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I stopped outside the doorway Micky Malone owned a nice house His wife taught elementary school They wouldn&039;t have been able to afford the place on his salary alone, but together they leaing on one of the walls of the living room, adjacent to the entryway There were a lot of plants, a lot of greenery that, along with the wood grain of the floors, gave the place a rich, organic glow It was one of those places that wasn&039;t just a house It was a home

"Co"

"Is Mrs Malone here?" I asked

"Yes"

"Go get her I need her to invite me in"

"What?" Rudolph said "Give me a break Who are you, Count Dracula?"

"Drakul is still in eastern Europe, last time we checked," I replied "But I need her or Micky to askfor you"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

I sighed "Look Homes, places that people live in and love and have built a life in have a kind of power of their own If a bunch of strangers had been trouping in and out all day, I wouldn&039;t have any trouble with the threshold, but you&039;re not You guys are friends" Like Murphy had said - this one was personal

Stallings frowned "So you can&039;t come in?"

"Oh, I could co most of what I can do at the door The threshold wouldable to work any forces in the house"

"What shit," Rudolph snorted "Count Dracula"

"Harry," Stallings said "Can&039;t we invite you in?"

"No, Has to be someone who lives there Besides, it&039;s polite," I said "I don&039;t like to go places where I&039;m not welcoht with Mrs Malone for me to be here"

Rudolph opened his s cut hi her back here"

Rudolph glowered but did what he was told, going into the house

Stallings tapped out a cigarette and lit up He puffed for a second, thoughtfully "So you can&039;t do ic inside a house unless someone asks you in?"

"Not a house," I said "A home There&039;s a difference"

"So what about Victor Sells&039;s place? I hear you took hiht?"

I shookhis business out of it, using the place for dark ceremonies It wasn&039;t a home any on its own turf?"

"Can&039;t et a threshold"

"Why not?"

"How the hell should I know," I said "They just don&039;t I can&039;t know everything, right?"

"Guess so," Stallings said, and after a minute he nodded "Sure, I see what you mean So it shuts you down?"

"Not co Like wearing a lead suit That&039;s why vaive the alive, s shook his head "This ic crap I never would have believed it before I came here I still have trouble with it"

"Yeah? That&039;s good Means you aren&039;t running into it too much"

He blew out twin colu Last couple of days, we&039;ve had so Bums, street people, folks some of the cops and detectives know"

I frowned "Yeah?"

"Yeah It&039;s all ruone the next day But since I started working SI, stuff like thatStallings what I knew about Bianca&039;s party Doubtless, there would be a whole flock of vampires in from out of town for the event Maybe she and her flunkies were rounding up hors d&039;oeuvres But I had no proof of that - for all I knew, the disappearances, if they were disappearances, could be related to the turbulence in the Nevernever If so, the cops couldn&039;t do anything about it And if it was soe with Bianca I didn&039;t want to sic the cops on her for no reason I&039;m pretty sure Bianca had the resources to send them back at me - and she could probablyto deserve it, too

Besides that, in the circles of the supernatural community, an Old World code of conduct still ruled When you have a problem, you settle it face to face, within the circle You don&039;t bring in the cops and the other mortals as weapons They&039;re the nuclear missiles of the supernatural world If you show people a supernatural brawl going on, it&039;s going to scare the snot out of the and everyone in sight Most people wouldn&039;t care that one scary guy uys are scary, so you ace both of theht

It had been that way since the dawn of the Age of Reason and the rising power of mortal kind And more power to the people, I say I hated all these bullies, va around like they ruled the world Never o, they really had

In any case, I decided to keep h to be certain, either way

Stallings and I made small talk until Sonia Malone appeared at the door She was a wo Her face would have been gorgeous when she was a young woman, and it still carried that beauty, refined by years of self-confidence and steady reliability Her eyes were reddened, and she wore no makeup, but her features seemed composed She wore a si band on her finger