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BURIAL DETAIL WAS gri-would leap froe, nothing happened at all

He and Brendan arrived in a military conveyance with four soldiers that had been trusted to understand that no ht seeround where the corpses lay, Cole saw that the soldiers with him wore bleak expressions; soeant Terry Newcoe of the detail, a crusty old Irishman who still bore traces of his native accent He had seen action through the first battles of the war and been sent back to DC for guard duty after he&039;d so just a fraction of an inch from a major artery The doctor on duty had not amputated, and Terry Newcorene He limped, but he was still feisty and fiercely loyal to the Union Those under hi loss, Gerald Banter had lived through a bout with malaria but was still considered too weak for duty and Evan Briar had lost the tip of his trigger finger He was learning to shoot left-handed, but it was going to take so the field of dead "It&039;s a disease that brings onat Cole

"Yes, you could say that it brings on madness A bloodlust The disease is quite serious-a man may look dead when he is not," Cole explained "There is no cure, that&039;s why-"

"You don&039;t need to explain, laddie," Sergeant Newcomb said "I was at the prison I didn&039;t think that I&039;d see the light of day again All right, boys, let&039;s get to digging"

Cole picked up a shovel Newcorunt ith us We know that your loyalties lie elsewhere"

"My loyalty is to stopping this infection that kills ardless of their size, their sex, their color-the uniforood with a shovel"

"As a up the task himself

"You&039;re really here just to stop this-trouble?" Evan Briar asked Cole after they had worked in silence for several long otta be a Reb"

"I suppose I ale just to keep life going on a daily basis We don&039;t pay it much heed," Cole said

"But, you&039;re still a Reb There ain&039;t no neutral in this war," Briar told him

"Look, sometimes, we&039;re so far out, we&039;re not even sure we&039;re in either country," Cole said The last thing he wanted to do was get into a political argument

"Reb, yep You&039;re a Reb So why don&039;t you let this disease just tear up the Yankee capital?" Briar said, persistent "Why, I&039;d think that your side would be sitting back in delight"

"No hts in the deaths of others And we&039;re here because we&039;ve seen this plague before We don&039;t want it in the North or in the South"

"Oh, Lord Al the body, and the head co, hissure that the diseased are dead," Cole said

"We take their heads off?" Banter asked, his tone thick

"Yes, we take their heads off" He , since it see to end anytiht as well end it all with the North and South, too

He leaned on his shovel "Look, fellows, this isn&039;t an issue of the war Let&039;s clear that out right now Think of it like you es It killed everyone Colishue Northerners would carry it to Southerners, and vice versa, and once a ives the disease to his own ot two choices-you take off their heads, or you ih the heart Remember that the heart is on the upper left side of the chest When you can, you ih the heart, re to be too easy, so otten the head or the heart I&039;ht, too Trustto harness this plague and set it loose in the South-and nohe can harness and set it loose in the North It&039;s a killer, bold and simple, and that&039;s that Can we finish?"

There was silence They all stared at him

Then Newcomb came over and slapped him on the shoulder "Daive us this infor, I don&039;t know Take heed to what the Reb says, , and we&039;re going to protect our city Let&039;s get this done Heads off these poor th to sever a man&039;s head, so see to it that your knives are honed!"

When Cole and Brendan returned to the house, tired, weary and dirty, they headed toward the door, hoping to clean up some of the mud in the rear kitchen As they walked around, Alex ca toward them She nearly collided with Cole

"Alex!" Cole said, catching her

"There&039;s so!" she told him

"What?" he asked sharply

She turned and pointed toward the outbuilding kitchen "I brought soht want a littlein the hearth back there, so I brought it froot the door bolted-and there&039;s shattered glass-the ground by the back-and there&039;s sounds of fighting going on in there I was on et Cody," he said

Cole grimly set Alex aside and he and Brendan headed for the freestanding kitchen building He didn&039;t go around the back to crawl through a shattered ; he put all his size and es, and he was met by two people who had been locked in battle suddenly freezing and staring at him

The iinia outfit He had his fingers tangled in Megan&039;s hair, and it appeared that he was trying to rip out her throat She was clad in a white towel that she was losing-he was gratified to see that she wasalive than she ith hed and o of the towel and caught hinment

"No more!" the creature cried "No more I am alive, and I will take you with nashing his fangs, trying again for her throat

Cole strode in, reaching into his coat pocket for one of his re, and a burst of steaan cried in distress

Cole ignored her; his movement was practically autoister He lurched on forward, drawing out his stake and an to jerk and spas the evil within

"Oh, Lord! Oh, no! Why did you do that?" she de at the broken doorith a vial of holy water in one hand, a stake in the other

"Oh, my," he said He flushed brilliantly and backed away

Cole let the body go It was safe to do so The being had gone lian stood there, sleek and damp and entirely naked, hands on her hips as she accosted hi it around herself, her cheeks flaring red as she stared at hi about? I just saved your life," he told her

"I was holding my own!"

"You were about to become dinner!" he told her

She shook her head "That-that was an old friend"

"That was a va to rip you apart" Cole yanked the stake from the creature and let it fall to the floor He&039;d become adept at decapitation with a bowie knife, despite the i it But he&039;d known Cody long enough to become excellent at the task

There was no blood; the creature had not dined in a long time, so it seemed He must have been ravenous

Brendan noted that theseasoned in battle He had pinned a note with his na of his trousers

He stared at Megan suspiciously "Saht, she nodded

"Did you ask him here?" Cole demanded, incredulous

"No! No, of course not," she protested

"Was that entire story some kind of a trumped-up and sardonic lie? That&039;s a coincidence that&039;s too hard to believe!" he accused her He didn&039;t want it to be, but he was finding it hard to believe that they had brought up the asped "I haven&039;t seen him in years"

"You&039;re certain?"

