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THEY WERE COMING forbeside their own, a derelict heap Benjaed hi a hammer and a pick to break up the ice such as re soft blankets hich to wrapI felt with my clawlike hand that my hair had come back, thick and red-brown as ever I held up a lock to the light, and thenpain no more and I let it drop, unable to close or ers

I had to throw a spell, at least when they first ca that I was, this black leathery ht of this, no matter ords came from my lips I had to shieldno mirror, how could I kno I looked or what I must do precisely? I had to dream, dream of the old Venetian days when I had been a beauty well known to lass, and project that vision right into their th I possessed; yes, that, and I azing up into the soft warm snowfall of tiny flakes, so unlike the terrible blizzards that had come earlier I didn’t dare to use ress

Suddenly I heard the loud crash of breaking glass A door sla up the s

My heart beat hard, and with each little convulsion, the pain was pu me

Suddenly, the steel door on the roof was flung back I heard theh towers all around, I saw their two sures, she the fairy woman, and he the child of notowards me

Sybelle! Oh, she ca, the terrible pity of it, and Benja velvet comforter to cover me, and I had to ive the finest green satin and ruff upon ruff of fancy lace, give s and braided boots, and let

Slowly I openedfrom one to the other of their sht they stood in the drifting snow

"Oh, but Dybbuk, you had us so very worried," said Benjamin, in his wildly excited voice, "and look at you, you are beautiful"

"No, don’t think it’s what you see, Benjamin," I said "Hurry with your tools, chop at the ice, and lay the cover over me"

It was Sybelle who took up the wooden-handled iron ha the soft top layer of ice immediately Benjamin chopped at it all with the pick as if he had becoht over and over, sending the shards flying

The wind caught Sybelle’s hair and whipped around into her eyes The snow clung to her eyelids

I held the ie, a helpless satin-clad child, with soft pinkish hands upturned and unable to help therabbing a giant thin slab of ice with both hands "We’ll get you out, don’t cry, you’re ours now We have you"

He threw aside the shining jagged broken sheets, and then he hi at me, his mouth a perfect O of a colors!" he cried He reached to touch my illusory face

"Don’t do it, Benji," said Sybelle

It was the first time I’d heard her voice, and now I saw the deliberate brave calh she herself remained staunch She picked the ice fromthe heat, yes, but sending the tears down my face Were they blood? "Don’t look at me," I said "Benji, Sybelle, look away Just put the cover into my hands"

Her tender eyes squinted as she stared, disobediently, steadily, one hand up to close the collar of her fliainst the wind, the other poised above me

"What’s happened to you since you came to us?" she asked in the kindest voice "Who’s done this to you?"

I sed hard, and ain I pushed it up froency of breath

"No, don’t do it anymore," said Sybelle "It weakens you and you suffer terribly"

"I can heal, my sweet," I said, "I promise I can I won’t be like this always, not even soon Only take me off this roof Take et to ain It’s the sun that did this Only the sun Take ht thing Hide h, don’t say any e wave of brilliant blue settle overI felt the soft pile of the velvet, and even this was pain, pain on the blazing skin, but it was pain that could be borne because theirhands were on me, and for this, for their touch, for their love, I would have endured anything

I felt ht, and yet how dreadful it was to be so helpless, as they wrapped h to carry?" I asked My head had fallen back, and I could see the snow again, and I fancied that when I sharpenedtheir time beyond the haze of one tiny planet

"Don’t be afraid," whispered Sybelle, her lips close to the covers

The smell of their blood was suddenly rich and thick as honey

Both of theether over the roof I was free of the hurtful snow and ice, almost free forever I couldn’t let myself think about their blood I couldn’t let this ravenous burnt body have its way That was unthinkable

Down through theturn after turn, their feet stru with agony I could see the ceiling above, and then the sether, overpoweredthe leathery flesh crack as I did so I dug my nails into my palms

I heard Sybelle at ht, on’t let you go It isn’t far Oh, God, but look at you, look what the sun’s done to you"

"Don’t look!" said Benji crossly "Just hurry! Do you think such a powerful Dybbuk doesn’t knohat you think? Be wise, hurry up"

They had come to the lower floor and to the brokenI felt the arms of Sybelle lift me beneath my head and beneath my crooked knees, and I heard Benji’s voice fro walls

"That’s it, now give him to me, I can hold him!" How furious and excited he sounded, but she had coh my clever Dybbuk’sbut pain and the blood and the pain again and the blood and that they were running through a long dark alleyway fro of Heaven

But hoeet it was The rocking s and the soft touch of her soothing fingers through the blanket, all this ickedly wondrous It wasn’t pain anymore, it was merely sensation The cover fell overin the snow, Benji sliding once with a loud cry, and Sybelle grabbing hold of hiht his breath

What labor it was for theet out of it

We entered the hotel in which they lived The pungent warm air rushed out to take hold of us even as the doors were pulled open and before they fell shut, the hallway echoing with the sharp steps of Sybelle’s little shoes and the quick shuffle of Benji’s sandals

