Lorelei hesitated, then laid the femur down with its fellows.

It was creepy, anyway, waving a dead bone at a vampire in a baggy business suit. She watched as William knelt next to Julian, gently lifted his head. His lips thinned as he lifted Julian's eyelids.

"He's not dead," he said finally. He looked up, puzzled.

"He's...warm."

"He's not supposed to be?"

William reached out and took Lorelei's hand in his. His fingers were cold, almost icy. Lorelei winced, involuntarily and William let her go.

"A vampire is only warm immediately after a kill."

"Then he should be warm. He just made a kill."

William nodded, then suddenly stared at her with wide eyes.

"He killed-he fed on-the Senior?"

Lorelei nodded.

William shook his head. "What is he?"

"I think," Lorelei said slowly, "he may be the new Senior."

"You're right," said William, suddenly decisive. "Help me take him into the inner rooms."

Julian's dead weight suddenly seemed less of a burden when he stirred, nearly causing Lorelei to drop him as they carried him through a nearly invisible door in the back of the room.

Beyond was another room with a blanket spread on the floor.

They laid Julian there, where he again stirred, his eyes opening, then closing again. He curled on his side, into a fetal position, and shook.

"It's as if he's transforming," William muttered. He watched a moment, then suddenly his gaze jerked to Lorelei. "Who are you? His familiar?" 50 "I don't know." She replied honestly out of reflex, then wondered if she'd just endangered herself. If William had been the old Senior's "familiar"-whatever exactly that meant- Lorelei's status as the new Senior's familiar might give her some clout. Or make him want to murder her. She held her breath and waited for William's response. She was so far out of her depth here.

"If you are, it's within your right to kill me."

Lorelei laughed in a strange, hysterical relief. "Thanks, I'll pa.s.s. I think I'm going to need your help."

Later, she dozed, sitting vigil next to Julian. The floor of the strange, low-ceilinged room was covered with furs, a few so old they'd crumbled when she accidentally touched them. The one she sat on now was a soft sheepskin, new enough that it carried only a slightly musty odor.

Julian had lain curled up and shaking for a long time, then had suddenly jerked to lay flat on his back, stiff, as if rigor mortis had taken him. Perhaps it had-many things about what seemed to be happening to him made Lorelei think of a death.

She was barely awake when William returned. He sat down next to her. He'd taken off his suit jacket, rolled up his shirtsleeves, loosened his tie. "How is he?"

"How the h.e.l.l should I know?"

William smiled. Lorelei saw the tips of his fangs. The sight hardly unnerved her anymore.

"I've never seen anything like this before," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"A vampire feeding on another vampire-the Senior vampire, no less. Julian should be dead."

"Dead?"

"It's forbidden for a vampire to feed on another vampire.

Not just on principle-it's a horrible death. I saw it once. Not so horrible for the one being fed upon, but for the one feeding..."

Lorelei looked at Julian, frowning. What had she stumbled into? "The Senior told him to do it. It was as if they were both under compulsion."

"I've never seen anything like this, ever." 51 "I don't think any of you have."

She drew her knees to her chin and looked at Julian. He seemed different. Had he actually changed, or was it only a reflection of her new knowledge? She felt numb. She'd barely been able to accept the fact he was a vampire-now she had to accept he was changing from a vampire into something else, and no one seemed to know what that was.

"Keep everyone out of this room," she said, not pausing to wonder if she was in any position to give orders. "I want him undisturbed until we have some idea what's happening."

William nodded. "That seems wise. I'll do what I can."

Blood. Cascades of it, rivers. Without blood, the sun will not return. Without blood, the world will end.

He was the Senior before he had become the Senior, when he had only been the first Bloodborn vampire. The mortals around him had made him a G.o.d and fed him.

But as much as he'd been fed, as carefully as his frightened subjects had tended to him, the hunger had never abated. Always there was room for more blood-more blood-more blood- Not any blood. Not now. Now only the blood that will make the transformation complete.

What blood? What transformation?

You will know.

And the blood was everywhere, as if he swam in it, the heat, the thick wetness, the smell, and with it came the hunger- ***

Lorelei woke with a start. Something had changed. Julian still lay next to her, but not so still as he had been. His eyes moved now, deep in dreams. His parted lips exposed the tips of his fangs, and his harsh breathing seemed at times to form words.

That, however, wasn't the change Lorelei had sensed.

Someone else had come into the room.

Lorelei sat up. She sensed the stranger's presence, but couldn't see him.

"h.e.l.lo?" she ventured, scanning the room. There were shadows in the corners, but the room was too small to hide 52 anything much bigger than a cat. "Who's there?"

