayed at the house long enough for me to change into something more bar appropriate. After Eric was sufficiently satisfied with my outfit, and by that I mean he picked it out himself —a short black dress, sheer black thigh highs and red pumps were his choices— we were almost ready to head to Fangtasia.

It was one of the nights when I sat in and listened to the crowd. This was by far my least favourite part of the new job as the sheriff’s telepath, but it was necessary. In the months that I’d sat through the constant tirade of jealous thoughts of the fangbangers, the sexual images about Eric, Pam, Godric, and even occasionally myself; I had managed to keep more than one disaster from occurring.

Two times I’d caught spies from the Fellowship. I’d stopped counting how many underage kids Pam glamoured to keep them from coming back again, and then there were the spies from other vampire kingdoms.

Human spies of vampires from other states; those had gotten extra special attention from Eric. With my help the vampires didn’t need to resort to the old fashioned ways of extracting information—something Pam pouted about each and every time—but it was still an uncomfortable process. I’d gotten better at trying to keep myself immune to the violence in my life, not less caring, but I realised that some people brought it on themselves. I couldn’t deny the bloodthirsty nature of the vampires, I didn’t encourage them, but I couldn’t stop them from disposing of certain people in a way I made clear I wanted to know nothing about.

Coming to terms with something like that hadn’t been easy, but the possibility that being lenient with one of them could be the reason for the death of someone close to me was not something I was willing to risk. I wasn’t proud of my own growing ruthlessness. It showed me just how much I’ve changed from the person I used to be, but I didn’t lose sleep over it either. There were not enough people who I cared about as it was, I wasn’t about to lose one of them because I had a weak moment.

As often as we could we handed over the humans to the police. It wasn’t the greatest solution, I’ve realised just how biased against vampires the police were, but it was something. One less death was one less worry for me.

“If I didn’t know we had a meeting to get to, you would not leave this house tonight,” Eric said into my neck. His hands travelled up my thighs to rest on my hips as he pressed me back into him; I could feel just how much he wanted to keep me here.

“If you keep that up we’ll be late,” I pointed out to him; he had almost gotten me to smear the mascara I had been putting on.

Eric kissed my shoulder and gave a theatrical sigh. “I’ll be good.” But he didn’t move away.

I looked at him in the mirror and there was not a hint of goodness in his expression, but he kept still as I finished my make-up.

“So who are we meeting tonight?” I asked, checking my face for the last time. I didn’t need to use any foundation; my skin was flawless thanks to either the vampire blood or my heritage; so my time in front of the mirror was thankfully short.

“Are you done?”

I nodded and was about to repeat my question when I found myself unable to say a thing. He’d spun me round and was kissing me before a word could leave my mouth. Eric’s kisses were good, great even. I let myself relax into him, enjoying his expert skills and letting my thoughts rest for a moment as I lost myself in him.

My tongue flickered over his fangs, and the moan of appreciation I received was answer enough that he liked it. I nicked my lip on the sharp points, and Eric expertly sucked the wound, tugging a little more than necessary. The sensation of him pulling blood from the small cut send waves of pleasure to places much lower on my body making me think that maybe we’d be late after all.

The loss of contact made me whimper and I had to grab blindly at the counter behind me so as not to fall. When my vision finally cleared I saw Eric standing a few feet away from me. The look on his face…

“We need to go,” he said, voice harsh with passion.

“I know,” I whispered breathlessly.

Neither of us moved for a minute, both of us wanting to finish what we had started. When the phone started to ring in his pants, right next to the impressive bulge, I didn’t bother trying to suppress my groan. Bad timing, darn it!

“It’s me,” Eric said when he answered his phone without even checking the screen. Maybe he had different ringtones? I never paid attention to that sort of thing having enough trouble actually using my own mobile without making things more complicated. Pam asked to borrow it one time, and now I did have a different tone for everyone— meaning Pam, Godric and Eric. “We are leaving now…no, we will be there in twenty…yes, I know…Pam, just take care of it.” While he was talking he put his arm on my back and navigated me through the bedroom and into the closet. A coat appeared in front of me in a blink and by the time I was done putting it on my hand bag was ready. Sometimes vampire speed was a nifty thing to have.

We walked to the car in silence. Eric brooding over something, either me related, or work related; it was hard to tell with him.

