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Alexia had never told Madame Lefoux about the mummy nor the broken ankh syn of a preternatural

So she quickly moved on "I think the terra-cotta man in the tomb was a preternatural, and the wo of meat was for the olves"

"A harmonious culture? Is that possible?"

"It would be terribly arrogant of us British to think England was the first and only progressive society" Alexia orried If the Tenificance of the ankh, she was in ht They would find a way to turn her into a tool, living or dead

"I do hope Floote e to BUR"

"Love note to your olf?" Madame Lefoux sounded wistful Then she looked about the empty hil side, suddenly nervous "I think, e"

Alexia, enjoying the countryside and the intel ectual advantages afforded by their ancient surroundings, had not registered the lateness of the hour "Ah, yes, you httime before they were even halfway back to Florence Alexia felt awful y exposed in the open-topped carriage She kept her parasol close and began to wonder if this whole excursion was not an attempt by the Templars to use her as soreat supernatural hunters and ht very well risk her safety simply to draw local vah foolish pride in their own abilities to believe there was little true peril The er entirely ful but stil quite bright In its silvery light, Alexia could leam of anticipation in the preceptor’s normal y emotionless eyes You rotten sod, this was all a setup, she was about to say, but too late

The va with exceptional speed frole-ht for Alexia, the only apparent fe, but Alexia had already thrown herself forward onto the open seat opposite her own, next to the preceptor The va Alexia fu the handle so that the two sharp spikes, one wood and one silver, sprang out from its tip

The preceptor, suddenly brandishing a long, evil-looking wooden knife, gave a yel of pleasure and attacked Madame Lefoux had her trusty cravat pin already out and in play

Alexia swung her parasol, but al were th, and even fighting off multiple bodies in the aardly tiny venue of an open-topped carriage, the va his own

The preceptor dove forward He was grinning--a real smile for the first tirip on her parasol with both hands and used a hacking blow to stab with the wooden spike at any part of the vah for her to pin it down It was a little like trying to hit the heads of ground h, Alexia was getting quite into the game of it

"Touch it!" yel ed the preceptor at Alexia "Touch it so I can kil it"

The preceptor was an excel ent fighter, for he was single-minded in his attempt to drive his wooden weapon into the creature’s heart or soh, even when Madaot in a couple of wicked strikes to the vaan to heal almost as soon as she had delivered the, the vampire casual y backhanded the inventor with a closed fist She fel hard against the inside of the carriage and then sluantly to the floor, eyes closed, mouth slack, and mustache fal en entirely off

Before Alexia had a chance to react, the vaed to heave the Teainst the driver so that both fel out of the carriage into the country lane below

The horses, spooked into screa forward, straining against their traces in ain the wildly pitching carriage The four cavalry Teht up to the ruckus, were left behind in a cloud of swirling dust kicked up by frantic hooves

The varip on her parasol and gritted her teeth Real y, she was getting very tired of these constant bouts of fisticuffs

One would think she was a boxer down at Whites! The va

But he batted the parasol away and was upon her, hands wrapped around her neck

He sneezed Aha, thought Alexia, the garlic!

When he touched her, his fangs vanished and his strength became that of an ordinary human She saw in his beautiful brown eyes a look of surprise He may have knohat she was intel ectual y but had clearly not experienced the sensation of preternatural touch before Yet his fingers tightened inexorably around Alexia’s throat He le her, no led

I’ht Alexia I haven’t yelled at Conall yet And then she thought about the baby real y as a baby and not an inconvenience for the very first ti the va white hit the va--after al , the va any supernatural defenses The vampire screamed in surprise and pain

The hit broke his hold around her neck, and Alexia stu hard, eyes fixed on her for resolved itself into the frenzied figure of a ainst the vampire in a ind of teeth and claws and blood The two supernatural creatures scrabbled together, olf strength against vampire speed, while Alexia pushed herself and her parasol back into one corner of the seat, protectively shielding Madas

The wolf had the advantage, having attacked while the vah preternatural contact, and he never lost it In very short order, he wrapped his powerful jaws about the va his teeth into thehowl, and the smel of rotten blood fil ed the fresh country air

Alexia caught a flash of ice-blue eyes as the wolf gave her one ful look before he hurled both hi the ground with a tremendous thud The sound of their battle continued but was rapidly lost in the clattering of hooves as the horses raced onward

Alexia realized it must have been the scent of the wolf that initial y panicked the horses It was now up to her to slow them down before the terrified creatures broke their traces or overturned the carriage, or worse