"When did you get so chatty, Carvalletti?" Vane asked. "I always thought you were a man of few words."
"I normally am, but I've been locked in this mansion for so long now that I'm going stir-crazy. I'm thinking I should have stayed up in Alaska. Hell, I've even been talking to Nick just to break the monotony."
Otto paused on the stairs to look at them. "Valerius isn't a Dark-Hunter, he's a life-sucking Daimon out to bleed me dry. No wonder his last Squire quit. I keep putting in for a transfer and my father keeps telling me to be a man and take my assignment with dignity. I swear, that man better not get feeble or I'm locking him up in the worst retirement home I can find."
"Dog, and I thought I had issues with my parents," Fury said from behind Bride.
"Mine just want to kill me and put me out of my misery, not add to it."
"Yeah," Otto said from the top of the stairs. "You're lucky. I wish mine would kill me."
Otto led them down a hallway while Vane leaned over and spoke in her ear.
"Don't let Otto's current bizarreness fool you. He was valedictorian at Princeton."
She gaped.
"And I had a brain until this place killed it. You try dealing with Valerius and Nick and you too will find yourself regressing into infancy in a matter of days.
But whatever you do, don't tell Master Valerius that I ever stepped foot onto Princeton soil. He thinks I dropped out of the Barbizon School of Modeling."
Bride laughed, then looked at Vane. "So this is the world you're bringing me into? No offense, but these people are really nuts. We have a Princeton graduate who dresses like Don Ho putting pasties on statues, a brother-in-law who's a dog"
"Yeah, but don't forget, Tabitha came with you," Vane reminded her. "You have your own share of nutcases."
She held her hands up in surrender. "Okay, but that's only one nut I came with."
"And your dad neuters for a living," Fury said from behind them. "I think that's the sickest thing I've ever heard of."
"Want to go visit my parents, Fury?" Bride asked.
"I'll pass."
Otto opened a door that led to a huge bedroom with the most elaborate antique canopied bed Bride had ever seen. Deep blue velvet curtains hung around the hand-carved cherubs and angels that decorated the ancient wood. "This is magnificent."
"Valerius insists on the best. You two can bunk in here, and I'll take dog-boy farther down the hallway."
"Hey!" Fury snapped indignantly.
"Relax," Otto said. "It's not like I'm making you sleep in the garage or anything."
The two of them left Bride and Vane alone in the room.
"So here we are," Bride said, unsure of herself.
Vane pulled her close. "It's weird not to have to hide myself from you."
"So what all can you do?"
"Just about anything. I can travel through time in any direction. I could flash us from here to Paris or anywhere else you'd like to visit."
Bride considered that. She could have anything, but there was only one thing that would make her really happy. "Can you make me thin?"
Vane looked less than pleased. "I could."
"Do it."
He frowned at her as if the request completely baffled him. "Why?"