“Is everything okay?” I asked him cautiously. After all there are a number of things he could have been talking to Pam about, most scenarios involved secret vampire stuff that I didn’t really want anything to do with, but I felt that a good girlfriend should ask anyway.

He didn’t reply at once. “There has been unusual daytime activity around the bar. Pam is worried,” he told me as the car engine roared to life.

“Oh?” I said, not sure how to interpret that.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about. We’re looking into installing extra security measures just to be on the cautious side of things,” he told me. I wondered what happened to make them this worried, neither of them worried about little things, so whatever it was must have been major.

“Did someone break in?”

Eric’s hands tightened around the wheel, his knuckles protruding. I worried that with his extra strength the wheel might be in trouble. “Not yet, but someone tried.”

I thought about that for a moment, wondering who would be so stupid as to try and break into a vampire bar. “When was this?”

“Two days ago,” he answered.

I turned to look at him, trying to ignore the speed at which the car was moving. My hands had found their way to bottom of the chair I was sitting on a long time ago, and I tried to tell myself that my holding on had nothing to do with the fact that Eric was most definitely not following the legal speed limits in the parish or that there had been an attempt to break into my boyfriends bar just days before the attack on me.

“They didn’t get in,” I clarified.

“No. It would seem we were in luck. The attempt was poorly planned, and happened to be around the same time as a scheduled delivery,” he said.

Eric didn’t believe in luck, he believed in planning your own luck, but I didn’t point any of that out just then.

“Don’t you have cameras around the place, or something?” I’ve seen a few security screens in Pam’s office.

“Yes. Though it would seem that the perpetrators lucked out so to speak, the footage was useless.” Eric didn’t sound happy. He was not a person who liked to be out of control.

“Maybe it was just a few college kids on a dare?” I tried to make light of the situation, not that I actually believed myself either. Eric glanced at me; I could tell I didn’t succeed.

“Well, it could have been,” I muttered.

“Or a test of our security.” He didn’t need to add the part that the security at the bar almost didn’t pass the test. Or that the attack on me could be related.

We drove the rest of the way in silence; both of us had plenty to think about.

When we walked into the bar from the back entrance we were spotted straight away by the adoring fans. The atmosphere in the bar went up a notch as excitement bounced from brain to brain. I sighed, knowing that I was in for a long night. Some nights were better than others. Though usually it was horrible—you try spending a whole evening in the minds of perverts who want to fuck your boyfriend silly—but some nights were worse. Tonight it seemed that the diehard fans all came out of their holes and were ready to torture me.

I spotted Godric sitting at the usual booth. Godric hated the attention, so whenever he had to put in time at Fangtasia he ended up in the booth. Eric tried to get him on the throne, preferably half naked to show off his tattoos, but after one look from his maker, he didn’t bring it up ever again. I was glad for that, I didn’t want to see Godric up there, the idea was too foreign, and besides it was Eric’s throne.

From the look on Godric’s face he wasn’t happy with either one of us right now. Not that I was surprised, really, I did leave the house when he expressly told me not to, and Eric did help me.

Eric gave me a kiss, longer than was strictly polite in company, but not so much that I was panting when he left me to go sit on his throne. I was left to make my way to Godric on my own; I had no doubt that Eric planned that. It was true he did help me, but facing down whatever Godric had in store for me was not something he deserved to weather, after all; I chose to go against his wishes. He didn’t acknowledge me as I slid into the booth across from him. That stung.

“Hey,” I said quietly. Godric would hear me no matter the noise that surrounded us.

He turned to look at me and I flinched, all the earlier bravado and self importance gone in the face of the hurt staring at me now.

“I’m safe,” I offered. It wasn’t an apology, even now I wasn’t willing to apologies, but it was something.

“I can see that,” he said, but remained as still as a statue. Vampires could do that; after all they didn’t breathe, or fidget. After two thousand years all those human qualities had disappeared from Godric, he looked nothing like the vampire I’d come to know; he was a still, remote, a statue.

The tension between us weighed on me. I didn’t really understand from where this unreasonable attitude had come from; Godric had always been more level headed than Eric, more rational when it came to me. One thing for sure, it was something to do with his past, something he wasn’t opening up to me about. I wouldn’t pry, he’d tell me, or not, that was his choice. Nothing I could do about reasoning things out with him right now.

