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"Quite right That is hoe feel when she goes all scientificish as well," said Evylin with feeling "Only we have to live with her, so we cannot escape," added Felicity

Ivy looked eet hoo"

Miss Tarabotti accompanied her friend to the door Floote appeared with the offensive shepherdess hat, all white striped, red triustedly tied it under Ivy’s chin

Looking out into the street, the two ladies observed Mr Haverbink hovering across the way Alexia gave him a tiny wave He nodded to them politely

Ivy flicked open her red parasol "You never did intend to attend the duchess’s rout torinned "You have caught me out"

"Alexia" Ivy’s voice was deeply suspicious "Who is Auntie Augustina?"

Miss Tarabotti laughed "I believe you once referred to the individual in question as ’outrageous’ and disapproved of our association"

Ivy closed her eyes in horror for a long ender switch, but that was simply the kind of code Alexia and her butler used around the Loontwills "Twice in one week!" she said, shocked "People will begin to talk They will think you are turning into a drone" She looked thoughtfully at her friend A practical, statuesque, stylish woman, not the type vampires usually went in for But then, everyone knew: Lord Akelda up as a drone, are you? That is a very big decision"

Not for the first time, Alexia wished she could tell Ivy about her true nature It was not that she did not trust Miss Hisselpenny; it was siue not to run aith her at an inopportune moment

In answer, she said only, "You have no idea how impossible that is, my dear Do not worry I will be perfectly fine "

Miss Hisselpenny did not look reassured She pressed her friend’s hand briefly and then walked off down the street, shaking her head softly The long curling yellow ostrich feather swished back and forth like the tail of an angry cat--the ht Alexia, could emit censure in such a sunny and fluffy manner

Miss Tarabotti returned to the tender mercies of her half sisters and prepared herself for an evening of familial bliss

Miss Tarabotti akened in the sht by thefrom just below her bedroo a white own, and went to see as occurring

Her , as it belonged to one of the less prestigious rooms of the house, looked out over the servants’ kitchen entrance and into a back alley where tradesht away fro forms of several ed in a bout of fisticuffs Alexia was fascinated They seeht mostly in silence, which lent a decided aura of s The noise that had awakened her was apparently caused by a dustbin overturning; otherwise, only the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a few runts rent the air

Alexia saw one man strike out hard His punch landed full in the face of one of the others It was a palpable hit that ought to have set the second man flat Instead, the opponent whipped around and hit back, using the momentuh the alleyway, an unpleasantly wet thudding

Only a supernatural could take a hit like that and re there would be va a vaer, she was excited by this idea Rarely was such a thing to be seen, for while olves often brawled, vaenerally preferred subtlerto get a better look One of theup His blank eyes met hers, and Alexia knew that he was no vaer fascinated by the battle below It was a visage she had seen before: the wax-faced ht of the moon, his skin had a dull metallic sheen like pewter, so smooth and lifeless she shuddered in abject revulsion The letters still own against the darkened interior of the slurin she had ever seen, a slashed unnatural opening full of perfect square white teeth, splitting across his head as a to water

He ran toward her A smooth three stories of brick lay between them, yet somehow Alexia knew there was no safety in that

One of the other roup and sprinted after her attacker Alexia doubted he would arrive in time The wax-faced man moved with utter efficiency and econo

But his pursuer clearly was a vampire, and as Miss Tarabotti watched, she realized she had never before seen a varace, his fine Hessian bootson the cobblestones

The wax-faced an to climb up the brick side Unhindered, spider like, he oozed up the wall That utterly expressionless face of his reh he were hypnotized by her face, fixated on her and only her VIXI She read the letters over and over and over again VIXI I do not want to die, thought Alexia I have not yet yelled at Lord Maccon for his most recent crass behavior! Thrown into a panic, she was just reaching to sla they were but flimsy protection from such a creature, when the vampire struck

Her supernatural protector leaped up and forward, landing on the wax-faced rabbed the creature’s head and yanked it around, hard Either the added weight or the yank caused the wax-facedwith a horrendous bone-crunching crash in the alley below Neither screamed nor spoke, even after such a fall Their companions continued their equally silent battle behind the to observe the tumble

Miss Tarabotti was certain the wax-faced man must be dead He had fallen nearly an entire story, and only supernatural folk could survive such an experience unscathed As no olf or vampire would ever look the way the wax-faced man looked, he must, perforce, be some kind of normal human

Her supposition was in error, for the wax-faced man rolled about on top of the va once le-mindedly headed back toward the house And Alexia

The vampire, hurt but not incapacitated, anticipated this rip with both hands on one of the wax-faced ht off the vaicalin Alexia’s direction, like a child denied a treat and incapable of being distracted by anything else He dragged the vaed toward her, Alexia flinched, even though she was high above him in her third-story room