Chapter 17: The Name

Noah was waiting in the front hall with a folded sheet of paper in both hands.

Thomas stood behind him, and nobody spoke.

Luke waited on the step until Lucas turned and said, "Come in."

Then Luke crossed the threshold at his shoulder, moving a little slowly, and Lucas shut the red door.

"Luke says you've been writing," Lucas said.

"Since the day before yesterday." Noah held the paper out. "Read it up in your room. I can't watch you read it here."

"Then we'll go up."

Lucas climbed the stairs with three vampires behind him and shut his bedroom door on all of them.

The lamp was lit.

He sat on the bed and opened the paper.

It was a name.

It was written in a square old hand, with a seal pressed in wax at the bottom.

Under it Noah had put one plain line in pencil.

This is the name I was given in the court. No one living knows it but me. I'm giving it to you.

Lucas read it twice.

He looked up.

Noah stood in the middle of the carpet with his arms at his sides and his face wide open.

"A name like this lets you call me," he said. "It reaches me anywhere. If you say it, I can't ignore it, and I can't lie to you."

"Why give it to me?"

"Because you think we picked you for a shield." Noah's voice shook. "It's true, in part, and it's the part I'm sorriest for."

He took a breath.

"A shield is something you hold in front of you."

His eyes were bright.

"This is the one thing I own that Abysis can't take. I wanted to put it in your hand."

Lucas stood very still.

"You told me you were afraid I only love the band," he said.

"I am."

"Then listen. I've seen you sit on the stairs with a cold cup of tea for an hour because you didn't want to wake me."

Noah's face changed.

"I've seen you wash Thomas's drumsticks at the sink at four in the morning," Lucas said.

"That's not on any poster. I love that man."

Noah's mouth opened and nothing came out.

Thomas said, softly, from the doorway, "We thought if you found out what you really were to us, you'd leave."

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