She had a good life.
Bullshit. We all have good lives, exactly until the moment they end.
She gave you life.
But if you don’t do this now, you are giving her over to vampires. Cursing her for all eternity.
Alzheimer’s has no cure either. She is getting progressively worse. She has already changed from the woman who was your mother. How is that different from vampirism?
She poses no threat to others.
Only to yourself—and Zack.
You will have to destroy her anyway when she returns for you, her Dear One.
You told Eph he needed to destroy Kelly.
Her dementia is such that she won’t even know.
But you will know.
Bottom line: will you also do yourself in before you are turned?
Yes.
But that is your choice.
And it is never an either/or. Never clear-cut. It happens too fast; they are upon you, and you are gone. You must act in advance of the turning. You have to anticipate it.
And yet there are no guarantees.
You cannot release someone before they are turned. You can only tell yourself that this is what you hope you did. And wonder forever if you were right.
It is still murder.
Will you also turn the knife on Zack if the end is imminent?
Maybe. Yes.
You would hesitate.
Zack has a better chance of surviving an attack.
So you would trade the old for the new.
Maybe. Yes.
Nora’s mother said to her, “When in the hell is your lousy father going to get here?”
Nora came back to the moment. She felt too sick to cry. It was indeed a cruel world.
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A howl echoed through the long tunnel, chilling Nora.
She went around behind her mother’s back. She could not look her in the face. She tightened her grip on her knife, raising it in order to bring it down into the back of the old woman’s neck.
But all of this was nothing.