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"God taught us to love, and I love you There is no evil I could not overcome! What is this, what is this beast you call yourself?"

"Vampyr!" Charles Godwin, the Gero Creole doctor, and young Master Robert Canady, who so adored Jason Montgohter

Canady was new to this; a disbeliever Godwin and Courtes of darkness before, and for oone, but darkness redalena had always been in danger

"Yes, so I believe," Jason said, exhausted orry and pain He had sent for his friends soon after Magdalena had gone upstairs He had feared the evil forever; he had known it existed They had all waited and watched They had prayed it would not coo for him with the dawn," Courtemarch said "Then we may discover the truth"

"Gentlemen," Robert Canady said firmly, "I cannot condone thisus all, one by one! And though I would gladly die for your daughter, Jason, I would have my death serve her well The comte is newly arrived, entle man?" Godhite-haired and white-mustachioed, exploded "He takes the woman you love"

Robert exhaled slowly "God helpthe wo her love hiomery cried in exasperation

They were disrupted as heavy footsteps caoripped the stairway "She tricked us, sir!"

"Tricked us--?"

"Her sheets cover her pillows; she is gone"

"Gone!" he gasped

"We follow!" Godwin cried "We follow! Tyrone, it is ti the stakes, the swords Quickly God help us, let us be in time!"

"Gentlemen! Even if she chooses to love hi in vain to reason with the other men Dear God, didn’t these old fools realize? No one felt this betrayal more than he did He loved her, wanted her She would have been his wife The pain was like a knife twisting again and again inside him

But she loved the Frenchman

"Damn you, Robert!" Jason protested "You do not listen!"

"To a bunch of old fools--"

"To the wind To the moon, to the mist, to the sound of the surf! Have you looked above you? The sky itself cries tears of blood You do not understand"

"And you must!" Godwin asserted

"For the love of God, you an

"Vampyr!" Courtemarch finished "By all that is holy, you must realize Her lover is vampyr!" Her lover rose above her, straddled her Sleek, powerful, beautiful, she thought, his features so ned, his eyes so dark they seeest fire

"Vampire," he said very softly

She smiled slowly at first Then she shook her head "No Someone has made you think that you are evil"

"I aht," he insisted

A shivering began in her He watched her so gravely He trembled as he touched her face "Perhaps love can set end And I love you so fiercely As if I have waited a hundred years to hear your softest whisper, to taste this sweetness You end is a lie, that the promise is false I could not bear to hurt you--"

"My love, I don’t understand you, you er to his lips "You cannot be evil, you cannot! I will not believe it, I will not!" She pushed hiainst hiertips fell upon hiroan escaped hi hell’s fire, da them on, my love, for I will not leave you, I could not bear to leave you! They will not keep me from you, I care not what coone with his harsh, ragged cry, and she was encoain as she was pressed back into it Ah, dear God, the sweetness of his touch, as light as a breeze, a whisper, then fire His ar her limbs, within the heart of her Drurew molten He touched her with intimacy until she shrieked and pleaded and swore she would love him forever and ever

Then, suddenly he rose above her, stared into her eyes, entered her body Slowly She shuddered against the pain, holding hi with the wonder even as the knifing pain escalatedand subsided "Kiss me " she whispered

He lowered his head, seized her lips The sweet pulse began aneith his surging movement His lips fell upon hers He kissed her open ers threaded into her hair, his lips brushed across her cheek, down her throat

The druht, she writhed in a strange anguish, wanting more She could almost reach it, touch it Each tiainst her throat A sharp, shattering little pain

A cry tore froasped, convulsed Pain and pleasure coood that she saw velvet darkness, the red of the night sky, a burst of stars against it all Everything went black for seconds, then the stars returned The pain, the pleasure