"And cruelly, surely," Louis called her gaze back to him, "Did you love this child?"

I will never forget her face then, the violence in her, the absolute hatred.

"Yes," she all but hissed the words at Louis. "How dare you!" She reached for the locket even as Louis clutched it.

"But Madeleine, you said that you were done with her," I objected.

Madeleine broke out into tears. "I can't be done with her," she cried, "I cant." In sorrow she reached out to the first person she saw: Louis. She had her hand out towards him. She touched his waistcoat and opened her fingers there, pressing them against her chest.

"Louis, comfort her, please," I begged him through mind-speak.

Louis was on his knees, drawing close to her, her hair brushing his face as she buried her face upon his shoulder and continued to cry. "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my dear," he whispered in her ear. "You will be done with her in time," he reassured her.

"There will never be enough time in my mortal life to give me enough motivation to be done with her," Madeleine sobbed.

"But you will have enough time," Louis reassured her.

Madeleine gasped.

"Now listen to me," Louis instructed her, "Hold fast to me when I take you," Louis said to her.

Madeleine's head lifted. Her eyes met with Louis's. Her mouth fell open.

"And when the swoon is strongest, listen all the harder for the beating of my heart. Hold and say over and over, "I will live."" Louis instructed her.

"Yes, yes," she was nodding, her heart pounding with her excitement. She touched his neck then his collar as if she wanted his shirt unbuttoned for the deed to make it more passionate.

Louis put his hand upon hers to stop her. He clutched it tightly, instructing her still, "Look beyond me at that distant light; don't take your eyes off of it, not for a second, and say over and over, "I will live.""

"Yes," she declared again.

But before she could even finish this single syllable Louis had broken her flesh with his fangs and bit into her.

She fell against him, her breasts crushing against him. As the swoon began her body began to arch up, helpless.

I could see her eyes and her taunting, provocative mouth.

Louis lifted her as her hands dropped limp to both sides.

"We are loosing her, Louis," I shouted as I ran over and took her hand.

"Tight, tight," Louis whispered over the hot stream of her blood.

"Madeleine, Madeleine, open look at me," I begged as I felt her hand growing colder.

"The lamp," Louis whispered to her, "look at it!"

Her head dropped back from Louis, her eyes dull to the point of death.

Louis didn't move.

I reached up and took his hand. "Louis, you need to feed her," I reminded him, "you can't let her die!" I could tell he was giving things a second thought. Perhaps he thought she only wanted to live forever out of guilt of her daughter dyeing. Perhaps he thought she was using this as a form of punishment for herself. But he could not let this woman die now, not since he had promised her eternity to be done with her daughter. "Louis," I said his name again as I put my hand upon the bottom of his wrist and pushed it up gently towards his face.

Louis sat there still focused on the lamp.

Finally I shoved his wrist to his lips.

Louis soon bit his own wrist and found himself tasting his own blood. He turned it downwards towards Madeleine.

But when he tried to give it to her she was terrified. "I feel like I'm going to die," she whispered softly as she turned her head away from the blood.

"You will," I reassured her as I cradled her head in my lap and turned it up to face Louis again, "But you will be granted a new life if you drink."

Louis forced his wrist into her mouth. "Drink it. Drink," Louis instructed her.

But she lay as if dead.

Louis gathered her close to him, the blood pouring over her lips.

She opened her eyes and opened her mouth to the blood. Her hands soon closed tight on Louis's arm and she began to suck on his wrist.

Louis began to rock her as if she were his new daughter. It made me almost jealous for a few minutes. He began to whisper to her softly of death and what is soon to come of her. Louis was soon breaking into a swoon himself.

I ran to him and hugged him tightly pulling at his arms.

This made Madeleine's finger dig deep into his arms cutting him, scoring him.

Louis backed away from her and pulled her with him.

Madeleine moaned as he pulled away from him.

Louis continued to back away when I realized he was trying to get away from her.

I reached out to him and pulled at Madeleine, but she would not budge. I called to Claudia for help.

Claudia took Madeleine and I took Louis and we both pulled them apart.

