"I know, dear." As much as she detested this foolish girl, she could only sympathize with her now. She had lived this suffering.

"I've got to have blood." She gave Sarah a desperate glance. "I tried to eat some of the omelet I made him, but it was revolting, it tasted like wet paper." She threw her arms around Sarah. "He smells good. He smells like - like -"

"Food."

"What have I done, Sarah, what have I done to myself?" Sarah could not answer her. There were no words to describe the ruin of a soul. But she held her, she kissed her soft hair. "We'll hunt you up a meal. Like that old woman. A nice meal."

Leo looked at her out of awful, stricken eyes. "I don't want to kill anybody."

"You made a choice."

"I don't want to!"

Sarah moved quickly to close the bedroom door. He mustn't overhear this.

"Leo, I'm going to tell you something about that man in there. I don't want you to be frightened. It's all going to come right. I hope it is."

She went across to the graceful New Kingdom table that stood beneath the wide window. Paul's magnum pistol lay there. The table had been a gift to Miri from Thutmose IV, "in exchange," as she put it, "for some girlish indiscretions that he found very enjoyable."

"This is going to come as a surprise, I know. That man in there is a killer of the Keepers. A professional."

Leo's eyes went to the closed door. "I didn't think anybody knew about them."

"There are people who know. He's one of them. He's murdered hundreds of them." She said nothing of how that made her feel - the combination of relief and cold terror.

"Oh, my G.o.d. But why is she - "

"Leo, something happened tonight that I still don't fully understand. She apparently enjoyed that man immoderately. She thinks, for whatever reason, that he fertilized her egg."

"Only another Keeper can. Isn't that true?"

Sarah nodded. "It's a fantasy, nothing more. A tragic fantasy."

"She can make a mistake like that?"

"Miriam - a Keeper woman - has only four eggs in her lifetime. This is her last one."

"Does she have any children?"

"No. Apparently she's lost her last egg, and - well, she seems to have had a bit of a breakdown."

"Can't you give her anything? I mean, you're a doctor and all."

"What we need to do is to give her a pregnancy test. When it comes up negative, my hope is that she'll come to her senses."

"And I'll get - I'll get to . . ." She lowered her eyes. Her face burned with shame. "I hate this!"

"You bought it," Sarah said. "Wear it."

"I don't want to do any more killing! Not ever, Sarah."

"Join the club."

"But I have to, don't I?"

"Join the club."

Leo began to weep. The hopelessness in the small, defeated sobs was familiar from Sarah's own private moments. Sarah embraced her, and Leo held on tight. "It hurts, Sarah. It hurts terribly!"

"Blood will fix that."

Leo grew pale. "I'll kill myself," she said.

Sarah was silent. Leo hadn't yet seen the attic. Better to put that off for a few days.

"What do I do, Sarah?"

"Leo, that man in there is a monster. He's killed hundreds of Keepers, and he'll kill Miri the instant he discovers what she is."

"She won't let him."

"In bed together for hours, exploring each other naked, and him being familiar with Keepers and how they look - it could happen at any moment." She gestured toward the magnum. "That thing is loaded with explosive bullets. They'll blow your brains right out of your head, your heart out of your chest. The only thing that Miriam's body can't survive is the failure of blood flow. Given an intact circulatory system, she'll heal. Always. He knows this. He knows exactly how to kill a Keeper."

"I had a nice life. I had my loft and my little boat and my friends - a few friends - and I was collecting cool artists like the Starn brothers and John Currin . . . but I spent most of my nights at home, or going to clubs by myself, trying to look like the group I wanted to be part of. But n.o.body wanted me. I was a washout . . . until all of a sudden Miriam Blaylock Miriam Blaylock starts taking an interest. In me! I was totally impressed, Sarah." She choked back a sob. starts taking an interest. In me! I was totally impressed, Sarah." She choked back a sob.

To her credit, she did not break down, which is what Sarah had thought was going to happen. She raised her head, stuck out her chin, and said, "What we have to do is pretty d.a.m.n simple."

"It is indeed."

