The response surprised Rafael, but when he lifted his eyebrows, Dr. Green said, "It's okay. I'm kidding. Vampire girlfriends aren't much for cuddling first thing when they wake up, anyway. They really, really need to eat first."

Rafael felt too awkward to laugh, but managed a vague chuckle.

There was that twinge again.

Dr. Greene cocked an eyebrow at him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get this over with."

Stretched out on a hospital bed in a room a few doors down from Dr. Greene's bedroom, Rafael finally began to feel calm. Strange, because logically this was when he figured he should start getting nervous.

"I've been experimenting with some different delivery systems,"

the doctor was saying as he took an IV bag out of the small refrigerator.

"In the past, I've trusted the 'natural' approach-fangs and suc- tion-but my interviews with the Children made me pursue alternate methods."

"Why?"

"Too much 'drama and trauma.'" The doctor grinned. "They're kids. I wanted something a little less . . . scary."

"They're vampires," Rafael reminded him. "Some of them have been vampires for hundreds of years. I hardly think an exchange of blood is going to traumatize them."

"Yes, they are vampires. But they're also children. I did some extensive interviews with the oldest of the lot-Daniel and Treva- and I discovered some very interesting trends."

Rafael wasn't sure he really wanted to hear a report on the doctor's research. But Dr. Greene seemed determined to ramble on about it, so he asked, "What kinds of interesting trends?"

"Neither of them remember being Made. The process has been totally blanked from their memories. Also, although I know they must have killed at some point to stay alive, neither of them remember any such incidents. In fact, they were hard-pressed to remember their last meal."

Against his better judgment, Rafael found himself becoming curious.

"Why's that?"

"The human mind is a fascinating thing, particularly with regard to memory. Now, I'm no psychiatrist, but I did a great deal of research pertaining to this project. I wanted to be sure I had some idea of what might be going on in these kids' heads before I subjected them to any other potential trauma. Anyway, it appears a child's memory functions differently from an adult's. It's more likely to close out traumas, to block them off. The mind of a typical underage vampire has basically been wiped of anything traumatic or distasteful, to protect the child's psyche."

"So they don't even know they're vampires?" The concept jolted him. No wonder Dr. Greene was being so careful. There was a great deal more to this than just changing the physiology of the Children's blood.

"In a sense, no, they don't know," the doctor replied. Intellectually, maybe. Superficially. But not viscerally. You see, it doesn't matter how long they've been alive, their physical brain development has been frozen in time. For five hundred years, Daniel has had the brain of a ten-year-old boy, his synapse growth arrested by the fact of his transformation."

"Much like I'm stuck in the brain of a seventeen-year-old," Rafael said, with a lopsided smile. "Perpetually horny." At the doctor's laugh, he added, "Not a lot of my blood goes to my brain, I can tell you that."

"Well, that's a common affliction for men of all ages." The doctor had hung the IV bag from a stand and was preparing other appara- tus-needles and tubes and such that made Rafael uneasy.

"So exactly how does all this work?"

"That's a good question."

"Doc, this does not inspire confidence."

The doctor grinned. "I have a general idea. How much do you want explained?"

"As much as you like. I'm relatively intelligent for a horny seven- teen-year-old."

"Okay." Dr. Greene was silent for a moment, frowning thoughtfully.

"About two hundred and fifty years ago, Julian ran across a Native American shaman. Of a Sioux vintage, as I recall. Generations before, a vampire had given the tribe's holy man an herb, with instructions to pass it on to any vampire they might encounter in the future, as he himself lacked the willpower to use it to its full potential. The current shaman gave the herb to Julian and told him to smoke it. The stuff made it possible for Julian to abstain from human blood. And abstinence changed him-changed his blood, his feeding, everything. Now he can eat some human food and walk in the sunlight for long periods, and he has little need for sleep. He can feed on human energy, much as Lucien and Ialdaboth do, but without diminishing that energy in the process."

Most of it had sounded pretty weird, if not impossible, but that last bit rang a bell. "Hey," Rafael exclaimed. "That sounds a little like the litany. In a way."

"Yes. Which is why Julian wanted that information from you. To tell him about himself."

