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He had expected she would continue to deny what she was, and still he felt impatient "Yes"

"How do some old books prove what you are?"

"They do not," he said "They prove ere" He rested his hand on the topmost book "No matter when they have lived, people have always kept accounts of what they know They may lie to everyone around them, but most feel a need to tell the truth with their words Sometimes in journals, like this one" He picked up the first book "This belonged to an English priest named Ennis of Aubury He questioned nonbelievers, and wrote dohat they confessed to him under torture"

She drew back a little "Why would you want to read so so awful as that?"

"For his truth" He opened it to the page he had lanced at the page "I’lish"

As natural as reading Latin was to hiot that e "I will translate for you Ennis writes: ‘Another peasant was found murdered in the fields As the others before him, his throat was torn out but there was no blood in the wound I questioned the outlaw heretic and he told ade and his companion, the ones who could not be killed It is clear to me that the dark Kyn have infested the county’ "

She leaned over to exa "The ‘dark Kyn’?"

"That is what they were called in this ti in the book "Here he writes: ‘This o into the forest The s the stream I believe these creatures can take on the appearance of their victiht lurethis evil being into the light’ "

Jessa didn’t say anything, but she pressed her lips together, and her fingernails dug into the armrests beneath her hands

"I think Ennis did find hies to show her that they had been left blank before he closed the cover "This is the oldest story I have found about thee "Them?"

"Those the monk called ‘the dark Kyn,’ " he said carefully "Creatures like us, who ed, becas?"

"This one Ennis speaks of could change his shape," Matthias said "So can some of our kind There are more stories about theestured toward the stack of books "The dark Kyn were human once, and then they were killed or died of sickness They ca and very fast They hunted at night, and lived on hureat power--abilities--like us"

She shook her head "What you’re describing sounds like the myths about vampires"

"They are never called that in these books," he pointed out "Sometimes the writers call them ‘maledicti’ or ‘the cursed ones’ Rowan thinks the va their wars"

Her wide-eyed gaze shifted to his face "There were vaht one another" He took out another book "In this one a traveling Frenchterrible battles at night, in the countryside He swore he saw ain" He could feel her disbelief now, as if it were filling up the space between them with bricks and mortar "I do not lie to you, Jessa The words are here Written by the hand of those who lived in these ti for centuries"

"Of course they have Vampires are supposed to be immortal" She folded her hands under her chin and rested her elbows on her knees, staring at the books "When I was a girl, I used to love to read stories about the Loch Nesswe need that hope to hold on to To think that there are stillfor us to discover"

She tried to be kind even when she was shutting him out "You do not believe me"

"I don’t believe in vampires, Matthias I can’t" She dropped her hands "If they were real, and you and Roere like them, or were created by them, then why don’t you drink blood?"

"We are not the same We are still mostly human" Frustration rose inside him "You do not see"

"I would have to meet one of these dark Kyn before I could put any faith in these accounts of the us, then they’re very good at hiding Rather like the Loch Ness monster"