“Why wouldn’t I just use the Druj tomorrow and all this would begin again?” “Once the Drifters are back inside, I’ll get Muninn to seal the caves good and tight. The dead will stay put for a thousand years. Assuming you don’t blow yourself up like Rainier, you can try your plan again then.” “Let me have the Druj.” “Get my friends over here and I’ll hand it over. Do anything stupid and your fair-haired boy is dead and you won’t be able to do a damned thing about it.” “This is an angel’s knife. It might just kill you.” “I think I can outrun your knife, but I’m positive Aki can’t outrun mine. Make the call and everyone gets to go home and sleep in their own bed.” “I don’t have a phone.” “There’s one on the desk over there.” She goes to Lucifer’s desk and dials. I give Aki a once-over. The tape is still good and tight on his arms and legs. There’s a small pool of blood around his foot. Enough to make him light-headed, but not enough to worry about. Koralin says, “They’re on their way. It will be a few minutes. Traffic is a bit heavy tonight.” I go to one of the sofas and sit down. “Take a load off. The room is comfy enough. For us. Poor Aki must be hurting pretty bad right now.” I look back at him. “How are you doing, champ? Foot throbbing?” He garbles something through the tape. Even gagged, I can recognize a sincere “fuck you.” Koralin perches on the sofa opposite me, barely resting her ass on the edge. She holds her knife upright, the point between her breasts. “Since we seem to have struck a bargain, I’ll put down my knife if you lay down all of your weapons.” I take out the Smith & Wesson and put it on the table. I set the black blade and athame next to it. I put the na’at at the end, where she can get a good look at it. “So what was it between you and Eleanor? She must have really hated you to run off with your secret weapon.” “She was a troubled child.” “That’s an interesting way to put it because the moment you bring her into your story, it doesn’t add up. You Geistwalds are Death Born. But Eleanor was bitten by a vampire and turned. That means she had to be alive.” “Eleanor wasn’t Der Todes Geboren.” “I thought so. Was your husband?” “Of course. He was the patriarch. And Rainier. Eleanor, however, was like you. The family grotesque.” “She was Daddy’s girl, wasn’t she? It’s his fault Eleanor wasn’t dead like Mommy.” Koralin doesn’t say anything for a couple of minutes. Just stares at Aki. I wait. I count the molecules that make up the pearls in the necklace. Finally, she says, “Not being alive ourselves, we can’t produce our own children. Jan conceived Eleanor with a living woman.” “Was she pretty? Was she nice? Did he fall in love with her?”
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