Alexia found the experience of being blindfolded and carried over someone’s armor-clad shoulder like a sack of potatoes unconscionably undignified. She was hauled down a seemingly endless series of stairs and passageways, musty as only the deep underground can be. She gave a few experimental kicks and a wiggle, only to have her legs clamped down by a metal-covered arm.
Eventually, they arrived at their final destination, which, she discovered once the blindfold had been removed, was some kind of Roman catacomb. She blinked, eyes adjusting to the dimness, and found herself in an underground ancient ruin dug into the bedrock, lit with oil lamps and candles. The smal cel she now occupied was barred over on one side with modern-looking reinforcements.
“Wel , this is a much inferior living situation,” she objected to no one in particular.
The preceptor appeared in the doorway, leaning up against the metal doorjamb, regarding her with lifeless eyes.
“We found we could no longer adequately ensure your safety in your other location.”
“I wasn’t safe in a temple surrounded by several hundred of the Knights Templars, the most powerful holy warriors ever to walk this earth?”
He made no answer to that. “We shal see to your every comfort here.”
Alexia looked around. The room was slightly smal er than her husband’s dressing chamber back at Woolsey Castle. There was a tiny bed in one corner covered in a faded quilt, a single side table with an oil lamp, a chamber pot, and a washstand. It looked neglected and sad.
“Who wil ? No one has so far.”
Wordlessly the Templar signaled and, out of nowhere, a bread bowl ful of pasta appeared, and a carrot carved to resemble a spoon was handed over by some unseen companion. The preceptor gave them to Alexia.
Alexia tried not to be pleased by the presence of the ubiquitous green sauce. “Pesto wil keep you in my good graces for only so long, you understand?”
“Oh, and then what wil you do, devil spawn?”
“Ah, I am no longer your ‘Soul ess One,’ am I?” Alexia pursed her lips in deep thought. She was without her parasol, and most of her best threats involved its application. “I shal be very discourteous, indeed.”
The preceptor did not look at al threatened. He closed the door firmly behind him and left her locked in the silent darkness.
“Could I at least get something to read?” she yel ed after, but he ignored her.
Alexia began to think al those horrible stories she had heard about the Templars might actual y be true, even the one with the rubber duck and the dead cat that Lord Akeldama had once relayed. She hoped fervently that Madame Lefoux and Floote were unharmed.
There was something eerie about being so utterly separated from them.
Giving in to her frustration, Alexia marched over and kicked at the bars of her prison.
This only served to cause her foot to smart most egregiously.
“Oh, brother,” said Lady Maccon into the dark silence.
Alexia’s isolation did not last long, for a certain German scientist came to visit her.
“I have been relocated, Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf.” Alexia was so distressed by her change in circumstances that she was moved to state the obvious.
“Ya, Female Specimen, I am well aware of the fact. It is most inconvenient, ya? I have had to move my laboratory as well , and Poche wil not fol ow me down here. He does not like Roman architecture.”
“No? well , who does? But, I say, couldn’t you persuade them to move me back? If one must be imprisoned, a nice room with a view is far preferable.”
The little man shook his head. “No longer possible. Give me your arm.”
Alexia narrowed her eyes suspiciously and then, curious, acquiesced to his request.
He wrapped a tube of oiled cloth about her arm and then proceeded to pump it ful of air using a set of bel ows via a mini spigot. The tube expanded and became quite tight.
Pinching these bel ows off, the scientist transferred a glass bal fil ed with little bits of paper to the spigot and let go. The air escaped with a whoosh, causing al the bits of paper to flutter about wildly inside the bal .
“What are you doing?”
“I am to determine what kind of the child you may produce, ya. There is much speculation.”
“I fail to see how those little bits of paper can reveal anything of import.” They seemed about as useful as tea leaves in the bottom of a cup. Which made her think yearningly of tea.
“Wel , you had better hope they do. There has been some talk of handling this child…
differently.”
“What?”
“Ya. And using you for—how to say?—spare parts.”
Bile, sour and unwelcome, rose in Alexia’s throat.
“What?”
“Hush now, Female Specimen, let me work.”
The German watched with frowning attention as the papers final y settled completely at the base of the bal , which, Alexia now realized, was marked with lines. Then he began making notes and diagrams of their location. She tried to think calming thoughts but was beginning to get angry as well as scared. She was finished with being thought of as a specimen.
“You know, they gave to me complete access to the records of their preternatural breeding program? They tried for nearly a hundred years to determine how to successful y breed your species.”
“Humans? well that couldn’t have been too difficult. I am stil human, remember?”
Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf ignored this and continued his previous line of reasoning. “You always breed true, but low birth rate and rare female specimens were never explained.
