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“Louis-Cesare informed me.”
“Really. What else did he say?”
“Ow! Watch it!” Ray groused. I looked down to see that I’d jabbed him in the eye.
“He did not say anything else,” Christine said, sitting back down. She’d changed out of the bloody night-dress as soon as we returned, with a squeamishness that seemed a little odd in a vampire. The new ensemble was a deep rose gown with scads of antique handmade lace around the low neckline. It complemented the glossy dark hair, delicate features and big brown eyes.
I went back to work, but I could feel those eyes on me, like a weight.
I sighed. I’d known this was coming. She could probably smell Louis-Cesare all over me and vice versa. And while it wasn’t a servant’s place, even a favored one, to criticize her master, I was fair game.
I looked up, waiting for it, but she didn’t say anything. She just sat there, her gaze steady on mine. And weirdly enough, there was no challenge in it. If anything, it held a kind of childish wonder.
“Take a picture; it’ll last longer,” Ray told her.
She blinked. “I’m sorry,” she told me again. “I did not mean to stare. But I must admit that I find you fascinating.”
What I found fascinating was that the needle just kept going in. Half of it had disappeared inside Ray’s skull, and it hadn’t hit anything yet. Well, nothing hard anyway. I tried wiggling it around, but it made his eyes cross so I stopped.
“Any particular reason why?” I asked Christine.
“You kill vampires.”
“Only the bad kind,” I told her, to prevent another freak-out.
“They’re all bad.”
I would have thought she was kidding, but that beautiful face was perfectly serious. “You’re a vampire.”
“Yes.”
“So you’re evil?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s a novel approach.” She tilted her head to one side in a question. “Most vamps I’ve met are like anybody else,” I explained. “They find ways to justify what they want to do so it leaves them the hero of the story.”
A small frown appeared between those lovely eyes. “But that would be useless. Denying what we are does not change it. Evil is evil, regardless of the face it wears.”
This conversation was getting a little surreal. And that was from someone used to talking to Radu. “So you’re a self-professed evil vampire?” A nod. “And I kill evil vamps.” Another nod. “Should I just kill you then?”
“Oh, not yet,” she told me earnestly. “I have done little to redeem myself.”
“Elevator don’t go all the way to the top, does it?” Ray muttered. And then his eyes lowered to half- mast, and he started to grin, lazily. “Oh, yeah, baby. Right there. That’s the spot. Hit that a—”
I hastily pushed the needle a little farther in, and he shut up.
“I thought you believed that vampires lost their souls,” I reminded her. “How do you get redemption after that?”
“It is not easy,” she told me seriously. “For years I could not understand why God would allow this to happen to me. I felt betrayed, lost, unclear what path I should take. I hated my master for making me like this, for giving me these terrible cravings—”
“But you got over that.” I didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm, but Christine didn’t look like she’d noticed.
“Yes. He did not mean to hurt me, merely to change me into what he was. And he does not see himself as a monster, did you know?” she asked, apparently amazed.
I stared at her. “If it hadn’t been for that ‘monster,’ you’d have been dead a long time ago!”
She sat forward, nodding eagerly. “Yes, yes, precisely. That is what I finally realized, too. Louis-Cesare was doing God’s work, although he did not know it. I was meant to live this life, to have this chance. You understand, don’t you?”
