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Chapter Twenty-six

I slept hard and didn&039;t wake up until well after sunrise I heard voices, and after a es of tone that told ave myself a washcloth bath at the bathroom sink It wasn&039;t as nice as a hot tub, and not even as nice as a shower, but I didn&039;t feel like stickingit shut so that I could get one without getting es wet

I couldn&039;t find my clothes anywhere, so I wandered out into the house in led pants The hospital staff had cut the pant leg h and uneven I passed a mirror in the hallway of the house and stopped to examine myself

I looked like a joke A bad joke

" e continues," the radio announcer was saying "In fact, it&039;s difficult to esti we&039;ll be able to stay on the air, or even howthis broadcast Gasoline-powered generators have been encountering odd trouble throughout the city, batteries see those of vehicles, are behaving unpredictably The telephone lines have been having all kinds of problems, and cell phones seem to be all but useless O&039;Hare is co havoc with airline traffic throughout the nation"

Thoas stove He wasto an old battery-powered radio sitting on Murphy&039;s counter He nodded to lance at the radio I nodded, folded ainst the doorway to listen to the announcer continue

"National authorities have declined to coiven a state the problems on unusual sunspot activity"

Thomas snorted

The radio prattled on "That answer doesn&039;t seeiven that in cities as near as the south side of Joliet all systeested everything from an elaborate Halloween hoax to the detonation of sonetic pulse device, which has disrupted the city&039;s electrical utilities A press conference has reportedly been scheduled for later this evening We&039;ll be on the air all through the current crisis, giving you up to date information as quickly as we"

The announcer&039;s voice broke up into wild static and sound Thomas reached over and flicked the radio off "Had it on for twenty nal for runted

"Do you knohat&039;s happened?"

"Maybe," I said "Where&039;s Butters?"

Tho Mouse"

I took a seat at the little kitchen table, gettingto be pretty intense," I said

Thomas flipped a pancake "Because of the heirs of Keht about what they&039;re trying to do, soht"

"Why?"

"Because after that I&039;m not sure anyone will be able to stop them," I said

My brother nodded "Think you can take the the to be more worried about their fellow necromancers than they are about me"

"Uh- huh," Thomas said "But do you think you can take them?"

"No"

"Then what you&039;re talking about isn&039;t heroism, man It&039;s suicide"

I shook my head "I don&039;t need to kill theht, I won&039;t need to fight anybody"

Thomas flipped another pancake The cooked side was a unifore that?"

"They need two things toand the knowledge in The Word of Ke is canceled"

"You figure out those numbers yet?" Thooing to put a hit on the Erlking to keep hiave ht class as her"

"She tough?" Thomas asked

"Beyond the pale," I said

"So you can&039;t kill the Erlking What, then?"

"I summon him myself"

He arched an eyebrow

"Look, no hty he is, he can&039;t be in two places at once If I call him up and keep him busy, then the heirs can&039;t summon hioing to call hiot to be one of those poes One of the&039;s attention"

"But you don&039;t have the book," Thomas said

"Yeah," I said "That&039;s the kink I haven&039;t worked out yet"

Tho the last of the batter out of a bowl and onto the griddle "Even if you do figure out how to call the Erlking, it sounds like he erous"

"Probably But ioing godly and showing up to give ed "And the only one in danger will be ," Thomas said "I&039;ll be with you"

I had been sure he would say soood Thoe, and he wasn&039;t always the most pleasant person in the world-but he was my brother Family He&039;d stand with me

Which made what came next hard to say

"You can&039;t," I said

His expression smoothed over into neutrality "Because of Mavra?"

"No," I said "Because I&039; in the White Council" Thomas dropped his spatula onto the kitchen floor "I have to," I said "It took all the Wardens together to take down Keht not be able to prevent the Erlking&039;s arrival If that happens, someone has to stop the heirs directly I can&039;t do it The Wardens can It&039;s as simple as that"

"Okay," he said "But that doesn&039;t explain why I can&039;t stick with you"

"Because to them you&039;re just a White Court vampire, Thomas With whom I am supposed to be at war If they learn that you&039;re ive the people in the Council who don&039;t like rounds to questionagainst the Council or being controlled by you, they&039;d still be suspicious of you They&039;d want assurances that you were on their team"

"They&039;d use ainst you"

"They&039;d use us both against each other Which is why you can&039;t be around when they show"

Thomas turned and studied my face carefully "What about Murphy? If you call in the Council, Mavra will screw up her life"

I chewed on my lip a little "Murphy wouldn&039;t want er to protect her If one of the heirs turns into so to die She wouldn&039;t forgiveher if that was the cost," I said "Besides This isn&039;t about recovering the Word This is about stopping the heirs I can still get the book to Mavra and fulfill our bargain"

Thomas took a deep breath "Is that wise?"

"I don&039;t know She&039;s not exactly alive I doubt Keic"

"If they didn&039;t," Thomas said, "then ould she want the book?" Which was a daood question I rubbed at ot to stop the heirs And I&039;ve got to protect Murphy"

"If the Council finds out that you&039;re planning on using theive Kemmler&039;s book to a vampire of the Black Court, you&039;ll be in trouble"

"Not for long," I said "The Wardens will execute me on the spot"

"God And you can accept that? From your own people?"

"I&039;m acclimated," I said

We were quiet for a moment

"You want me to sit this out," Thomas said "You don&039;t want me to help"

"I don&039;t see that I have much choice," I told him "Do you?"

"You could just leave this whole thing We could head for Aruba or so"

I looked at hiuy can hope I just don&039;t like the idea of sitting on the sidelines when youthis on purpose You&039;re trying to keep me out of it to protect me, you sneaky little bitch"

"It works out that way," I said "Think of it as payback for those painkillers"

He grimaced at me, then nodded

"And thank you," I said quietly "You were right I needed the rest"

"Of course I was right," Thomas said "You looked like you were about to pass out You still don&039;t look great"

"I&039;ry Did you make those pancakes for breakfast, or are they only decorative?"

"Go ahead and mock," Thomas said He slapped a bunch of pancakes onto a plate and brought it over to the table along with a plastic bottle of maple syrup "Here Happy birthday"

I blinked at the pancakes and then up at hiotten you a present, but" He shrugged

"No," I said "I mean, no, that&039;s okay I&039;m surprised you remembered at all No one has remembered ot himself a plate and left the rest on a third plate for Butters He sat down at the table and started eating the of it I&039;m sort of surprised I reeneral "So you think Grevane and the Corpsetaker are the ones who turned the lights out?"

I shookso many undead under their control That&039;s why the Corpsetaker went after Grevane with a sword, and why he defended himself physically"

"Then who did it?"

"Cowl," I said "He uess is that he was too busy setting it up to take a swing at Grevane or the Corpsetaker"