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"What you want is not possible" In the upside-down glow of the oil lamp Blaydon had set on the floor, Ysidro&039;s face had the queen stark look of a Beardsley drawing, fra, color-less hair His rolled-up shirt sleeves showed the hard sinewiness of his arh the unbuttoned collar, they hite as the linen of the gared, like the idol of so, bound hand and foot, at his feet

Blaydon and Dennis had come in and done that toward sunset Be-fore he&039;d fallen asleep again that , which he&039;d done shortly after Blaydon had left hio out, with uard them, and on no account to harm them Don&039;t eat the prisoners while Daddy&039;s away, he had thought caustically Straining his ears, he&039;d heard Blaydonbrick villa on the Downs near Oxford that had belonged to Blaydon&039;s wife, where she had lived, playing the gracious hostess on weekends to her husband&039;s Oxford colleagues or her son&039;s friends fro Lydia there, Asher thought, the rage in hied to soed Even if he had kept a staff there after his wife&039;s death three years ago-and Asher knew he&039;d simply shut the place up when he&039;d moved his residence to London -he still wouldn&039;t have been able to trust theht be isolated; but, as the vas out Once Blaydon had taken Lydia prisoner, he had to keep her someplace and look after her That h and another fortyover the downs to the isolated house in its little vale of beechwoods, then back again, at least once, perhaps twice a day And on top of that, the va physically worse and more difficult to control No wonder Blaydon looked as if he had not slept in a week

As he had said, he and Dennis both had been a month in Hell

If it hadn&039;t been Lydia as in his power, Lydia as lying drugged and helpless in that empty house, Asher would have felt a kind of spiteful satisfaction at the situation As it was, he could only thank God that Dennis still had sufficient twisted passion for Lydia to keep Blaydon froht, as he fruitlessly searched the barren roo which could conceivably be used as a weapon or to facili-tate escape, he wasn&039;t sure whether Blaydon would have killed a stranger to protect Dennis&039; secret At least, he added with a shiver, he wouldn&039;t have four days ago, when they&039;d caught her snooping around That had been before he&039;d learned what a desperately tie was And that had been while he and Dennis were farat them now-Blaydon in his soiled collar and rulittered like the , restless, and fidgeting hun-grily in the background-Asher was unco point However long father and son o on undisturbed, Lydia&039;s imprisonment had thrown a strain on the situation, which his oounding of Dennis had then made intolerable They had the look of es of rationality

With forcedto want to feed on soht, my friend Now it can be you, or it can be James Which way do you want it?" He still had the revolver with silver bullets in his hand, which was steady now-he ht abstractedly And as a doctor, of course, he&039;d have easy access to enough cocaine to keep hi for a while, at least

Behind hi perfectly relaxed, Ysidro set one foot on the floor, folded his long hands on his knee, and considered the pair of theht "It is clear to me that you do not understand the process by which one becomes vampire If, when I drank James&039; blood, I forced him to"

Blaydon raised his hand sharply "Dennis?" he barked "Have you made a patrol? Checked for searchers?"

"There&039;s no one out there," Dennis said, his gluey bass barely com-prehensible now "I&039;ve listened-don&039;t you think I&039;d hear another va for these two? Don&039;t you think I&039;d sot to dig them out or let me"

"Check anyway," Blaydon ordered sharply, Dennis&039; naked brow ridges pulled together into a horrible frown "Do it!"

"I&039;ry, Dad," the vampire whispered sullenly As he moved nearer, hisand the claustrophobic narrowness of the walls "Hungry-starving- &039;s on me like fever"

Blaydon sed nervously, but kept his voice cooing to get you well But you ly silence, Asher, lying at Ysidro&039;s feet, could see the struggle of wills reflected in Blaydon&039;s haggard face as heand he knows it, he thought, watching the sweat start on the oldbefore Dennis makes him a victim, as well as Ysidro and myself?

And Lydia,he added, with a chill of fear And Lydia

Then Dennis was gone Asher realized they must all have had their consciousnesses momentarily blanked as the vampire moved, but it was so quick, so subtle, that he was not even aware of it,shadows He did not even hear the closing of the steel-sheathed door

Blaydon wiped his un He was still wearing the rather countrified tweed suit he&039;d had on that -that he&039;d had on for days, by the smell of it Not, Asher reflected, that he or Ysidro could have passed for dandies either, both in shirt sleeves, hi the wall last night At least they&039;d slept, albeit uncom-fortably Once, when he&039;d wakened in the afternoon, there had been a tray of food there, undoubtedly brought by Dennis-an unsettling thought He&039;d eaten it and searched the roo but reinforced brick walls and door and Sheffield silver-plated steelbars

Blaydon waved his pistol at Ysidro "Don&039;t get any ideas, my friend While you&039;re in this room with ot out of the house, as easily as he brought you here in the first place"

There was an annoyed glitter behind Ysidro&039;s hooded eyelids-a grandee, Asher thought, who did not care to be reminded that he&039;d been overpowered and arded Blaydon levelly for a moment and asked, "Do you really believe that any of this will do you any good?"

