It wasn't the most dignified way to come into the little village of Saints-Anges, Quebec - carried on a makeshift litter by a couple of tired Continental soldiers, and clutching the blood-soaked rags wrapped inexpertly around the musket-hole in his right thigh. The wounded man's mouth was clamped tightly shut as he tried not to scream with pain.?

"Mademoiselle Dragomir, they have brought in another.? Will you see to him?" asked one of the nurses who staffed the tiny field hospital on the lines between the English Army and the French Army. Her once-white frock was covered in dark stains that were probably blood, but could have been feces or even bile.? She was currently busy trying to pour some watered-down oatmeal into a febrile corporal, while ignoring the moans of a man who had just had his arm amputated below the elbow.

Dannika Dragomir, a short, curvy, beautiful girl of 17 or 18 years with chestnut brown hair and eyes the color of storm-tossed seas, who seemed horribly out of place in such a setting, sighed and nodded, pushing at an errant strand of hair with the back of her wrist, which was just about the only part of her arms and hands that weren't covered in some offensive human by-product.? "Oui, je vais tout de suite," Danni answered with forced smile and laid down the instruments she was cleaning off.

The soldiers set the man with the thigh wound down just inside the entrance to the borrowed house that served as the field hospital and cleared out in a hurry.? It was obvious they didn't like being around so many wounded men; they knew that only luck had kept them from joining their ranks.? The man forced down the pain long enough to raise himself to a sitting position with one arm, looking around to see if anyone was close enough to help him.

Dannika wove her way through the beds and crowded aisles, taking care not to jostle any of the men and boys who had been laid out.? The ones who could sleep were dead to the world and those who were too hurt to fall asleep didn't need her knocking into them, waking them and forcing them back into a pain-filled haze.? She spied the newest patient and gasped softly in surprise.? Through the rictus of pain, the layers of grime and black powder, the man was beautiful. She glanced aside at the soldiers who had brought him in and asked first in French and when it became apparent that they didn't speak it, English, what had happened.

"Took a ball in the leg," one of the soldiers told her.? "He was guidin' our company to Quebec City from Maine an' we got hit by the lobster backs."? With that terse explanation, the two men hurriedly left the area, beating a hasty retreat into the woods that surrounded the tiny village.?

The small brunette watched the soldiers scurrying away and then looked down at the man lying in front of her.? She reached down and gently touched his forehead, brushing away dirty locks of blond hair and checking him for a fever.? Luckily he had none.? "Monsieur?" she asked softly, trying to cut through the pain and force him to look at her.

Through pain-filled, eyes, he looked up at the woman in front of him.? She was very pretty, he realized distantly.? "Oui?" he replied shakily, biting off the end of the word in a gasp of agony as his leg twitched involuntarily.? He clutched the wound with a white-knuckled grip.

She summoned a bit of her vitae and focused her attention on the man's lovely green eyes.? Speaking to him in French when it became apparent that he understood, she said, "Tell me what happened, mon cher.? It will be all right.? It doesn't hurt so much now, does it?"? She leaned over him and began a visual inspection of the wound, trying to determine if the musket ball was still inside his flesh.

Amazingly, she was right.? The pain began to recede as though her words were banishing it.? His hands loosened their grip and pulled the rags away so she could see the wound.? It was bad.? The ball had clearly ricocheted from his femur, snapping it and tearing out almost through the same hole it had entered.? Her eyes seemed so bright, he couldn't tear his gaze away from them.? He found himself telling her the story of how he was leading the Continental soldiers to Quebec from Maine, about how he was from Quebec himself, but chose to fight against the English.? He told her how they'd had the misfortune of running into a company of British soldiers, and had been slow taking cover.

She nodded, listening with half an ear to his story, while the majority of her attention was concentrated on the wound to his leg.? She reached for clean bandages and a splint and began wrapping his leg tightly between the two long pieces of wood.? "What is your name?? I'm Dannika," she told him and tied off the bandages.

"Luc.? Luc Fournier."? As the pain diminished, he began to realize she was more than just very pretty.? She was the loveliest woman he'd ever seen, and he found himself eager to please her.? Even her name was beautiful, though he'd never heard one like it before.? He wondered where she was from; it was obvious that French wasn't her native language, though she spoke it well.

"Would you like something for the pain, Luc?? I cannot give you any laudanum, for we haven't much and what little we do have is being saved for the amputees. But perhaps some whiskey instead?"?

"It doesn't hurt so badly now," he said, not wanting her leave his side, even for a moment.? "You must have magical hands," he finished, smiling at her.

She gave him a coy, shy smile and patted his hand.? "You need to rest," she said, looking directly into those beautiful eyes.? "I'll be back after my rounds, d'accord?"

