He ran a finger around the cup, outlining her hands, enjoying the feel of her. He could still detect a tremor though, an inward flinching. He had all but conditioned her to expect a verbal blow every time she let her defenses down to him. "I"m so sorry for how I"ve treated you."

"You"re evading again. Abbot. Tell me."

He hovered over the mug. "Blackmail? Ransom for my dinner? Yes, he"s. a vampire, though he wouldn"t put it that way. It"s complicated."

"Not now then. Here. Take it."

Instead, he kissed her delicately on the eyelids, the nose, then the lips. He worked down to the mug, his lips on her fingers bespeaking his love. "Abbot, then. After dinner. The whole story." He drank from between her hands.

"I don"t know what it is when you do that," she whispered, "but I feel it, all over my body."

"Me, too." He drank steadily, pausing only to refill the mug and grab a moistened towelette from the dispenser near the head of the bed. He wiped his lips each time he drank, and then resumed experimenting with his lips on her skin. As he finished the blood, the scintillating arousal dancing between them intensified. "What do you feel?"

"Wonderful. Do that some more."

He set the mug on the floor and laid her back on the bed. Like this?" He trailed kisses around her neck.

"Vampire."

And he knew what the difference was. She believed him at completely-and trusted him not to hurt her again. There was a wholeness in her gift to him that he could never have evoked with Influence. Even humans he took by consent never knew enough to truly consent, as she had.

He began undressing her. Slowly, hardly disturbing the rhythm, he discarded their clothing and moved them up to lie full length on the bed. Using all his senses, he strove to gift her with as much of value as she had given him.

He made it last a very long time. Together, they finally surrendered to the inevitable.

t.i.tus found tears leaking down his temples as he lay on his back beside her. That pure, clean surge of ectoplasm had touched something too deep for words.

Given this, how could anybody want anything else? Then he understood. Abbot had never had this. He couldn"t. Most luren, even Residents, couldn"t. It demanded total commitment, both from the luren and from the human, to create this. But it was more precious than anything, for it had the power to dispel the feral rage. t.i.tus knew that it was not only gone, but that it would never return.

"What are you thinking?" asked Inea.

"I"m glad we came to your room. I don"t think it would have been as powerful in my room. And I needed all of it."

"Me too." She wiped away some tears of her own.

"Promise me something."

"Hmm?"

"Never invite Abbot in here."

She propped herself up. "All right. I won"t invite him in. Now, please explain why real vampires, not the magical kind, care about an invitation? That"s supposed to be superst.i.tion, like crosses and mirrors; evil can"t endure good, the sight of itself, or enter uninvited. You like crosses, mirrors reflect you, and yet. this!"

"I can"t explain it, certainly not in terms of any physics we know. I don"t want to look at it too closely, for fear I"ll discover that physics as we know it is garbage."

"Can"t be that bad. Physics works."

"True. But so does whatever it is we have. One theory is that it has something to do with gravity and magnetic fields. Location is important. You know-the bit about how a vampire has to sleep in his own coffin? We get around it by generating the magnetic field we need to rest in. Simple electronics, but it gives us freedom."

"You mean you don"t cart around your native earth?"

"I"m not a potted plant!"

"But what"s that got to do with needing an invitation?"

"Some people create a sort of bubble or sphere around their home, almost a kind of personal magnetic field. This is your place. I think Abbot could break in, if he wanted to, but more likely he"d just-how did you say it?-put a whammy on you to make you want to invite him in."

"He could do that?"

"He can do everything I can do-only better-and more besides. You have to understand about Abbot. He"s not evil. He"s rigorously ethical, courageous-even heroic-charitable, and dedicated to his cause. He"d give his life and more for the lives and honor of all of Earth"s vampires."

"So you don"t think he could have been the ninja? But if he"s so wonderful, why do you fear him?"

He looked up at her. What if she never offers me that gift again? He wanted to wipe all this from her memory.

"t.i.tus, what"s the matter?"

There was nothing for it but to spit it out. "Abbot doesn"t share my. diet. or my goals. He"s opposed to everything I stand for-and he"s my father."

She sat up. "What!"

He sat up and pulled the cover around them. Trying to be clinical, he launched into the story of how it had been Abbot had resurrected him from the grave because his own genetic father had disappeared. "By giving me blood after that long dormancy, he became my father-the one whose power I can"t successfully oppose. Ever. For any reason." Up to now, t.i.tus knew, Abbot had been toying with him. Even his one success in the men"s room at G.o.ddard Station had been more accident than success. When he"d tried to block Abbot from Influencing Inea in the lab, he"d come as close to pitting his power against Abbot"s as a son ever could. Abbot had been so astonished, he"d desisted. But t.i.tus knew what would have happened had Abbot chosen to use his power.

"So, knowing he"s safe, Abbot uses his power against you? Why?"

"Abbot"s a typical Tourist, so I left him to join the Residents as soon as I discovered them." He explained that much of luren politics.

"So the Residents ship you powdered blood, and the Tourists feed on humans like cattle?" "

He hadn"t used that image to her. "That"s exactly how they think of it. So you see, Abbot"s a very real danger to you because I can"t protect you from him."

"Why would he want to hurt me?"

"He wouldn"t. He"s no s.a.d.i.s.t. He wouldn"t perceive your pain at all. He would take you simply to get at me."

"Why would he want to do that?"

"I told you he"s dedicated to goals and ideals far beyond himself. To protect all vampires, he"d kill me-he"d mourn, he"d suffer-but he"d do it. And in telling you all this, without "gagging" you, I"ve broken a law Abbot lives by. I"ve jeopardized us all. The penalty is death. We"re alive because so far, he doesn"t know how much you know."

