Page 47

He says, “I suspect that your unusual death and peculiar resurrection have fused your dual nature into something inseparable.”

“Is that good?”

“I have no idea.”

“Where would a third-rate creep like Audsley Ishii get something like that?”

“A very good question and one, like your previous one, I can’t answer.”

I take a long sip of the coffee. It burns just right going down.

“All right. Let’s forget the knife. What about my body?”

“You’re referring to your left arm, I assume?”

I hold it up in the light streaming from a window.

“Right. It’s my regular arm again. Not my Kissi prosthetic. When I was almost dead and you burned me, my body came apart and put itself back together. I was healed.”

“A fortunate outcome if you ask me.”

“I’m not complaining. But if the fire fixed my body, why not my scars? I still look like I went through a woodchipper.”

“That’s easy,” says Vidocq. “Should I get another book for you?”

“Please don’t.”

“Very well. You are a Nephilim. The last of your kind. We don’t have any trustworthy descriptions of previous Nephilim. We have no idea if their complexions were smooth . . .”

“Or scarred like mine.”

“Exactly. It’s my theory that you haven’t really received the scars over the years, but that your scars are simply part of your divine nature. Like a sculptor chips away stone to reveal a face beneath, so your various injuries removed the flesh that obscured your true self. I’m sure this process will continue and that you’ll acquire new scars in the future.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

He sips his coffee and shakes his head. “And I don’t care for the immortality with which I’ve cursed myself. All we can do is carry our burdens with grace.”

When we finish our coffee, Vidocq goes to get us more.

I say, “It was nice seeing you and Allegra getting along so well at the party.”

“Yes. Things are back to much the way they were before our troubles. However, she still refuses to live here with me again.”

“Love is the worst.”

“How are things with you and Candy?”

I stare into my coffee cup.

“It’s complicated. We spent last night together, but I’m not counting on it happening again. At least any time soon.”

“Still. Her feelings for you remain strong. She’s loved you through life and death and now life again. That’s more than most men get.”

“I know you’re right. But I just want things simple. The way they used to be.”

Vidocq sits back and crosses his arms. The idea gets to him too.

Finally he says, “Nothing is ever the same the second time. It might be worse. It might be better. But it’s never the same. And it’s never as simple or innocent as it once might have seemed.”