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"Exactly"

"So your theory is wrong"

"Or the flux reaction is coe-Wilsdorf was quite triuh he was near to explaining everything

"Are you i that you understand the nature of et equal y excited Finally!

"No, but I can say with the absolute confidence that I am very, very close"

"Funny, but I do not find that at al reassuring"

Lord Akeldama stood in the doorway of Professor Lyal ’s office, dressed for riding It was hard to read his face at the best of tih on i, my lord?"

"La, my dear, tolerably wellTolerably wellAnd you?"

They had, of course, met on more than one occasion in the past Lyal had spent centuries nibbling about the great layer cake that was polite society while Lord Akelda on its top Lyal knew a man was s, even ifup cruh to keep track of most members, whether they skulked about BUR offices and the soldier’s barracks or the best drawing roo had better evenings Welcome to BUR headquarters, Lord Akeldama Do come in"

The vaht of Biffy’s sleeping foresture with one hand "May I?"

Professor Lyal nodded The question was a veiled insult, re them both of what had been taken from the vampire unjustly That he must now ask to look upon what had once been his Lyal let hiet aith it Currently the vampire held al the cards, but Professor Lyal was reasonably convinced that if he just gave Lord Akeldaht be able to fashion it into a bow pleasing enough for al parties

Of course, the vaht also turn it into a noose; it depended entirely on the outcome of this conversation

Professor Lyal knew that vampires had a liht away that Biffy was noolf But Lord Akeldama see man

"That is quite the quantity of facial hair I didn’t know he had it in hiiven the current situation" Lord Akelda, sli at the skin there He closed his eyes for adown on his for I have always thought so" He sed audibly Then he turned and ca,and winced "Necessity so Randolph Can I cal you Randy? Or would you prefer, Dolphy? Dol y, perhaps?" Professor Lyal flinched noticeably "Anyway, as I was saying, Dolly, I cannot abide riding--the horses are never happy to seat a va e"

Professor Lyal decided on a more direct approach "Where have you been this past week, my lord?"

Lord Akeldahosts while pursued by dae I aoes"

Professor Lyal decided on a push, just to see if he enuine reaction "How could you disappear like that, just when Lady Maccon needed you ave a hu froive ht to ask the questions under such circuestured with his head in Biffy’s direction, just a little jerk of control ed displeasure

Lord Akeldas, not with an absence of emotions but with an excess of false ones However, Professor Lyal was pretty certain that there, lurking under the clipped civility, was real, deeply rooted, and undeniably justified anger

Lord Akelda back into it, for al the world as relaxed and untroubled as a one after my dear Alexia?"

Lyal nodded

"Then he knows?"

"That she is in grave danger and the potentate responsible? Yes"

"Ah, was that Wal y’s ga out of London No, I mean to ask, Dol y dear, if the estimable earl knohat kind of child he has sired"

"No But he has accepted that it is his I think he always knew Lady Maccon would not play hi ridiculous about it"

"Normal y, I am al in favor of the ridiculous, but under such circumstances, you must understand, I believe it quite a pity he could not have come to that realization sooner

Lady Maccon would never have lost the protection of the pack, and none of this would have happened"

"You think not? Yet your kind tried to kil her on the way to Scotland when she was stil very much under Woolsey’s protection Admittedly, that was done more discreetly and, I now believe, without the support of the hives But they would al stil have wanted her dead theis that you, apparently, do not want her dead"

"Alexia Maccon is my friend"

"Are your friends so infrequent, my lord, that you betray the clearly unaniht element of his composure at that "Listen to ht make my own decisions: who to love, who to watch, and, most importantly, what to wear"

"So, Lord Akelda to be?"

"No You wil explain this first" The vaestured at Biffy "I am forced to swarm because my most precious little drone-y-poo is ruthlessly stolen from me--betrayed, as it turns out, by my own kind--only to return and find him stolen by your kind instead I believe even Lord Maccon would acknowledge I areed with him in this, so he told the vampire the whole truth, every detail of it

"So it was death or the curse of a olf?"

Professor Lyal nodded "It was so to see, , nor was conducted with so e the boy in the heat of the need for blood, it was extraordinary There are not many olves who possess such self-control Biffy was very lucky"

"Lucky?" Lord Akelda to his feet "Lucky! To be cursed by thebeast? You would have done better to let hi man, certainly not by olf standards, but he moved so quickly that he was around Professor Lyal ’s desk, slim hands about the olf’s throat, faster than Lyal ’s eyes could fol ow There was the anger Professor Lyal had been waiting for and, with it, a degree of pain and hurt he would never have expected from a vampire Perhaps he had pushed a little harder than was strictly necessary Lyal sat stil and passive under the choking hold A vampire could probably rip a olf’s head clean off, but Lord Akelda, even in the heat of anger He was too control ed by age and etiquette to make more than a show of it