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"We have My son has been working with us" Matthew gavelook

"Yes, I saw that," Chris said, aI’d boast about, myself"

"Not Benjamin My other son, Marcus Whitmore"

"Marcus Whit all the bases, I see You handle the evolutionary biology and neuroscience, Miriaenetics, and Marcus Whity and efforts to debunk phenotypic plasticity That’s a hell of a research team you’ve assembled, Clairmont"

"I’m very fortunate," Matthew said mildly

"Wait a minute" Chris looked at Matthew in ay Population genetics Figuring out how blood rage is trans to diagra on the Tree of Life--and not just the human branches"

"Is that what the tree in the fireplace is called?" Sarah asked

"I don’t think so" Matthew patted her hand

"Evolution I’ll be damned" Chris pushed away from the island "So have you discovered the couys?" He waved in our direction

"If by ‘you guys’ you mean creatures--daemons, vampires, and witches--then no" Matthew’s brow arched

"Okay What are the crucial genetic differences separating us?"

"Vampires and witches have an extra chrole extra chroenetic map for these creature chromosomes?"

"Yes," Matthew said

"Then you’ve probably been working on this little project since before 1990, just to keep up with the hu since 1968 on how blood rage is inherited, if you must know"

"Of course You adapted Donahue’s use of faenerations" Chris nodded "Good call How far along are you with sequencing? Have you located the blood-rage gene?"

Matthew stared at hi

"Well?" Chris demanded

"I had a teacher like you once," Matthew said coldly "He drove me insane"

"And I have students like you They don’t last long in my lab" Chris leaned across the table "I take it that not every vampire on the planet has your condition Have you detere is inherited, and why some contract it and some don’t?"

"Not entirely," Matthew admitted "It’s a bitwe have three parents"

"You need to pick up the pace, nant With twins" Chris looked at enetic profiles for the two of you and , including but not lie?"

"I’ve been in the sixteenth century for the best part of a year" Matthew really disliked being questioned "I lacked the opportunity"

"High time we started, then," Chris re" I looked to Matthew for confirmation "Remember? I found that paper covered with X’s and O’s"

"X’s and O’s? Lord God Alhty" This seemed to confirm Chris’s worst fears "You tell me you have three parents, but you remain married to a Mendelian inheritance model I suppose that’s what happens when you’re as old as dirt and knein"

"Ilike an irritated professor hie hly unlikely," Chris said "And not just because of this three-parent problem--which I’ll have to consider in more detail It must create havoc in the data"

"Explain" Matthew tented his fingers in front of his face

"I have to give an overview of non-Mendelian inheritance to a fellow of All Souls?" Chris’s eyebrows rose "Somebody needs to look at the appointment policies at Oxford University"

"Do you understand a word they’re saying?" Sarah whispered

"One in three," I said apologetically

"IMosaicis any bells, Professor Clairive to raduates?"

"Isn’t nized

Chris nodded at ly

"I’rowled

"Chris isto help you detere effects vampire-witch reproduction--not to mention find a cure for the disease--he needs to know everything That includes enetic test results, by the way"

"That infor hands," Matthew said

"Matthew is right," Chris agreed

"I’lad you think so" Mattheords dripped acid

"Don’t patronize ers of hurew up in the shadow of Tuskegee" Chris turned to enetic infor a white coat Especially if they’re wearing a white coat, come to think of it"

"Thanks for your input, Christopher," Matthew said stiffly "I’ll be sure to pass your ideas on to the rest ofto do about all this?" Fernando asked "There ency before, but now" He looked to Matthew for guidance

"The Bad Seed’s breeding progra," Chris proclaiure out if blood rage really is what makes conception possible or if it’s a combination of factors And we need to know the likelihood of Diana’s children contracting the disease

We’ll need the witch and the vaenetic maps for that"

"You’ll need my DNA, too," I said quietly "Not all witches can reproduce"

"Do you need to be a good witch? A bad witch?" Chris’s silly jokes usually ht