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"Yes I thought ither, but it’s prevented the injury fro worse"

"Do you think the wound is poisoned?" I told her how I’d given Daniel a swab from the Old One’s sword for analysis

"Offhand, I can’t think of any poison that would harm a vampire Their system won’t absorb most poisons But I’m not an expert I’ll be interested to learn the results of the analysis"

So would I Until then, I didn’t knohat to do--and neither did Mab That was an odd feeling I was used to relying on my aunt to have all the answers

"Axel told me that the last four or five times he’s checked on her, she’s been asleep like this," Mab continued "He couldn’t rouse her"

"It’s like she’s in a coently at first, thenher chin in her hand, Mab sighed "I don’t understand it I suppose it could be a poison, somented by silver, perhaps But at least she’s stable for the moment"

Out of options, we let Juliet sleep We went back upstairs and carefully closed the hidden door In the main room, a customer had arrived He sat alone at the bar, hunched over his drink When he heard us come in, he looked up and sneered I knew that sneer--it was Norden, the Goon Squad cop

"Been to the ‘Ghouls’ room?" he said "What the hell do you females do in there, anyway?"

"Powder our noses" I walked past hi to Axel in that troll language He pulled out a bottle from under the bar--must be some kind of special reserve if he hid it there--and poured her a generous portion

"Aquavit," Mab explained "The Scandinavian ‘water of life’ It’s from Axel’s private stock Would you like solass to ly of alcohol, but also of herbs It had a licorice s else--carraway, maybe?

I shook my head "Too intense for hed and produced a bottle of lite beer Mab made a face when she saw it, then sipped her aquavit Axel watched her anxiously She nodded, and they were off on another Trollspråk conversation A troll I couldn’t get over it Mab was likely bringing hiht a condo together in Oslo or so

Abandoned, I drifted down the bar and found s you to Creature Comforts?" I asked "I’ve never seen you here except when you’re working" Giving Axel and his custo

"I’ time" He stared into his drink

That see the label off oing to sit there nursing a beer, at least get so that tastes like one"

"I don’t like beer This stuff is okay"

He replied with another snort And ent back to having nothing to say to each other

At the far end of the bar, Mab and Axel laughed uproariously I wished they’d let lass Great If they kept it up, I was going to have to borroheelbarrow to get "Aunt Mabel" home

I turned back to Norden "How come you’re back on the Goon Squad? When I saw you last o solo"

"And you saell that worked out" He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug "It’s a living"

"Yeah, but--sorry for being blunt--you hate paranormals You call us freaks and monsters Why do you even want a job where you spend all your ti "It was different when Sykes was alive Or undead, or whatever the hell he was When he was here We’d been partners before the plague, back when he was human Sykes was okay But maybe I spent too much time with him, because after he died, I didn’t kno to be with real people anymore" His eyebroered, and he tossed back the contents of his glass "Bartender! I’m dry here"

Axel sauntered to our end of the bar and poured a shot into Norden’s glass

"Make it a double," Norden said "And gilanced at rimaced "Make sure it’s real beer"