“BEFORE THE SUNRISE Arion took me to the cellar beneath the house and showed me the crypt in which I would sleep. He told me simply that, young as I was, the sun could destroy me, and that even when I had attained a great age, such as he had, it would still render me powerless and unconscious. He told me also that fire could mean my death. But that no other injury could kill me.

“I felt, unwisely, no doubt, that I understood these things. He told me as well that all the wounds inflicted on me by Petronia in her rage would heal over the day’s time, as they weren’t very serious for one of my strength, and that he would come for me when the sun had set, and I should wait for him.

“ ‘Don’t be afraid of the narrow box, my child,’ he said. ‘Make it your refuge. And don’t be afraid of your dreams. You are an immortal now, and all your faculties are enhanced. Accept it and rejoice in it.’

“ ‘I lay down then in the crypt, and I did suffer the most unspeakable horror of it, but there was nothing to be done about it, the granite lid was closed over me, and very soon, weeping quietly, I lost consciousness.

“I dreamed a dream of Patsy. She smelled like cotton candy. Her lips tasted like candy apples. I dreamed I was a little child, and I sat on her lap, and she pushed me off, and I grew to be a man in a twinkling and I killed her. I drank her blood. It tasted like maple syrup. Her diseases and her meanness could not contaminate me. I tried to wake up. I dreamed this over and over and I woke once, or so I dreamed, with her body in my arms. A Barbie. I pushed her down into the green water of the swamp and as I watched her sink below the surface I felt horror. But she was gone and dead, and blood came up. It was too late to save her. Bye Patsy. Rebecca laughed. A death for my death. ‘Oh yes,’ I scoffed, ‘you think you planned everything.’ ‘The Damnation of Quinn,’ said Fr. Kevin.

“When I opened my eyes the next time Arion was there looking down at me. The sun had only just set and the sky was still red and the golden light filled the crypt, and he was pleased to see that I was conscious. He led me up the stairs and to the terrace.

“The stars drifted in the purple sky. The gold hung behind the clouds. It was magnificent.

“ ‘Some Blood Hunters don’t wake till the sky is full dark,’ he said, ‘and they never know this quiet glory. I see you shade your eyes, but it doesn’t hurt you.’