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couldn’t continue like this. At some point his luck would most assuredly run out and he’d be discovered, if not as a supernatural entity then at the very least as a serial killer. Neither outcome was acceptable. Neither would come to any good end.
    Lainie constantly urged him to take the chance, to allow one of the victims to live. Just to see. To know for sure. He knew she disapproved of his methods, but having practically raised him from birth until the age of twelve, she loved him enough to turn a blind eye when necessary. It was for this reason he’d made the decision to confide in his former nanny ten years ago, after he’d left Nebraska. She’d been like a mother to him, long ago. And it was because of this that she’d readily agreed to come live with him as a caretaker of sorts.
    His own motives were less than noble. He required help, and she was the one person he could trust beyond a shadow of a doubt. He had no lingering affection for the Scotswoman he’d known since he was an infant. As a child he’d cared very much for her, in a former existence that seemed a distant dream, but those unnecessary feelings had vanished along with his last human breath. He accepted her presence with resigned indifference. She was useful, therefore tolerable.
    As for permitting one of the bitten to live...
    It wasn’t as if he hadn’t considered it before. The possible aftereffect was his main hindrance. If the person were to survive, would they then become infected as well? It was far too big a risk to take. How could he dispose of the changeling if necessary? His own wounds healed at such an accelerated rate, there was no possibility of death by conventional methods. There was the stake-through-the-heart approach, of course, but so many of the folk tales had already proven themselves to be delusions born of ignorance and fear. And if a metal blade was a useless weapon, did it truly stand to reason that a splintered piece of wood should fare any better?
    However, if he could be spared endless years of repetitious murder and the compulsory concealments...yes, perhaps it might be worth the risk after all. There was a chance that nothing significant would happen. In which case he could keep his prisoner as livestock, draining the blood as needed. After all, farmers kept chickens for their eggs, did they not? It really was a rather intriguing idea...
    True , it was a gamble, but the advantages might just outweigh the risks. The foremost question was...if he should decide to throw the dice, who best fit the criteria as his potential test subject?
    ~ *~*~
    She was cursed. No doubt about it.
    Eva’s day had been undeniably lousy. Nothing was going right. She received a low grade on the American Government quiz she’d neglected to study for, her fault admittedly, but the myriad of other unpleasantries were completely beyond her control and in her opinion, undeserved.
    To start the day off with a bang, Rio had been thoughtful enough to present her with a wet, slimy hairball left smack in the middle of her bed while she was showering. Things had only gone downhill from there.
    The hottie she’d been tutoring in English literature for the past three weeks asked out her best friend Mary Ellen. Instead of her. (Did he think she’d been wasting valuable time helping him with his work because she was Mother freaking Teresa? Men were so dense!)
    The new boots that were purchased on sale were proving to be instruments of torture, and as a result her feet were now killing her.
    The mechanics at the dealership had been working on her car since last week, and weren’t bothering to return any of the calls she’d made to them today.
    Her college classes were frustrating her to no end. Professor Baumgartner was the devil incarnate, she was sure of it. His arrogant attitude and condescending criticisms were almost more than could be tolerated by even the most complacent students. Every last person enrolled in one of his classes had at some