Demon Moon

flicked her nose in reproof. “But he could have told Polidori the truth without resorting to cruelty, simply to exercise his wit.”
    She bit her lip, but couldn’t help herself. “So why didn’t you like Byron? Because he was so handsome? So talented and brilliant?”
    “It is true that I despise handsome men more clever than I—whereas I adore beautiful, intelligent women—but primarily I disliked him because he was a self-absorbed ass. His only redeeming quality was his eccentricity. One could never be bored near him. Don’t laugh; this is not about me . And hold still.”
    “So you were all together in Lake Geneva, where you read the curse.” At his nod, she squelched her need to ask about the details of it. For now, anyway. “When did you see Hugh? You mentioned he was in Switzerland shortly after that.”
    His face hardened. “I did not see him; I heard him. Deciding whether to slay me, and then bargaining with Lilith for my life when she threatened to rid the world of one more bloodsucker.”
    Savi’s mouth dropped open; her stomach knotted. “You’re joking.”
    “No.”
    “Why? He made a vow to protect you.”
    “Yes, but there had been deaths in the region, seemingly vampiric in origin. If I’d have been the cause, he’d have executed me. His specific words were to the effect that he’d allow me to live, and to take blood from humans as I needed, so long as I was not cruel, and so long as I did not kill.”
    She stared up at him. No wonder he’d harbored such resentment; though she couldn’t argue with the conditions Hugh had set, Colin must feel that he’d essentially lived for two hundred years by Hugh’s leave.
    Colin sighed. “It was not all as bad as that, Savi, and I am grateful, in some respects. Without that warning, I don’t know what I might have become—especially once the curse took effect. Without Ramsdell and Emily, without Castleford, I could have easily been not much different from Dalkiel. If I am not the more corrupt for the increase in power my transformation gave to me—particularly in those initial years—it is only due to the people surrounding me.”
    She squeezed her legs more tightly around his waist; there was nothing to say, no response but to hold on to him. “Did you leave Switzerland after that?”
    “I thought the curse would fade, but after several weeks it did not, and I returned to Derbyshire. Eventually, I moved on to London, where the hunting was better. And I was not as likely to upset my family; my adjustment to the curse was…difficult.”
    “How did you get through it?”
    “I developed an obsession for oil and canvas. A long-lived one, as it turned out.” He smiled slightly. “I am too eager to talk of myself, Savitri. You must not encourage me. By God, hold still.”
    “Don’t blame me; it’s not my fault you’re fascinating.” Her quick grin held no apology, but she stopped moving. With more seriousness, she asked, “When did you try to transform him?”
    “Five years later. I’d met with him in Brighton for a holiday, and shortly after we returned to London, he asked it of me. He’d been practicing law, under a different—” He grimaced tightly. “—less foreign name. He’d had a succession of failures, professionally, artistically, personally…”
    Pressing his lips together, he stared at the headboard for a moment. His gaze flattened, cold and bleak; gently, he disentangled Savi’s legs and sat up.
    She scrambled to her knees and pulled the sheet over her breasts; there was no rejection in him—only, she sensed, a refusal to take enjoyment or pleasure of any kind while he related the last.
    “He’d also accumulated a mountain of gambling debts—but one did not talk of such, Savi. It was vulgar. And I don’t know that I could have helped him—if I would have helped him—if he’d asked me. His depression and embarrassment were severe, but he was certain that the transformation would allow him to renew his fortune—mentally, financially. And so I drank his blood, and slit my wrist for him to take mine. Before he’d taken half of what he’d need for the transformation, he began screaming. It didn’t stop until he fell into the daysleep.”
    “Was it Chaos? Did he see it?” Savi whispered.
    “No. He said his blood burned like hellfire within him. I could detect no fever, however, and the next evening, he was no longer in pain. Only morose and weak, and he determined that we would continue the