EXCERPT:

“You are responding to me, it’s natural you should. It can feel good – it will feel good. Believe me.” I lifted my arms up slightly from my sides, displaying myself. “Do you want me?” With more concentration, I showed myself to him, shifting the image, making him realize what I was offering. Ecstasy; passion; the best of its kind. The gentle tang of arousal lifted from him like morning dew. Excitement rose in me, thick and thrilling. Yes, he would be willing. I would welcome his body, and I would create joy in return that he couldn’t possibly imagine. I could raise light in this unholy darkness; I could deafen him to the distant gunfire; I could overwhelm the stench of rot in his nostrils with the thick, rich aroma of something that would give him life, not death…

When he laughed, it startled me. It was a harsh, unhappy sound, and a response I hadn’t expected. “You’re fucking mad, mate.” He glared at me. “You want to get me shot?”

“No,” I said quietly. “But that’s what you want, isn’t it?”

He grimaced. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Whatever is in you, it’s new and it hurts,” I continued. I took another step toward him. “It disgusts. It terrifies. It has been growing inside you like a parasite. And it demands things of you. Up until now, you haven’t thought of any way to escape it, except to die.” I glanced at the body at his feet. Its head was thrown back, the pale neck exposed. There was a single trail of liquid running from under the jaw – in the dim light, it showed black against the marble-like white of a corpse’s skin; glinting against the dull husk of lifeless flesh. “You wish you had been hit instead of him.”

His eyes went wide, the whites gleaming around the irises. “How the hell do you know that?”

I shrugged. He would understand his inherited abilities, one day soon. “You can come with me, if you want. I will ease it for you. I will show you what pleasure you can find; what compensation there can be.” I was only a foot away from him and I could smell the sweat on him: see it glinting in the hollow of his throat where he’d opened the top button of his jacket. He was fresh; aching. Truly gorgeous. When I reached out and touched his face, he didn’t pull away but he flinched. “I don’t offer to everyone,” I murmured, piqued. It had been a long time since I’d been resisted, yet an even longer time since I’d been interested enough in a man to offer him companionship. Sex was far easier; far less intimate. The young soldier’s gaze was fixed on my face and I could hear his heart beating very fast. A beautiful, sincere, passionate heart – now darkened beyond rescue. When the lights flared briefly on the horizon behind him, they lit a corona around his head – a momentary, mocking halo. “You want me,” I persisted. My tone held a plea, something I hadn’t utilized for many ages. “You want to be with me. It will be glorious.”

“Yes, I know,” he whispered, his eyes closing. When I ran my fingers along his top lip, he shuddered. I slipped my thumb into his mouth and let him suck at the stray drop of thick, viscous blood I had wiped from his own mouth. He had been clumsy with the fresh corpse; too greedy with his victim. New travelers so often were. Desperation and disgust, I could feel them both in the beat of his pulse. I would teach him how he should deal with his new life.

“But I won’t go with you,” he said, so softly that I had to lean over to hear.