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After a concerned look, she put her hand in his Matthew scanned the horizon, unable to stop searching for new threats Then his attention turned skyward

"The ht," he mused "Even here it’s hard to see the stars"

"That’s because it’s Mabon," Diana said quietly

"Mabon?" Matthew looked startled

She nodded "One year ago you walked into the Bodleian Library and straight into my heart As soon as that wicked htened with recognition even though we’d never met before, I knew that ave Matthew a itation that Baldwin’s order and Chris’s news had set off in him, and for a brief moment the world was poised between absence and desire, between blood and fear, between the war?" Diana searched his face "Is it Jack? The blood rage? Baldwin?"

"Yes No In a way" Matthew drove his hands through his hair and whirled around to avoid her keen gaze "Baldwin knows that Jack killed those warmbloods in Europe He knows that Jack is the vampire murderer"

"Surely this isn’t the first time a vampire’s thirst for blood had resulted in unexpected deaths,"

Diana said, trying to defuse the situation

"This time it’s different" There was no easy way to say it "Baldwin ordered me to kill Jack"

"No I forbid it" Diana’s words echoed, and a wind kicked up froht her She struggled in his grip, sending a gray-and-broist of air howling around his feet

"Don’t walk away from me" He wasn’t sure he could control himself if she did "You must listen to reason"

"No" Still she tried to avoid hie

You’re going to find a cure"

"Blood rage has no cure" Mattheould have given his life to change that fact

"What?" Diana’s shock was evident

"We’ve been running the new DNA saenerational pedigree that extends beyond Marcus Chris and Miriah me and Andren to Jack" Matthew had Diana’s coe is a developenetic coered by so Maman, Marcus, and Andrew don’t"

"I don’t understand," Diana whispered

"During , hu enes are brutal--they push aside what’s human in order to dominate the newlyIf they did, enome and Ysabeau’s would be identical Instead I aredients I inherited from my human parents as well as what I inherited froe before Ysabeau made you vampire?" Diana was understandably confused

"No But I possessed the triggers the blood-rage gene needed to express itself," Matthew said

"Marcus has identified specific noncoding DNA that he believes plays a role"

"In what he calls junk DNA?" Diana asked

Matthew nodded

"Then a cure is still possible," she insisted "In a few years--"

"No, mon coeur " He couldn’t allow her hopes to rise "The ene and learn about the noncoding genes, the better the treatht become, but this is not a disease we can cure Our only hope is to prevent it and, God willing, lessen its symptoms"

"Until you do, you can teach Jack how to control it" Diana’s face remained set in stubborn lines

"There’s no need to kill hienetic factors that appear to trigger the disease are present at her levels in him" Matthew blinked back the blood tears that he could feel for

"He won’t suffer any pain or fear I pro with one, but you will live on, hating yourself," Diana said "Think of what Philippe’s death has cost you"

Matthew could think of little else He had killed other creatures since his father’s death, but only to settle his own scores Until tonight the last de Clermont sire to command him to kill had been Philippe

And the death Philippe had ordered was his own

"Jack is suffering, Diana This would mean an end to it" Matthew used the same words Philippe had to convince his wife to admit the inevitable

"For him maybe Not for us" Diana’s hand strayed to the round swell of her belly "The twins could have blood rage Will you kill them, too?"

She waited for him to deny it, to tell her that she was insane to even think of such a thing But he didn’t

"When the Congregation discovers what Jack has done--and it’s only a matter of time before they do--they will kill hihtened he is or how much pain they cause Baldill try to kill Jack before it coation out of the family business If he tries to run, Jack could fall into Benjae for Jack’s betrayal Death would be a blessing then" Matthew’s face and voice were ih Diana’s eyes would haunt him forever