put her head down on her arms and began to sob.

He was holding her, powerful arms, gentle touch. He lay next to her on the bed, and she wept into his chest. He whispered into her ear, calming, soothing, and his fingers touched her lips, and Two tasted blood there. She licked it greedily.

“I am sorry, Two. It was foolish of me to leave without giving you this. It is my fault. I’ll not leave you again now. We will be together until this is done, and then forever.”

The pain receded. Gone, not forever, but for the moment, and for the moment that was enough. Two twisted in Theroen’s arms, sobbing, crushed her body against his, kissed his neck, kissed his lips. Theroen kissed her tears from her face.

“I am so sorry, Two. I would never have left you if I’d know it would get that bad, that fast.”

She shook her head. She didn’t care. She didn’t blame him. He was here, now, and the rest was unimportant.”

“Has it been this way since I left?”

“No.” A whisper. It was all she could manage.

Theroen sat up, seemed to notice her clothes for the first time. Two smiled sadly as he looked her over, shrugged her shoulders, looked at him in apology.

“It looked a lot better... before.”

“You look radiant. How strong you must be, to look so, and in such pain.”

Two lowered her eyes. Was this strength? Theroen ran his hand through her hair, seemed awed by its softness.

“Melissa helped me.”

Theroen nodded, as if expecting this.

“I thought she might show herself. She’s incorrigibly curious. Good that it was Melissa, and not Missy.”

“There are two of them?”

Theroen sighed, shook his head.

“No.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Someday soon, I’ll tell you much more of Abraham, and myself, and Melissa... and why we are who we are. You are lucky, Two.”

His smile, though, was bitter.

“Why?”

“We are unlike any other clan of vampires I have ever come across. We are as unique in our makeup as any mortal. Abraham, myself, Melissa... sweet Melissa, cruel Missy; sometimes she is both in a single night. Abraham was old when he made me. It gave me power beyond any of a normal fledgling. He was ancient when he chose to make Melissa, yet rather than bestow power upon her as it had me, the infusion of his blood broke her mind.”

Two thought again of the howling in the woods, and Melissa’s immediate departure. She began to ask Theroen of this, but he was looking away, lost in thought.

“Melissa is my sister, and I have loved her as much as many mortal brother might. I fear for her. I fear for what may happen when I leave.”

“Leave?”

“I cannot stay here much longer. Twenty years, maybe less. Abraham and I...”

He trailed off, eyes clouding again. She saw sorrow there, and anger. Finally he sighed, shrugged, looked away.

“You don’t like each other, do you?” Two’s voice was soft.

“We despise each other.” Theroen turned to face her again.

“Why?”

“You felt his evil. You know it does not reside in me. He assumed the blood would convert me, change me as it had him. It did not. For four hundred years I have been his errand boy, slave to the whims of a depraved fiend whose lust for power and dark knowledge know no bounds. I have seen him murder dozens in a single night, solely to try, and fail, to read the future in their steaming entrails.”

Two shuddered. Theroen looked at her, nodded grimly.

“I am no knight in shining armor, Two. I have killed, many times, without repentance, and I would have you do the same. You must understand this. But I am not evil in the manner that Abraham is evil; active, conscious, focused. I am evil like a hurricane. A force of nature, nothing more.

“There’s no evil in that.”

“Isn’t there? But it doesn’t matter. I am the creature I have been for near half a millennium. Any moral dilemma which might once have existed has long since been washed from me. But I still hold the rest. I still hold love for human life, and I take it only when necessary. I loathe Abraham for his inability to feel these things.”

“Why haven’t you left already?”

“It’s the blood that bonds. It keeps me here. But the link grows weak as my powers increase. They are already well beyond what they should be for my age. This, too, is a source of frustration for Abraham. Most Eresh fledglings are not ready to leave their masters until well