The Vampire's Angel by Damian Serbu Page B

all.” Her eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement.
    “You and Xavier might be the only French aristocrats I know who don’t entirely support the monarchy,” Thomas said.
    “Speaking of Xavier, why on earth did you come alone?” As she asked, her demeanor changed markedly. She backed away with a spark of recognition. Catherine looked around, her eyes growing wider, but she was completely silent. “What are you?” she whispered, eyes wide. “What do you want from us?”
    “Catherine, I’ll never harm you.” Thomas tried to calm her. How had she known? Did Marcel reveal him? Was it something he had said or done? His mind raced with possibilities. And would she tell Xavier? “I would never hurt you. Whatever it is that you think you see, you probably don’t understand. You can’t. Let me explain.”
    “What are you?” She backed farther away. “I think I know.” She clutched the balcony railing and tensed. “I just saw it, after all these nights with you. I never noticed. But you’re not alive. And you’re pale. Your heart—it doesn’t beat?”
    Thomas bowed his head. He had no choice but to confess.
    “Yes. You’re correct. Most would call me a vampire.”
    Catherine gasped and she touched her throat reflexively.
    “Please listen to me. I’ll never hurt you. I’ve meant everything you ever heard me say.”
    “You won’t hurt me?” Her shoulders sagged a bit, though she still clung to the stone railing.
    “Never.” He walked closer and she stayed where she was.
    “Oh my God. It’s Xavier,” she said in hushed tones. “You want to take Xavier, don’t you? Why him? Why—”
    “No, you don’t understand. Let me explain, please. Like you, I’d never hurt Xavier. My relationship with him has nothing to do with murder or a sinister plot.”
    “Then what? Why are you here?”
    “I’m sure that there are more delicate ways to describe this, but given your discovery, I’ll be blunt. I don’t mean to offend you.”
    The more Catherine composed herself, the more comfortable Thomas became. Her fear endangered him, but if he could get her to see that he was not a demon, then she might accept his inhumanity. “I love him. I desperately love your brother. I came to you this evening because of that.” Catherine coolly looked at him. Thomas had to convince her of this. “Catherine, listen. I love him, with every ounce of my soul, with a passion I can’t hope to describe. I love him. I’d risk a thousand deaths for him. I’d relinquish immortality to lie with him for even one night.”
    “I believe you,” Catherine finally said. “I’m not sure what to think of this, but you seem so good. Can that be? I can cope with the fact that you love my brother. I knew from the first time I saw you together. This may be indiscreet for a lady, but since you’ve revealed so much I feel it’s necessary. When I saw you with Xavier, I wished you both all of the happiness in the world. I wanted Xavier to flee the church forever and go with you. He deserves it. I thought this gave him a chance to love himself and be free.
    “When Xavier was young, much too young to know better, he used to tell me about his secret dreams. He talked of spending his life with a man. He even described a marriage and a man to protect him. As he grew up, he stopped talking about it, as if the dream had disappeared. Somehow I knew, though, that it haunted him. I think he entered the priesthood to escape it. I never mentioned it to him because I was afraid to embarrass him or, worse, alienate him. So when I saw you together, I thought maybe that he could finally realize his dream.”
    Thomas sensed that she relaxed and had begun to trust him again.
    “I suppose, thus, that I’m sanctioning your love, not that it’s mine to sanction. But before we continue, I need to know more. What are you? ‘Vampire’ sounds so trite. Tell me what you are.”
Catherine: The Vampire Nature

     
     
    5 June 1789 Immediately