She was about to say something back when he grinned and spoke again. ‘But listen, next time we gotta do it someplace more chill again. Rushing out ...f stairwells is beat.’ He winked at her and gave her body a quick up and down. ‘I like it when you get to take your time.’ Rachel smirked again at his obvious ogling of her body and his silly ‘complaints.’ The boy had better damn well be grateful for any time or place she was willing to drop to her knees and offer him some oral relief. But she. She thoughthow small and light her hand felt in Luke’s massive paw. She had noticedhow large he was in the pub, but here in the back seat of the cab,wrapped up in his coat, he reminded her of a big brown bear. EltonJohn’s ‘Step Into Christmas’, was playing softly on the radio and withthe snow outside, it did feel like that. She was grateful for the liftas she didn't know how she would have got home otherwise. The weatherforecast had been completely wrong as usual, claiming that Londonwouldn't. Those chemicals become speech, behavior, habits, personalities… the whole person. The point of my lecture, if I had been given time to finish, was that these things to which we apply moral categories are really just chemical reactions.’ OK, I didn’t say my instincts were good. I could see I was shooting her down. Or, as I preferred to think of it, I was disillusioning her, in giving her a scientific education. ‘Well,’ she said dejectedly, ‘I guess I’m not the one with a Ph.D., but it still. The sergeant appeared and grinned as he hit my shoulder. He looked at the mage and blinked, "a mage? No one has ever killed or captured one."I grinned, "they have now."He nodded, "and we better get moving before the Nees come back for him."I slung my weapon as he called the others. I lifted the mage to my shoulder as four men started carrying the chests. The sergeant explained the gold coins were to buy Clar villages to turn on us. It was slow going but this time we did not rest for three hours.