She took out the fleam, handed it to Sarah. "You know how to use this; I don't."

Sarah opened it. "You hook the end in behind the vessel, then jerk it toward you. The blood'll come out in a stream. You get your mouth over it and just keep swallowing as fast as you can."

"What if I throw up?"

"You won't. You're carrying around a pint of Miri's blood in your veins. It'll be like taking the most intense drug you've ever known. It makes the most powerful horse ever sold seem like aspirin."

"He'll go nuts when he gets stuck. I mean, he's gonna feel it, Sarah."

"I'll do the incision. All you have to do is cover the wound with your mouth and suck as hard as you possibly can."

"He'll fight."

"It's not like that if you're fast. They lose consciousness in a couple of seconds."

"You better do it."

"You need to eat! If you don't, her blood's going to start destroying yours. You'll go into shock."

"I'll die?" She actually sounded hopeful, as if she thought it might be a welcome release. Sarah thought of what was in the attic.

"Feeding draws the blood right out of the brain. He won't even get a chance to yell."

Leo looked to her with the gaze of a little sister, and Sarah realized that her feelings toward this kid were changing. She squeezed Leo's hand, trying to rea.s.sure her. "You're going to be perfect. The hard part is the incision, and I'm doing that." "It's quiet," Leo said, looking toward the closed door of Miriam's bedroom.

"He's sleeping."

"But she isn't?"

"No."

Miri only slept after she fed. Since she hadn't, she would be completely conscious the whole time.

"You stay at the door, Leo. Come in at my signal."

Sarah went into the bedroom, her fleam concealed in her blouse. Paul was as comatose as a mouse-stuffed snake. Miri was cuddled up to him like a schoolgirl with her first lover.

She looked so happy, eyes closed, face blissful. She was nuzzling his chest hair.

When Miri saw Sarah, she gave her a secret, delighted smile. Sarah went to her and stroked her hair, which was twice as full as it had been even a few hours ago. The Keeper body was astonishing in its ability to regenerate and restore itself. Sarah had been fascinated to find out how it all worked. Some nature somewhere had evolved this wonderfully regenerative organism, but it had not been earthly nature. Miriam had never told Sarah where they had come from, only that it was the stars. Why they had appeared here, as colonists or refugees, or - as Sarah suspected - on some far more exotic mission involving the evolution of species, she would not discuss, and perhaps did not know.

Sarah went around the far side of the bed from Miri. She hated so to hurt her, but this had to be done, and there was no time to waste. Poor Miri could be foolish in love. It was her one failing. Sarah had been the victim of some of that foolishness, but also the beneficiary of its indulgence, for which she was profoundly grateful. Miri's love also lasted. In the past twenty years, she had probably spent ten million dollars on Sarah's scientific efforts, even indulging her struggle to see if she could remove the Keeper blood that Miri herself had put in her veins.

Sarah slipped into the bed. Paul's back was to her, his form concealing her from Miri's vision. She stretched out against him.

"Isn't he wonderful?" Miri whispered.

"He's certainly big."

Sarah brought out the fleam, then drew the narrow silver blade with the hooked end out of its ivory sheath. Using the delicate tips of her surgeon's fingers, she found his jugular.

The pulse was excellent. He was going to be an extraordinary first meal for Leo. In fact, there'd be plenty for Sarah, too. She could top off that weak old woman and maybe get a month more time before she needed to feed again.

This was one kill that she wasn't going to mind. How strange her heart was, to want to kill an enemy of Miri's who had literally stolen her from herself. But she loved Miri at least as much as she hated her. She didn't think of herself as a lesbian - she had no interest in Leo, for example - but what Miri had done for her in the car on the way to the club had been wonderful beyond words, so fulfilling that it seemed to literally feed the soul. Not even with Tom had it been like it was with Miri.

This love across the border of species was deeply awful, yes, but somehow also deeply sacred. For all of her anger and all of her striving to escape her fate, Sarah knew that she would always be here, always in the end choosing her Miri over freedom, over death, over everything.