I signalled to one of the waitresses. They all knew me by now; I’d interviewed all of Eric’s staff, and was at the club regularly enough for them to know what I usually drank when I came in.

Ginger ale. It would be chased up with a gin and tonic later. Though I preferred staying sober during the time I worked, after a few hours the thoughts just got a little too much. They were a lot of fangbangers here, and most did not like me. That, topped off with vivid sexual images of my vampires in bed with someone else, several someones, made me want to drink myself into oblivion on a bad night. Tonight, was not at all a good night on any account.

Ignoring the sulking vampire sitting opposite me I focused on the crowd. It held no surprises tonight. Sex. Blood. Vampires in bed. All the usual stuff.

After my initial survey I let myself look at Eric. His attention was on our table, though not on me. I looked over to Godric, curious, but couldn’t tell if anything at all was different about him. He looked exactly as he did last time, immovable and impassive. The bottle of blood that the waitress had brought for him with my drink was untouched. Not knowing what was going on in someone’s head was a frustration I hardly ever knew before I met vampires, now I had to deal with it on daily basis; I was spoiled as a telepath.

I sighed, resigning myself to a very boring evening. Even Pam had been too busy to chat, coming by only to say a brief hello. It may have had something to do with the coiling tension at our table though, Pam had never been an emotional drama fan; reading about it she enjoyed, participating in it was not her thing. Though I’d be stupid if I didn’t realise that tonight would give her enough ammunition to drive me insane at some point in the near future.

“Lover, we are about to have some company,” Eric said when he finally slid into the booth a while later. I wasn’t sure how long, since I didn’t check my phone, but I knew that I had been right, the evening so far had been uneventful. The highlight being a couple of V addicts coming in, and Pam had very quickly dealt with those.

I looked at him, hope for some sort of a diversion making me almost smile. “Oh?”

I’d learnt that sometimes it was easier to let Eric speak his mind at his own pace, or he felt like I was questioning him too much. I couldn’t do too much of that in public, he had an image to uphold.

“Do you remember Alcide, from the Halloween party?” He asked me, Godric had yet to join our discussion.

“Yes,” I told him. Sure, who could forget him? Tall, handsome man, too bad he turned furry once a month. That, and he had a definite prejudice against humans that associated with vampires, I had been included into that category since I hung around more than one at the same time. “Why is he coming down?”

“He will give us answers on why we were not alerted to your new friends,” Godric answered for him. I looked his way, surprised that he spoke at all.

“Okay, is there something you want me too keep an eye out for?” They were obviously up to something.

“I know you can not read their minds well,” Eric whispered into my ear. His breath a momentary distraction from the words, or rather question, though it didn’t sound like one. I nodded. “Can you tell if they are lying?” I shook my head, though I was very good at reading people, the supernaturals are a different story. I could read them sporadically, but I didn’t want the vampires basing their decision on my opinion alone. “Sookie, this is important. I need to know if I can trust the Shreveport pack.”

He had moved away a little to search my face. The weight of his words showed in his features. The fact that he called me by my name told me how important this was to him; Eric hardly ever did that.

“I’ll try my best,” I told him, determined to help in any way I could.

We sat there in silence for a while and for a moment it was a comfortable one. Eric’s hand found the small of my back and his fingers drew lazy circles sending sparks flying under my skin. Pleasurable sparks, and so I enjoyed the sensation, the distraction from the monotony of human minds in the club and from the uncomfortable feeling of guilt for making Godric so miserable.

Godric went back to ignoring us, though he did shift closer to me and further inside the booth. It was a great defensive position; I was for all intents and purposes stuck right in the middle of them. With his speed and strength the more inconvenient position of being furthest away didn’t matter, I’d seen Godric fight the other night. He was faster than anything I’d ever seen.

The distance between us chafed. We were so close in that booth, but he wasn’t with me in the same way he’d always been. Both of us were stubborn, I hated the fact that my stubbornness caused such a huge rift, yet I didn’t know what to say to him to make things better.

Eric’s fingers stopped their movements and his hand shifted away from me, it was a signal that we were about to have company. Scanning the club I quickly located the Were. He looked as good as I remembered. Tall, with dark shaggy hair that he probably tried to tame, but didn’t really manage it. Dressed in clothes that were meant for comfort and work rather than a club, specially one like Fangtasia. My nervous smile contorted my lips while I watched Alcide Herveaux make his way towards our table.