Also the program was plagued with the difficulty of the space al otment. Templars could not, for example, keep the babies in the same room or even the same house.”
“So what happened?” Alexia couldn’t help her curiosity.
“The program was stopped, ya. Your father was one of the last, you know?”
Alexia’s eyebrows made an inadvertent bid for the sky. “He was?” Hear that, infant-inconvenience, your grandfather was bred by religious zealots as a kind of biological experiment. So much for your family tree.
“Did the Templars raise him?”
Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf gave her a peculiar look. “I am not familiar with the specifics.”
Alexia knew absolutely nothing about her father’s childhood; his journals didn’t commence until his university years in Britain and were, she suspected, original y intended as a vehicle for practicing English grammar.
The little scientist appeared to decide that he ought to say no more. Turning back to his bel ows and sphere device, he finished his notations and then began a complex series of calculations. When he had finished, he set down his stylographic pen with a pronounced movement.
“Remarkable, ya.”
“What is?”
“There is only one explanation for such results. That you have trace intrinsic aether affixed to the—how to say?—middle zone, but it is behaving wrong, as though it were bonded but also not, as if it were in the state of flux.”
“Wel , good for me.” Then Alexia frowned, remembering their previous discussion.
“But, according to your theory, I should have no intrinsic aether at al .”
“Exactly.”
“So your theory is wrong.”
“Or the flux reaction is coming from the embryo.” Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf was quite triumphant in this proclamation, as though he was near to explaining everything.
“Are you implying that you understand the nature of my child?” Alexia was prepared to get equal y excited. Finally!
“No, but I can say with the absolute confidence that I am very, very close.”
“Funny, but I do not find that at al reassuring.”
Lord Akeldama stood in the doorway of Professor Lyal ’s office, dressed for riding. It was hard to read his face at the best of times and, under such circumstances as these, nigh on impossible.
“How do you do this evening, my lord?”
“La, my dear, tolerably well . Tolerably well . And you?”
They had, of course, met on more than one occasion in the past. Lyal had spent centuries nibbling about the great layer cake that was polite society while Lord Akeldama acted the part of the frosting on its top. Lyal knew a man was smart who kept a weather eye on the state of the frosting, even if most of his time was spent cleaning up crumbs. The supernatural set was smal enough to keep track of most members, whether they skulked about BUR offices and the soldier’s barracks or the best drawing rooms the ton had to offer.
“I must admit to having had better evenings. Welcome to BUR headquarters, Lord Akeldama. Do come in.”
The vampire paused for a moment on the threshold, catching sight of Biffy’s sleeping form. He made a slight gesture with one hand. “May I?”
Professor Lyal nodded. The question was a veiled insult, reminding them both of what had been taken from the vampire unjustly. That he must now ask to look upon what had once been his. Lyal let him get away with it. Currently the vampire held al the cards, but Professor Lyal was reasonably convinced that if he just gave Lord Akeldama enough cravat material, he might be able to fashion it into a bow pleasing enough for al parties.
Of course, the vampire might also turn it into a noose; it depended entirely on the outcome of this conversation.
Professor Lyal knew that vampires had a limited sense of smel and no clear method of sensing right away that Biffy was now a werewolf. But Lord Akeldama seemed to realize it, anyway. He did not try to touch the young man.
“That is quite the quantity of facial hair. I didn’t know he had it in him. I suppose that fuzzy is more appropriate given the current situation.” Lord Akeldama raised one long, slim white hand to the base of his own throat, pinching at the skin there. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and looking down on his former drone once more. “He looks so young when he is sleeping. I have always thought so.” He swal owed audibly. Then he turned and came back to stand in front of Lyal .
“You have been riding, my lord?”
Lord Akeldama looked down at his clothing and winced. “Necessity sometimes demands a sacrifice, young Randolph. Can I cal you Randy? Or would you prefer, Dolphy? Dol y, perhaps?” Professor Lyal flinched noticeably. “Anyway, as I was saying, Dolly, I cannot abide riding—the horses are never happy to seat a vampire, and it plays havoc with one’s hair. The only thing more vulgar is an open carriage.”
Professor Lyal decided on a more direct approach. “Where have you been this past week, my lord?”
Lord Akeldama looked once more down at himself. “Chasing ghosts while pursued by daemons, as it were, Dol y darling. I am convinced you must be aware of how it goes.”
Professor Lyal decided on a push, just to see if he might elicit a more genuine reaction. “How could you disappear like that, just when Lady Maccon needed you most?”
Lord Akeldama’s lip curled slightly, and then he gave a humorless little laugh.
“Interesting query, coming from Lord Maccon’s Beta. You wil forgive me if I am inclined to see it as my right to ask the questions under such circumstances.” He gestured with his head in Biffy’s direction, just a little jerk of control ed displeasure.