With a sudden burst of agony through ht up and head tipped towards them, as we crowded into the elevator I bit down on the screa couldof old ress upwards

"We’re home, Dybbuk," whispered Benji with his hot breath on h the cover and pushing painfully against my scalp "We are safe noe have captured you and we have you"

Click of locks, feet on hardwood floors, the scent of incense and candles, of a wos, of old canvases with cracked oil paint, of fresh and overpoweringly shite lilies

My body was laid down gently into the bed of down, the blanket loosened so that I sank into layers of silk and velvet, the pillows see to melt beneath me

It was the very disheveled nest in which I’d gli in her white gown, and she had given it over to such a horror

"Don’t pull away the cover," I said I knew that my little friend wanted so to do it

Undaunted, he gently pulled it away I struggled withit back, but I couldn’t do any ers

They stood beside the bed, gazing down at led arirl, the bruises gone from her milk-white skin, and the little Arab boy, the Bedouin boy, for I realized now that that is what he truly was Fearlessly they stared at what must be unspeakable to behold for human eyes

"You are so shiny!" said Benji "Does it hurt you?"

"What can we do!" said Sybelle, so ht injure me Her hands covered her lips The unruly wisps of her full straight pale hair ht, and her arms were blue from the cold outside, and she could not help but shiver Poor spare being, so delicate Her nightdress was crumpled, thin white cotton, stitched with flowerets and triin Her eyes briel," I said "I’ God wouldn’t take me And the Devil wouldn’t either I went into the sun so they could have , without fear of Hellfire or pain But this Earth, this very Earth has been atorial prison I don’t kno I caave me those brief seconds to stand here in your roo like a shadow over you"

"Oh, no," she whispered fearfully, her eyes glistering in the dihts of the room "He would never have killed me"

"Oh, yes, he would!" I said, and Benjamin said the very same exact words in concert with me

"He was drunk and he didn’t care what he did," said Benji in instant rage, "and his hands were big and clumsy and mean, and he didn’t care what he did, and after the last time he hit you, you lay still like the dead in this very bed for two hours without ! Do you think a Dybbuk kills your own brother for nothing?"

"I think he’s telling you the truth, irl," I said It was so hard to talk With each word I had to lift my chest In crazy desperation, suddenly I wanted a id with pain

The tere thrown into a panic

"Don’t move, Dybbuk, don’t!" Benji pleaded "Sybelle, the silk, all the silk scarves, get them out, wind them around him"

"No!" I whispered "Put the cover up over me If you must see my face, then leave it bare, but cover the rest of me Or "

"Or what, Dybbuk, tell me?"

"Lift me so that I can seemirror"

They fell silent in perplexity Sybelle’s long yellow hair lay flaxen and flat down over her large breasts Benji chewed at his little lip

All the room sith colors Behold the blue silk sealed to the plaster of the walls, the heaps of richly ee, and there beyond, the wobbling baubles of the chandelier, filled with the glistering colors of the spectrulass as these baubles touched It seeed mind that I had never seen such siotten in alland exquisite the world was

I closed e of the roo the scent of their blood, the sweet clean fragrance of the lilies "Would you let me see those flowers?" I whispered Wereteeth, and were they yellowed from the fire? I floated on the silks beneath me I floated and it seemed that I could dream now, safe, truly safe The lilies were close I reached up again I felt the petals against my hand, and the tears came down my face Were they pure blood? Pray not, but I heard Benji’s frank little gasp, and Sybelleher soft sound to hush him

"I was a boy of seventeen, I think, when it happened," I said "It was hundreds of years ago I was too young, really My Master, he was a loving one; he didn’t believe ere evil things He thought we could feed off the badlings If I hadn’t been dying, it wouldn’t have been done so soon He wanted s, to be ready"

I opened ain the boy I’d been I had done it without intention

"Oh, so handsome," said Benji "So fine, Dybbuk"

"Little ile illusion about me crumble to air, "call me by my name from now on; it’s not Dybbuk I think you picked up that one frohed He didn’t flinch as I faded back into my horrid self

"Then tell me your name," he said

I did

"Armand," said Sybelle "Tell us, what can we do? If not silk scarves, ointments then, aloe, yes, aloe will heal your burns"

I laughed but only in a small soft way, meant to be purely kindly

"My aloe is blood, child I need an evil man, a man who deserves to die Noill I find him?"

"What will this blood do?" asked Benji He sat right down besidespecimen "You know, Armand, you are black as pitch, you are made out of black leather, you are like those people they fish fros in Europe, all shiny with all of you sealed inside I could take a lesson inat you"

"Benji, stop," said Sybelle, struggling with her disapproval and her alaret an evilup and across the bed at her She stood with her hands clasped as if in prayer "Sybelle, that’s nothing It’s how to get rid of him afterwards that’s so hard" He looked at me "Do you knoe did with her brother?"

She put her hands over her ears and bowed her head Howes would utterly destroy lossy, Aret you an evilYou want an evil h trying to peer into s

"Benji," I said, "don’t come any closer Sybelle, take him away"

"But what did I do?"

"Nothing," she said She dropped her voice, and said desperately, "He’s hungry"