"You mean to go through with this? Destroying Marguerite? Has all this been anact?"
"I learned to act when I was very young, Julien," he says. "I acted obedient to father to avoid his kicks and blows, and then to the Church to avoid the same. I even appeared obedient to God since it was He who chose this fate for me. It helped me to appear obedient to Marguerite, but I never intended to be her slaveforever."
"You surprise me." I watch dumbfounded as he places a balled-up piece of muslin into Marguerite's mouth and ties a strip of cloth around her head to keep it inplace.
He stands up from his task. "I surprise myself, but a man reaches a point where he can no longer comply with his own debasement. Even avampire."
A knock sounds at the door. Michel motions to me, and so I go to the door, admitting two men and the local Sheriff. A priest follows them in. He bows to Michel and the two speak in quiet voices as the guards pick up Marguerite and carry her, chains and all, out of theroom.
"Won't she be questioned?" I pull Michel aside, unsure what I feel about this. "Do they not need aconfession?"
He smiles. "That's been taken care of. A confession was written and signed, witnessed by me, trusted priest, loyal to the Holy Church. Money goes a long way to speeding up these things. We're so fortunate we have a great deal ofit."
I'm stunned. "You bribed theInquisitor?"
"I lost my illusions, brother, the night I lost my life." Michel motions to the door. "Let's go. I want to make sure this happens quickly, before I lose my resolve. She's a beautiful thing, and it wasn't her fault she was turned so young and with such little moral development. But she's still a monster and even if we leave her, she will only create more vampires to fill herneeds."
When I hesitate, not sure if I can support this, he puts his hands on myshoulders.
"Come," he says, his voice solemn. "Be free of her. If we don't do this now, we'll never escape her compulsion. I must be free to do God'swork."
"I thought you said God abandonedyou."
"God may have abandoned me, but that doesn't mean I need abandon Him. To the village square. There's a witch toburn."
"She's not a witch," I say in weakprotest.
"If anyone is a witch, Marguerite is," Michel says. "She killed us both, Julien. She turned us both into monsters. She's bewitched me so that I am herslave."
"You enjoy her. I know youdo."
Michel shakes his head and when he speaks, his voice is close tobreaking.
"Can you even begin to imagine how that makes mefeel?"
I shrug. I distanced myself from the Church after I left, but I now realize Michel hasn't, despite pretending to doso.
"How many humans has she killed?" he says. "Thousands? She'll never leave us. She must die. Surely you can seethat?"
"And how many humans have you killed since you were turned?" I say, trying my best to argue her case, but in truth, I can't see any other way out. Both of us are compelled to serve her. Both of us unable to refuse her demands. "Are you going to kill yourself aswell?"
Michel closes the door behind us as we leave therooms.
"Not until I can find a way to kill usall."
* * *
Asmall crowdgathers in the village square. In the center, workmen raise a post and stack wood around it. The guards tie Marguerite to the post and then the priest joins Michel and together, the two say prayers in Latin and circle the pyre, anointing it with holy water while the guards pour pitch onit.
Finally, one of the guards lights the bed of wood and sticks with a torch. Marguerite appears still drugged, her head bowed forward, her long fair hair obscuring her pretty face. I hope that she doesn't regain consciousness for it will be a horrible death if shedoes.
"She was far kinder in the manner of death she chose for us," I say to Michel, unable to keep reproach from my voice, hating myself for not fighting harder to saveher.
"What?" he says, almost sneering. "She denied you a knight's noble death, taking you off the battlefield, stealing your soul. She corrupted me, killing me on the altar in God's own house while she debauched me. She's tortured me. She wasn't kind, Julien. Not at all. If you think so, then you truly are besotted. When she's dead and we're both free of her compulsion, you'll see. You'll feeldifferently."
The flames leap around Marguerite, growing in intensity, and then I see her awaken, her head straightening. She glances around in a panic, her eyes wide. She screams but the sound is muffled due to the gag, and my heart squeezes at the thought of hersuffering.
Yes, I've hated her at times, angry that she turned us both, angry that she used us, that she played with us, that she manipulated us using her greater powers, but she was only a young girl of eighteen when she was turned against her will and has apparently been abandoned by her Sire. She survived using her wits, and now she'll die because of her need for attention and affection, her willingness to believe she could corrupt a priest and make him into herslave.