Demon Moon

him?”
    “Yes. Ramsdell returned home, and I hunted her down.”
    “Did you kill her?”
    “No. I warned her.”
    Savi’s lips pressed together, and her eyes sparkled with amusement. “Taught her a lesson?”
    “ Suggested that she might refrain from forcing the change onto humans, and find a companion. Which she did, transforming him with no complications. That letter is included as well.” He took a long breath. “There was another vampire. A female. Osterberg’s partner.”
    Her mouth rounded in surprise. “When?”
    “Thursday evening, after I left you in Castleford’s house.”
    “Oh,” she said. Her shields weren’t up; he could feel the spin of her emotions as she worked it through. Confusion, realization. “I’d heard that you had to slay a vampire who’d broken the rules—who’d killed a homeless man. That was her?”
    “Yes.”
    “She fed from you? And she died the same way as the others?” At his nod, her brows drew together and she looked down at her hands.
    His throat felt swollen. “It wasn’t a…kind way to do it, Savi.”
    “No.” She raised her dark gaze to his. “Perhaps next time you should use your swords.”
    Relief rushed through him, but he held himself still. “Yes.” He swallowed thickly. “She was old, Savi. Perhaps a hundred years or so. Strong.”
    Her eyes unfocused as she thought it over. “So perhaps vampire blood can’t overcome the taint; it has to be nosferatu blood. But you’d have thought of that.”
    “Yes.”
    “So even your blood, from the strongest nosferatu-born vampire alive, isn’t enough to overcome it during transformation. Or feeding, in Byron and the female’s case.”
    A confirmation of what he’d already determined: both transformation and feeding, too much the risk. “No.”
    “But there are a lot of variables,” she said quietly. “Polidori’s transformation was interrupted; Shelley was strong, but…” She glanced down at the letters. “I don’t know. I’ll read these and talk to Hugh and Michael.”
    “I’ve already—” He couldn’t finish; she raised her eyes to his again, hope glimmering within them. He shouldn’t have put it there, but he couldn’t crush it. “I’ve already made arrangements for us to meet with them at the warehouse today.”
    It wasn’t a lie, but she’d likely protest his true reason. Nor was he looking forward to another visit to the Room—but the wyrmwolves’ connection to Savi rather than himself made discovering the reason behind it vital.
    She nodded and pressed a kiss to his mouth. “I need to phone Nani before we go.” Wrapping the sheet around her, she crawled toward the foot of the bed, reached out to pull back the curtain. “You’ll have to lower the shields around the house; should I call from the room in the basement?”
    He gave an automatic assent; distracted by sight and sound of the silk sliding over her bottom, he’d barely an instant in which to remember what she’d see. But an instant was all it took to crouch behind her, cover her eyes.
    “Wait, Savi,” he said urgently. He felt her body tremble, as if in laughter—then still when she realized he’d not detained her for play.
    His heart pounded in his chest, his blood racing through his veins. He should ask her to shut her eyes until he carried her from the room; she would, he’d no doubt—but his request would only torturously pique her curiosity.
    And hadn’t he brought her up here so that she would see? So that she would know why he’d given her the letters? He’d told her his reason…but he’d not told her the whole of it.
    He needed to prepare her, though—and himself. He’d not thought he’d be anxious. “They’re not intended to…I hope you do not think them creepy .”
    She blinked rapidly, her lashes tickling his palms. “Let me look.”
    He inhaled the warm skin at her nape, held the sweet scent in his mouth. Then he lowered his hands and waited.
    She clutched the sheet to her chest. The drape of the material at the bottom of her spine swayed gently with her steps; the silk trailing on the floor made her seem to glide rather than walk.
    He did not tear his eyes from her as she stared up at herself, enthralled and beautiful. Or as she moved on, examined her wary expression when she encountered him outside Castleford’s home the night of his return from Caelum—and at the next, the curiosity and confusion in the glance she’d given him when she’d turned to leave. As she