Blood Pact

down hard on the hysteria she could feel rising. Later, she told it. Later, when Henry's safe and my mother's . . . my mother is . . .

    Celluci's voice cut through the thought. "No change.”

    "Give it a minute." One step at a time, she managed to return to the box and to Celluci's side. If he hadn't gone back before her, she didn't think she could've made it. With her arm pressed up against the warm resilience of his, she looked down at Donald Li's face.

    Dark eyes caught her gaze and held it. Wrung dry, Vicki didn't even attempt to pull away. Suddenly, she realized that as all encompassing as her terror and revulsion might be it was nothing next to the terror that shrieked from behind the eyes of Donald Li.

    She had nothing to be afraid of in comparison.

    As the fear faded, anger rose to take its place.

    What sort of a person could do this to another human being?

    All at once, the dead man's eyes widened and just for an instant his expression changed to one of incredulous joy.

    Then his face held no expression at all.

    Vicki released a breath she didn't remember holding. "You see that?”

    "Yeah.”

    "Any doubts that we did the right thing?”

    "Not one.”

    Together they reached up and pulled the lid closed.

    Alone in the dark, Henry wondered how much of the night he had left. Surely he'd endured a dozen hours or more since sunset.
    Why can't I feel the dawn? With the Hunger clawing for freedom and steel wrapped about him like a shroud, he yearned for oblivion even as he dreaded it.

    He'd run through all the moments of Vicki he had. Unfair that a year slips through memory so fast. While some of what they'd shared had added to the Hunger, most had helped to force it back. Vicki had given him her life, not just her body and blood. Had forged friendship out of circumstance. Had helped him when he needed it. Had come to him for help. Had trusted him. Been trusted in return.

    Passion. Friendship. Need. Trust.

    Together, love. Considered in that light, he supposed it wasn't actually necessary for Vicki to say she loved him. Although it would have been good to hear. . . .

    He tried to remember how many times he had heard the words. A hundred voices cried out; women's voices, men's voices, he quieted them all, searching the past for the glint of gold among the dross. A thousand nights slipped by, a hundred thousand, and out of all the shared passion and friendship and need there were only four, three women and a man, with whom there had also been trust enough for love.

    "Ginevra. Gustav. Sidonie. Beth." He murmured their names into the darkness. So many others he'd let go of, forgotten, but those he still held. "Only four in all those years. . . .”

    Two had been taken from him by violence, one by accident, one by time.

    He could feel the melancholy gathering into a tangible presence, threatening to crush him under its weight.

    "Vicki." A fifth name. A living name. "And as they say . . ." Although he knew it would do no good, Henry pressed his uninjured hand up against the lid as hard as exhaustion and pain allowed. ". . . where there's life, there's hope.”

    Muscles strained, the darkness developed a reddish hue, then the arm collapsed down across his chest and he was nearly deafened by the sound of his heart slamming up against his ribs. He had no idea what he'd been trying to prove.

    One last effort for the sake of love? He shifted slightly, changing his position as much as he could, the plastic padding beneath him tugging at the bare skin of his back. At least this time I won't be the one left behind to mourn.

    Melancholy turned to despair and closed icy fingers around him.

    It would be so easy to surrender.

    I am Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, the son of a king.

    I am Vampire.

    He was too tired. It just wasn't enough anymore.

    Vicki wouldn't quit.

    Vicki won't quit. Not until she finds you. Find strength in that. Trust her.

    She will come.

    Christina had come. She had birthed him from the darkness, nourished him, guarded him, taught him, and finally let him go.

    "Listen to what your instincts tell you, Henry. Our nature says we hunt alone. This is your territory, I give it to you, and I will not stay to fight you for it.”

    "Then stay and share it with me!”

    She only smiled, a little sadly.

    He paced the length of the room and back to throw himself down on his knees at her feet. Even a short time before, he would have finished the motion by burying his head in her lap but