What I had told Eric earlier was true, I couldn’t read Were minds, I could feel their moods well enough though, specially if the feeling was directed my way. His opinion of me hadn’t improved since the last time we met at the Halloween party, and since my own reading skills have, I cringed at the loathing and disgust he felt. Why was he even here?

“Eric,” Alcide said greeting the sheriff with a small nod of his head. No matter how much he loathed vampires, he still knew to acknowledge those more powerful than him; Eric was sheriff in this area. Alcide’s eyes slid over me like I wasn’t even there coming to rest on Godric, both nodded silently.

“Sit down, Herveaux.” The sheriff was in the house, nothing of the Eric I knew in private was present. I’d long known that my glimpses of the private Eric were a privilege, but it hit me every time I’d see him at work anyway.

Alcide slid into the booth opposite us, careful to keep as much distance as was possible from the vampires.

“What can I do for you tonight?” He asked, twisting his words to make the sarcasm more evident.

I seethed in silence at being totally ignored, focusing harder on his thoughts. Skin to skin contact would have been ideal, though I doubt Alcide would ever give a chance like that.

“What do you know about the attack on Sookie?” Godric asked, his voice stayed quiet, the conversation would not be private. It was not meant to be, I realised that the other vampires from area five all knew about the attack. Godric’s hand found my thigh, squeezing it gently as my heart rate increased with my rising panic. Things could go very wrong tonight, and I was stuck right in the middle of them.

Apparently, I was alone in my fretting; Alcide looked cool as a cucumber. “I heard about what happened the next day. We were unaware of the Weres coming into our woods.”

“Then I assume that your packmaster is becoming incompetent,” Eric stated.

The growl ripping out of Alcide’s throat matched the shift in his eyes; the wolf was so close to the surface he just might join the party.

“Our packmaster is more than competent, we do not run around patrolling the woods just so your pet can drive around them whenever her heart desires.” The words were growled; his tone had shifted from bordering polite to something animalistic.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the hand on my thigh squeezed harder making me squeak in pain and I turned to glare at Godric, not impressed with his tactics. He didn’t seem to notice my irritation.

“Alcide, things have been working well in the last few months. The cooperation between the pack and the local vampires has been greatly valued by us, but you can understand that such a sizable number of outsiders would raise questions as to the competency of our allies,” Godric said. I hated him for sounding so smooth and casual right then.

Eric could do that too, though not all the time. Pam had said more than once that he’d make a great king if he could just learn to control his temper. I tended to agree, though picturing Eric as king of the vampires in Louisiana scared me silly. For one, he’d have to spend a significant amount of time in New Orleans, and would he still want me around? I was just dealing with moving to Shreveport, and it was less than an hour away from Bon Temps. New Orleans, being in the spotlight for the human media, and stuck even further in vampire politics would kill me one way or another.

Though Alcide still didn’t look happy, I felt a slight bit of admiration coming from him towards Godric.

Godric had been the one to negotiate the new alliance and it had been profitable to both parties involved. The Weres got great jobs guarding vampire businesses during the day, though apparently not Fangtasia— I’d have to ask about that. They were faster and stronger than humans, not to mention had more of an incentive to protect our secrets since they had a whopper of one of their own. The world still believed that werewolves and other monsters were only part of fairytales. I had been under the same assumption when the year began. Boy, did I know better now!

Of course, I was now one of them as well, no matter how much I wanted to hide behind my humanity, what little of it there seemed to be; I wasn’t all that human anymore.

Colonel Flood had been made aware of my heritage since it was members of his pack that guarded me during the day. My guards knew as well, Lexie had talked to them a bit. My powers hadn’t surfaced and they could; apparently I was a walking bomb. I tried really hard not to think about that too often.

“We’re looking into it, but so far there’s been nothing. From what you’ve told me they could be identified with a number of packs. Jackson’s pack is all muscle, they’re tough enough, and some will do jobs like these for money,” he paused, glancing my way with a mixture of contempt and curiosity. I was sure he’d been thinking what was so special about this particular vampire pet; I doubted he believed the rumours of my telepathy. Most didn’t until I proved them wrong. “There are other packs in Mississippi that could fit your description, but that could be said about the packs in almost any other state. I mean Arkansas has a gang, it’s small, but the fuckers are vicious.”

