Rodrigo paused, his head bowed over his latest victim. Eyes widening in disbelief, he buried his fangs in the tender skin of the woman's throat. He had done it! After four hundred years, Alesandro had bequeathed the Dark Gift to another, something Rodrigo had never done. Rodrigo licked a drop of blood from beneath the woman's ear. What had it been like, to bring another across, to watch the hellish transformation, to know that you had robbed a woman of life and yet given her another life in exchange?

He glanced down at the woman in his arms. Her vivid green eyes stared back at him, empty of expression. Her skin was pale, almost translucent. His mind probed hers. She was twenty-five years old. Her husband had mistreated her and she had run away. She had no children. Both of her parents were dead. She had a younger brother who was in prison, and a sister who was a nun.

He laughed softly. A diverse family, to be sure.

And what did she have to live for? He probed her mind again.She lived in a small room above the bakery where she worked for room and board and a mere pittance. She had considered taking her own life on several occasions, but lacked the courage to do so.

He grinned as he stared down at her, curious to know how she would react if he bestowed the Dark Gift upon her, and even more curious to know what it would feel like to drain her dry and then fill her with new life.

He probed her mind one more time, searching for her name.

"Kathleen Fowler." He spoke it aloud, savoring it on his tongue as he bent his head to her throat once more.

She shuddered in his arms, her skin growing more pale, her lips turning blue as he drained her life's force, and then, when her heartbeat had grown so faint even he could scarcely hear it, he tore a gash in his wrist and pressed it to her mouth.

"Drink, Kathleen," he purred. "Drink your fill and then come and walk eternity with me."

He closed his eyes as her mouth fastened on his wrist, her throat working frantically.

Rodrigo smiled faintly. What would Alesandro think when he discovered that another vampire walked among them?