the dream. I can handle it.”

“That was not a dream, Two. Tori throws off mental images like sparks from a fire. That was very much a real event that you witnessed that night, and I can assure you she’s even less pleasant in person.”

“I can handle it!”

Theroen sighed. “It’s not your ability to handle it that I’m concerned with. It’s my ability to handle Tori. She doesn’t like vampires, other than Melissa... or Missy, she doesn’t seem to know the difference. She tolerates me only because it is clear that Melissa likes me. She will not set foot near Abraham, although he is the only thing I am currently aware of that she fears.”

“So, she may not like me.” Two was unfazed. She had dealt with women who didn’t like her before, had knocked out teeth when necessary.

“You do not understand, Two. Tori is a machine; an engine of destruction. She is built to kill, and she is remarkably capable. If she decides not to tolerate you, she will attempt to kill you. Previous experience has taught me, quite harshly, that even I am not necessarily fast enough to prevent her from doing so. Abraham’s other visitors were... quite upset.”

Theroen pressed his palms against his eyes momentarily, sighed, shrugged. The gesture was oddly human, oddly endearing. Two smiled.

“Okay Theroen.”

“Someday, relatively soon, Two. I promise. But not out in the woods and not unless she’s fed. I want her to see you through a window first or, better, a set of bars, before you come face to face.”

“Would you cage her?”

Theroen laughed. “I don’t know if I would. I doubt that I could. Trying to force an ordinary vampire into a cage is hard enough. Tori...” He shrugged, letting the thought carry.

Two got up, walked to the couch he sat on, and reclined against him. He traced the pink silk of her gown from shoulder to neck with a finger, placed it under her chin, and brought her lips to his for a small kiss.

Two sighed. “I feel so... girly around you,” she said at last, laughing at herself. Theroen grinned, said nothing, traced the contour of her breast with his fingertips. He was not looking at her, but rather at her reflection in the window, blurred and indistinct.

Two took a deep breath, asked what she wanted to ask. “Finish me?” The words seemed to hang in the air for a moment before sinking, given weight by their implication.

“I would not have offered you a choice,” Theroen said after a moment, “had I been able to do so on the first night. I was... rather arrogant, really, in my desire. Now? Two, you must mean it with all of your heart and soul.”

Two was quiet, contemplating. How could she ever be sure? She was not tempted by the money, the clothes, the fast cars, the expensive furniture. These things mattered little to Two. Here though, was love, and redemption, and escape. Everything she could possible desire was here in this mansion, on this couch.

The blood was here, and if it held power over her now, half-complete and unable truly to taste it as a vampire might, then what might it be like once the transformation was complete?

“Love, lust, hatred, passion... it is all things, Two. Yet it is nothing more than another drug in the end. It is not the blood you need to accept. The blood pushes itself upon you regardless, and you will do whatever is necessary to acquire it.

“You ask me to make you a destructive force. A tornado. A fire. A flood. A thing beyond the scope of mortal comprehension, who kills at her whim, because it is her nature to do so.”

Still quiet, but wasn’t she now simply giving Theroen the chance to say his piece? Her mind was made up. The taste of what he offered, the blood, the escape, the strength to put her past behind her, had set desire aflame in her that could not be quenched by cautionary words.

“You will have to kill,” Theroen said. “Oh, Two, you’d be such a vampire. Lover, fighter, mother, killer. It’s all in you. I sense it. Yet I can no longer blindly force you down this path. You must lead yourself. You...”

Two put her fingers on his mouth, turned her head, locked her eyes with his.

“Theroen. Finish me.”

He paused a moment longer, looking into her eyes as if searching for some fear she might be hiding. Two knew that all he would find there was