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"You’re teaching at the high school?" said his new landlady, one Mrs Findley "My girl Madison’s a senior there"
"I think she’s in my first-period ho about the a well over the past few centuries meant money was the least of his concerns "But it shouldn’t be aard I keep to myself, mostly"
"And we’ll let you do that, never fear Madison’s always out, andas we don’t hear screams or see fire" Mrs Findley obviously meant it as a joke, but Balthazar was uncomfortably aware that he couldn’t rule either of those possibilities out "Here’s your key Get yourself settled in, and let e house, located far enough back froh the trees Good He’d have his privacy Although the interior wasn’t of much interest to him, at least it was pleasant; the Findleys apparently norhtsee in better weather, and so it was furnished with simple, older wooden furniture Just three roo clean bathrooe four-poster bed For honeyer than their entire sleeping area had been in his childhood hohter in his , the sound of Charitynonsense words in her sleep He rerave, and how suspicious he’d been Yet not suspicious enough
Balthazar tossed his few things onto the bed and went back out, taking stock of his surroundings If he’d judged the area correctly, he ithin half a mile from Skye’s home--a distance he could cover quickly He walked due south, past the Findley home and back into the woods, surer and surer that he was headed in the correct direction … then stopped
Between the Findleys’ home and the Tierneys’ was a river
No, not a river--a streah to still bubble ater despite the cold temperatures Balthazar knew this because he could feel the deep, illogical and yet irresistible dread any vaht--then immediately rejected that idea He could cross it If he had to, he would It just wouldn’t be easy Crossing any kind of river or strea at worst
He i her as he had that first evening, riding in the afternoon light The sunset light noas much the saaze, the set of her shoulders, the outlines of her sliainst the blackness of her horse If she were over there, in trouble…
Yes He could cross the water
Resolved, Balthazar turned back so that he could begin the journey back to school for the basketball gah, he realized that he wasn’t alone
Constantia stood a to the forest, so ethereal and mysterious, he wondered if she was an illusion He hated that he still felt a twinge of longing at the sight of her She watched hi nothing Instinctively he understood that she hadn’t corave’s tribe had no interest in hurting hi between them and Skye
No, then their interest in hi iven that up"
"You’re a bit of a bore" Constantia’s voice held a curl of laughter; her eyes, as always, halffor you to start being fun, Balthazar The first century or so, it orth the wait These days, not sotoa fire requires a spark we don’t have"
Her thin-lipped smile could be unspeakably cruel "The first century and a half we knew each other--you didn’t seeer Constantia’s selfish, thoughtless desires had led her to beg Redgrave for a toy And he’d made her one--Balthazar himself He’d been killed for her His life, his mortality, perhaps his very soul: They’d all been destroyed to
He tried to stay focused "If you’re not here to kill me, then why are you here, Constantia?"
"I’ive up this--stubborn independence of yours and rejoin us"
"You can’t seriously believe that will ever happen"
"You still don’t see what the girl is"
This was his chance to find out what they wanted, though he would have to be cagey about it Asking her outright would only rave isn’t selling you more of his lies?"
"Lorenzo tasted her blood Then he let us drink from him"
She said nowas a way of co that went infinitely deeper than words--the taste of another vampire’s blood let you experience his life, his emotions, even his pleasure Balthazar had learned that by drinking Constantia’s blood and tasting her desire for him, which had flowed into hi his blood, Lorenzo hadAnd Balthazar was still no closer to figuring out why