Page 335 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

“Good to see you again, Mr. Spencer-Astor,” he replies, the accent and cadence the exact same as Giles.

“What the fuck? You’re not Giles. You can’t be?—”

“On the contrary.” He smiles. “I have been this Giles character for many years.”

I gawk at him. His voice is now different but coming from Giles’ mouth. Fuck. This is creepy as fuck. Maybe I’m hallucinating? Yes, that might be. I’ve never done crack, but I guess this is what it feels like.

For fuck’s sake…

“Giles is not human? Was never human?” I repeat in disbelief.

He smiles and nods. “Well, technically hewashuman until he died. Then I simply replaced him.”

“Does my mother know?” I hurry to ask. But then I realize what this would mean. “Fucking hell! Did you seduce my mother as Giles, you fucking weirdo?”

He does not seem to take offense to my language. He continues smiling at me.

“No, no… Don’t tell me?—”

The door opens, and another person walks in. She’s slender and petite, with big blue eyes and dark hair. She appears to be inher early twenties, but if she’s one of them, then fuck knows how old she is.

“Oh,” she murmurs when she sees Giles by my side. “Are we doing that?”

“That?” I ask, at the same time as Giles-not-Giles says, “He’s in pain.”

“He’s in pain? Still?” she asks, alarmed. She hurries to my bedside and looks me over. “Where are you hurting, dear?” She extends her hand to touch me.

“Don’t you ‘dear’ me!” I blurt out and pull myself away even though the movement itself hurts.

“I’m taken,” I tell her. And him, just in case they might be into some kinky shit. “My fiancée is a goddess. Averypowerful goddess. And she’s very jealous, so don’t even think to put your hands on me. She will turn you into ice.”

She glances back at Giles-not-Giles, her lips trembling with mirth.

“You should probably tell him already, dear,” Giles-not-Giles says.

The woman gives me a worried glance before she shifts her appearance right under my eyes.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

“Mom?”

“My sweet Marlowe,” she coos as she wraps her arms around my neck. “I was so worried about you.”

“Get off me. Now!” I push her off me.

“That is not how you speak to your mother!” Giles-not-Giles says sternly.

“You two.” I point to them. “You’d better explain everything. And fast. Every second counts and I need to get to Minnie.”

“I’ll handle that,” Giles-not-Giles tells my mom-not-mom or whoever she is. He reaches for me and I instinctively back away. But as he presses his fingers against my forehead, a blast ofenergy travels through me. Millions of images flash in my mind, so many, I’m having a hard time distinguishing between what’s real and what’s not.

Soon, I’m gasping for air as the pressure inside my head increases.

“Easy,” my father tells me as he pats my back. “Let it all come back to you.”

My eyes roll in the back of my head as more currents of energy go through me.

Then, suddenly, everything clears.

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