PRELUDE

Beautiful. It had been a long time since he had seen such beauty.

She lay sleeping on a small bed where she was supposed to be safe, her black hair spread over a pink flowered pillowcase, black lashes against ivory cheeks. Six years old, he thought. She might remember. He wished he could have found her earlier, so all that happened tonight would be forgotten.

He knelt beside the bed. She’d dropped her teddy bear onto the pink carpet. He picked it up and held it a moment, looking into the empty gaze of its plastic eyes. Gently, he laid it aside.

His fingers touched her throat, just below her ear, feeling her pulse. It pattered beneath his touch, a child’s heartbeat. If there had been any doubt she was the one, it disappeared as her blood moved beneath his fingers. A soft tingle passed over his skin.

Three, perhaps four humans out of nearly six billion, and he’d found one. He couldn’t help but smile at the wonder of it.

She opened her eyes. His smile faded as fear touched her face.

"Shh," he said. "It’s all right." The compulsion in his voice quieted her, and she lay still, looking at him in wonderment. "Don’t be afraid."

He touched her face, then bent to her, and put his teeth in her throat.