to make a sound._

_"So you know," she whispered. "It is well. I have marked you for my own
these many months. Now that you know, you will not fight. You know what
I am, or at least you can guess. This pin you admired so--it was mine
three hundred years ago and it will always be mine!"_

_Her lips were on mine. She had never kissed me like this. It was like
the touch of hot ice, freezing, then searing. Unendurable. I lay inert;
I couldn't have moved if I wanted to. I could scarcely breathe. Then I
felt the blood within me pounding, pulsing, beginning to answer in spite
of myself. I tasted once more the warm, salty fluid on my lips. Eve's
body was liquid in my arms; warm, heady, narcotizing. Once again I felt
the agonizing, dagger sharp pain in my throat and--darkness._

_Have you ever wakened to a bright, sunny afternoon and heard yourself
pronounced dead? They spoke in low, hushed tones. How unfortunate. Young
fellow only thirty, dying so far away from his homeland. No family. Good
thing he was well-set in life. This sudden anemia was most
extraordinary; fellow showed no signs of it previously. All he had
really needed was rest. If he had recovered, that lovely Eve Orcaczy
might have made both their lives happier, richer. Sad ending to what
might have been an idyll. Good of her to claim the body. She said she
was going to inter it in the family vault in_ Konigstein Mountain _in
Transylvania._

_I heard them distinctly. I wanted to shout that I wasn't dead; I wanted
to wake up from this horrible nightmare. I was as alive as they. I knew
I had to get out of there, some way; to get away from Eve, whom I now
feared. They left to make arrangements._

_The lassitude crept through me without warning; I dozed in spite of
myself. And I dreamed again. I was a cat running, leaping through
windows, loping over the countryside, stopping for no one. I panted with
my exertions. Towns and cities flew by; I had to get someplace and
quickly. Then the dream ended._

_"Tod," she said, "Get up, my dear." I heard Her and I hated Her. Hated
Her while I was drawn to Her. There was a white mist before my eyes. I
reached up to brush it away. It was not a mist; it was a cloth. I
shivered._

_"I must wake up," I whispered hoarsely, "I must! I'm going mad!"_

_There was a creaking sound and daylight descended upon me. When I saw
where I was, I covered my face with my hands and sobbed. I tried to
pray, but the words froze on my lips._ I w