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It seemed Marcus was not in the mood for further confidences

He disappeared down the stairs, leaving a trail of discordant threads shiled up with black and white As a weaver, I could perceive the woven strands of past, present, and future that bound the universe together Normally the clear tones of blue and amber that made up the sturdy ere visible, and the colored threads of individual experience provided bright, intermittent notes in the weft

Not today Marcus’sto hi holes in its structure to e from the past

The gathering clouds on the horizon and the pricking in my thumbs warned me that stormy times lay ahead For all of us

4

One

13 MAY

Phoebe sat before the locked s in her bedroom with the plum-colored drapes fully open to the view of Paris, satiated with heronly for the next revelation afforded by her new sense of sight

The night, she discovered, was not simply black but a thousand shades and textures of darkness, so frorays

Life would not always be so easy Now there was a knock on the door before the gnawing had a chance to start eating away at her belly Phoebe would have to feel her hunger eventually so that she could understand what it was to covet the lifeblood of a creature and e to take it

Her only urge noever, was to paint Phoebe hadn’t done so for years, not since a casual re, dismissive—had sent her into the historical study of art rather than its practice Her fingers itched to pick up a brush and dip it into thick oil paint or delicate watercolor pigments and apply them to canvas or paper

Could she capture the precise color of the tiled roof across the garden—blue-gray touched with silver? Was it possible to convey the inky blackness of the sky high above, and its sharp leam at the horizon?

Phoebe understood nohy Matthew’s great-grandson, Jack, covered any surface he could with chiaroscuro renderings of his ht and shadoas endless, a ga bored

She’d learned this fro in a silver holder on the dressing table The undulating light and the darkness at the heart of the flaed forto surround herself with the pinpricks of brightness that dazzled and dipped

“One is enough,” Freyja said “We don’t want you light-struck on your first day”

So long as Phoebe was fed regularly, sensory assault was the greatest danger to her as a newly made vampire To prevent any mishaps, Freyja and Miria her chances of getting lost in feeling

Immediately after her transfored the needlelike fall of water too severe, so Françoise drew her a warm bath instead—strictly timed so that Phoebe didn’t becoainst her skin And all the s in the house, not just those in Phoebe’s bedroo scents of warhbors’ pets, and pollution

“I’m sorry, Phoebe, but an infant male went mad in the Paris Metro last year,” Freyja explained when she asked if oneht be opened just a crack to let in the breezes “The fu systeht It caused no end of delays forcommuters and made the mayor very cross Baldwin, too”

Phoebe knew she could break the glass with ease, along with theframes, and even punch a hole in the wall if escape beca these temptations was a test of her control, her obedience, and her suitability as Marcus’s mate Phoebe was determined to pass the test, so she sat in the airless room and watched the colors flicker and drift as a cloud crossed theof the earth brought the sun fractionally closer

“I would like some paint” Phoebe said it in a whisper, but the sound echoed in her ears “And brushes”

“I’ll ask Miriam” Freyja’s reply ca that tickled Phoebe’s nerves ever so slightly, writing in her journal with a fountain pen Occasionally, Freyja’s heart gave a slow thump

Even farther away, in the kitchens, Charles was s the newspaper Rustle Puff Silence Thuht had its own colorscape, so every creature had his or her own rhyth Phoebe’s heart had made when she first drank from Miriam

“Do you need so else, Phoebe?” Freyja’s pen paused In the kitchen, Charles stubbed out his cigar in a metal ashtray Both waited attentively for Phoebe’s response It would take her so conversations with people in different rooe house

“Only Marcus,” replied Phoebe, wistful She had grown accusto of herself as part of a we, not as a solitary me There was so much she wanted to tell hi reborn Instead, they were separated by hundreds of miles

“Why not practice walking?” Freyja asked, capping her pen Mo smoothly in the lock “Let me help you”

Phoebe blinked at the change in the roolow of the candlelit house seeped across the threshold

“The light is a living thing,” Phoebe said, awed by the realization

“Both wave and particle It is astonishing it took warure that out” Freyja stood before Phoebe, hands outstretched in a gesture of assistance “Now, reainst the floor with your feet Getting up is sir It is not necessary to exert oneself”

Phoebe had been a vampire less than twenty-four hours and had already broken several chairs and put a sizable dent in the tub

“Float up Just think up and rise Steady Good” Freyja gave constant feedback, like Phoebe’s childhood ballet h only a fraction of Freyja’s Valkyric height It was Mada to do with stature

The ht, and she instinctively took hold of Freyja’s hands as if they were a wooden barre She heard a crack and felt soive way

“Oh, dear, there goes a finger” Freyja released Phoebe’s hand Her left index finger was hanging at a strange angle Freyja aligned it with a quick tug

“There you are Everything’s in working order again You’ll probably break other bones before suh Phoebe’s elbow “Let’s stroll around the room Slowly”

It was evident arht vampires could fly All a vampire had to do was think of the destination and she was there in a blink, with noany effort into locomotion

Phoebe felt like the newborn she was, taking one treain her equilibriuravity seeer in her pelvis but in her heart, which e, as if she’d had too ne

“Marcus tolda vaan to relax into Freyja’s stately pace, which felt

“He had to be,” Freyja said with a touch of regret

“Why?” Phoebe frowned The sudden turn of her head to study Freyja’s expression sent her tu toward her companion

“You know better than to ask, Phoebe darling” Freyja gently set her back on her feet “You r does not carry tales” emed Marcus was not in the mood for further confidences