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focused the pain into a thread that wound down my spine, into my torso, branching into my limbs. The
thread widened, opening like a telescope until I was filled to bursting. There was no room left for me in
my body, and the thing kept growing, crowding me farther and farther back.
My eyes rolled back in my head. The last thing I saw was Max s face as he screamed, but a tremendous
roar filled my ears, thundering over him. Then my vision flared silver and I was falling. It was nothing like
the gentle, backward suction I d experienced when my sires had shared their memories with me. That
had been mildly disconcerting. This was nothing but pain and horror. And then, I was gone.
Standing before the big, oak double doors, Marianne didn t bother to disguise her observation of the
man at her side. My husband is so handsome. I m nearly a corpse.
Nolen gave her a smile and squeezed her hand. She knew the smile. It was not the one that had charmed
her when she d been young and pretty and not aching with every step. Not the one that had made her
give into him in the stock room of her father s shop. She hadn t seen that smile for a year now. Not since
the last baby wasn t born. Not since she d begun to fall apart.
No, this was the pity. He would never look at her the way he used to, not even if this faith healer did
help her.
Do I really look all right? Marianne toyed with the heavy chain around her neck. How many more
times will you drag me across the world on my father s money? How many more cures will I be forced to
endure before you let me die?
You re a vision. He smiled and touched the heavy pendant hanging at her throat. His fingers never
touched her flesh. He d become so good at withholding all but the most sterile of touches. Although I
don t think this suits you. It s a decent sign, though. No one would give away a bauble like this on a
whim.
Unless it s meant to be a rejection gift. The thing was too heavy. Her shoulders ached. What would he
do if she collapsed right now and ruined the good impression he hoped to make?
A faith healer. I d have to have some first. She hadn t told him, but she d given up believing in God.
Every night, when he held her hands and they said their prayers, she recited empty words. She was too
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angry to speak with the Lord or the Virgin Mother. It was considered holy to share Christ s pain, but on
the worst days, when the cancer seemed to be dissolving her very bones with acid claws, she envied him.
Christ had only suffered for two days. And it was too cruel to venerate the Blessed Mary. What praise
did she deserve? She may have endured the pain of losing a child, but Marianne had lived through that
hell five times, and she d never been able to hold her children. They d gone to theirGolgotha inside of her
and ascended into heaven on a rush of blood. The fruit of her own womb was less than holy, the disease
that now destroyed her from the inside out.
Nolen believed, though, that God would send them a miracle, that the future hadn t been denied, only
delayed. To ease his mind, she acted the part of the pious wretch.
The doors before them opened. Marianne had assumed they d be meeting with Jacob, Simon and
Simon s beautiful young wife, Elsbeth, as they had the two times they d both been invited to dine at the
mansion. Oh, Nolen had been invited far more often than she. Jacob had taken an almost fatherly interest
in him, sending invitations that called Nolen away in the evenings, entreating him to leave his diseased wife
at home to rest. She did not know what had transpired those nights, but the group assembled around the
table now, bored-looking and beautiful, surprised her. Their gazes all held a strange hunger as every pair
of eyes examined her. With a sudden, crashing clarity, she realized something was terribly wrong.
There wasn t enough time to bend her intuition into action. Those guests who d seemed so impressive
and imposing a moment before transformed into demons before her eyes. They moved faster than Nolen
could and tore her away from him as he tried to shield her.
Marianne s world narrowed to a void of claws and fangs. They cut and tore her flesh, but she welcomed
the pain. It felt different than the slow burn of the disease devouring her body. Faster. It would be better
this way.
And then she was dying. The thing she d not been above praying for, even after she d shunned God,
was finally upon her. Vision dimmed, then returned like a tide teasing the shore, but it wasn t disorienting.
In fact, it was disappointing when clarity returned, because she wanted to see what was on the other side
of the darkness. Wanted to see if she was damned for her lack of faith, or if she d be proved correct.
The prize at the end of the race seemed so very close when it was cruelly yanked from her grasp. Pain
exploded in her head as she connected with the floor. The groping hands had dropped her.
They were alone with the one she knew as Simon. Nolen was praying, invoking the aid of Mary and the
archangel against the demon that embraced him. Simon s hands caressed her husband like a lover s
hands. Give in to him, she urged wordlessly. It will be finished sooner. He will grow bored and kill you.
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But Simon didn t intend to rape Nolen. His violation was more sinister. He was gentle and tender, aiming
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