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.That was when Hunter informed him that he'd been dead for three days."I told your father you'd gone to Plymouth; don't tell him otherwise.Anddon't try to move yet; you're too weak.We'll bring in something soon and youcan feed." He stood behind his daughters, his arms around them, all of themlooking down at Quinn."Be happy.You're one of us now."But all Quinn felt was horror-and pain.When he put his thumbs to his teeth,he found the source of the pain.His canine teeth were as long as a wildcat'sand they throbbed at the slightest touch.He was a monster.An unholy creature who needed blood to survive.HunterRedfern had been telling the truth about his family, and he'd changed Quinninto one of them.Insane with fury, Quinn jumped up and tried to get his hands around Hunter'sthroat.And Hunter just laughed, fending off the attack easily.The next thing Quinnknew, he was running down the blazed trail in the forest, heading for hisfather's house.Staggering and stumbling down the trail, rather.He was almosttoo weak to walk.Then suddenly Dove was beside him.Little Dove who looked as if she couldn'toutrun a flower.She steadied him, held him up, and tried to convince him togo back.But Quinn could only think of one thing: getting to his father.His fatherwas a minister; his father would know what to do.His father would help.And Dove, at last, agreed to go with him.Later Quinn would realize that of course he should have known better.Page 46ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThey reached Quinn's home.At that point, if Quinn was afraid of anything, itwas that his father wouldn't believe this wild story of bloodthirst and death.But one look at Quinn's new teeth convinced his father of everything.He could recognize a devil when he saw one, he said.And he knew his duty.Like every Puritan's, it was to cast out sin and evilwherever he found it.With that, his father picked up a brand from the fire-a good piece ofseasoned pine-and then grabbed Dove by the hair.It was around this time that the screaming started, the screaming Quinn wouldbe able to hear forever after if he listened.Dove was too gentle to put upmuch of a fight.And Quinn himself was too weak to save her.He tried.He threw himself on top of Dove to shield her from the stake.Hewould always have the scar on his side to prove it.But the wood that nickedhim pierced Dove to the heart.She died looking up at him, the light in herbrown eyes going out.Then everything was confusion, with his father chasing him, crying,brandishing the bloody stake pulled from Dove's body.It ended when HunterRed-fern appeared at the door with Lily and Garnet.They took Quinn and Dovehome with them, while Quinn's father went running to the neighbors for help.He wanted help burning the Redfern cabin down.That was when Hunter said it, the thing that severed Quinn's ties with hisold world.He looked down at his dead daughter and said, "She was too gentleto live in a world full of humans.Do you think you can do any better?"And Quinn, dazed and starving, so frightened and full of horror that hecouldn't talk, decided then that he would.Humans were the enemy.No matterwhat he did, they would never accept him.He had become something they couldonly hate-so he might as well become it thoroughly."You see, you don't have a family anymore," Hunter mused."Unless it's theRedferns."Since then, Quinn had thought of himself only as a vampire.He shook his head, feeling clearer than he had for days.The girl had disturbed him.The girl in the cellar, the girl whose face hehad never seen.For two days after that night, all he could think of wassomehow finding her.What had happened between them.well, he still didn't understand that.If she had been a witch, he'd have thought she bewitched him.But she washuman.And she'd made him doubt everything he knew about humans.She'd awakened feelings that had been sleeping since Dove died in his arms.But now.now he thought it was just as well he hadn't been able to findher.Because the cellar girl wasn't just human, she was a vampire hunter.Likehis father.His father, who, wild-eyed and sobbing, had driven the stakethrough Dove's heart.As always, Quinn felt himself losing his grip on sanity as he remembered it.Page 47ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlWhat a pity that he'd have to kill the cellar girl the next time he saw her.But there was no help for it.Vampire hunters were worse than the ordinaryhuman vermin, who were just stupid.Vampire hunters were the sin and the evilthat had to be cast out.The Night World was the only world.And I haven't been to the dub in a week, Quinn thought, showing his teeth.Helaughed out loud, a strange and brittle sound.Well, I guess I'd better gotonight.It's all part of the great dance, you see, he thought to the cellar girl, whoof course couldn't hear him.The dance of life and death.The dance that'sgoing on right this minute all over the world, in African savannas and Arcticsnowfields and the bushes in Boston Common.Killing and eating.Hunting and dying.A spider snags a bluebottle fly; apolar bear grabs a seal.A coyote springs on a rabbit.It's the way the worldhas always been.Humans were part of it, too, except that they let slaughterhouses do thekilling for them and received their prey in the form of McDonald's hamburgers.There was an order to things.The dance requiredthat someone be the hunter and someone else be the hunted.With all thoseyoung girls longing to offer themselves to the darkness, it would be cruel ofQuinn not to provide a darkness to oblige them.They were all only playing their parts.Quinn headed for the club, laughing in a way that scared even him.The club was only a few streets away from the warehouse, Rashel noted.Madesense.Everything about this operation had the stamp of efficiency, and shesensed Quinn's hand in that.I wonder what he's getting paid to provide the girls for sale? she thought.She'd heard that Quinn liked money."Remember, once we get inside, you don't know me," she said to Daphne."It'ssafer for both of us that way.They might suspect something if they knew thatfirst you escaped and now you're turning up with a stranger.""Got it." Daphne looked excited and a little scared [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]