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Rafael opened his jacket, revealing a vest covered ired sticks of dynamite He held out his hand to display a remote device, a button on which his thumb had pressed down "Release Samantha and the other woh strapped to me to obliterate everyone in this rooainst the table, striking a beautiful pose "You are, of course, bluffing"

"My master’s order were explicit," Rafael told hikenis If he can not have her, no one will"

Donatien chuckled "That sounds more like the Lucan I remember But what of your little lover, Emissary? Are you ready to sacrifice her on the altar of honor as well?"

"I a you," Rafael replied "I a out your vengeance on me"

"No" Dani walked slowly toward Rafael "You don’t have to do this" Her wrist throbbed, and she felt her flesh parting and blood welling

"Listen to your sweetheart, Rafael," Donatien said "Do as I wish, and you and I can spend eternity playing with her"

"Daniela" Rafael , sorrowful instant

"I know," she whispered as she reached out and took Donatien’s cold hand in hers

"My pearl, don’t be afraid He is all… talk and…" a frown marred his perfect features as he tried to take his hand from hers and discovered that he couldn’t break her hold "Cristál? What are you doing, child?"

Dani took his other hand in hers, and looked into his puzzled eyes "What I was made to do" She closed her eyes

He felt her then, and struggled, jerking at her hands "No You are gifted, pet, but this is too ambitious You cannot"

From a distance Dani heard Rafael call her name in a terrible voice, and felt his hands wrench at hers But even with his vath, he could not break the connection between her and the monster

"Take your hands off ly voice "Stop this Stop this immediately, I coan to wither, his cheeks contracting, his lovelyback into his head His flawless skin grew ly red web around his nose and across his cheeks His teeth, bared now, darkened from flawless white to a stained, chipped yellow Cluan to drift to the floor as patches of bare scalp sprouted on his head Beneath his clothing, muscles thinned and shrank, and bones creaked and snapped

Tiny dots appeared all over hi pushed out of the pores of his skin They rained on the floor, reddish-orange dust

Dani had never held on so long, but she did not let go until she felt the last of the copper and the strength leave Donatien’s body Then she stepped back away fro he had become

"Ashes to ashes," Donatien croaked in an impossibly ancient voice "Dust to dust My pearl, you have… undone otten cards The body she had healed was too old and fragile to sustain itself now He had cheated the grave too long, and Death carind him under its heel In less time than it took for Rafael to disconnect the explosives strapped to his body, what had been Le Marquis de Sade lay in a crumpled pile of velvet, bone and ash

Dani knew she didn’t have much time left; what she had taken into herself would soon take over her "Rafael" She smiled as he came to her and took her face between his hands "It was not hiht It was you, and it was me Only us I proainst him, and shouted for someone "Tell o now" She had already slipped the knife from his belt One small push, and it slid between her ribs and into her heart as gently as a lover’s sigh "Be happy"

Epilogue

"I re this," Lucan said as he watched Rafael tuck the sheets around Daniela’s ive up when she finally came back to me"

Rafael sat down beside the bed and rubbed his eyes "With all due respect, ive you as much time as you need with her," Lucan said "But she absorbed the whole of Donatien into herself I do not think Christ himself could have shouldered such a burden"

The door closed, and Rafael was alone again with her Alone and waiting, as he had for three weeks She had healed from what had been a mortal wound, but she had not transitioned to Kyn as Samantha had Still human, Daniela would drink and s soft foods, and her natural body functions continued, but she remained locked in what see her dreaether, but her ain opened to him