Julian's fingers faltered for a moment. "You don't know everything about me, Mark. Just like I'm willing to bet I don't know everything about you."
Mark's blue-and-gold eyes were wide and guileless. "Ask me."
"I'd rather learn in my own time." Julian gave the tie a final tug and stepped back to examine his handiwork. Mark looked as if he might have stepped out of a catalog advertising tuxedoes--if male catalog models had pointed ears.
"I wouldn't," said Mark. "Tell me one thing I don't know about you that makes you bite your fingers."
Julian turned toward the door, then paused, hand on the knob. "Our father," he said. "You know what happened to him?"
"He was Turned into one of the Endarkened by Sebastian Morgenstern," said Mark. "How could I forget?"
"And then?"
"And then?" Mark sounded puzzled. "And then he died during the Dark War."
"Yes, he died," said Julian. "Because I killed him."
Mark drew in his breath. There was shock in that gasp, and pity. Julian tensed. He couldn't bear being pitied.
"He was coming for Ty," said Julian. "I did what I had to do."
"It wasn't him," Mark said swiftly.
"That's what everyone says." Julian was still facing the door. He felt a light tap on his shoulder and turned to see Mark looking at him.
"But everyone didn't see it happen, Julian, our father being Turned. I did," Mark said, and suddenly in his voice there was the sound of the older brother he had been, the one who knew more, had lived more. "The light in his eyes went out like a candle guttering in the dark. He was already dead inside. All you did was bury the body."
There was sadness in Mark's eyes, and knowledge, the knowledge of dark things. Mark had blood on his hands too, Julian thought, and for a moment the idea was such a relief that he felt the weight on his shoulders lift incrementally.
"Thank you for the assistance," Mark said formally. "With my manner of dress. I will not trust the twins again with important matters of human tradition."
Julian felt his lip twitch up at the corner. "Yeah, I wouldn't."
Mark looked down at himself. "I am presentable?"
"You look like James Bond."
Mark smiled and Julian felt a small swell of absurd gladness rise up in his chest, that his brother had gotten the reference, that he was pleased.
They made their way back toward the entryway in silence, a silence pierced as they reached the landing by the sound of someone shouting. Together, they were brought up short at the top of the stairs.
"Does your vision match mine, brother?" Mark asked.
"If you mean am I seeing what you're seeing . . . ?" Julian hazarded. "Then yes, if you mean that the foyer is full of Chihuahuas."
"It's not just Chihuahuas," said Ty, who was sitting on the top step, enjoying the spectacle. "It's a number of different small dogs of various breeds."
Julian snorted. The foyer was, indeed, full of small dogs. They yipped and barked and surged. "Don't worry about the dogs," he said. "Nightshade likes to stash them in the entryway when he meets with Uncle Arthur."
"Nightshade?" Mark's eyebrows went up. "Anselm Nightshade? The head of the Los Angeles vampire clan?"
"Yep," Julian said. "He comes around sometimes. He and Arthur get along surprisingly well."
"And the dogs . . . ?"
"He likes dogs," said Ty. One of the Chihuahuas had fallen asleep by the front door, all four paws in the air. "That dog looks dead."
"It isn't dead. It's relaxing." Ty seemed amused; Julian ruffled his brother's hair. Ty leaned into it, catlike. "Where are Emma and Cristina?"
"They went to bring the car around," said Ty. "And Livvy went back to her room. Why can't I come with you?"
"Too many of us will look suspicious," Julian said. "You'll have to stay here--guard the Institute."
Ty looked unconvinced. He frowned after them as Mark and Julian hurried out the front doors. The car was pulled up in front of the Institute, the engine idling.
Emma pushed the passenger-side door open and whistled. "Mark. You look amazing."
Mark glanced down at himself, surprised. A surge of prickly heat ran up the insides of Julian's wrists. Cristina was in the backseat, also looking at Mark. Julian couldn't read her expression.
Emma patted the seat beside her. In the dimness of the car, she was a shadow: white dress, golden hair, like a faded illustration in a children's picture book. "Hop in, Jules. You're mine--my navigator."
You're mine. He slid into the seat beside hers.
"Right turn here," Julian said, pointing.
"You'd think the Institute could afford to have reliable GPS installed in this stupid car," Emma muttered, slewing the wheel to the right. She'd tried to program it when they'd gotten into the Toyota, but it had refused to turn on. Once, the GPS had only spoken in a heavy German accent for weeks. Julian had decided it was possessed.
Cristina squeaked and subsided. Emma could see her in the rearview mirror. She was subtly leaning away from Mark; it wasn't anything that someone who didn't know her well could have spotted. Mark didn't seem to have noticed. He was staring out his open window, blond hair ruffled, humming tunelessly.
"Slow down, speed racer," Julian said as someone behind Emma honked.
"We're late," she said. "The show is supposed to start in ten minutes. If some people hadn't decided that 'semiformal' meant 'seminaked'--"
"Why are you calling me 'some people'?" Mark inquired. "I am only one person."
"This is weird," Julian observed, turning back to look straight ahead. "There's nobody around on this street."
"There are houses," Cristina pointed out.
"They're all dark." Julian's gaze scanned the road. "A little early, don't you think, for everyone to have gone to bed?" He pointed. "There's the theater."
He was right. Emma could see lights, hot neon and electricity, up ahead, the arrow shape of a sign: THE MIDNIGHT THEATER. The Hollywood Hills glittered in the distance as if they'd been dusted with starlight. Everything else was dark, even the streetlights.
As they neared the theater, the sides of the street became more thickly packed with parked cars. Expensive ones--BMWs, Porsches, Italian sports cars whose names Emma couldn't remember. She pulled into a spot across from the theater and killed the engine.
"Are we ready?" She swung around to look into the backseat. Cristina winked at her. Mark nodded. "Then let's go."
Julian was already out of the car, opening the trunk. He rummaged through the weapons and steles, reaching out to Cristina with a pair of slim throwing knives. "Need these?"
Cristina slipped the strap of her dress aside. Clipped to her bra was one of her butterfly knives, the etched rose gleaming on the handle. "I came prepared."
"I didn't." Mark reached out to take the two sheathed knives, and unbuttoned his jacket to slide them into his belt. He reached up to his throat, touching the arrowhead that hung around his neck.
Arrested, Julian watched him. His blue-green eyes were dark, uncertain. Emma could read the look on his face: He didn't know if his brother was ready to go into potential danger. Didn't like it. Didn't see another way.
"Okay," Julian said. "Weapons hidden, any runes you want to put on now, put them in places no one will see them. Permanent runes, check to make sure they're covered up. We can't risk running into a situation where we'll be recognized by anyone with the Sight."
Emma nodded. They'd already put concealing makeup on her Voyance and parabatai runes back at the Institute. She'd even done what she could to cover up the small scars that showed where runes had been and then vanished.
Some runes were permanent and some temporary. Voyance, which looked like an open eye and helped you see through glamours, was permanent. So were wedding and parabatai runes. Temporary runes disappeared slowly as they were used up--healing iratzes, for instance, vanished with varying speed depending on the seriousness of the wound. A Sure-Footedness rune might last the duration of a climb up a mounta
in. To get the absolute best results, when going into battle, a rune ought to be as new as possible.
Jules rolled his sleeve up and held his arm out to Emma. "The honors?" he said.