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“Believe that no one will believe you. No one,”his voice snapped back sharply.

I felt impotent. He was right.

“It’s not a thing I want to spread around, Ronayne,”I said. “Just for my own peace of mind, however, I should like to know the truth.”

He hesitated for a moment. Then his voice was matter-of-fact.

“I suppose you are entitled to that truth since you cannot use it without looking a fool. Between ourselves, then, I shall not deny what happened. You are intelligent enough to work it all out. The company was a means of supplying young girls for his nourishment, the Master’s nourishment. Something went wrong. He is dead. They are now UnDead. He is gone, but they will live forever.”

Having my fears confirmed as reality did not help my nerves. Foolishly, I could only say, “You are mad!”a nd switched off the phone. Then I lay back, still exhausted yet trying to figure out the implications of the test results. It was thus that I fell back into a troubled sleep.

I was awakened by a sound at the front door.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and saw that it was already evening and dark.

I went to the top of the stairs, my befuddled mind trying to remember the events of the last twenty-four hours.

“Who’s there?”I called nervously into the darkness of the hall.

“It’s only me!”Étain ”s cheerful voice came up the stairs. “Don’t tell me that you were in bed at this hour?”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Étain,”I cried, hurrying down the stairs. “What the devil are you doing back so soon. I thought that you were going to be in Australia for months.”

“Australia? It’s a long story.”Sh e turned to me and smiled. It was then that the streetlight outside our house flickered on abruptly and shone through the glass panels of the front door, flooding the hall with a shadowy pale light. I had never seen her lips so red, blood red and thin. The teeth so white and sharp. The skin so pale.

A cold horror seized me. Suddenly, it all became clear.

“You killed him?”I whispered aghast. “It was you who contaminated his blood and killed him.”

She chuckled coarsely.

“Droch Fhola! Bad blood! Ironic, isn’t it? The victim becoming the slayer. You passed me as medically fit, in spite of the hepatitis. You knew all about it. You knew that Art Moledy had infected me and made me a carrier. Yet you didn’t mention it in your report to Ron-ayne. You gave me a clean bill of health.”

I held my head in my hands.

It was true. Art Moledy had been a carrier of the viral infection, which produced malignant hepatitis B. Étain had been ill with it for a long time and near death. She had recovered but, in turn, she had become a carrier. That was why she had shunned most male friends after Moledy. Moledy had disappeared, leaving her to fend for herself. I knew all about it; knew that was why Étain had seized the opportunity that I had presented to get herself passed as fit for Averty Enterprises to endorse her on the singing tour. And I had done so willingly.

What was it Ronayne had said? The company was just a front to supply the Master with fresh blood for his nourishment. I had been like some glorified food inspector and had passed young girls as fit to be consumed.

I had passed my own sister to him.

She was smiling, as if she had followed the process of my thoughts.

“Oh yes. I was forced to go to him. He drank long and deep . . . and died. He died because of my contaminated blood, and now I am UnDead. Only fresh blood can sustain me. The great Neamh- Mhairbh is dead and I am now Neamh-Mhairbh. Bloody ironic, isn’t it?”

She burst into a peal of terrible laughter, which ended abruptly.

She was staring at me. My own sister. Staring deliberately at the pulsating artery in my neck.

I realized that the crucifix was still in my jacket pocket. But my jacket was in the bedroom. She was only a few feet away from me, smiling speculatively with those awesome canine teeth. I would have no chance at all.

Long the Clouds Are over Me Tonight

BY CECILIA