“This is unfortunate,” said Garekyn immediately, “but I didn’t mean to kill them. How is Eleni? You do understand why I tried to escape Trinity Gate, don’t you, why I injured Eleni?” He alone of the group had an accent to his English, which was Russian. His eyes were smaller than those of Kapetria and he had a rather long thin nose. Too long, too thin, perhaps, but it complicated his beauty, made his eyes seem all the more vibrant, and his mouth all the more sensual, as if it were a very carefully designed flaw.

“I do understand,” I said. “I would have done in both cases what you did,” I volunteered. “And it’s clear you could have killed Eleni had you chosen to do so.”

“That’s absolutely true,” said Garekyn. He was obviously surprised to hear me say it. “I have no mad appetite for devouring vampiric brains,” he assured me. “I am truly sorry for the death of the vampire in California, but that one had weapons and broke into my room. There was another with him. I could have killed both, but I killed only one.”

“And what did you find so interesting about the brain of Killer?” I asked. “And why did you take the head of the one you killed in California?” I realized my voice was a bit too harsh and I was sorry for it. I was sorry that we had begun in this way.

But Garekyn appeared unfazed. “I saw something in the exposed brain of Killer,” he said, “something obviously different from the other organic material, something alive in a unique way, and this something, when I put it into my mouth, created visions in me, visions which intensified as I swallowed it. The visions had begun with a taste of the creature’s blood.” He paused, studying me intently. “I don’t expect you to enjoy hearing such things, as these victims were your brothers,” he said, “but again, I was in each instance under attack, and these visions had a crucial value to me.” He touched his chest with his fist as he said these words. “These visions revealed something potentially precious to me. I had come in search of you, all of you, for a specific reason, and these visions had to do with this reason.” He glanced around the table for the first time, his eyes settling on Marius for a long moment before returning to me. “I tasted visions in the blood of Eleni, and I did not kill her. Of course I took the head of the vampire who attacked me in California. I took it to a safe place and I broke open the head and I drank the fluid of the brain and again I saw things.”

I nodded.

“I understand,” I said.

“What can I do to make up for this,” he asked, “to put us now on even and secure footing?”

Marius spoke up.