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Her foul soul was trapped in the paint

With tiny strokes that melted into the canvas, the brush caressed ertips Each part he touched went dead, beyond nuainst my chest, the only part of me that could protest

"What’s that, ma chérie? You wonder ill happen to your body? Do you feel it e merely a comely shell?"

He paused as if I could speak, as if he could hearHis smile was dark, dark as the hole in Monsieur Charmant’s floor

"We have uses for pretty flesh at the Malediction Club"

Inside, I howled and beat upon the cage ofinI couldI could say I couldn’t even cry, couldn’t even close my eyes

"And you’ll be our second Bludman Finally, a matched set"

Lenoir’s eyes flicked to his palette, and he picked up the syringe to squeezepaint And that’s why he didn’t notice the strangely glie in his side

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But I recognized it The silver thing looked like Wolverine’s claws As Lenoir spun, hands curling into talons, Vale hurtled out of the darkness and punched hied, i his knuckles into a Blud sharp

Vale’s blood

Lenoir reflexively licked his lips as he ripped the claws fro the floor with blud "You idiot Do you have any idea who you’re dealing with?"

Vale shook his hand out, sending splatters of his own blood everywhere Red danced in my eyes, spots and streaks like the scattered stains left by the white-haired paintbrush Lenoir had dropped on the carpet

"I did not know you were a Bludhtened and walked over to the crouched and wounded artist as if inspecting the painting "Rather lucky for ree?"

Lenoir had one arh his jacket and one hand to hisat his pale lips as if he could erase the blood he’d already ingested "Abyssinian," he wheezed His skin was going over pale, his nostrils wide and his eyes all black idening pupils

"Tellinto his black waistcoat, Vale pulled out a tiny glass vial that glistened old "An antidote"

"No antidote" Lenoir hissed "For what you are"

"But of course there is We just keep it a secret so bloodsuckers like you will avoid us" He held up the vial, just within snatching reach of Lenoir, who rab for it Vale danced back "Talk first"

Lenoir’s legs buckled, and he fell to the floor, curled around like a dying centipede, legs twitching

Vale kneeled over hi the little bottle back and forth

Finally, Lenoir sucked in a long breath and exhaled thispered words "Burn it"

He reached for the glass antidote bottle, but Vale ignored hirabbed a paintbrush from Lenoir’s jar of spirits An evil stench went up when he stuck it in the fire, and it got even worse when he held the fla of ht blue fla suddenly alight and crackling