“So you are telling me there is no way to identify which pack they had come from?” Eric confirmed.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. If one was alive, maybe, but now…” He shrugged his broad shoulders as his voice trailed off not needing to finish the sentence. None of the Weres from that attack lived to see the next sunrise; I can’t say I wasn’t grateful to know that for a fact.

“What about the tattoo? Surely that would be a way to track them down?” I asked. All three of them looked at me with different expressions. Alcide wasn’t happy I’d brought it up; I knew he was not telling us the whole truth on the subject. Godric’s mask cracked for the first time all evening and I thought his expression warmed up a little. Eric was thoughtful, his body tensing next to me. I remembered his strong reaction the first time the marking were mentioned and wondered what he knew about them. With all of my own drama I hadn’t had a chance to question him about it. Maybe later. Or tomorrow.

I shifted, uncomfortable with all the attention. “Well, they all had one, right? I mean do all packs have their own markings? And if they do, then couldn’t we track them that way?” I asked Alcide.

He looked like he wasn’t going to answer there for a moment; essentially I just caught him bluffing, but he nodded in the end. “Yes, we all do. Though I am surprised you had noticed those. It is a pack business, and outsiders are never told about them. What did it look like?”

“It was a cross, looked like the Nazi symbol,” I explained.

“Schwartz sticker,” Eric stated tightly.

Alcide frowned. “The Jackson pack’s one looks very similar to that,” He said though more to himself.

“Who is the vampire in charge of Jackson?” I asked Eric.

“Russel Edgington,” was the name he supplied me with, but little else. Eric had shut down in something similar to Godric’s earlier mood.

Vampires may not need to breathe, or eat food, or get sick, but they sure managed to have PMS often enough.

“Well, if that’s the case I might be able to find out more when I go there next week,” Alcide told us. From what I could pick up he genuinely wanted to help, as much as he could without giving away too many pack secrets. But I honestly didn’t think that tattoo was much of a secret, I mean if it was won’t they have put it somewhere; well, less obvious for starters? That got me wondering where Alcide’s may be and what it looked like. I nixed that train of thought straight away. I had enough testosterone to deal with in my life.

“That would be appreciated. If you find out anything else, you have our contact details,” Godric said. It was a dismissal.

It wasn’t long after our meeting was done that the bar closed for the night. Godric and I stayed back to let Eric finish some paperwork, since his mood had improved from earlier we chatted to pass the time. I was sure glad to have my Godric back. I did tell him about my day, and he only grumbled a little bit that I left the house. When I mentioned that Eric had known he sighed with exasperation, but let it go.

The news I’d finally quit my waitressing job made him break out in the first genuine smile all night. And I stifled my own exasperation at his obvious happiness over the news.

“Are you ready to go home?” Eric asked as he came out of his office.

“Sure am,” I told him with genuine smile. It had been a long day, and I was more than ready to go home. Our home.

We waved our goodbyes to Pam and headed off.

Eric’s hand caressing my thigh as he drove us back home made sure that the pent up frustrations from our unfinished encounter earlier had me almost jumping him before he even pulled into the driveway. Godric watched us with an indulgent look on his face, aware of the coiling tension in me, and probably just as susceptible to the feelings in Eric.

I had learnt that though they had a bond, Godric felt Eric much clearer than the other way around. Since he also had a connection to me, I sometimes wondered what he went through every time Eric went barbarian on me and pulled me into his office. Then again Godric really enjoyed voyeurism; I’d caught him watching us more than once. The things he’d do to me during our next encounter…

The car stopped and Eric’s hand became more insistent on my thigh, snapping me out of my pleasant thoughts and to an even more pleasant reality.

“Lover? You seemed very far away just then,” Eric queried, he sounded slightly put out.

I gave what I’d hoped was a saucy look. “Not so far, I was remembering you, me, naked…”

I trailed off with a meaningful look towards the already large bulge in his pants. With a growl he proved just how much of a Viking he was, I was tossed over one shoulder and delivered inside the house with record speed.

“Tell me more,” he ordered when my feet touched the floor in our wardrobe. He’d managed to get us downstairs in a blink.

