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He took a deep breath and blew it out in a wistful sigh “Are my parents well?”
“Yes, of course, but they miss you Your mother worries Your father blames himself for your absence”
“And Rafe?”
“It pains him that you’ve severed the blood link between you”
“I doubt if he spendsabout me”
“Is that bitterness I hear in your voice? If you’re unhappy, you’ve no one to bla”
“I’m not ready”
“What keeps you here?” Mara asked, and then, with a soft laugh, she answered her own question “Ah, a woman, of course, The Cordovawith the juices of life”
“Very funny,” he er a question She regarded him for several moments, and then shook her head “You still have not made peace hat you are, have you? The lives you’ve taken still prey on your conscience after all this time”
He didn’t answer, but there was no need She knew the truth as well as he did He didn’t kill often these days, but when he did, the guilt stayed with hiuilt faded, like everything else, but it never really went away He remembered each of their faces, the taste of their blood, hot and sweet on his tongue, the faint sigh that always sounded like regret as they breathed their last
“If it bothers you to take the lives of the young and vibrant, then take those who are sick and eager to go” She sry, predatory s the herd”
“It doesn’t bother you to take a life? You never regret it?”
She stopped walking and turned to face hiht, nor was it bequeathed toI could have spentmy fate Instead, I choose to embrace what I am I am Nosferatu It is my nature to hunt, to kill, just as it is yours If peace is what you are searching for, you will never find it until you fully accept who and what you are There is no going back, Rane There is no ic cure You are what you were born to be”
“Why do you hide in the night when you can walk in the sun?” he asked, hoping to steer the conversation away froht was“After all these years, there is little difference between the night and the day, save the hunting is better in the dark” She so and cull the herd”
He shook his head
“Ah, Rane, what a prettily