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"Go on, you must tell me. Where did you come together?"
"And the Blood went into her," I said, "and the two of us were together. We were together for two hundred years. "
"Oh, such a long time," she said.
"Yes, it was a long time, though it did not seem so then. Every night was new and I loved her and she loved me, of course, and we quarreled so often. . . . "
"But was it a good quarreling?" she asked.
"Yes, it was, how very right of you to ask that question," I said. "It was a good quarreling until the last. "
"What was the last?" she asked gently.
"I did a cruel and mistaken thing to her. I did a wrong thing. I left her without warning and without recourse, and now I can't find her. "
"You mean you search for her even now?"
"I don't search because I don't know where to search," I said, lying just a little, "but I look always. . . . "
"Why did you do it?" she asked. "Why did you leave her as you described?"
"Out of love and anger," I said. "And it was the first time that the Satan worshipers had come, you see. Those of the very same ilk that burnt my house and took Amadeo. Only it was centuries ago, can you understand? They came. Oh, not with my enemy, Santino. Santino didn't exist then. Santino is no ancient one. But it was the same tribe, the same ones who believe they are put here on Earth as blood drinkers to serve the Christian God. "
I could feel her shock, though for a moment she said nothing, and then she spoke.
"So this was why they cried out about blasphemy," she said.
"Yes, and long long ago, they said similar things as they came to us. They threatened us, and they wanted, they wanted what we knew. "
"But how did this divide you and the woman?"
"We destroyed them. We had to. And she knew that we had to do it, and afterwards, when I fell sullen and listless and would say nothing, she was angry with me, and I grew angry with her. "
"I see," she answered.
"It didn't have to be, this quarrel. I left her. I left her because she was resolute and strong and had known that the Satan worshipers had to be destroyed. And I had not known and even now, all these many centuries later, I have fallen into the same error.
"In Rome, I knew they existed, these creatures; in Rome, this Santino came to me. In Rome, I should have destroyed him and his followers. But I would have no part of it, you see, and so he came after me, and burnt my house and all I loved. "
She was shocked and for a long time said nothing.
"You love her still, this woman," she said.
"Yes, but you see, I never stop loving anyone. I will never stop loving you. "
"Are you certain of it?"
"Completely," I answered. "I loved you when first I saw you. Haven't I told you?"
"In all these years, you've never stopped thinking of her?"
"No, never stopped loving her. Impossible to stop thinking of her or loving her. Even the details of her remain with me. Loneliness and solitude have imprinted her most strongly on my mind. I see her. I hear her voice. She had a lovely clear voice. " I mused. I went on.
"She was tall; she had brown eyes, with thick brown eyelashes. Her hair was long and rippling and dark brown. She wore it loose when she wandered. Of course I remember her in the softly draped clothes of those ancient times, and I cannot envision her as she might be in these years. And so she seems some goddess to me or saint, I'm not certain which. . . "
She said nothing. Then finally she spoke.
"Would you leave me for her if you could?"
