Now this kid would get what she wanted. Later today, Sarah would take her to the attic, let her listen to the rustling, introduce her to who lay there.

“You will now be delivered of the blood of your eternal Keepers,” she said. “You will become part of me and I of you. Do you understand this?”

Leo said in a tiny voice, “I think so.”

“You will be given eternal life.”

“Miri!”

Miriam cast a glance at Sarah so terrible that her jaw snapped shut.

“Eternal life! But you will be bonded to me by an unbreakable bond. You will be expected to serve me in every way, without question. There will never be an end to it. Do you understand this?”

Leo turned her tear-streaked face to Sarah, and Sarah saw there a call for rescue from the very depth of this human creature. A soul was being lost, and it knew that it was being lost. But she said nothing.

“Set the needle.”

“N-no,” Sarah said. “No!”

“You do it!”

“Leo, this is wrong!”

She tried to meet Leo’s eyes, but Leo would not look at her. Miriam grabbed the needle and jammed it into Leo’s arm. Leo cried out.

Sarah reset it properly, secured it with tape.

“You are free to go, Leo,” Miriam said. “I haven’t started yet.”

“It hurts!”

“Again I say to you, you are free to go.”

Leo began to cry.

Sarah was awed at what she was seeing. She had a sudden, electrifying insight into who the Keepers were, into what Miriam was. They were indeed a force of nature, and she thought that they might be killed, but they would never die. No matter who hunted the Keepers, the Keepers would always in one way or another wander the world, seeking the ruin of souls.

Miriam grasped the pump in her long, narrow fingers and crushed the bulb smartly. Leo flounced on the table, giving a loud cry. Again, Miriam pumped, and again. Leo’s upper arm turned fiery red. She began to sweat.

“How does it feel?” Sarah asked.

“My arm’s on fire!”

“Do you feel faint? Woozy?”

“I see an ancient city!”

Hallucinations. Interesting.

Sarah touched the skin of the neck. Pulse very rapid. She laid her hand on the forehead. Hot, dry. She got the ice packs and laid them along Leo’s sides. Leo began to shiver.

Miriam pumped, waited, pumped again. Leo’s eyes fluttered back into her head.

“Slow down,” Sarah said, “she’s seizing.”

Leo’s bowels let go.

“Clean it up,” Miriam snapped, and Sarah went to work with towel, sponges, and bedpan.

Leo cried and moaned. Sarah had to hold her arms so that she wouldn’t tear the needle out. She arched her back and writhed; she shook her head from side to side.

Sweat, blushed pink, began to bead on her upper lip and forehead. Her epidermal capillaries were hemorrhaging.