thrilled me to walk among humans, but Vienna brought me back to life. I could see it in my mirror, a new shine in my eyes, the ghost of a bloom in my dead cheeks. It was like falling in love all over again, only instead of falling for the lord of death, now I was in love with the seething, shouting mass of life outside my home. I took to waking up

detail, running your fingernail down the page as you noted them. I drifted closer, sensing a subtle shift in your mood. A tide had turned. You had come to some sort of conclusion. “Who in the village knows that you’re here?” you asked, not

heady summer evening. The sun had barely set and I was still sleep-grogged, but I pulled on my

I dove down deep into your psyche, turning over every word you gave me like a jewel. Looking for meaning, seeking out the mysteries of you. I didn’t care if I lost myself in the process. I wanted to be brought by the hand into your world and disappear into your kiss until we two could no longer be told apart. You turned a strong-minded girl into a

believed I was ready to know, a crease of annoyance still written between your

I could sire another?” I said, pressing my hand to my abdomen in shock. An old habit, associating birth with a womb. But it wasn’t childbirth I had in

In Persia, they chart the course of blood through the body, operate on the livers of live men, perform feats of engineering that seem like alchemy to the untrained eye. The Greeks and Romans knew sciences that have been utterly lost to time.”

the dying, daubing my forehead with a cool washcloth, washing me and dressing me, and trimming my hair every night

We mature over hundreds of years, moving every night a little further away from our humanity.