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Miss Tarabotti refused to give her guest the satisfaction of asking how he knew of the previous evening’s episode Instead she sne

Lord Akeldane Well, that is to say, except when he was drinking blood He was reputed to have once said that the best drink in existence was a blending of the two, a mix he referred to fondly as a Pink Slurp

"You knohy I invited you over, then?" Alexia asked instead, offering him a cheese swizzle

Lord Akelda the swizzle and nibbling its tip "La, irl, you invited le er And I shall be cut to the very quick ofelse"

Miss Tarabotti waved a hand at the butler Floote issued her a look of mild disapproval and vanished in search of the first course

"That is, naturally, exactly why I invited you Besides which I am certain you missed e I a to do with an avid curiosity as to how I ," she said mildly

Lord Akeldama held up a hand "A moment please, my dear" Then he reached into a waistcoat pocket and produced a s forks sunk into a faceted crystal He flicked the first fork with his thumbnail, waited a moment, and then flicked the second The twosound, like the hu, that seemed to be amplified by the crystal He placed the device carefully in the center of the table, where it continued to hu but seeets accustoetically

"What is it?" wondered Alexia

"That little gem is a harmonic auditory resonance disruptor One of , isn’t it?"

"Yes, but what does it do?" Alexia wanted to know

"Notto listen in fro device, it creates a kind of screa sound that results in the most tremendous headache I tested it"

"Remarkable," said Alexia, is peoplehow you ed to kill a vampire, e not? And while I know exactly how you did it, petal, you may not want the rest of the world to knoell" Alexia was affronted "Oh really, and how did I do it?"

Lord Akelda off a set of particularly white and particularly sharp fangs "Oh, princess" In one of those lightning-fast movements that only the best athletes or a supernatural person could execute, he grabbed her free hand His deadly fangs vanished The ethereal beauty in his face becath dissipated "This is how"

Alexia nodded It had taken Lord Akeldaed from the hives as he was, he had never been officially inforht on his long career as a snoop His only possible excuse for the blunder was the fact that, while preternatural men were rare, preternatural woman were practically nonexistent He simply had not expected to find one in the form of an overly assertive spinster, enmeshed in the thick of London society, companioned by two silly sisters and a sillier mama As a result, he took any opportunity to re her hand or arm on the merest whim

In this particular instance, he stroked her hand fondly There was no attraction in the ," he had once said, "you are at no er ofequal impossibilities In the one case, I do not possess the necessary equipment upon contact, in the other case you do not" Her father’s library had provided Alexia with any

further explanation she ed in quite an adventurous life before e and collected books fro pictures, indeed He had an apparent passion for explanatory studies on primitive peoples, which resulted in the kind of docue even Evylin to enter a library--had she been made aware of their existence Luckily, the entirety of Alexia’s faossip section of the Morning Post, it was probably not worth reading Alexia, as a result, knew considerably ht to know, and certainly enough not to estures of affection

"You have no idea how deliciously restful I find the miracle of your company," he had re in too-war into an icy ood for the soul" He had shrugged delicately "I enjoy feeling lorious presence" Miss Tarabotti had granted hirasp her hand whenever he wished--so long as it was always done in cone "That vaht did not knohat I was," she said "He caht for ht most of your lot knew by now BUR undoubtedly keeps close enough track of ht more quickly than was to be expected Even for hi flame from a nearby candle The Loontwills had installed the latest in gas lighting, but Alexia preferred beeswax, unless she was reading In the candlelight, Lord Akeldaold as the buckles on his shoes One always expected vahtly doomy Lord Akeldama was the antithesis of all such expectations He wore his blonde hair long and queued back in a o He looked up at her, and his face was suddenly old and serious, see not at all as ridiculous as his attire should make him "They do mostly know of you, my pearl All four of the official hives tell their larvae directly afterin London"