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When I opened ht, I knehat I meant to do Whether or not I could stand to look at him wasn’t important I had made him this, and I had to rouse him froed hih And noas up to o into Paris and get the one thing thathim around

The violin was all he’d ever loved when he was alive Maybe noould awaken him I’d put it in his hands, and he’d want to play it again, he’d want to play it with his new skill, and everything would change and the chill in my heart would somehow melt

As soon as Gabrielle rose, I told her what I meant to do "But what about the others?" she said "You can’t go riding into Paris alone"

"Yes, I can," I said "You’re needed here with him If the little pests should come round, they could lure him into the open, the way he is now And besides, I want to knohat’s happening under les Innocents If we have a real truce, I want to know"

"I don’t like your going," she said, shaking her head "I tell you, if I didn’t believe we should speak to the leader again, that we had things to learn froht"

"And what could they possibly teach us?" I said coldly "That the sun really revolves around the earth? That the earth is flat?" But the bitterness ofthey could tell me hy the vahts when I could not But I was too crestfallen over s

I only looked at her and thought how glorious it had been to see the Dark Trick work its ic in her, to see it restore her youthful beauty, render her again the goddess she’d been to e had been to see hi the words in my soul she understood it only too well

We embraced slowly "Be careful," she said

I should have gone to the flat right away to look for his violin And there was still etting out of Paris -- it see for us to do

But for hours I did just what I wanted I hunted the Tuileries and the boulevards, pretending there was no coven under les Innocents, that Nicki was alive still and safe soain

But I was listening for the about the old queen And I heard them when I least expected it, on the boulevard du Tee that they’d be in the places of light, as they called the behind the theater And there was no malice this time, only a desperate excitement when they sensed that I was near

Then I saw tile white face of the woman vampire, the darkeyed pretty one with the witch’s hair She was in the alleyway beside the stage door, and she darted forward to beckon to me

I rode back and forth for a fewpanorae traffic, lots of street hted theaters with their doors open to invite the crowd Why should I leave it to talk to these creatures? I listened There were four of the for ht I turned the horse and rode into the alley and all the way to the back where they hovered together against the stone wall

The gray-eyed boy was there, which surprised me, and he had a dazed expression on his face A tall blond male vampire stood behind his like lepers It was the pretty one, the dark-eyed one who had laughed at my little jest on the stairs under les Innocents, who spoke:

"You have to help us!" she whispered

"I do?" I tried to steady the mare She didn’t like their company "Why do I have to help you?" I de the coven," she said

"Destroying us" the boy said But he didn’t look atat the stones in front of hi, of the pyre lighted, of Ar his followers into the fire

I tried to get this out offrom all of them The dark-eyed pretty one looked directly intoa great charred bea theled to escape

"Good Lord, there were twelve of you!" I said "Couldn’t you fight?"

"We did and we are here," said the woether, and the rest of us fled In terror, we sought strange resting places for the day We had never done this before, slept away froraves We didn’t knoould happen to us And e rose he was there Another two he ed to destroy So we are all that is left He has even broken open the deep chambers and burned the starved ones He has broken loose the earth to block the tunnels to ourplace"

The boy looked up slowly

"You did this to us," he whispered "You have brought us all down"

The woman stepped in front of him

"You must help us," she said "Make a new coven with us Help us to exist as you exist" She glanced ireat one?" I asked

"It was she who commenced it," said the boy bitterly "She threw herself into the fire She said she would go to join Magnus She was laughing It was then that he drove the others into the flaone And all she had known and witnessed had gone with her, and what had she left behind but the sieful one, the wicked child who believed what she had known to be false

"You must help us," said the dark-eyed woht as coven master to destroy those who are weak, those who can’t survive"

"He couldn’t let the coven fall into chaos," said the other woman vampire who stood behind the boy "Without the faith in the Dark Ways, the others ht have blundered, alarmed the mortal populace But if you help us to form a new coven, to perfect ourselves in neays"

"We are the strongest of the coven," said the e to continue without him, then in time he may leave us alone"

"He will destroy us," the boy muttered "He will never leave us alone He will lie in wait for the moment e separate"

"He isn’t invincible," said the tall male "And he’s lost all conviction Renus’s tower, a safe place" said the boy despairingly as he looked up at me

"No, that I can’t share with you," I said "You have to win this battle on your own"

"But surely you can guide us" said the man

"You don’t need me," I said "What have you already learned fros I said last night?"