She rose into a sitting position. Now she could see Miri, whose eyes were closed, whose lips reflected deep happiness - deep and pitiful.

She motioned to Leo, who came quickly to her side. Sarah gestured toward the sleeping man, then toward Leo's mouth. Leo nodded. On her face was a child's expression of fascination.

With the quickness of long practice, Sarah slit the vein. Blood spurted, and she pressed Leo's head against the wound.

She did surprisingly well, sucking with ferocious energy.

"He's out," Sarah said, as Paul's body sagged.

But then a shock like an explosion went through the huge body. Sarah heard air rush into the lungs. Leo was sucking hard, but he was most certainly not out.

On the contrary, he roared out his pain and surprise. Miri screamed, too, and leaped back away from them.

Still roaring, with Leo stuck to him like a stubborn leech, Paul lumbered up off the bed and started pulling at her, trying to rip her off him. She was not going to be pulled off, though. She sucked, he screamed, he staggered, Miri screamed.

Obviously, this man was not like ordinary men. Somehow, this man had remained conscious through a sudden and total loss of intercranial blood pressure. Somehow, this rather easy kill had become a disaster.

He lurched across the room, trying to peel Leo off. Her eyes were wide and she remained stuck tight. It was the blood, Sarah knew, the incredible effect of the blood. Her first taste had driven her almost mad with pleasure, and she would fight off the devil before she would stop sucking it out of him.

Sarah also knew that this monster was not going to be killed. She raced out of the bedroom.

Leo was hardly even aware of what was happening. This blood - it was a miracle, it tasted like sunlight, like heaven. Every gulp of it went gushing into her starved cells, filling her with energy and power and buzzing thrills.

Then strong arms - really strong arms - came around her and yanked her off. Paul dropped to his knees, his neck spurting. He was gasping, he was swaying - and then he reached out and grabbed Leo's wrist and drew her down to him. He tried to speak but nothing came out. But the look of hatred on his face was something phenomenal, something unnatural. He was like some kind of h.e.l.l creature, this man.

Miri grabbed her away from him and screamed directly in her face, a banshee wail. "He's of my kind," she shrieked. "Of my my kind!" kind!"

A high-voltage shock of total surprise flashed through Sarah, who had returned to the bedside. She was saying that this man . . . was a Keeper? This This man? man?

He rose up, his eyes blazing. He tore a newel post off the bed and swung it. It whistled past Leo, nearly hitting her. Then he swung it at Miri, who ducked easily. It shattered instead against the wall with such force that the whole house shook.

He leaped on Miri. His hands tightened like a vise around her neck. Leo grabbed his arms, but he could not be dislodged. No matter the blood he had lost and was still losing, he was as strong as iron.

"He's killing her," she screamed. She beat on his back. Miri's eyes came bulging out of her head. Leo screamed, she cried, she hauled at the iron arms. Miri's face was disintegrating, her mouth returning to its natural shape, the prosthetics that altered her appearance popping out. Then the compression of her throat forced her tongue between her lips. It appeared, black and pointed, gorged with blood. His own blood was still spraying out of his neck, spattering her with a red shower.

Leo hit him and hit him, but he was totally fixed on this; he was like a robot programmed to kill.

Suddenly there was a terrific, blinding blast and he dropped like a stone. Leo threw herself between him and Miri, who went to her feet coughing and rubbing her neck.

Sarah stood quietly, the magnum in her hands.

Miri staggered. Then she threw herself on him; she turned him over, tried to stop his bleeding. "Help us," she screamed.

"Miri, let her feed! Let her take him!"

"You're a doctor! Help us!"

"Miri, he's dangerous! He's got to be killed, come on!"

"Save him, Sarah! Please Please!"

"Miri, no! Leo, take him!"

Miriam leaped up, and before Sarah could stop her, she had tossed Leo across the room like a rag doll. Then she yanked the magnum out of Sarah's hands.

Sarah prepared to die.

But Miriam stuck the gun in her own mouth. She screwed her eyes shut.

This would not kill her, but it would leave her too damaged to recover. In the end, Sarah would have to stop her heart.