7: Children of the Night

They sit with me by the fire, the girl's red dress glowing, turning her to living flame. Her companion sprawls at her feet, resting his head against her legs. I can't take my eyes off them, her especially; she's flawless, regal. A perfect picture of what it means to be a vampire – ruthless, heartless, and beautiful.

I can feel the approach of dawn as a growing sluggishness in my limbs; a kind of itch in the blood.

Uneasiness.

The children have told their tale. And so I finally understand what pointless creatures we truly are. I feel extraordinarily tired. Indescribably sad.

And very, very old.

Even our most intense passions, in the end, come to nothing. The desire that Sarah vaguely recalls feeling for von Krolock has faded; become something that happened to a different girl, a whole lifetime ago. She doesn't even know whether he is still alive. Nor does she seem to care.

She looks at me now with eyes that could devour the whole world. She tells me that what she wants is exactly that - to spread the Dark Gift as far and as wide as she can. She wants to poison them all.

She terrifies me.

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