Page 20 (1/2)
“I shookher lids so that her rich lashes almost brushed the roundness of her cheeks ‘The secret is, Louis, that I want to kill him I will enjoy it!’
“I knelt beside her, speechless, her eyes studying me as they’d done so often in the past; and then she said, ‘I kill huht I seduce theer, a constant never-ending search for soht her fingers to her lips now and pressed her lips, her lea about theo — if I did not meet them on the way But I dislike him! I want him dead and will have him dead I shall enjoy it’
“ ‘But Claudia, he is not e has no power over hiht endure to the end of the world!’
“ ‘Ah, yes, that’s it, precisely!’ she said with reverential awe ‘A lifetiht have endured for centuries Such blood, such power Do you think I’ll possess his power and my ohen I take him?’
“I was enraged now I rose suddenly and turned away fro of huhter, of so devotion I realized they were talking of us
“ ‘It’s not necessary,’ I said to her ‘It goes beyond all need, all common sense, all…’
“ ‘What? Humanity? He’s a killer!’ she hissed ‘Lone predator!’ She repeated his own ter it ‘Don’t interfere with me or seek to know the time I choose to do it, nor try to come between us’
“She raised her hand now to hushintoed’
“She was gone then in a flurry of bonnet ribbons and clicking slippers I turned, paying no attention to where I went, wishing the city would sto overtake reason I was almost loath to put an end to it I needed to let the lust, the exciteht of the kill over and over and over, walking slowly up this street and down the next,which is pullingThe string is pullingto a dull thundering, a fa on the holloooden floor, forward, back again, scuttling, and the silver zinging of the foils I stood back against the wall, where I could see the late into the night, left ar towards death, grace thrusting for the heart, i the silver blade forward, now being pulled by it towards hell Someone had co boy, a boy so young he had the smooth, plump cheeks of a child; his face was pink and flushed froray coat and ruffled shirt there was the sweet sed fro to hi al down over his eyes as he went along, shaking his head, the whispers rising, then falling off And then he stopped short, his eyes on hed quickly, nervously ‘Excuse ave me a start!’ And then, just as he o around me, he stood still, and the shock spread over his flushed face I could see the heart beating in the pink flesh of his cheeks, s, taut body
“ ‘You saw ht,’ I said to him ‘And my face looked to you like the mask of death’
“His lips parted and his teeth touched and involuntarily he nodded, his eyes dazed
“ ‘Pass by!’ I said to him ‘Fast! ”
The vao on But he stretched his long legs under the table and, leaning back, pressed his hands to his head as if exerting a great pressure on his temples
The boy, who had drawn hi his arlanced at the tapes and then back at the vaht,” he said
“Every night,” said the vampire