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In silence, thinking hard, she sat back down Carefully, she relassicals and put the under a state, that is, afflicted with, u it--"that is, infected by… norusted look Lady MacconAnd howraphic pen poised
"Every vampire and olf in London central" The potentate was incurably caler supernatural, that meant that any or all of them could be killed She wondered, as a preternatural, if she was being affected She went introspective for a h
"What’s the geographical extent of those disabled?" she asked
"It seems to be concentrated around the Tha in from the docklands"
"And if you leave the affected zone, do you return to your supernatural state?" the scientific side of Alexia instantly wanted to know
"Excellent inquiry" The dewan disappeared out the door, presumably to send a runner to find out the answer to that question Norent handle such a job Where was she?
"And the ghosts?" Lady Maccon asked, frowning
"That is hoe know the extent of the afflicted area Not a single ghost tethered in that zone has appeared since sundown Every one has vanished Exorcised" The potentate atching her closely He, of course, would assu to do with this Only one creature had the inherent power to exorcise ghosts, as unpleasant a job as it was, and that creature was a preternatural Alexia was the only preternatural in the London locale
"Gods," breathed Lady Maccon "How hosts lost were in the Crown’s employ?"
"Six worked for us; four worked for BUR Of the ree, so no one es of disanimus" The potentate tossed a pile of paperwork in Alexia’s direction She flipped through the stack, looking at the details
The dewan came back into the room "We will know your ansithin the hour" He resuentlemen, I spent the entire day asleep at Woolsey Castle My husband can attest to that fact, as we do not htly but felt her honor demanded she stand up for herself
"Of course he can," said the vampire who currently was no vampire at all but a natural human For the first ti in those hugely expensive Hessian boots of his To faceNot to mention the fact that one of the hives was in the afflicted zone--which er Vampires, even roves like the potentate, would do al to protect a queen
"You ht solid And whohly doubt you touch while you sleep?"
"Of course I do not" Alexia was taken aback that he need ask Staying in contact with Conall all night, every night, would cause hi old without him, she wasn’t about to inflict row facial hair and co
"So you admit you could have snuck out of the house?" The dewan stopped pacing and glared at her
Lady Macconnoise of denial "Have you met my staff? If Ruelique running about fussing overof my past But you are welcoure out what is really going on here"
The potentate, of all people, seemed a little more convinced Perhaps it was simply that he did not want to believe she had access to such an ability
Alexia continued "I mean, really, how could one preternatural, however powerful, affect an entire area of the city? I have to touch you in order to force your huhost I could not possibly e to be in all those places at once Besides which, I aht now, a with? A whole pack of preternaturals?" That was the dewan He was prone to thinking in numbers, the consequence of an overabundance of
The potentate shook his head "I have seen BUR’s records There are not enough preternaturals in all of England to exorcise so h in the civilized world"
Alexia wondered how he had seen such records She would have to tell her husband about that Then she returned her attention to the business at hand "Is there anything more powerful than a preternatural?"
The not-vaain "Not in this particular way Vampire edict tells us that soul-suckers are the second most deadly creatures on the planet But it also says that the most deadly of all is no leech, but a different kind of parasite This cannot be the work of one of them"
Lady Maccon scribbled this down in her book She was intrigued and a little put out "Worse than us soul-suckers? Is that possible? And here I was thinking myself a member of the nored this question "That will teach you to get full of yourself"
Alexia would have pressed the issue but suspected that line of questioning would be ignored "So this must be the result of a weapon, a scientific apparatus That is the only possible explanation"
"Or we could take that ridiculous man Darwin’s theories to heart and postulate a newly evolved species of preternatural"
Alexia nodded She had her reservations about Darwin and his prattle on origins, but there ht be some little merit to his ideas