.:daemonomania:.

There’s a storm raging outside and it feels like work to be done, but I’m too far away from wherever it is. Maria’s asleep. Her uncle Ozzer doesn’t like me much. Can’t say as I blame him; I’ve got sons older than she is. I’m not even really sure how this happened, except that Andromeda and I were pretty much over. She wasn’t Damaris, and nobody ever will be, which wasn’t exactly the problem; mostly I guess I got tired of hearing my own thoughts outside of my head. Alexandra Ducas is a nasty piece of work, to be sure, and I’ll never forgive her for the way she treated my boys or even the Báthory girl, whose fault it is not that she ended up becoming a monster, but I understand why she wanted Andromeda out of her house. Doesn’t mean I won’t miss her or that I don’t care what happens to her, but there you have it. I don’t even like my thoughts inside my head sometimes.

I feel like a monster anyway, like I’m about to kill Vilém’s best friend when I finally deal with the girl. And their little friend. Maria’s brother. When he wakes up it will be morning glow all over, and we can’t have that.

Someday I’ll know what the Ziteks and the Lascarides did that we have this shit hanging over our heads. We know what the Báthories did, what the Dashwoods did…but why has it got to come over these kids?

Meanwhile I am fucking a girl who is younger than my youngest son and hell, this has to stop. Because the demons love her bloodline and they love my own and if she falls pregnant, one more generation gets lost in this. Damaris and István and Ileana and Imre and I, we thought we could break the chain. But somehow it only gets tighter and so much more tangled.

Andromeda can stay where she is, though she’ll want another room; the one we were going to stay in seems to be occupied now. I’d be more annoyed except Dracaena’s parties never change, and at least they’re keeping the sex in the bedrooms these days. Andromeda will want to get reacquainted with Meli, anyway.

I’ve run into enough people who know my boys that they’re going to hear that I was here, and the sooner I catch up with them the better, especially since Báthory Zsuzsanna is travelling with them. I loved her and I loved her father. I never meant for anything to happen to her. But she is what she is, and it did, despite our best efforts, and she’s dangerous, especially for Vilém who could never, ever say no to her. (Stepa can say no to anyone, even me, though I hate to admit it.) If she weren’t in von Thorwald’s power she’d be six feet under the ground and haunting Slovakia, a piece of unfinished business I’d be planning to handle if I ever get to go home.

And they’re slacking. They should have taken care of Miss Dashwood long before I ran into her. I taught them better than that. Miss Dashwood thinks she can just walk away from all this. I’d like to be able to tell her she can, but she can’t. Her little brother’s given allegiance, and not to our enemies; but that doesn’t mean that our enemies will accept it. Especially not with the marks he carries. I’m not sure her little brother isn’t work to be done himself, as much as I hate the idea (he seems like a decent kid, whore or no). I can see her from here—she’s sitting in the compartment across, with the deaf girl who laced herself up too tight.

Miss Dashwood hasn’t got a word for anyone, but I reckon she might feel safer knowing I can see her. She sure didn’t move when she saw me.

Despite her pretensions, it is my belief that Aisling Kyteler is essentially a human being, though it is clear she has non human allies which if not inimical to human life are at the very least not opposed to the shedding of human blood. Most of her followers are also human and I would be surprised if they had any knowledge of her allies’ true nature. I will have to make a full report about this to Dr Taverner at my earliest opportunity.

Lady Kyteler does not suspect me. She also does not suspect the woman Adair, whom I am certain is a British agent of some sort though I do not think her loyalties are stable. (In fact I do not think there is very much at all about Adair that passes for stability.)

Someone mentioned the Báthory girl in passing. Apparently she is living in Londinium and no one there has any idea what she managed to do. I tried to warn my boys about that girl. I hope they’re not too angry with themselves when they find out that she raised Erszébet for von Thorwald. I don’t believe for a second that she’s not a German agent. If she were anything else, she’d be in pieces all over the Slovakian countryside. Did or did I not tell István not to marry that woman, not to move into that house, and most of all not to try to raise girls in it, no matter what the Communists were up to?

Adair actually thought I would tell her whether or not she was right about me. Funniest damn thing I’ve heard in a while.