"Oh G.o.d. I didn"t understand what you meant that first night-death for you, and being gagged for me. Abbot would kill you and take me, wouldn"t he?"

"Yes."

She was silent a long time. Then, in a very small voice, she said, "t.i.tus, I want you to put that gag-whammy on me. I don"t care, because I won"t ever want to tell anyone."

He kissed her.

She grabbed him by the ears and pushed him back. "You do it, you hear me-because-because-"

"Not yet. Listen. There"s more."

She shook him. "No. I don"t want to hear it until I can"t get you into trouble for it. I believe you, t.i.tus. I"ve seen it in that man"s eyes. He"d kill without a qualm. I"ll bet he was the ninja. He moves like a trained fighter."

"He is. But he wasn"t the ninja. If Abbot had wanted to gimmick the centrifuge, he"d have persuaded the computer to do it for him. But he doesn"t yet have a reason to kill me. When he does, he"ll use a method likely to work. He knows I don"t have high blood pressure-he"s using the same dodge with a different medication. And he knows four g"s won"t kill me, while suffocation would only produce dormancy." But suppose he wanted dormancy, and a feral edge to my appet.i.te? No. He"d have found a more elegant way.

"I guess it was an absurd idea. If Abbot wanted you dead, you"d be dead."

"Not really. But just remember, if Abbot ever has to kill me, he"ll make sure there"s no body left for autopsy. That"s another law among us-to protect us from discovery."

"Is that why there are two of you on the moon? In case one of you is killed, the other has to dispose of the body?"

"No. That"s not the reason, but it is a service I"d perform if I had to. even at risk of my own life."

"Tourists and Residents both live by the same basic laws, you said. Would you kill Abbot if he violated a law?"

"No." His quick answer startled him. "I mean, aside from the fact that I literally couldn"t because he"s my father, I"ve never actually killed anyone. Not exactly, on purpose, anyway. And our law wouldn"t require it of me where Abbot was concerned."

"But you do have laws that require murder?"

"No. Extermination." And he tried to explain what a feral luren was like. "I"ve helped hunt them," he confessed. "We captured one, once, tried to rehabilitate him. I heard later that they had to kill him. Usually, though, they don"t let themselves be taken, so they get killed in the chase."

"So there are evil vampires."

Yes. If you can call humans who"ve gone violently insane evil, then yes, there are evil vampires too."

"How can you trust me? Even me? You just told me you"d gone dormant, and that"s why you were so hungry. Now you"re saying you should have had blood from one of your own kind instead of the synthetic. Are you likely to go feral?"

"No, I"m satisfied now. And I haven"t killed anyone."

"Far from it." She squirmed. "I don"t see how we can just sit here and discuss killing. It"s unreal."

"Well, then let"s just go to sleep." He pulled her down, ma.s.saging her back.

She let him work the knots out for a while, then popped her head up. "Are you putting that gag-whammy on me now?"

"No!"

She sat up. "t.i.tus, I absolutely, flatly insist."

"No!"

"Will it hurt?"

"No!"

"Will it stop me thinking?"

"No."

"Then why not?"

"Because-" He realized all his reasons were selfish ones. "Because I promised not to use my power on you."

"But I"m telling you to do it. That"s different."

"Well."

"t.i.tus!"

"Maybe-" He swallowed dryly. "Maybe after you hear the rest, you"ll want to tell the authorities. Then how will you feel about me?"

"Then," she answered reasonably, "I"ll just ask you to lift the whammy. It is liftable, isn"t it?"

"Yes."

"So what"s the problem? It"s only to protect you from Abbot."

And that"s the problem. I don"t want her to protect me. She"d objected to him protecting her, and now he knew why. He squirmed, then hit on how to discourage her. "All right, then-I will. On one condition."

"Condition?"

"Next time I want to protect you, you let me."

She blinked. "It"s a deal. Go to it."

Diabolical woman. But he had to keep his word.

An hour ago, he"d have been too weak. Now, when he exerted Influence, the power shimmered around him. "You won"t speak of my private affairs involving my feeding or living habits or those of the vampires, Tourists, or Residents of any origin, nor will you reveal any detail that would lead anyone to suspect we exist, unless you"re a.s.sured of privacy and alone with me.

"Okay," she agreed. "Go ahead and cast the whammy."

"It"s done. You can"t test it until morning, though, because right now you"re very busy."

"I am?"

He smothered that with a kiss, then made love to her, slowly and pa.s.sionately, driven by the fear that he"d lose all of this when she learned the rest.

When they woke, she was ravenous. "We should live in your room with that lovely microwave. Now I"ve got to get dressed to go eat."

"Wait a minute." He pulled her back. He had promised not to keep information from her anymore, and now she couldn"t betray the luren plans. "Abbot mustn"t suspect how much you mean to me, so you"ve got to be careful."

"But you put the whammy on me. Abbot"s no threat."

He lay back with an explosive sigh. "Abbot"s an incredible threat. Listen." And he explained just what Abbot"s original mission was, and how t.i.tus himself had been chosen to stop the Tourists from implanting that transmitter. He tried to talk around his nonhuman origin, to cushion the shock, to delay the ultimate moment. He tried to tell himself she"d accepted him completely and the simple matter of ancestry wasn"t that important. But his throat was dry and constricted as he forced out the words he had to speak.

She was white and shaking when he"d finished. "You"re part of an alien from outer s.p.a.ce? But that"s not possible. your mother was human. it"s not possible."

"Our legends tell us our ancestors crashed on Earth. I don"t know where luren evolved or how." It was a relief to be able to use his own terminology with her. "I don"t know how or why it"s true, but I know that ship out there on the lunar surface was crewed by relatives of my species."