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remarked.
"Off with you, or the lads here'll make your head feel even worse in the morning than it's like to do from
drink." The leader of the guards made a menacing move. Van Helsing flinched visibly, if a little late, in
response.
"Very well," he said with exaggerated dignity. "I shall call on her in the morning." He glanced up to the
house. "The bitch." He wavered, then leaned forward conspiratorially. "She'll have me in the end. I've got
friends. They'll give her no choish."
"Let me give you a hand, fellow," a grinning guard said. Another picked up the horse's reins. Van Helsing
struggled getting his foot into the stirrup. Two guards heaved on his buttocks and somehow he got into
the saddle. He trotted down the lane, listing first to one side, then another. The guards returned to their
stations, chuckling.
Stephan was not so sure he shared their confidence. Van Helsing's seat had been decidedly steadier
trotting up than trotting out. The man was shamming drunkenness. It didn't matter. Stephan had no time
for him. He could feel Ann shiver in his arms. His brows drew together in concern. The fever was starting
already? Too soon! He had not much time.
He glanced up at the dark fourth floor and summoned his Companion.
When he flickered into the low-ceilinged room, he laid her on her narrow bed. They had made love in
this bed. She had given him both her virginity and the hope that sexual congress with a woman, at least
with one woman, was not a shameful torture but a hallowed gift. It was some kind of miracle he had not
hurt her. And if he had been weakened for his horrible task by their lovemaking, still, at the moment of
confrontation he had been stronger than he had ever been also a gift from her. Together they had&
what? He still wasn't sure.
He stared at her, silver hair haloed on her pillow, skin pale as parchment and gleaming with perspiration.
She had been right about the power. Opening himself at that last moment had been even more compelling
than suppression. Or maybe only opening himself to her. When he saw her there, he had hated the
creatures around him for exposing her to this horror, knowing they would turn on her next. He had
wanted to protect her more than anything he'd ever wanted. Perhaps she didn't need protecting. Or
maybe together they were more than either alone&
God! What was he thinking? He shoved his hands in his pockets, as though to keep them from ever
touching her again. She had given up everything she knew tonight and everything she was. The guilt of it
ate at him. She couldn't know what eternal life would mean; the endless struggle with who and what you
were, the repetition, the exposure to every horror man could concoct again and again, until belief in
anything was well nigh impossible. Two thousand years of experience made one into a cynic even cynics
would find harsh. She on the other hand had never been outside the neighborhood. She had lived her life
in these small rooms. He had added becoming a monster to the burden of her psychic ability. New
vampires were prone to madness when they could not cope with the terms of their new life and the
power the Companion conferred upon them. Wasn't madness what Ann had been trying to avoid all her
life?
He ripped her dress with a single tear and pulled off her half-boots. He unlaced her short corset. She
seemed almost insensible. Then he threw back the covers and laid her gently between her sheets. Her
shift was drenched with perspiration.
He felt her forehead. Burning hot. How could the infection progress so rapidly? Only in cases of infection
by the blood of a very old and powerful vampire did such rapid onset occur. He might be two thousand
years old, but that did not qualify him as old and powerful. He pulled the quilts up over her.
It was his fault. Touching him had sent her into the coma. If he had had the courage to stay away from
her, she would not have found herself trying to warn him at the lodge&
Why? Why had she ripped her palm and pressed it to his bleeding flesh? He ran one hand through his
hair in distraction. She knew what would happen! She knew everything. He sucked air into his lungs and
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