Louis wretched free from her and fell away from her, clutching his bleeding wrist tightly with his own hand.

Madeleine stared at Louis, the blood staining her open mouth. She seemed to stare for an eternity until she collapsed into a trembling shape.

"Louis," I called to him as I went over to his wrist. I gently took his hand from his wrist and kissed it. This was when I realized how much blood he had lost. It was as if almost all of his life were gone from him. I quickly bit my wrist and held it up to Louis's lips.

He reached out for it and missed grasping it the first time. The second time he grasped it and brought it to his lips. I soon began, to feel the swoon that Louis was in not so many moments ago. I closed my eyes as I began to swoon. In my mind I saw him kissing Madeleine. Blood tears would have begun running down my face if Louis were not taking so much blood from me. I felt his powerful pull. Every blood vessel felt it. I was threaded through and through with his pulling, his heart beginning to beat more fierce almost matching my own. I suddenly cried out, "Louis, stop. Louis, stop it!" I backed away from him, yanking my wrist back to me. As my wrist was released I fell back from him bumping into Madeleine who stood beside the low gas lamp in the other room. I looked back over to Louis to see how far I had flung myself from Louis to get him to let go of my wrist. I had used such force that I had hurtled myself into the next room.

"Don't touch it," Claudia told Madeleine as she gently guided her away from the lamp.

But Madeleine had seen the flowers on the balcony and she was drawing close to them now, her outstretched palms brushing the petals and then pressing the droplets of rain to her face.

Louis by now had risen and was hovering on the ridges of the room, watching Madeleine's every move, how she took the flowers and crushed them in her hands and let the petals fall all around her and how she pressed her fingertips to the mirrors and stared into her own eyes.

I walked over to Louis and pulled out my handkerchief. While he watched Madeleine I bound the wound.

Claudia began to dance with Madeleine as Madeleine's skin grew paler and paler in the unsteady golden light.

Madeleine scooped Claudia into her arms, and Claudia rode round in circles with her, her small face alert and wary behind her smile. And then Madeleine weakened. She stepped backwards and seemed to lose her balance.

"Claudia," I called out to her in alarm, "Madeleine, put Claudia down!"

Madeleine quickly righted herself and let Claudia go gently down to the ground.

On tiptoe, Claudia embraced her. "Louis," she signaled to me under her breath, "Louis…"

"Louis, don't let Claudia see this," I requested of him, "I don't think she remembers dyeing herself. I think it would only worry her and horrify her to have to witness Madeleine's death."

Louis beckoned for Claudia to come away.

Claudia went to Louis and took his hand.

And Madeleine, not seeming even to see us, was staring at her outstretched hands.

Claudia began to turn back to look at Madeleine.

Madeleine's face was blanched.

Claudia took a step towards Madeleine again.

Madeleine's face became drawn, and suddenly she was scratching at her lips.

Claudia began to pull her hand out of Louis's.

"Louis," I cautioned him in mind-speak, "Claudia's slipping past you."

Madeleine stared at the dark stains on her fingertips.

"No, no," Louis cautioned Claudia gently, taking her hand and holding her close to his side.

A long moan escaped Madeleine's lips.

"If you want to know what is happening, just ask Louis," I told Claudia gently.

"Louis," Claudia whispered in that preternatural voice which Madeleine could not yet hear.

"Tell her what is happening," I suggested to Louis.

"She is dying," Louis whispered to her, brushing her hair back from her ear, his eyes never leaving Madeleine, who was wandering from mirror to mirror, the tears flowing freely now, the body giving up its life.

"We died once too," I whispered to Claudia.

"Your child mind just can't remember," Louis reassured her, "You were spared it, it left no mark on you."

"But, Louis, if she dies," Claudia cried.

"Is the blood in her too weak," I questioned.

"No," Louis knelt down, seeing the distress in Claudia's small face, "The blood was strong enough, she will live. But she will be afraid, terribly afraid." And gently, firmly Louis pressed Claudia's hand and kissed her cheek.

Claudia looked at Louis then with mingled wonder and fear.

