“What will you do with Philip if I don’t kill him?”

“He has to die. Not only is he spying in Katya’s territory, he tried to kill a human under her aegis. I will kill him. Or Baojia will.” His eyes turned calculating. “Depending on which of our aegis you decide to claim.”

She stared at him. “You’re lying.”

“Maybe.”

“You are.” She glanced over her shoulder at the mouth of the cave. “He’s buried in there?”

“Up to his neck in sand.”

“Thank you. I think.”

“I was happy to do it.”

“I know. You don’t like that I’m a vampire.” She didn’t think about the words until they’d already left her mouth, but she felt his hand tighten on her arm. “If Philip is buried, then I don’t have to choose either of you.” Makeda stood and Lucien followed. “Philip can stay where he is and the ocean will take care of him for me.”

“Drowning is a cruel death.”

Makeda thought about the friendly man who’d helped her move boxes and washed Mrs. Gunnerson’s car. The man who’d pretended to be her friend, all the while spying on her. The man who had tampered with his own car in an attempt to kill her.

“I know it’s cruel.” She walked back toward the cliffs, Lucien still holding her arm.

Makeda went back to her room, and Lucien left to speak to Baojia. She wondered how long it would take for Philip to die and briefly considered asking Ruben to take her to the edge of the cliffs so she could see the tide enter the cave.

She didn’t. Allowing cruelty was one thing. Enjoying it would make her a monster.

Three days passed in darkness. She was underground during the day, hidden in a room with no windows and only one door. She slept more deeply than she ever had in her life. At night there was only a moonless sky when Baojia took her to the sea. They walked down every night and she calmed in his presence, surrounded by the water that spoke to her soul.

Baojia didn’t waste time chatting. She knew he was waiting for her to decide between his aegis and Lucien’s. Every night, she felt more comfortable in this new skin that felt everything. Every night, she thought about choosing Baojia and bidding Lucien good-bye.

She didn’t do it.

Makeda had always been a creature of her mind, keeping her body in good condition because she knew her brain operated at peak capacity when she was healthy. But her physical self was a supporting mechanism for her mind.

In this new skin, she felt trapped by it.

The sensory information she absorbed was nearly overwhelming. The only saving grace was the new speed and agility of her mind. Utilizing familiar methods for analysis, the strict discipline taught by her family, and her new cognitive agility, Makeda was able to quickly rein in her most base hungers, which were concentrated in two areas.

Blood and sex.

The blood she had to have, but Makeda refused to do anything about her suddenly raging sexual drive. She drank four quarts of human blood each night. Two upon waking and two before the day caused her to black out. And it was blacking out. Nothing about vampire sleep reminded her of human sleep. She was awake. Then she was asleep. She did not dream and wondered if the lack of sleep cycles would adversely affect brain function at some point. She posed the question to Baojia.

“Meditation,” he said, cutting through the water with a neat stroke she emulated. “Or some form of it. Every vampire I know practices it in some way whether they call it that or not. Some actively meditate. Others daydream. When you live as long as we do, nights become monotonous. We become artists, craftsmen, avid readers. I know one earth vampire who climbs the same mountain every night before dawn comes. He’s been climbing the same stretch for forty years now. It’s not a challenge; it’s become his meditation.

“What do you do?”

“I practice tai chi and I recommend it for all new vampires. It focuses the mind and body.”

“Can you teach me?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t ask the question she knew he wanted to ask: Had she decided under whose aegis she would live?

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Part of her longed to stay with Baojia. The friendship they’d shared had been superseded by more familiar feelings. She felt a kinship with the vampire like that she felt near her father. It was an immediate trust and comfort she could not explain but chose to cherish nonetheless. Though she hadn’t ever wanted to be a vampire, she’d come to realize Baojia had the type of honor her own father did. Authority shown in service to those he was responsible for. She knew that kind of power. She respected it.

But Lucien…

The sensual hunger hit her as soon as her mind turned to Lucien. Though physically impossible, she woke some nights feeling as if his skin was still under her mouth. The taste of his blood lived on her tongue. Though she knew it only to be a very strong sensory memory, something in her felt as if he’d entered her bloodstream and lived under her skin.

“Focus,” Baojia said, sensing her erratic emotions begin to scatter. “I’m not going to rush you.”

“Lucien and Katya both want me to decide.”

“Let me worry about them,” he said. He reached for an outcropping of rock that jutted from the sea. The rock below the waterline was encrusted with mussels, but the top was smooth. He held out a hand and Makeda took it. “I can hold them off for a while longer.”