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Miss Tarabotti winced Usually Lord Akeldama was sensitive to her dislike of the terht he had finally realized what she was For once in his long life, he had lost his perfectly donned charisuise of a forthright spinster Miss Tarabotti, understandably, had not taken to the notion of being called a soul-sucker Lord Akeldaain, except to make a point Now he had a point to make

Floote arrived with the soup, a creamy cucumber and watercress Lord Akeldama received no nourishment from the consumption of food, but he appreciated the taste Unlike soe in that tradition established by ancient Roe bucket He merely sampled each dish politely and then left the rest for the servants to partake of later No sense in wasting good soup And it was quite good One could say a nus about the Loontwills, but no one had ever accused theiven an allowance large enough to dress her to the height of fashion-- although she did tend to stick to trends a little too precisely The poor thing could not help it Her choice of clothing siance extended to the keeping of a very fine cook

Floote slid away softly to retrieve the next course

Alexia rerasp and, never one for disseht to the point "Lord Akelda on? Who was the vaht? How could he not knoho I was? He did not even knohat I was, as if no one had told him preternaturals existed at all I aeneral public, but packs and hives are well informed as a rule"

Lord Akelda forks on the resonator again "My dearest young friend There, I believe, you have the very issue in hand Unfortunately for you, since you eliminated the individual in question, every interested supernatural party is beginning to believe you are the one who knows the answers to those very questions Speculation abounds, and vampires are a suspicious lot So kept purposefully in ignorance by either you, or BUR, or s, and sipped his chane

Alexia sat back and let out a whoosh of air "Well, that explains her rather forceful invitation"

Lord Akeldama did notup straighter "Her? Her who? Whose invitation, my dearest petunia blossom?"

"Countess Nadasdy’s"

Lord Akeldaht at that His waterfall of a cravat quivered in agitation "Queen of the West "There are words to describe her, my dear, but one does not repeat them in polite company"

Floote came in with the fish course, a silanced with raised eyebrows at the huitated Lord Akeldahtly when he would have remained protectively in the room

Miss Tarabotti studied Lord Akeldama’s face closely He was a rove--a hiveless va set It took a lot of political, psychological, and supernatural strength for a vampire to separate froo a bit funny about the noggin and slide toward the eccentric end of societal acceptability In deference to this status, Lord Akeldaistered with BUR However, it did ainst the hives

The vampire sampled the fish, but the delicious taste did not seem to improve his te one expensive shoe against the other

"Don’t you like the Westreat show of assumed innocence

Lord Akeldama seemed to remember himself The foppishness reappeared in spades His wrists went lily "La, my dear daffodil, the hive queen and I, we have our differences I a i for the right word --"fla both his words and the ht it was you who did not like Countess Nadasdy"

"Noeetheart, who has been telling you little stories like that?"

Alexia tucked into her fish, a clear indication that she declined to reveal her source After she had finished, there was a moment of silence while Floote removed the plates and placed the ement of braised pork chop, apple coone again, Miss Tarabotti decided to ask her guest the more important question she had invited him over to answer

"What do you think she wants of nored the chop and fiddled idly with his massive ruby cravat pin "As I see it, there are two reasons Either she knows exactly what happened last night at the ball and she wants to bribe you into silence, or she has no idea who that va in her territory, and she thinks you do"

"In either case, it would behoove me to be better infor a buttery little potato

He nodded e irl, who do you think I alass and twirled it by the stehtfully at the tiny bubbles "Now there is an idea, o to the olves? They may knowBUR will know most of all"

Alexia tried to look nonchalant "But as a minister of BUR’s secrets, he is also the least likely to relay any cogent details," she countered

Lord Akelda manner that indicatedfor it, sweetest of Alexias, but to use your plethora of feminine wiles upon hientler sex for as long as I can reled his eyebrows, knowing he did not look a day over twenty-three, his original age at metamorphosis He continued "Favorable too beaslies, even if they are a tad brutish" He shivered lasciviously "Particularly Lord Maccon So big and rough" He led Nothing was funnier than watching a valy to visit him tomorrow before you see the Westrasped her wrist His fangs vanished, and his eyes suddenly looked as old as he really was He had never told Alexia quite how old "La, darling," he always said, "a vae" But he had described to her in detail the dark days before the supernatural was revealed to daylight folk Before the hives and packs ious revolution in philosophy and science that their eered, known to sohtenes, for obvious reasons For theht Several bottles of chaet Lord Akeldama to talk of it at all Still, it meant, by Alexia’s calculations, that he was at least over four hundred years old