I looked up; my eyes felt heavy, lust riding me. My hands found the soft material of his t-shirt and I pulled it up, letting my fingers trail over the muscled flesh they uncovered.

“Well, I had remembered when we were at the bar last week,” I started saying, but was distracted by the white flesh uncovered in front of me. I kissed his chest, enjoying the coolness of his soft skin, the hard muscles that moved in response to my movements and the rumble that was slowly getting louder in his chest. The power I had over him was overwhelming, intoxicating, and delicious; I loved that.

Eric slid my coat off my shoulders; it fell in a puddle on the floor, his fingers traced over the exposed skin of my arms leaving a trail of shivering flesh behind. We weren’t moving anywhere else. I couldn’t move. I held my breath to see what he would do next, entranced by the gentle touch, savouring the building tension, and unable to break eye contact. He held me in a cage of lust and fire with nothing but his fingertips and eyes.

My hands had stilled on his chest, the t-shirt momentarily forgotten there. There was no heartbeat under my fingertips, but then I expected none.

“Lover,” he whispered softly, so softly that I almost didn’t hear the word.

It was like my body had waited for his verbal permission to come back to life. My chest constricted and the breath I’d been holding on to left in a shuddering gasp. It was the loudest noise in the room, save my racing heart.

The moment of tension was broken, and Eric’s head descended towards mine, lips meeting lips in an explosive moment of pleasure. Then there was no more room for hesitation, no more thinking. I couldn’t think.

My zipper came undone, his finger trailing over the exposed flesh. Exploring the curve of my back as it became available to him. Our kiss continued, urgent, almost needy.

We came apart enough to get his t-shirt off of him, and let my dress slip down to the floor. My fingers fumbled at his jeans in clumsy movements, trying unsuccessfully get the buttons to open.

Frustrating mumbles bubbled out of me as I groped at the buttons with little results. A larger pair of hands covered my own, gently pushing my fingers out of the way. We never broke our kiss as he shucked his jeans off and then guided me into the bedroom.

I fell on the bed first expecting a hard heavy weight to follow on top of me, but he never did. Eric stood there, between my legs, taking in the view. I was in nothing but my underwear and hose. Granted those were black and lacy, and the hose were thigh highs and had lace on the top part as well, so I was pretty sure I looked great against the red silky sheets.

I didn’t mind, enjoying a view of my own. The light had just come on in the wardrobe and the soft warm glow silhouetted Eric’s body creating a soft halo around his head. He looked more like a sexy angel than the devil spawn that ridiculous Church insists vampires are.

“Delicious,” he said hoarsely folding his huge body to crouch between my legs. Strong hands slid up my inner thighs spreading them out. I licked my lips in anticipation, shivers raced down my back covering my skin in goose bumps. I wasn’t cold, though his hands certainly were; I was burning with desire for him.

A moan escaped me as I felt him nuzzling my thigh. So close. I needed…

His hands slid under me and pulled the lacy underwear off of me just enough so when he ripped it, the material disappeared as though it was never there.

The whole time I watched; Eric between my legs, and Godric leaning against the wall next to the door into our bedroom.

Whatever earlier troubles we had between us, the words that had been left unsaid, tension from my leaving the house alone, their worry, my stubbornness; it was all gone. Right now, here, it was just us, together.

My head fell back then, my body rising off the bed as Eric found his way to parts of me that had cried out for him all night. Sweet Jesus! So good…

We’d been so worked up from earlier, the flirting when I was getting ready, at the bar, and then the car ride back that it didn’t take him long to have me screaming, thrashing and shuddering under his ministrations. It never really did. Eric had plenty of experience in this area; he was a fantastic lover.

While I was recovering, my body pleasantly languid, still pulsing with pleasure I watched them both get undressed, amazed all over again that they with me, mine as much as I was theirs. It probably would have been more fair if I could help, since I really enjoyed helping, but I couldn’t move save for the occasional shuddering aftershock. My chest squeezed painfully at the thought that maybe one day they wouldn’t be with me, but I let that thought go for now, not wanting to ruin the moment. Right now there should be no thoughts of the future, just the now. And I was very happy right now.

Godric’s eyes held warmth, life and something deeper, more profound. My heart fluttered in my chest, the fast rhythm faltering.

Then there was little time to think about anything really.

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