“Finally, after we had hunted perhaps more than was required, we settled in a somewhat quiet café where he could talk to me and educate me, and this thrilled me almost as much as our hunting.

“But as soon as the stillness settled over me, as soon as I had the coffee in my hands, which I couldn’t and didn’t want to drink, I found myself in a state of shock and I began to shiver violently.

“He reached over and laid his hand on mine, and then, kissing his fingers, he repeated the gesture. Then he drew back.

“ ‘Understand the gift you’ve been given, as best you can,’ he said. ‘Don’t forswear it in the first years. Too many perish in that way. Of course you despise Petronia for giving it to you—all this is natural and right. When she drained you, when she almost killed you, you saw a vision of those who’d gone to Paradise before you. And you turned away.’

“ ‘How did you know?’ I asked.

“ ‘I could read your mind then. It’s not the same now. We’ve exchanged too much blood. It’s the same with her too. Don’t let her fool you. She’s mercilessly clever and eternally whimsical and persistently unhappy. But for whatever it’s worth, she loves you and she can’t read your mind any longer.’

“ ‘Is she always a woman for you? Do you ever see her as a man?’

“He laughed. ‘She made her choice in life early on to be the woman with me. When she fought in the arena centuries ago, it was as a woman. Those who came up against her marveled at her musculature and her stamina. But they thought her a woman. She switches back and forth. She’s truly both. But we don’t need to talk of her now. Let’s talk of you.’

“ ‘And what is there to say about me?’ I asked. ‘Did I will myself into this? I did not. And yet I blame myself that it happened. I turned away from my grandparents in that vision of Paradise, you’re right, and can you tell me now, even if the answer torments me—was what I saw real?’

“ ‘I can’t tell you,’ he said with an easy graceful shrug. ‘I don’t know. I only know what you saw. It’s the same with my victims. Often they see the light of Paradise and those they once loved call to them, and so they leave my embrace, in spirit, and I am left with the corpse.’