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SUNRISE

Now, she was prepared to rip off Penelope&039;s head and stuff it into her chest cavity After fighting her way out of Brastov&039;s lair, dragging Bond behind her, and enduring an anxious trudge back to the Via Eudosiana, Genevieve was not in a ently with an uppity nosferatu nuisance like Penelope Churchward

Kate faltered, stepping back, allowing Penelope to hiss at Genevieve The Englishwos were out and her eyes ide She htened an infant who has never seen Muh to overwhelm her warm prey But she didn&039;t have the mettle to cow an elder

Genevieve didn&039;t pop her claws or teeth

She&039;d fought enough during the night, and bled several of the Russians She would not be frenzied, she would be purposeful

Penelope stepped forward, but Kate put a hand on her shoulder, holding her back Kate nodded toward Charles, as in his bath chair, barely alive

The first pink of dawn slipped into the room

From Charles&039;s face, Genevieve knew this was the last day An icicle transfixed her heart

She reht of him, in a crowded room in 1888, at an inquest He had seemed untouched by the squalor and violence all around, the only , even at extres better Later, she learned he wasn&039;t a Boy&039;s Own Paper good-fellow, no muscular Christian hero, but aeven when there were no right things to do

If men like him had stayed in fashion - if they&039;d ever really been in fashion - this century would have been happier Charles had refused to accept Dracula as his Lord, and had never let hi Vampire Edwin Winthrop and Hamish Bond, his successors, had learned too much from their enemy, had too much of Dracula in them

There was blood on Penelope&039;s blouse Her own

&039;She was trying&039; Kate explained

&039;I knohat she was trying to do&039;

The anger in Penelope&039;s eyes swirled and broke apart She was frustrated and afraid, like everybody else For a tinyher, not kill her

Then the idiot ruined it

&039;He one to be sensible about it One of us must become his mother-in-darkness&039;

Genevieve went directly to Charles and knelt before him His eyes were still open She felt the ebb of hi, still deterreat effort, he lifted a hand to her face and into her hair She kissed his palainst his flesh She tasted him but did not break the skin

Even now, it wasn&039;t too late