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We were thundering over the bridge and past the cathedral, and on through the crowds on the Pont Neuf I heard her laughter again I wondered what those in the highwhen they looked down on us, two gaily dressed figures clinging to the unsteady roof of the carriage like mischievous children as if it were a raft

The carriage swerved We were racing towards St Ger past the intolerable stench of the ce tenements closed in

For one second, I felt the shione so quickly I doubted limmer of it And I realized with extraordinary vividness that Gabrielle and I would talk about the presence together, that ould talk about everything together, and approach all things together This night was as cataclysed hborhood was perfect now I took her hand again, and pulled her after e, down into the street

She stared dazed at the spinning wheels, but they were ione She didn’t even look disheveled so much as she looked impossible, a woman torn out of time and place, clad only in slippers and dress, no chains on her, free to soar

We entered a narrow alleyway and ran together, arms around each other, and now and then I looked down to see her eyes sweeping the walls above us, the scores of shuttered ith their little streaks of escaping light

I knehat she was seeing I knew the sounds that pressed in on her But still I could hear nothing frohtenedthe first spasm of her death I could see it in her face

I reassured her, and reiven her before

"This is brief pain, nothing coone in a matter of hours, maybe less if we drink now"

She nodded, more impatient with it than afraid

We caateway to an old house a young ray cloak up to shield his face

Was she strong enough to take hi as I? This was the time to find out

"If the thirst doesn’t carry you into it, then it’s too soon," I told her

I glanced at her and a coldness crept over me Her look of concentration was almost purely human, so intent was it, so fixed; and her eyes were shadoith that sa was lost on her But when she moved towards the man she wasn’t human at all She had become a pure predator, as only a beast can be a predator, and yet she was a wo slowly towards a man -- a lady, in fact, stranded here without cape or hat or co for his aid She was all that

It was ghastly to watch it, the way that she moved over the stones as if she did not even touch the, even the wisps of her hair blown this way and that by the breeze, seeh the wall itself with that relentless step

I drew back into the shadows

The rind of his boot heel on the stones, and she rose on tiptoe as if to whisper in his ear I think for one moment she hesitated Perhaps she was faintly horrified If she was, then the thirst had not had ti But if she did question it, it was for nohi but watch

But it came to me quite unexpectedly that I hadn’t warned her about the heart How could I have forgotten such a thing? I rushed towards her, but she had already let hiainst the wall, his head to one side, his hat fallen at his feet He was dead

She stood looking down at hi her and deepening her color and the red of her lips Her eyes were a flash of violet when she glanced at me, almost exactly the color the sky had been when I’d co her as she looked down at the victim with a curious amazement as if she did not coain and I lifted it back frouided her away frolanced back once or twice, then looked straight forward

"It’s enough for this night We should go home to the tower," I said I wanted to show her the treasure, and just to be with her in that safe place, to hold her and co the death spasain There she could rest by the fire

"No, I don’t want to go yet," she said "The pain won’t go on long, you promised it wouldn’t I want it to pass and then to be here" She looked up at me, and she smiled "I came to Paris to die, didn’t I?" she whispered

Everything was distracting her, the deadon the surface of a puddle of water, a cat streaking atop a nearby wall The blood was hot in her, ed her to follow me "I have to drink," I said

"Yes, I see it," she whispered "You should have taken hientleentle an etiquette for hed I would have kissed her, but I was suddenly distracted I squeezed her hand too tightly

Far away, from the direction of les Innocents, I heard the presence as strongly as ever before

She stood as still as I was, and inclining her head slowly to one side, moved the hair back from her ear

"Do you hear it?" I asked

She looked up at ain in the direction from which the emanation had come

"Outlaw!" she said aloud

"What?" Outlaw, outlaw, outlaw I felt a wave of lightheadedness, soed by doing it to her I had to drink

"It called us outlaws," she said "Didn’t you hear it?" And she listened again, but it was gone and neither of us heard it, and I couldn’t be certain that I received that clear pulse, outlaw, but it seemed I had!

"Never mind it, whatever it is," I said "It never comes any closer than that" But even as I spoke I knew it had been et away froraveyards," I mur"

But before I finished speaking, I felt it again, and it seeest malevolence I’d received fro!" she whispered

I studied her Without doubt, she was hearing it e it!" I said "Call it a coward! Tell it to coave me an amazed look

"Is that really what you want to do?" she questioned htly, and I steadied her She put her arain

"Not now then," I said "This isn’t the tiotten all about it"

"It’s gone," she said "But it hates us, this thing"

"Let’s get away fro

I didn’t tell her what I was thinking, eighed on me far more than the presence and its usual tricks If she could hear the presence as well as I could, better in fact, then she had all es and thoughts Yet we could no longer hear each other!