I Want A Simple, Ordinary Life .

Sir. My Lord. Master Roydon." The Young Man Blurted Out Most Available Titles Except For "your Majesty" And "prince Of Darkness." These Were Implied Nonetheless.

Somewhere In The Center Of My Soul, A Rusty Chain Began To Unwind. It Freed Itself, Link By Link, From Where It Had Rested, Unobserved, Waiting For Him. My Hands, Which Had Been Balled Up And Pressed Against His Chest, Unfurled With It. The Chain Continued To Drop, To An Unfathomable Depth Where There Was Nothing But Darkness And Matthew. At Last It Snapped To Its Full Length, Anchoring Me To A Vampire. Despite The Manuscript, Despite The Fact That My Hands Contained Enough Voltage To Run A Microwave, And Despite The Photograph, As Long As I Was Connected To Him, I Was Safe.

His Full Name Is Matthew Gabriel Philippe Bertrand Sebastien De Clermont. He Was Also A Very Good Sebastien, And A Passable Gabriel. He Hates Bertrand And Will Not Answer To Philippe.

You Persist In This Romantic Vision Of What It Is To Be A Vampire, But Despite My Best Efforts To Curb It I Have A Taste For Blood.

It Was A Brutal Picture, A Tug-of-war Between Two Equal But Opposing Impulses. It Had The Ring Of Truth, However.