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Wayren nodded "Tell me about the dreaers treain of the moment when I saw her… and realized she’d been turned undead Her eyes turned red for only a moment, then dissolved back to normal mortal ones"

Normal mortal ones that he saw every time he looked at Giulia’s brother Max Pesaro

"Your antipathy for him has not affected your work as a Venator… now that you’ve returned to us," Wayren said quietly It did not surprise hione "I find that commendable"

Antipathy? What Sebastian felt for Max Pesaro went deeper than antipathy It had been Max who’d taken Giulia-as well as their elderly, crippled father-to the secret society of va their lives Even give theentle as she was, had always been a sickly girl, unlike her twin brother Pale, delicate, and with a persistent cough that worried those who loved her

In his enerous moments, Sebastian almost understood Max’s intent, naive as it had been: to protect and save his family

But that empathy usually dissolved when Sebastian reminded himself that because of Max, he’d not only lost the woman he loved, but had been forced to send her to Hell by sla a stake into her heart Giulia had been the second vampire he’d slain, and she became the last undead he killed… until last autumn in Rome Nearly fifteen years later

Sebastian realized he’d been silent for too long, and looked up to find Wayren’s eyes focused on hiaze, patience and sympathy

"I dreas… extend… and then ed But I slay her anyway I slam that stake into her heart even as she opens her mouth to plead with me" He sed "And then the dream shifts, so I don’t see if she turns to ash… and I wonder if I was , and she hadn’t been undead And if I killed her for no daood reason"

He didn’t care that those last words cah hi the corners of his eyes and he closed thehtly

And noas about to lose the second woman he loved To the man he hated

"It is said that those turned undead have souls damned for eternity upon the destruction of their physical body," Wayren said Her voice reer and pain, Sebastian felt a vestige of peace slide over him "And that is why you turned from the Venators for years, is it not? The belief that you had no right to send any soul to its eternal da? For if they had been good in life…" To his great mortification, his voice cracked with eo on "If they had been good, and blaly turned undead… how could I thrust eternal daht be hope for those undead" Wayren did not ask a question; she stated a fact, a hope that had been buried so deeply inside Sebastian that he’d never really allowed hi it into words

Emboldened now-or, perhaps only dispirited-by her question, he looked at her "Is it possible?"

Her eyes re there But she replied, "Anything ht be possible, Sebastian I may know ment considers many factors that we cannot comprehend And that all we can do here is e are called to do No ed back in his seat An answer that was no answer He stood, brushing self-consciously at his rue of amusement and a bit more of sorrow "I thank you, Sebastian I knoas difficult for you to return And to have this conversation with me"

At this, he allowed his lips to quirk on one side "I’ve had many difficult conversations o the moment when Victoria attempted to tell him what he already knew: that she loved Max in a way that she’d never love hiin to think that it would be best for me to avoid feed"

"I ah pain that one discerns one’s true path"

Sebastian would have liked to return with a quip about figurative stakes through the heart, but so stopped him He closed his lips and bowed, relieved to quit the room