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She taught ues Froe From injuries that refused to heal But I had never seen anyone deliberately take a life until that night

Lilith hunted with the stealth of a cat She took me into the city and alked the streets until she found her prey: a fair-haired young man with ruddy cheeks I watched, chilled to the bone, as she stalked hi his in his throat, her expression one of ecstacy as she drank his blood, his life

He was not quite dead when she dreay "Come," she said "You must drink"

"No" I couldn&039;t I wouldn&039;t

"Hurry, e,"she said "He will be dead soon, and you must never drink fro with the horror of what she wanted me to do With what I wanted to do The smell of blood was all around usted, and I was all of those things And yet, overriding every other sensation was a horrible hunger that would not rest It rodepain asmyself, I drank And drank Until Lilith pulled h, ht, and the next Sometitheame and closed in for the kill It excited her, the power she had Soat their puny th of ten

I craved the blood, the hunt excitedAnd I hated her when, years later, she toldwas unnecessary

"You can spare their lives, if you wish," she re "You can even dine on the blood of beasts, should the need arise"

"I don&039;t have to kill?" I stared at her, thinking of the lives I had taken "Why didn&039;t you tell me this sooner?"

"I did not think of it," she replied with a shrug, as though the taking of a hu an insect

I felt a sickness deep in my soul I had lost count of the number of people I had killed I had tried in vain to appeasemyself it was necessary, that it was the only way to ease the hunger_that awful, unbearable hunger that would not be refused or denied Many tie to end er, the guilt And now, as cal for a new hat, Lilith had informed me that I could have spared all those lives

Had I been able, I think I would have killed her

Instead, I resolved to leave her I was no longer a fledgling, in need of her instruction or her protection

"What do you think of it?"

Kara gasped, one handgoing to her heart, at the sound of his voice "Oh, Alexander, you startled ood One would almost think you write from personal experience"

"Indeed?"