"We learned more from what you said to him afterwards," said the dark-eyed woman "We heard you speak to him of a new evil, an evil for these tiuise"

"So take on the guise," I said "Take the garments of your victims, and take theh wealth to acquire your own little fortress, your secret sanctuary Then you will no longer be beggars or ghosts"

I could see the desperation in their faces Yet they listened attentively

"But our skin, the timbre of our voices " said the darkeyed woman

"You can fool mortals It’s very easy It just takes a little skill"

"But hoe start?" said the boy dully, as if he were only reluctantly being brought into it "What sort of mortals do we pretend to be?"

"Choose for yourself!" I said "Look around you Masquerade as gypsies if you will -- that oughtn’t to be too difficult -- or better yet ht of the boulevard

"Mummers!" said the dark-eyed woman with a little spark of excitement

"Yes, actors Street performers Acrobats Make yourselves acrobats Surely you’ve seen thereasepaint, and your extravagant gestures and facial expressions won’t even be noticed You couldn’t choose a uise than that On the boulevard you’ll see every manner of mortal that dwells in this city You’ll learn all you need to know"

She laughed and glanced at the others The , the boy unsure

"With your powers, you can beco for you You could be seen by thousands who’d never guess what you are"

"That isn’t what happened with you on the stage of this little theater," said the boy coldly "You put terror into their hearts"

"Because I chose to do it," I said Treedy But I can fool anyone when I want to and so can you"

I reached into ave them to the dark-eyed woman She took the her She looked up and in her eyes I saw the ihastly feats that had driven the crowd into the streets

But she had another thought in her mind She knew the theater was abandoned, that I’d sent the troupe off

And for one second, I considered it, letting the pain double itself and pass throughif the others could feel it What did it really matter, after all?

"Yes, please," said the pretty one She reached up and touched ers "Let us inside the theater! Please" She turned and looked at the back doors of Renaud’s

Let therave

But there s of a troupe that had had all the money in the world to buy itself new finery Old pots of white paint Water still in the barrels A thousand treasures left behind in the haste of departure

I was nu to reach back to embrace all that had happened there

"Very well," I said, looking away as if soo into the theater if you wish You can use whatever is there"

She drew closer and pressed her lips suddenly to the back of et this," she said "My name is Eleni, this boy is Laurent, the enie If Arainst us"

"I hope you prosper," I said, and strangely enough, I meant it I wondered if any of them, with all their Dark Ways and Dark Rituals, had ever really wanted this nightmare that we all shared They’d been drawn into it as I had, really And ere all Children of Darkness now, for better or worse

"But be wise in what you do here," I warned "Never bring victi place safe"

It was three o’clock before I rode over the bridge on to the Ile StLouis I had wasted enough time And now I had to find the violin

But as soon as I approached Nicki’s house on the quai I saw that so The ere empty All the drapery had been pulled down, and yet the place was full of light, as if candles were burning inside by the hundreds Most strange Roget couldn’t have taken possession of the flat yet Not enough time had passed to assume that Nicki had met with foul play

Quickly, I went up over the roof and down the wall to the courtyard , and saw that the drapery had been stripped away there too

And candles were burning in all the candelabra and in the wall sconces And some were even stuck in their oax on the pianoforte and the desk The room was in total disarray

Every book had been pulled off the shelf And soes broken out Even the music had been emptied sheet by sheet onto the carpet, and all the pictures were lying about on the tables with other small possessions -- coins, money, keys

Perhaps the demons had wrecked the place when they took Nicki But who had lighted all these candles? It didn’t make sense

I listened No one in the flat Or so it seehts, but tiny sounds I narrowed , and it ca being dropped More pages turning, stiff, old parchain the book dropped