The horror in her eyes was like a blade to my heart as she stumbled backward, away from me. One hand pressed to her heart, but she moved it all at once, to press her fingertips to her throat, where I had tasted her.
"You...you..."
"I am the same man you met last night. No more. No less. You have nothing to fear from me, Elisabeta."
"Nothing to fear? How can you say that?" She stared at the polished onyx floor as she backed away from me. Her feet, bare last night, were clad in thin slippers now, worn, their color faded. The dress she wore was different, as well, a dark purple linen garment, beneath a threadbare black cloak with a hood that hung from her shoulders. "You are a demon. A monster."
I flinched and told myself not to let the words hurt me. She didn't understand. She was afraid. "I am no monster. I'm a man, I tell you." I swung my legs from the bier, let them hang over the side. "Won't you listen to me? Let me explain?"
She brought her head up, fixing her gleaming black eyes on mine. "You told me you knew a cure for the ailment that is killing me. What could be more monstrous than to lie to me about my very life? My very...death?" She shuddered on the final word.
"You didn't have any fear of death last night, Elisabeta. What's changed?"
"You gave me hope. False hope."
She whirled to run from the small, stone chapel, but by then my strength was with me again, every injury from the day before healed, and the power of the night surging in my veins.
I lunged after her, moving faster than her eyes could have hoped to follow. To her, it seemed I simply appeared in front of her to block her escape. And even as she tried to stop short, and fell instead, against my chest, I caught her shoulders and held her tight. She tugged against me and shrieked, "Let me go!"
"It wasn't false hope. I can help you. I can save you." I shook her. "Do you hear me? I can!"
Her struggles ceased. She stared up at me with huge eyes, finally, it seemed, hearing my words. Pale and frightened, close to fainting, I guessed, from the excitement, she searched my face and whispered,
"How?"
"Then you're ready to listen to me? Finally?"
She blinked twice, and after a moment, nodded. "I'll listen. I suppose if you intended to kill me you could have done so last night."
"I could. But I would not rob the world of such a gift." I looked around the chapel. "Does anyone know you're here?"
"No, I -" She bit her lip as if she regretted the admission, but then seeing no need of pretense, she went on. "I snuck in. I...I wanted to see you. They said you were dead."
"But you know now that I was only sleeping, as we all must by day. By night, my energy is boundless."
Her brows bent together. "I am much the same - though my energy is never boundless, it is greater at night."
"Oh, Elisabeta, we are more the same than you could begin to imagine. Come, let us leave this place and go where we can talk comfortably." I took her arm, but she resisted. I looked again into her eyes.
"You felt something for me last night, 'Beta. Now you feel only fear. Which of the two is more real?
Which do you trust?"