"So what does this have to do with me?"

The doctor took off his glasses, wiping them carefully on his shirttail as he resumed his narrative. "The next thing we ran into was Nicholas. He had been made by Vivian, who'd spent the last century or two feeding primarily on cancer victims. We were able to use Julian's blood in combination with Nick's to cure Dina, Nick's girlfriend, who was dying of cancer."

Rafael laced his fingers together, trying to twiddle his thumbs.

"And this relates to me how?" He didn't want to seem impatient or ungrateful, but he was having a hard time figuring out how these pieces might fit together.

Dr. Greene smiled a little, as if amused at his impatience. "Well, inquiring minds want to know, so I started mixing little bits of this blood and that blood and ended up with a blood that, when mixed with blood out of a vampire's veins, brings it to life." He lifted the bag on the IV stand. "This is one of the components from Nick's blood. It'll cause your blood to remain alive instead of dying within twenty-four hours, as it normally does."

Rafael frowned. "That's why we feed every day? To replace the blood that dies?"

"Right."

"Do most vampires know this, or am I especially ignorant?"

"Most vampires don't take the time to think about it. When Julian happened upon those herbs, he didn't know they kept his blood alive, but that was why he no longer had to feed. And when he transformed, that ability became a part of his physiology-something he could pass on to others under certain conditions." The doctor picked up a needle and opened the sterile packaging. "The combination I'm going to use on you doesn't work on cancerous cells, but it does work on the blood samples I took from the Children, and on the sample I took from you."

"Works how?"

"It produces the appropriate transformation-turns a finite supply of harvested blood, like what you normally keep in your veins, into self- perpetuating red cells like a normal human's. Wakes up your bone marrow-all sorts of neat things."

Rafael watched as the doctor slid the needle into a vein at the bend of his elbow, then taped it down and connected it to an IV tube.

"So we start with this," Dr. Greene said. "We put this bit of Nick's blood into you and see what happens."

"Excuse me-'see what happens?' I thought you knew what you were doing?"

"I do." Dr. Greene adjusted the IV bag, twisting the valve to start the bag's contents moving down the long, clear tube. It was red, but not quite blood-red. It had more of a bluish tinge than pure blood would have had. "I'm just not sure how intensive the exposure has to be. If introducing this element into your blood isn't enough to convert all of it, then I've got a dialysis machine in the other room we can use. We can run all your blood through the machine, wake it up with Nick's blood, and put it back into you."

"Why not just do that first?"

"Again, I'm trying to reduce the trauma as much as possible. If this works for you, it'll work for the Children and we won't have to subject them to that." He picked up his chart and wrote in it. "I don't worry as much about subjecting you to such things."

"Gee, thanks." Rafael settled his head on the pillow. "You got anything to read?"

An hour later, unhappy with the results from the straight IV, the doctor rolled Rafael's hospital bed down the hall to the dialysis machine.

Within a few minutes, Rafael understood why they'd tried the other procedure first. The dialysis machine was painful, invasive, and almost enough to make him give up the idea altogether.

But it worked. Dr. Greene took samples of the processed blood from time to time, scribbled in his chart, and made pleased grunting sounds.

The first round of dialysis lasted five hours. Then Dr. Greene showed up with another IV bag. This time the contents were a milky white, the bag only half full.

"One more go," he said, and Rafael groaned.

"We can't go back now. If I don't do this stage, you'll be dead in a week."

"Go ahead," said Rafael. "I signed up for the whole thing."

Dr. Greene nodded. "Good man."

Rafael grimaced. "I guess it's a good thing we've got a long night to work with."

The second time was worse. He couldn't concentrate well enough to read anymore, so he just closed his eyes and tried to think happy thoughts. Mostly about Sasha.

Sasha lingered in the hallway outside Rafael's room. She'd been avoiding seeing him most of the evening, but as midnight approached, her curiosity got the better of her.

At least, she kept telling herself it was curiosity. She wanted to know if Rafael was all right. Just out of concern for a friend. Nothing more than that.

When Dr. Greene emerged from the room, a frown on his face, her heart jumped up to choke her. Involuntarily, she took a step forward.

