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"But, Mr Lange-Wilsdorf, what a way to treat a fel ow member of the Order of the Brass Octopus Be reasonable; it is the middle of the day!"

"Not even for the Order!" The little et just as hysterical as his dog "You ive you provisions, money, contacts in Italy, but you must quit my house now Get to the Templars They wil take care of you, if only because the vampires want you dead I am not equipped I am not able to handle this"

Alexia stood to find that Floote, being Floote, had at so doom and vanished to their rooms There he had obviously packed up her dispatch case, retrieved her parasol and their outerwear, and aiting patiently in the doorway He, at least, did not seem at al reluctant to leave

CHAPTER NINE

How Not to Cross an Alpine Pass

Upon reflection, Alexia decided it was perhaps safer to press on toward Italy during daylight, anyway It was beco painful y obvious that should she expect any answers as to her current condition and situation, she would have to extract said answers from either the Templars or the vampires And of the two, only one was likely to talk to her before they tried to kil her

Another thing had also beco, the fate of the infant-inconvenience was now at stake Alexia ht be frustrated with the tiny parasite, but she decided, after contemplation, that she did not, exactly, wish it dead They’d been through a lot together so far Just you allow ularly, she told it silently, and I’ll think about trying to grow ainstinct Won’t be easy,to have one But I’ll try

On the run from the murderous hordes, cashiered by an eccentric Gerht have done under ht a cab Hired transport, as it turned out, was land, only more limited Madame Lefoux had a brief but intense conversation with the driver of a fly, after which a good deal of ed hands Then the inventor sat down next to Floote, and the handsoh the streets of Nice, which were croith invalids and eather refugees Alexia supposed it was a sensible mode of transport when one was on the run, but the fly was a tight fit for three passengers

The driver, up high and behind the whip The creature surged forward, taking turns and racketing down al eyways at quite the breakneck velocity

In no ti the dirt road that wound along the cliffs and beaches of the Riviera It was a drive Alexia ht ordinarily have enjoyed It was a crisp winter day, the Mediterranean a sparkling turquoise blue to their right There was very little traffic, and their driver cut loose along the long slow turns and straight stretches, al owing his horse a distance-covering canter

"He said he would take us al the way to the border," Mada ood time"

"I should say so! Wil we reach Italy before dark, do you think?" Alexia tucked her dispatch case s and skirts, and placed her parasol across her lap, trying to get cohtly between Madame Lefoux and Floote The seat real y was only e, Alexia had cause to be grateful she was currently without her ubiquitous bustle It was by noadvantage of theprecariously backward so she could look over the roof and the driver’s box to the road behind the

"What is it?" Madame Lefoux demanded

"I do notfol owed"

Mada her top hat fire of the hansom’s roof with the other When she sat back down, she, too, sported a crease between her perfectly arched eyebrows

Alexia looked to her valet "Floote, how are you fixed for projectiles?"

Floote reached into his inner jacket pocket and presented the two tiny guns He cracked each open in turn They were both loaded He’d obviously taken the tile shots after their spot of vampire bother He fished about further in his coat and produced a sht more bul ets

Madame Lefoux reached across Alexia and picked up one of the bul ets, exa it with interest Alexia looked on as wellThey were made of some kind of hard wood, tipped in silver and fil ed with lead

"Old-style sundowner bul ets Not that il need such as these at this time of day

Any fol oould have to be drones Stil , Mr Floote, what are you doing with such things? You cannot possibly be certified to terminate supernaturals"

"Ah" Floote put the bul ets back in his jacket pocket "Let us say I inherited them, madam"

"Mr Tarabotti?" Madauns You want to get yourself one of those newfangled Colt revolvers, Mr Floote, ree of fondness down at the two tiny guns before tucking theued "Father was an official sundowner, was he?"

"Not as such, ey, but he seeht-lippedness whenever the subject of Alessandro Tarabotti came up Half the time Alexia felt he did it out of obstinacy; the other half of the ti Although with vaine what she ht stil need protection from

Madame Lefoux pushed back the sleeve of her jacket and checked her own little wrist-emitter device "I have only three shots left Alexia?"

Alexia shook her head "I used up alelse left in the parasol but the lapis lunearis netic disruption emitter"

Madam Lefoux sucked her teeth in frustration "I knew I should have given it a greater carrying capacity"

"You cannot very well have done hs twice as much as any ordinary parasol"

Floote stood and checked behind them

"Wil they catch us before we cross the border?" Alexia had no clear grasp on the distance from Nice to the Italian frontier