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and yet there She felt as if she were cruht, and no escaping

"Then Ann is dead?" she whispered "Dead, gonelost?"

"No, not necessarily," Brent said

"We have to see that they don’t get to her again," Rick Beaudreaux said He looked at Brent

"Go on," Brent told hi Tara "She’s seen so much, suspected soI say"

Tara answered that by going to the balcony doors and closing theain She went to Ann’s bedside, fighting tears, assuring herself that her cousin was breathing, that her heart continued to beat

"She’s ill, isn’t she?" Tara asked

"If she doesn’t come to soon, she will need a hospital, a transfusion," Brent said "And we have to keep her safe and--here And away from the force that has taken her, and certainly has some control over her now"

"There are different ways that vampires kill," Rick said "They feast--and usually destroy the remains"

"Decapitate their victims?" Tara said

"Yes," Brent said

"What about the old stake in the heart?" Tara demanded harshly

"Good, but decapitation is better It’s the only way to be certain"

"I don’t understand this How did you get here?" she asked Rick

"Ann let "

"She let me in--as she slept"

"I don’t understand--"

"Obviously, Rick is a vaain as if black clouds were surrounding her, as if the world had becoain, but she couldn’t wake

"Then we need to destroy him, don’t we?" she asked harshly

"Real world 101," Brent said impatiently "There are forces out there, have always been, will always be

There are those who are fighting for a realm of norood things And there are forces out there where power is sought by soh all else Once, and actually still, always, in soo, tribes fought for space In the Dark Ages, tribes were constantly shifting and eneral way of life And later, when the civilized world encroached, warfare generally ruled Battles have always existed for land, and for power And in the midst of that kind of death and destruction, more death and destruction was not much noted Even into the past century, lobe And into this new century, ht their battles in their different ways, with death and destruction still the result So in all this time, it has been easy for many to survive on the spoils of war But if you will, it isn’t exactly true that a vampire is a shell of evil, a soulless entity

Vampirism is like a disease, an ancient disease One that cannot be cured, but can be controlled And for so different--eternity, if you will--along with the rest of hu beyondrespect for life Over the centuries, things change

And nowthose who come over, who do ‘die,’ who are not slain but ‘turned,’ if you will, can be as they were in this life Those ere prone to bloodshed hunger for greater bloodshed--and power

Everyone ‘turned’ faces the hunger Just as we are born with free will to seek peace or vengeance, so is the change"

Tara stared at him blankly

"I was a cop," Rick said ruefully

"A cop?"

"A cop in New Orleans"

"When?" Tara deo," he said softly

"You weren’t brought forth fro vampire," he explained "Unlike Lucian" Tara’s eyes shifted to Brent "So your friend Lucianis an old vaht from his tomb?"

Brent smiled "Never"

"I see He was born a vampire"

"No, but he was turned when the world was in a constant state of raids and warfare, and he has been as he has beensince"

"And his wife, Jade?" Tara asked