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of Sorceress are cold-blooded, you know. The man was a cur and that's no doubt. But three centuries! Goddess only knows what he has been through."
    "No one believes you have a cold heart," he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "You're doing the best anyone can with thousands of years of information stored away in vaults, libraries and scribbled in ancient manuscripts."
    She sighed. "The least we can do is move the statue into the Order. Perhaps something can still be done. Whatever happens with him is one matter, but I want to find the person responsible for hacking into our database. I want to know how it was done and why."
    "Aye, those are points of concern. But imagine. The poor brute can hear everything that's going on around him, and he has been in that condition for hundreds of years," Hugh said as he shook his head. "I can't fathom it."
    "Get some sleep, Hugh. I have some thinking to do, and I'll need you to be sharp when we get to Scotland."
    "Aye, Shayla. If you don't mind me making a suggestion, you'd better get some rest yourself. This whole affair promises to be quite tasking."
    39
    Stone Heart
    by Candace Sams
    Shayla watched as he put his head back against the reclined seat. The sun shining through the window glittered off his thick white hair and made his shoulders seem even broader. He was quite a figure of a man even though he had passed fifty some time ago.
    She sighed and unbound the long braid that normally kept her own silver tresses in place. They were both older than they used to be, but they shared a relationship that could only be described as blazing . Hugh made love like a man half his age and satisfied every desire she could possibly dream up. Since she trusted him implicitly, this wasn't the first time they had shared such an adventure. She was glad of his stalwart presence, because something about this particular matter was unnerving. No one should be able to get information about the Order so easily. She'd been told their computer system was impenetrable. If one industrious outsider could get into their database, so could others. Even though all information was being filed as though it was nothing more than collected works of legend, it was still dangerous for any outsider to see it. The only reason she'd set the damned database up in the first place was so that her staff could do their required research from any location in the world. It was safer to access the computer than to speak over the phone about magic artifacts or archeological digs that threatened to expose them.
    To fight the outside world and its continual encroachment of their existence, state-of-the-art technology had been employed. And someone was going to pay dearly for breaking into that technology where they had no business.
    40
    Stone Heart
    by Candace Sams
    Chapter Three
    Angus wasn't surprised that the woman fainted. Seeing him transform would shock the most stalwart soul into a state of unconsciousness. He carefully lowered her to the soft grass and knelt beside her.
    "You are the first human I have laid eyes upon in three hundred years. Little Elspeth's promise of friendship was forever true. She must have passed down the words to undo my enchantment. And, as she was a true friend, so shall I be to you, lady."
    The sound of his thick brogue seemed unfamiliar to him. It had been so long since he had spoken. He stood and looked around, taking a deep breath as he did so. The night grew colder, but the air in his lungs seemed wonderful after so many years in his stone shell. Again he knelt by the woman and grabbed a fist of earth. He brought it to his nostrils and took in the pungent smell of it. Everything was new.
    The woman moaned and he took one of her small hands in his. She was a pretty creature, though far too thin and pale.
    He sensed illness within her. All of his kind were sensitive to physical maladies, and some were even able to cure certain sicknesses. But this woman was well on her way to death.
    And that