"I&039;ll be the judge of that," the pathologist said, rather sharply "Go on hat you were saying If you forced Jaly, his chaaze fixed upon Blaydon&039;s face "That is how it is done-the physical part, at least But the-perhaps you would say h these days it is an unfashion-able one-"

"Let us say psychic," Blaydon put in "That&039;s e&039;re really talk-ing about, aren&039;t we?"

"Perhaps" That faint, wry flick of a smile touched Ysidro&039;s narrow-lippedof his spirit, his self, his conscious, and what Herr Freud politely terms his unconscious into the embrace of mine, forof all secrets, the giving of all trust, the admission of another into the most secret chambers of the heart Most do not even join so close with those they deeply love To do this, you understand, requires an act of thedesire to continue in consciousness at whatever the cost" The shadow flung by the laht movement of his white hand "Under this set of circu so desperate an effort at survival, though I suspect that under others he ht"

You will never know,Brother Anthony had whispered, deathlessly sorting bones in the crypts below Paris Asher shook his head and said quietly, "No"

Ysidro turned his head to look down at him, without any expression in his eyes "And they say that faith in God is dead," he commented "I should think that your conscience, ht ard his captor "Whether or not Jautters who for me to transform into others like me would be capable of it? When a , it is in part the &039;s trust which act I do not believefodder, even did I consent to try I certainly do not believe that one person in a hundred, or a thousand, has that will to survive"

"That&039;s balderdash," Blaydon said uneasily "All this talk of the will and the spirit"

"And if you did get lucky," Asher put in, trying to shift his shoulders to take soht ar to stay in a house with two, three, or four fledgling vas whose wills are entirely subservient to their mas-ter&039;s? The start of this whole affair-Calvaire-was a careless choice on the part of the wo to be choosier? Especially if you&039;re giving Dennis specific orders to bring in none but the unfit, the socially useless, and the wicked?"

"You let e like flint now, his eyes showing their old stubborn glint "It&039;s only a temporary measure"

"Like the income tax?"

"In any case Ihave no choice Dennis&039; condition is deteriorating You&039;ve seen that He needs blood, the blood of vampires, to arrest the symptoms If you, Ysidro, refuse to helpwon&039;t help you, you know"

"Noto yourself helps you, Professor" Behind that uneh Blaydon backed a few steps away, brandishing his gun

"But if that is your choice, I shall have to take what measures I can&039;

"More humans?" Asher inquired "More of those you consider un-fit?"

"It&039;s to save my son!" The old ht to bring it to norood of the country Once we have the experiment under control"

"Good God,on with it!" Truly angry, Asher jerked hiany of the coffin "Because of your failure, your own son is rot-ting to pieces under your eyes and you propose togo on with it?"

Blaydon strode forward and struck Asher across the face with the barrel of the gun, knocking hi Ysidro, impassive, merely moved his foot aside so that Asher wouldn&039;t fall across it and watched the enraged pathologist with only the mildest of interest as he stepped back and picked up the lamp

"I&039;m sorry you feel that way about it," Blaydon said quietly, the la of his hands "You, Don Si to have to keep you fed and healthy while I take your blood for experiments, until I can locate another vaoing to have to force either you or your wife to tell me where her rooms were in the city-she refused to do so, and, of course, Dennis wouldn&039;t hear ofher -so that I can find her notes on her researches"

"Don&039;t be naive," Ysidro sighed "Grippen put theht"

"Then I shall have to get Mrs Asher to tell me herself," Blaydon said "Now that I have James here, that shouldn&039;t be too difficult I think Dennis will even rather enjoy it"

Keeping his gun trained on Ysidro, he backed out the door

"Don&039;t trip over your son on the way out," the vampire remarked derisively as the door closed upon the aht and the bolts slid hoht outside was clear Leaky white as larace, Ysidro unfolded his thin legs and rose from the coffin lid, knelt beside Asher, and stooped to bite through the ropes that bound his wrists Asher felt the cold touch of bloodless lips against the veins of his left wrist and the scrape of teeth Then the ropes were pulled away The pain in his right arently around and installed it in its sling again

"You think he was listening?"

"Of course he was listening" The vampire twisted the slack of the ankle ropes between his white hands, and the strands parted with a snap "He was right outside the door; he never even went into the garden, though a vampire of his abilities certainly could have heard us fro or no soundproof-ing"