Midnight 01 - Luisa's Desire

are."
     
    He waited then, a picture of Oriental patience. More than anything he seemed curious. No one who suspected she was not human had ever reacted in this way. Then again, in this country, demons and ghosts were treated as little more than inconvenient neighbors. Tibetans bought an amulet or a spell and continued on their way. Luisa sensed that even if she admitted to being a monster, this holy man would not condemn her.
     
    Of course, a failure to condemn was not the same as giving aid.
     
    At a loss, she looked to Martin. He was watching her just as calmly. She wondered if his composure were a pretense or if, like his teacher, he was prepared to accept her as she was.
     
    "We can see this request is important to you," Martin said. "We would be interested to know why."
     
    Luisa hesitated. Could she tell them? Should she? Would they help her if she did not? She fisted her hands within the iron shackles. The slow, draining chill pulled at her through her clothes. The metal would not kill her unless someone thrust it through her heart. Eventually, though, it would weaken her enough to be killed. By sunlight. Or fire. Or the severing of her spine. She supposed she could take her choice.
     
    As if sensing her fears, the abbot lifted a key from a ring on the belt that tied his robe.
     
    "No," she said before he could use it. "Let me answer before you decide to free me." Uncurling her fingers, she forced herself to relax. "I was born as human as you. One hundred twenty years ago, on the fortieth anniversary of my birth, my master changed me to the creature I am today. He was the descendant of an ancient race who came from a distant star. They lived in peace here once, until a few took to killing humans. We… feed off them, you see. It is the only sustenance we can take." She straightened her shoulders. "I am what the people of Russia call upyr, a blood-drinker, an immortal."
     
    "An immortal." The abbot's head was cocked birdlike to the side. He seemed not so much shocked as fascinated. "An immortal who is neither ghost nor god. An immortal in human form." Suddenly he laughed. "You know, we of Tibet aspire to leave the world of illusion behind. To us, this earth is a kind of hell—a schoolroom, if you will—where we are repeatedly reborn in order to perfect our true, nonmaterial being. You, Luisa del Fiore, seem to have enrolled for a very long term!"
     
    His humor discomposed her. "I do not wish to give up my life," she said, wanting to be clear. "I simply wish to live more ethically. I wish to live without drinking blood."
     
    "Ah," said the abbot, "now I begin to see. You must realize that may not be possible."
     
    "Yes, your holiness, but surely if anyone can teach me it is you."
     
    "Perhaps." His dark eyes narrowed in consideration. "I will have to meditate carefully before I act. It will not be easy to instruct you, who have not been raised in our system, and it may not be wise to try. We shall see." He turned to Martin, his expression warming with a father's fondness. "I leave it to you to make our visitor comfortable. Perhaps she would like a quiet room in the old east wing."
     
    Martin looked as if he longed to forgo this duty, but he bowed instead, his steepled hands moving smoothly from brow to throat to heart. "As you wish, rinpoche."
     
    From his tone, Luisa gathered "rinpoche" was as much a term of honor as a name.
     
    To her relief, Martin unshackled her and led her in a new direction down the stony, torchlit hall. Apart from instructing her to follow and shooting her the occasional measuring glance, he did not speak. Luisa was no stranger to solitude, but for some reason his taciturnity frayed her nerves. They climbed a set of ancient stairs.
     
    "Have you taken a vow of silence?" she asked.
     
    "No," was his short, basso response.
     
    "Might I ask then why your abbot keeps a set of chains in his reception chamber?"
     
    "They are for interrogating criminals. The neighboring villages sometimes bring their accused here. My teacher reads their auras to see if they speak true."
     
    "Their auras."
     
    "The aura is a second body. It is a match for the physical body, inhabiting the same space and extending slightly beyond it, but composed of life force instead of matter. The life force of the earth is what a hermit survives on while he fasts."
     
    Luisa considered this as they turned down another corridor, apparently uninhabited and lit by narrow windows. The slits were open to the