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The young man nodded happily "I will, sir"

"And Ronald?"

"Yes, boss?"

Murphy tossed hiirls "You’re right The rumors about me are true"

And with a hearty roar from his lads, Murphy left the club with a heavier wallet and adown a few sentences in the small notebook she kept by her easy chair

"That’s very interesting, Alexander But how did it make you feel?"

"Feel?" His public school accent was clipped with annoyance

"Yes Re how to rediscover your connection with your elanced at her notebook "You… don’t use nah audibly It was only Alexander’s second visit, and wind vampires were typically paranoid She shouldn’t have been surprised, even if her new patient had been discreetly referred by a mutual acquaintance

"As I have said, I never use names And these notes are for my eyes only"

She saw the vampire’s eyes narrow "I wouldn’t want s drop "I hope you’re not threatening me, Alexander We both know that wouldn’t be wise"

The wind vampire shrank back into his seat "Of course not"

Anne’s eyes flicked to a dark stain on the floor near the couch where her clientsIt wouldn’t do to let the et she was as ht see a quiet, sweet-faced woure and vivid sea-green eyes, her patients would see weakness

And weakness in her world got you killed quickly

"Now," she said, resu about your sire"

He droned on, as typical a case of ennui as she’d ever seen Alexander didn’t seem a bad sort He treated his human employees fairly, he only killed when necessary, and he le to avoid the sun was likely a sye

When most of your patients lived hundreds of years, weariness was a common malady Oh, there were fancier names for it And narcissism inevitably crept in on many of her kind But Anne had known for years that their state--immortality--was simply not a natural one There was a reason hty years Most of them happily It took a particular kind of personality to survive forever with mental health intact

Alexander, she suspected, did not have that kind of verve He was three hundred years old, froe, two hundred and soed from, and more money than friends Plus he was a wind va and happy life In her experience, long-lived wind vampires had either established a very loyal networks of friends or were sociopaths