He stepped forward. He was considerably bigger than a cat, an imposing presence with broad shoulders and his face obscured by the folds of a hood. Lorelei's breath came fast, her heart pounding.

"Where did you come from? Who are you?"

What little of his face she could see hinted at a smile. "You know me."

The deep voice slid down her spine, cold. For a moment, she thought it held a compulsion, then realized it held only revelation. She did know him. She'd seen him in her dreams.

"You," she said. Though she'd begun to suspect the memories were more than a child's recollection of a fantasy, she'd hardly thought to meet their central character here.

Though she should have. Enough other weird stuff had happened in Julian's presence.

"Who are you?" she repeated.

"He needs you," he said. "He'll know when he wakes up, but he won't want to do what needs to be done. You'll have to make him understand."

"How can I make him understand when I don't understand?" Lorelei's tone was indignant-then, suddenly, she did understand. Horror filled her, and she stared at the cowled stranger. She wanted to jump at him, to claw the cowl from his face, then maybe his eyes. "What did you do to me?"

"It was necessary. Your family carried the proper genetic marker. Very few have it anymore now that the time has come.

I only supplied a catalyst."

Lorelei shook her head slowly, afraid to look at Julian, afraid to look anywhere but at the vampire. If she even looked at herself, if she saw her own hands or her own body, she would have to acknowledge this as real.

"Catalyst?"

"Julian has gone through a transformation, but it's incomplete. He must take the final step. If he doesn't . . ." He trailed off, then said slowly, as if dredging the words up one by one from a long-buried memory, "'Without the Changed One all the light in the world will die.'" 53 Something resonated in Lorelei, as well. Not a memory, or at least not a memory in her mind. Something in her blood, perhaps, the legacy of the genetic marker. "This goes beyond him. Beyond just saving his life."

"Yes. If the dreams we had, if the words we put in the Book, are true, it affects all of humanity." He studied her for a long moment. "Can you finish it?"

She pressed her lips together and nodded. She had no choice.

But . . . "Can you tell me what he'll be?"

"I could if I knew," he said, and disappeared. 54

SEVEN.

Julian woke in a bed. The Senior's room, his bed, Julian was certain. The smells told him. There were too many of them a.s.saulting his senses. It seemed he could feel every molecule of the air against his skin.

Another smell drifted by, and he opened his eyes. "Lorelei?"

"I'm here."

He turned his head, saw her, and the hunger drove up his throat, relentless. He closed his eyes.

She sat on the bed beside him and took his hand. "Julian, are you all right?"

"You... you're still here," he managed. He kept his eyes closed. If he opened them, he would kill her.

"Where would I go?" she asked with a wry smile. "There's freaking vampires all over the d.a.m.n place."

Julian laughed. He loved her, he realized then. Not for her blood or her body, but just for her. Her laugh. Her hand holding his. He opened his eyes. He could hear her blood. Something in it called to him, like the Senior's blood had called. Julian swallowed hard. Carefully, he smiled.

"What happened?" she asked gently.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I honestly don't know."

"You look different. You look pink."

"I've just been born," he said, and realized it was true.

He sat up carefully, in case the pain came back, but it seemed to be gone. "You should go back, Lorelei. It's too dangerous here. I can send someone with you to be sure you're safe."

She shook her head. "No. I'll stay here with you."

Astounded, he asked, "Why?"

She bent forward and kissed him gently on the mouth, without fear. When she drew back, she was smiling. "Because you need me."

G.o.d, no. He grabbed her, too quickly, too harshly, closing her face between his hands so he could look into her eyes. And 55 he saw there what he had been most afraid to see.

Understanding. Acceptance. She knew what he felt, understood the howling hunger that took him over, demanding not just blood, but her blood.

Worse, he had a feeling she knew more than he did.

He released her, too abruptly. "No," he said. He forced himself to his feet and stumbled past her, out of the room, into the light beyond.

Outside, William had taken up a post at the Senior's desk.

He sat in front of the Senior's computer, studying an accounting program. Julian couldn't remember ever seeing William doing anything else.

"William-" he began, and then he saw the skull. It sat on the desk in front of William, holding down a stack of papers.

Julian walked to the front of the desk. Hanging from the upper edge, dangling down across the front, were bones. Arm bones, the small leg bones. Finger bones on a string.

"What the h.e.l.l is this?" he said, barely able to make words.

William looked up. "I'm just calculating expenses-"

"No, you bloodsucking accountant freak. The bones, dammit, the f.u.c.king bones!"

William glanced at the skull, then shrugged nonchalantly.

"It's the Senior. There were some threats made against this office, a few who seemed inclined not only to challenge your ascendancy, but to kill you before you were able to a.s.sume your new position. I placed the bones as a warning."