"Of course! Oh, how dare you If I&039;d invited hi an cried

He was angry, but she was furious She earing a towel

It was an incredibly unco himself to stare into her eyes-eyes that usually see as the sun

"You didn&039;t want me to kill him," Cole said harshly "Because, in truth, he was a friend?"

"Because he-he iven us information Please! Stop it! It&039;s not a shock, really Think about it! He would be fighting with a Virginia regiment, he would be an officer, and it&039;s not at all surprising that he&039;d be held in prison in the capital But, damn you, Cole I can take care of myself And I didn&039;t want him dead"

"He was dead already," Cole reood va her to see the nature of his thoughts There could be good vampires That was true; he had seen it It was unusual, and, sadly, ht have proved able to retain their decency in their death or life after life couldn&039;t be given the chance to prove it Vaue that spread too easily

"He didn&039;t look like a good vampire"

"Maybe not, but we&039;ll never know," she told hie to rip out your throat, so you ht say thank you!"

She started to speak, then closed herthe truth, then you really are being foolish You wereyou the truth!" she insisted indignantly

They stared at one another for a long ot to start trusting er"

"Trust has to be earned," he said

She swore softly

He fought to control his teood for either of theot to bury"

"I could have reasoned with hian said

"What? You&039;re crazy And ould you reason with hiuilt over what happened when you were child? Dear girl, that&039;s insane," Cole said, irritated

"No, it has nothing to do with guilt" Her voice had becoy "He would knohere all this started What&039;s happened is insane These outbreakshere and there So theht what&039;s happening If you hadn&039;t been so knife-happy, we otten some information out of him Look at his uniforht have knohere it started"

Cody appeared at the doorway then, tense, ready for action He stared froan to Cole-and to the corpse on the floor

"Thank God you were here in tiht But apparently, Megan didn&039;t want help She was going to reason with the ular, I&039;ure this out Oh, and Megan, if you&039;re such an excellent fighter that you can reason with a starving vampire, I&039;m sure you&039;re also adept at the disposal of bodies"

He turned and strode past Cody, who stared at him with surprise but didn&039;t say a word Alex was just outside, standing with Brendan He shook his head and walked past them

As he did so, Martha Graybow opened her door so that it was just ajar, saw him and stepped out "Cole?" she asked softly

He inhaled on a deep breath "Martha, everything is all right now" He saw that Cody had set up alar wooden crosses-that ht pass for structural supports-at the corner joints at the roofline He was sure Cody had taken a few other precautions, as well

He took her hands and looked into her eyes

"I&039;an is fine And I&039;ll fix the door to the kitchen tomorrowand we&039;ll put in a ne Look, Martha, these are really bad times We&039;ll be here for a while, and you&039;ll be paid while we are But don&039;t bring anyone else in Don&039;t ask anyone in, for the love of God I can&039;t really explain, but-"

"There are vampires loose in the city," she said flatly

He hesitated He&039;d always suspected that she knew more than they had realized But his protective instincts wanted to guard her against even knowing this level of evil existed "There&039;s soue It-it ue of va you say out loud, you know People will lock you up" He looked at her very seriously

She slad you&039;re here"

"How do you know about the va tiood soul, Cole She&039;ll never hurt you She&039;ll never hurt anyone You-you wouldn&039;t ever hurt her, would you?"

Hurt Megan Could he ever hurt Megan? he wondered

"She&039;s Cody&039;s sister," he said "But youfor a brother," Martha said "And I knew Alexandra because she lived in DC and ere friends I didn&039;t an And I care about her"

"Why didn&039;t she tell us that she knew you?"

Martha&039;s sthat I was a Southern spy I told you-she would never take a chance on hurting anyone And the va more hideous in the midst of a hideous war But, it means that we all have to be careful on lad you know It will helpis locked up, Martha And get some sleep You have little ones to attend to"

"Thank you, Cole Thank you for being here"

"We&039;ll do our best, ht

As he watched Martha leave, Cole was suddenly aware of just how tired he was He was bone weary He thought that surely he&039;d go to his rooht and fall sound asleep

But, of course, he knew that Megan was sleeping down the hall

He was highly irritated with her-good God, she couldn&039;t seeht she&039;d get froht in his an, alabaster pure and perfectly sculpted from head to toe Naked head to naked toe

He was, after all, human

And the day hadn&039;t been half-bad She could be char She could be sweet And no matter what she was beneath, when he touched her, she arer to insist that someone else was out there, and ridiculously certain that a dead man turned vainated

He punched his pillow, adapted his position and fell asleep at last

That night, he dreaan were in aas it rode over boulders and pebbles in a clear, clean brook There was a hazy ht upon the world

She caht: ever beautiful, sleek, porcelain She walked through thethat he had lived his entire life just to reach out to her and hold her Her smile held the charold in the reen, a promise of fire

She came to hi

Fangs longer than those of a cobra or an Arctic wolf

The dream ended in a burst of red-bloodred

He sat up with a jerk He was alone in his roohouse