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Phoebe instinctively understood that hunting would push her restless thoughts to the background Hunting would feed so would bring peace

“Of course you do,” Freyja said “Isn’t Phoebe progressing marvelously, Miriam?”

“You’re not ready,” Miria Phoebe’s excitement

“But I’eted in her chair, her eyes pinned on Miriam’s wrist

Feeding fro a meal and a bedtime story all at once With every drop of blood Phoebe sed, her ination were suffused with Miriam’s memories She’d learned far more about Miriam in the past two days than she had in the fifteen months they had known each other

Some of what Phoebe knew felt intuitive, a flood of scattered episodes fro life in which pleasure and pain were inseparable partners

In subsequent feedings, Phoebe was able to focus on the strongest i overcome by waves of blurry remembrance

Phoebe understood now that the tall, rugged rin had been Miriah others knew him as Bertrand and Wendalin, Ludo and Randolf, and his mother had called him Gund

Miriam had sired more men than women in the centuries that led to Phoebe’s own conversion She had to in order to survive, back when having ainst rape and robbery Sons could pretend to be brothers, or even spouses in e humans with their incessant need for reater territory Her sons, like her one now, killed in the violent warfare that ran through Miriarief

Then there were the daughters First, there had been Taderfit, killed by her vae Lalla, Miriahter, had been set upon by her own children, crushed and torn to death in a coone After Miria daughters for a while

But it was not only ancient history that featured in Miriam’s blood More recent events had a place there, too Matthew de Clermont, Marcus’s sire, was in many of Miriam’s memories In the crowded city of Jerusalem, Matthew and Ori had turned heads and cleared paths, one raven dark and the other golden The two men had been devoted friends

Until Eleanor In Miriareat beauty, with porcelain skin and flaxen hair that testified to her Saxon heritage But it was her irrepressible enthusias that had made the vampires flock to Eleanor’s side Vareatest potential, so there was no shortage of attractive specimens Vitality, however, was a different matter

Miriam had been drawn to Eleanor’s joy just like most of the other creatures in the city: daemon, huer when she arrived in the Holy Land with her family and one of the waves of crusaders And it was Miriam who introduced Eleanor to Matthew de Clerly planted the seeds of her mate’s eventual destruction

Bertrand’s life had been sacrificed to save Matthew’s, a testament to bonds of friendship so deep that they bordered on the brotherly Most vampires, however, viewed the warrior’s death as collateral dareatness

Promise me you’ll watch over him Ori had asked Miria of his execution, as he belted his brightly colored tunic and donned his knight’s sword for the last time

Miriareed Ori’s request, and her own promise to him, echoed in her blood

Even now it bound Miriaether Matthew had Diana to watch over him, as well as his mother Ysabeau, Marcus, and all the other members of the Bishop-Clairmont scion of which Phoebe would soon be a member But that did not lessen Miria wish

Phoebe was so focused on what she had gathered fro of the door as Freyja and Françoise left the for her wrist

“You don’t take” Mirialacial

Phoebe’s hand dropped

Miria so close that their two vampire hearts came to beat slowly as one Finally, Miriam offered her child sustenance

“Tomorrow you can take,” Miriam said “But not from me Never from me”

Phoebe nodded slightly, her lips latched on to Miriam’s wrist now that it had been offered One face at a time, she took in the story that Miriam’s blood told as skillfully as Scheherazade

Lalla

Ori

Lalla

Taderfit

Ori

Eleanor

Ori

Matthew

Marcus

Nah Miriam’s sea of experiences

Phoebe

She was there, too Phoebe saw herself through Miria expression on her face, as she listened to so her

Just as Miriam was part of Phoebe, she was now a part of Miriam

After Miriam left, Phoebe focused on that preternatural connection and found she was neither bored nor restless She organized her thoughts around the central truth of the bond she and Miriah it were the focal point of a newly discovered solar system

Had she been a war assurance that she belonged would have been soothing enough to send Phoebe drifting into tranquil sleep

Instead, Phoebe sat with the knowledge, quiet and still, letting it soothe her restless mind

It was not sleep, but it was the next best thing

8

The Burying Place

15 MAY

Matthew found h the shelves

“Do you think Philippe owned any books about the history of America?” I asked “I can’t seem to find any”

“I doubt it,” he replied “He preferred newspapers for current events I’ the children to the stables Why don’t you come with us?”

I cli an old atlas and a 1784 copy of Lettres d’un cultivateur aned by the author

“You’ll break your neck if you’re not careful” Matthew took up a watchful position at the foot of the ladder as I , you have only to ask I’et it down for you”

“Were there a catalog—or even a shelflist—I could pretend I was at the Bodleian and fill out a call slip and send you to the stacks to page it for me,” I teased “But since I have no idea what’s here, I’ the ladders for the ti”

One of the ghosts slid two books down the shelf they were rearranging, and offered me a third

“There’s a book floating near your left elbow,” Matthew commented He was unable to see the apparition, but the book that was see in midair was impossible to miss

“Ghost” I took the book in question and looked at the title staold on the spine “The Persian Letters I’ for books about A”

“Letup for the books in my arms

I ress without theround I gave Matthew a kiss

“Why do you want books about A the titles

“I’ht into a historical narrative” I took the books from Matthew and put them on the table There was already a flurry of notes there along with a printout of The New England Primer from 1762, and an account of the battle of Ft Williarasp of his eighteenth-century context—not beyond what I remember froraduate on the Enlighten would push her restless thoughts to the background Hunting would feed so would bring peace