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Jeannie and Lara were still conked, and thank goodness With zero traffic and a lead foot, I made it to the Minneapolis warehouse district in record ti wheel I had to be very careful not to bend it out of shape, or even pull it off

It had been so thoughtful of Marjorie to pay her respects at my father&039;s funeral Marjorie, in fact, see helpful in all sorts of ways Marjorie, the eight-hundred-year-old vampire who disdained politics

Why had she co up under all the pressure she was bringing? To try to get a whiff of my pain? To throwto find out

I pulled up outside a dilapidated warehouse, which I kneas beautiful and spacious inside, filled with thousands of books and state-of-the-art co she-spider

I didn&039;t bother knocking, just shoved the big double doors open and stomped inside Like all important confrontations in my life, this one was anticlimactic Marjorie was nowhere to be found

The place looked the way it usually didlots of low lighting, comfortable chairs, benches Lots of conference tables and chairs Row after row of co like reae!

Well, a case of Pledge wasn&039;t going to stopto slow me down I&039;d-

(Elizabeth)

"Eric?" I whispered That tiny voice in the back of my brain, previously so faint I couldn&039;t , was now quite a bit clearer

I sniffed Stupid Le but-I sniffed harder Ah! There we go Yep Sinclair had been here Was lish setter on point, then followed the scent through several doorways and doo flights of stairs into a dank basement

My heels didn&039;t make a sound on the carpeted stairs, which was fine withto look in fifteen directions at once Had Sinclair really been one town over the entire ti him, that I could barely hear him? What had she done to him?

The place didn&039;t look like a torture chamber It looked like what it was: an old library, well-maintained, with plenty of money for books and cohts as opposed to, say, torches sticking out of the wall

I finished with the stairs and slid open the huge door in front of me-down there, at least, the place looked like a warehouse The door rattled past me, and the smell of mildew and sweat assaultedI saas Antonia in a spacious cage, the kind they used to cage Dr Lector in The Silence of the La the bars, and I remembered how claustrophobic she was Her dark hair was h heaven, and her clothes were filthy Her big eyes rolled toward reeted me with a shrieked, "Get me out! "

Then I saw the coffins Two of them, chained shut and draped withwere those rosaries? Yes Dozens, covering almost every inch of the top of the coffins

(Elizabeth)

I ran to the one nearest me and stripped the rosaries away, then yanked at the chains until they tore and bent in my hands I didn&039;t kno Marjorie had placed theloves, et hier and crosses had done to him

"Me first, me first, me firrrrssssssttttt!"

I flipped the top off the coffin and bit back a scream Sinclair, yes Incredibly wizened, incredibly old Shrunken Dried out His lips were drawn back so his fangs were prominent He looked a thousand years old He looked dead

"Oh my God!" I cried "Oh, Sinclair! Tell me what to do! How can I-"

"Did yourby? Oh, I&039; whenever you wish How clever of you to park right out in the open like that"

I spun so fast I nearly went sprawling Marjorie was descending the last of the steps; I&039;d been so caught up in freeing Sinclair I&039;d never heard her

"You cunt "

"You infant"

"Why?" I had to yell to be heard over Antonia&039;s howls of rage She was unusually bitchy during the fullthe best of timeswhich this certainly was not "Why did you do this?"

"You made it necessary"

I wanted to cry I wanted to scream I wanted to punch her sly face in "What the hell does that evenneat and trim in her tweed suit and sensible shoes "He can&039;t keep you in line Case in point, your raphy, the fall fiction offering! You live your life openly-everyone around you knows your true nature You collect people instead of living a solitary life This is incredibly dangerous, to all you clairee with the way I live my life, and so you do this?"

"As I said, you forced , false ied "Unlike you, I do what must be done Unlike hi Sinclair under my control, I&039;ll be able to keep you under control Because soe And you clearly aren&039;t up to it"

"But-but-"

"I have him I&039;ll keep him And I&039;ll kill him the moment you don&039;t do as I say"

"But I am the queen!"

"You&039;re a fluke An accident And now, you&039;ll be lance into the open coffin Sinclair was still doing his io along with ht these two-unexpected, but I could deal with theodly a her bars

"But ould he come see you so quickly?"

Her eyes narrowed "Because I had information for him Infore records, reveal deaths, e the facts, change history, if I like I can grow my oer base and even presume to be queen myself someday, if I like Eventually, I can discard you on the rubbish heap of rumor and misinformation Betsy Taylor was no queen-she was a pretender, or a prophet, or whatever I&039;d like to make her Who, exactly, will dispute the facts with h to know better are in Europe Would they argue if you die? If Sinclair did?"

I was trying to follow all this "What infore was cursed"

"And he fell for that?"

"Of courseBecause it is"

"Aw, say it isn&039;t so" I exa "Cursed how?"

"Did you ever read The Monkey&039;s Paw? "