"Is he all right?"

The doctor looked up at her, still frowning. It seemed to take him a moment to orient himself. "He's fine," he finally said. "It's just proving a bit more difficult than I'd hoped." He paused. "More painful for him."

"He'll be all right, though?"

"Yes. He's got another couple of hours on the dialysis machine, then I'll monitor him through the rest of the night, and all day tomorrow."

"Will he sleep tomorrow?" She knew the doctor understood the real question, the one she didn't want to ask. Will he be a vampire tomorrow?

The doctor smiled a little. "He may sleep. He may not. He may have to go through one more night of vampiric Sleep, just to heal. Or he may sleep naturally. I'm really not certain."

"Because you've never done this before." Her voice came out more bitter than she'd intended.

"No, I haven't done this before. But Rafael knows that, and so do you." He frowned again, the expression directed this time at her rather than at his own thoughts. "I understand why you chose not to do this, but why do you resent his decision so much?"

She tilted her chin haughtily. "I don't think that's any of your damned business."

"No, it probably isn't." He glanced at his watch. "Do you want me to let you know when he's finished? He'd probably like to see you."

"No." Taking a backward step, she added, "Thanks." Then she turned and hurried down the hallway.

When the doctor finally unhooked him from the dialysis machine, Rafael was so exhausted from the constant pain, and so relieved at its absence, that he immediately fell asleep.

Must be daytime, he thought as he drifted away, but it felt different.

He had a feeling his body knew something his mind didn't. His body remembered this kind of sleep. His mind had mostly set those memories aside over the past four years.

He dreamed. He'd been told vampires dreamed from time to time, but he hadn't dreamed at all since he'd been Turned. The dreams made no sense, but he watched them with that strange, half-aware- ness that came with all ventures into the dream-world. It unnerved him at first, enough so that he felt the discomfort in his dream-state.

Then the colors started, and he could do nothing but sit back and enjoy the show.

He didn't recall ever having dreamt this vividly before. It was as if he were making up for the years lost. The dreams had little substance, but they shimmered with vibrancy, with streaks and flags of almost indescribable color. It was like being inside a kaleidoscope.

It seemed to go on forever, but eventually he did wake up. With a gasp of surprise, he sat bolt upright in the hospital bed. In a chair by the wall, Dr. Greene jerked awake.

Rafael smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's all right." The doctor straightened, rubbing the back of his neck. "How do you feel?"

"Okay." He stretched his arms out wide, folded them against his chest. "A little achy in the joints, maybe, but otherwise fine."

The doctor, as usual, went for a needle. "I want one more sample, just to see how things look."

Patiently, Rafael sat through the blood draw. With any luck, maybe this would be the last one. Dr. Greene took only a small amount of blood, then took it to the table at the back of the room, where he put some on a slide and slid it under the microscope.

"Looks good," he said after a moment. Turning to give Rafael a grin, he added, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was mine."

A sudden flood of emotion caught Rafael by surprise. He blinked a few times. He didn't know if he was about to laugh or cry, but he knew there would be tears involved.

"You okay?" the doctor asked.

"Yeah." He rubbed his face. "No. I mean-I just can't believe it's real."

"It'll take some time to get used to the idea, I'm sure." The doctor put a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really." Then it occurred to him-he didn't have to fight his hunger anymore. He could be hungry. He could go eat a cheeseburger and French fries instead of ripping someone's throat open.

The tears rimmed his lids, hot and heavy. There was no stopping them. They slid down his face, but he swallowed the thick sob that tried to follow them. Dr. Greene moved his hand along his back, turning his friendly touch into a half-embrace. "I've got some chicken soup in my room. Want some?"

The sob came up then. There was no stopping it. Around it, Rafael managed, "Yes. Oh, my God, yes."

In the hallway, Sasha saw the doctor escort Rafael down the hall.

Rafael was crying-or rather, trying not to, dashing tears from his face. They walked away from her and never saw her.

Rafael looked different. His skin was pinker, and she could smell his blood even from here. Living blood. The kind she could feed on.

She wheeled and ran the other way, all the way up, through the corridors, into the last few hours of darkness.

Five.