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"Derunted, and he spun around to stare at me

"Mon dieu, bébé You look like a child with an ice crea He looked half disgusted and half proud When footsteps sounded on the stairs, I dropped the fuzzy carcass and got back into fighting stance, but Vale htened and held the blood-spattered claw at his side

"Quite a welcome, Charmant"

The daimon who rose froed in a barbershop quartet, but evil rolled off hi under a spectacular mustache and skin the color of Mountain Dew

"Oh, custothe carnage of pony-sized vampire poodles with one raised eyebrow "They don’t breed bludhounds like they used to, you know" He turned back to the hole in the floor and shouted, "Coco! Bring the brooain"

After the bludhounds, I wouldn’t trust anything spit forth froot louder until a copper orangutan e arms like crutches It cla iers that clicked open and shut in annoyance With a last pull at the sluggish blud, I placed the drained body in its grasp, and it swung down the stairs, enveloped in the darkness A series of lance away

"I should charge you for that, you know," Charhed

"For what? Destroying illegally bred bludhounds? The gendarold for that"

"Gendarht than bludhounds Why are you here, brigand? Come to buy more teeth for your collection?"

I stood and shot Vale a lected to ged unapologetically

"I’old pin seen around town The crest is a raven’s skull with a top hat and bat wings"

Charainst the sharp lapels of his red-and-white-striped jacket "Pish-posh Sounds enig to tell us"

Charmant’s mustache curled with his sutan clattered back upstairs and gently shoved etic, tinny "Ooh ooh" It picked up another bludhound and carried it downstairs over one arlared at each other I wasn’t sure hohy, but the copper ape looked downright sad

Vale crossed his ar over his taut bicep "You’ll tell us, yes"

Charled, an oddly ive s? A tube of your mixed bastard blood? A favor? Your firstborn? Perhaps you have a unicorn horn or a selkie skin to trade or soled like dying caterpillars

Without a word, Vale reached into his shirt and withdrew a silk scarf, testing its weight on his pal Vale and unwrapped it like a kid at Christmas

"Oh la la," he purred "A bludmare’s lucky horseshoe A fine trade, indeed"

Char way, then tucked it lovingly into his jacket and dusted off his hands Turning on one heel, he disappeared into the hole in the ground, tail slithering, snakelike, behind him I was about to protest his abandonment, but Vale put a hand on my arm and shook his head After a fewup and knuckle-walked to Vale Its long arers Vale opened it so we both could read it

"Anatole Fermin, Artificer, Boulevard Saint-Germain"

"Do you knoho that is?" I asked

Vale shook his head, angry "Let’s go find out"

The orangutan held open the door, itsour steps as we left, as if so had a heart and had lost all hope long ago

"Ooh ooh," it said again, and I wasn’t sure if it ood-bye