"Louis, Madeleine needs comfort in death," I reminded him.

Madeleine began to cry.

Claudia watched Louis with that same expression as he wandered closer to Madeleine, drawn by her cries.

Madeleine reeled now, her hands out, and Louis caught her and held her close. Her eyes already burned with unnatural light.

I went to Madeleine as well and whispered to her, "You are dyeing."

A violet fire reflected in her tears as she began to cry again.

"It's mortal death, only mortal death," Louis said to her gently.

"We are loosing her," I whispered to Louis softly, "Give her something to look at, to concentrate on; otherwise she's going to give up."

"Do you see the sky," Louis asked her.

Madeleine opened her eyes, allowing more tears to spur from her eyes.

"Tell her what to do," I whispered to Louis, seeing how lost Madeleine was.

"We must leave it now," Louis instructed her, "And you must hold tight to me, lie by my side. A sleep as heavy as death will come over my limbs, and I wont be able to solace you. And you will lie there and you will struggle with it. But you hold on to me in the darkness, do you hear?"

I took one of Madeleine's hands.

"You hold tight to my hands," Louis instructed her as he took the other one in both his own, "which will hold your hands as long as I have feeling." He looked at me for a second, "Don't let her hand go," he instructed me.

I nodded in response as he turned back to Madeleine.

Madeleine seemed lost for the moment in Luis's gaze. I saw radiant colors reflected in her eyes.

"Louis," I whispered softly, "We should take her to the coffin." I looked to the coffin in the other room, "Who knows how long it will take her to die, to be able to let go and relax enough to let herself die."

Louis guided her gently to the coffin, telling her again not to be afraid.

"Tell her what will happen once she dies, so she's not afraid of what will happen to her," I suggested as I followed them to the coffin.

"When you arise, you will be immortal," Louis said.

"You won't ever be able to be harmed again," I whispered to her gently.

"No natural cause of death can harm you. Come, lie down."

I could see hr fear of it, see her shrink from the narrow box, its satin no comfort. Already her skin began to glisten, to have that brilliance that Claudia and I shared. "Go in the coffin with her, she's too afraid to lie in there by herself," I whispered to Louis.

Louis held her and looked across the long vista of the room to where Claudia now stood, with that strange coffin, watching him.

Claudia's eyes were still but ark with an undefined suspicion, a cool distrust.

"Put Madeleine, I can take care of her," I told Louis, noticing how he looked at Claudia.

Louis set Madeleine down beside her bed.

"Go to Claudia, she is frightened as well," I whispered to Louis, seeing the look on Claudia's face as she watched Madeleine with Louis as if they were strangers, dyeing in each others arms.

Louis moved towards Claudia's eyes. And, kneeling calmly beside her, he gathered Claudia in his arms. "Don't you recognize me," he asked her.

Claudia did not reply, but put her arms around Louis and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Don't you now who I am," Louis asked her.

Claudia looked at him, "No," she said, "I bear ill will towards Louis, but I bear no ill will to you."

Louis smiled.

"She bears you no ill will any more," I witnessed.

He nodded. "Bear me no ill will," he said, "We are even."

Claudia moved her head to one side and studied Louis carefully.

"Why should one big happy family bear each other ill will," I joked with a light laugh and a smile.

Claudia then seemed to smile despite herself.

"Are you and Louis going to fight less now," I asked softly.

Claudia nodded in assent.

"For you see," Louis said to her in that same calm voice, "What died tonight in this room was not that woman."

"No, it's going to take Madeleine a while before she dose," I agreed.

"It will take her many nights to die, perhaps years," Louis said to her.

"Then, what died tonight," Claudia asked.

"What died in this room tonight is the last vestige in me of what was human," Louis said to her in that same calm voice.

A shadow fell over her face; clear, as if the composure were rent like a veil. And her lips parted, but only with a short intake of breath.

"Claudia," I said softly. She seemed to be almost in shock.

Then she said, "Well, then you are right."

"Right about what," I asked her softly.

"Indeed. We are even," she said softly.