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ndor, when you got right down to it, with glea marble shelves And the Rood of hot water in the pool, with the jets puht have been at some other time

They strippedNo one had ever done such a thing to me Not since I'd been alive and then only when I was a very small child I stood in the flood of stea all these s the hairs rise all over h the steam I looked into the mirror-a wall of mirror actually, and I saw un The shock was more for a moment than I could handle This can't be me

I was ined Gently I pushed the women away and went towards the lea all the colors of the spectruht Yet I didn't look like Marius I didn't look like Akasha The lines in my face were still there!

In other words I'd been bleached by Akasha's blood, but I hadn't beco was, the contrast now made these lines all the ers were more clearly etched than before

But what consolation was this when I was ? In a way, this orse than that first o, when an hour or so after my death I'd seen myself in aI was just as afraid right now

I studied my reflection-my chest was like a an we don't need, poised as if ready for what it would never again kno to do or want to do, ate

Dazed, I watched the women draw closer; lovely throats, breasts, dark ain I was beautiful to theht

The scent of their blood was stronger in here, in the rising steam Yet I wasn't thirsty, not really Akasha had filledme a little No, quite a lot

I wanted their blood-and it had nothing to do with thirst I wanted it the way a nify that by twenty or thirty or a hundred In fact, it was so powerful I could i at their tender throats one after another and leaving their bodies lying here on the floor

No, this is not going to take place, I reasoned And the sharp, dangerous quality of this lust made me want to weep What's been done tonow that twenty men couldn't have subdued h the ceiling if I wanted to and get free of here I could do things of which I'd never dreas the way she could burn theth, that's all it was And dizzying levels of awareness, of acceptance

The wo my shoulders Just a lovely little sensation, the soft pressure of the lips on ently I e their heated little necks and feeling their breasts against my chest I was utterly surrounded by these malleable creatures, I was blanketed in succulent human flesh

I stepped into the deep tub and allowed them to washaway easily all the din that never really clings to us, never penetrates us I looked up at the ceiling and let theh my hair

Yes, extraordinarily pleasurable, all of it Yet never had I been so alone I was sinking into theseBecause really, there was nothing else that I could do When they were finished I chose the perfuet rid of the others I spoke in French but they seemed to understand- Then they dressed me with the clothes I selected from what they presented to me, The master of this house had liked hande for me And he'd liked handmade shoes as well, and they were a tolerable fit

1 chose a suit of gray silk, very fine weave, and rather jaunty modern cut And silver jewelry The man's silver watch, and his cuff links which had tiny diamonds embedded in them And even a tiny diamond pin for the narrow lapel of the coat But all these clothes felt so strange on me; it was as if I could feel the surface of my own skin yet not feel it And there cao The old ? How can I gain control of it?

I wondered for a moment, was it possible not to care what happened? To stand back fros upon which I fed? Cruelly I'd been ripped out of their world! Where was the old bitterness, the old excuse for endless cruelty? Why had it always focused itself upon such ss? Not that a life is small Oh, no, never, not any life! That was the whole point actually Why did I who could kill with such abandon shrink fro their precious traditions laid waste?