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Madelaine did not go after him "Then we must make the reater than your hurt, and you will reether with happiness" She did not add that she longed for his ecstasy to sustain her in the long, empty months ahead

"How can we?" He met her eyes in the dimness "Why take the risk? We have been discreet so far, but I must resist my impulse to set caution aside"

"Why? Who is to knohat passes between us? When we are private, there is no reason for caution," said Madelaine, feeling souish as her own

"No reason? Can you not think of one?" He shook his head, unwilling to look directly at her any longer "It reatest reason of all, for e are alone together, I have no strength to resist you"

"You are h now," she said, more sharply than she had intended

"Do you think so?" he asked, his voice very quiet and deep, the lines in his face severe

The silence between the as if it were a chas in the underbrush as a fox hurried to find his supper provided a momentary distraction, then Madelaine took a step toward him, her hands turned palms up ’Tecumseh, do you recall what I told you of the bond the blood rew less formidable, and he reached out to caress her face as if coet?"

"Then believe that e are parted, ill not be separated," she said as she touched his fingers

He put his hands into hers but would not close the gap between them "What else would you call it?"

For once she had an answer "Tell me, when you cannot see the sun or stars, do you still knohich direction is north?"

"North?" he repeated, baffled, and then said, "Yes, of course"

"And how do you know it?" she asked hi up one shoulder "I… sense it"

She nodded "Then understand that I will always sense you, no o It is the way of those of us who have become vampires"

He winced at this last "Vaained his skepticism with effort "For heaven’s sake, isn’t there another word for it? What a ludicrous notion Vaends for the credulous and childish Surely there is another explanation to account for what has happened" He lacked conviction, but he glowered at her, anyway "How can you expect me to believe such a fable?"

"I don’t," she said wearily "But it is still the truth Oh, I have read that Polidori tale, and the little horrors Hoffmann writes, and I cannot blame you for how you think of us If I were not what I am, I would be inclined to feel as you do, and scoff at the very idea of vampires" She came a step nearer to him "But I aers you hter crackled, brittle as autumn leaves "Very well, you have warned me If we continue as lovers, I could become a vampire when I die if my spine or my nervous system or ht and running water and mirrors That covers all the hazards, I think Yes, and I will need my native Ohio earth to sustain me And blood Should it come to pass, I will take the precautions you advise, on the odd chance they h, half groan, he pulled her into his arain and bent to open her ust,

In the last ten days I have seen Tecue with his children, taking the to the Chinese market where Willy had purchased a paper kite in the shape of a dragon’s head that he was attee, which annoyed the horses Tecu anyone could construe as paying untoward attention to me, but his eyes were haunted Why he should be so distant now, I do not know, but it saddensthe streets fro the streets, la darkness as the first storm of autumn whipped over the hills

Madelaine sat at her desk, busying herself riting, when she heard the knocker on the front door She looked up, annoyed at the interruption, recalling that Olga had taken the evening off Clicking her tongue ie and reached to pull a vast woolen shawl around her shoulders before hurrying to the front of the house to answer the urgent summons

"Madelaine," said Willia open He et and bedraggled, his hair quenched of fire and rain-slicked to his skull He glanced over his shoulder at the street "May I co the door wider "Welcome"