"Oui, madamoiselle," he answered, obediently closing his eyes.? This did nothing to diminish his sight of her; she was fixed in his mind's eye just as clearly as if he were still looking at her.? It took only a few moments for him to fall asleep with the image of that shy smile above him.

Dannika moved away from Luc and visited her other patients, bringing them water or broth or whiskey.? One she discovered at Death's door and helped him gently on his way.? She sat on the cot next to him and raised him into her lap, leaning forward and placing her mouth on the bloody wound in his chest.? She closed her eyes and ignored the feeble attempts the man made to shove her away as she drank deeply of his blood.? He was soon dead, just another solider who gave his life to the ideal of liberty.

In the darkest hour of the night, she returned to Luc's bed to find him sleeping fitfully.? She was loathed to wake him but she wanted to look into those eyes once more.? "Luc? Dormir vous, mon cher?" she asked in a soft whisper, reaching out to gently touch his shoulder.

Always a light sleeper, he awoke almost immediately at her touch.? He could barely make out her silhouette, but the sound of her voice was enough for him to recognize her.? He lifted his head slightly and shook it.? "I am awake," he said.?

"Good.? Would you like something to drink?"

"Yes, please."? He was quite thirsty, in fact.? His mouth felt as though it was full of burning branches.

Luc slept deeply through the night and woke up the next morning feel greatly refreshed.? His leg wasn't hurting very badly, either.? The wound was still obviously as bad as it had been, but somehow it wasn't as painful.? It was like a small miracle, though he didn't really believe in miracles.? Moving the leg about was all but impossible, though, as he quickly discovered, leaving him bedridden for the near future.? He called for a nurse, and asked if there were any books in the camp.? Luckily, one of the doctors had a selection of medical and scientific texts, and he was able to beg the loan of one to pass the time.? Absorbed in the book, he soon lost track of time, only putting it down to use the bedpan or eat a bite when one of the nurses forced him to do so.? Shortly before evening, he fell asleep with the book sitting on his chest.

Dannika woke just as the sun was setting.? She could feel it in her bones when it died so she could be reborn, like a never-ending dance to which only they knew the steps.? Climbing out of her root cellar, she spent a bit of her meager blood reserves and listened carefully to the woods surrounding her tiny cabin.? No one was around; well, no one human anyway.? There was a family of raccoons snuffling about in the leaf mold near-by.? She slipped inside the cabin and found clean clothing and a clean, though horribly stained, apron and made her way to the hospital for her nightly shift tending to the dying.

She was met by a doctor on her way into the camp.? He requested her assistance with a patient, a major so out of his mind with pain that he was nearly catatonic.? Dannika's gifts with soothing and comforting those men who desperately needed it were the talk of the hospital and she was often called upon during her rounds.? Rather than risk Entrancing all of them, she carried a small flask of laudanum in the pocket of her apron and gave liberal doses on the fly.? And so she did with this particular man and stayed with him long enough to make sure he slept.? Then she went on her rounds, seeking a dying man to help along.

There were no easy kills tonight and she hoped she could keep the Beast at bay long enough to slip away into the night and find the nearest farm or maybe a highwayman in the woods.? She couldn't risk going into town; she'd done that once and had nearly been caught coming out of someone's home.?

Eventually, she made her way to Luc's bedside.? She checked the wound on his leg - it didn't feel hot to the touch, didn't smell rotten and seemed to have stopped bleeding.? Then she looked at the man himself.? Why had she risked Entrancing this one?? Was it just his pretty face?? She scoffed softly; she was no Toreador to be so taken with beauty that she forgot herself.? Yet she had Entranced him, and had done it without thought. He shifted in his sleep, turning to one side, and drew her out of her ruminations.? The book laying on his chest slid off the cot and thumped softly to the floor, but the sound was not loud enough to wake him.

She knelt and retrieved the book, glancing at the spine out of curiosity.? A learned man was a rare thing in this setting.? The book was apparently a treatise on the use of herbs in medicine.? The corners of her full lips pulled down in surprised thoughtfulness.? She opened it and flipped through a few pages.? It was a lot of Latin text in tiny copperplate lettering, but at least it had beautifully drawn illustrations.?

She set the book aside and then looked around for one of the day nurses.? Seeing none, she chanced that Luc had been sleeping for a good portion of the day and reached out to gently shake him awake.? "Luc?? Ouvre les yeux, Luc."

He came awake almost immediately at her touch, once again, opening his eyes and looking up at her.? In the dim light, she looked like something out of a painting.? "?tes-vous un ange?" he whispered, lifting one hand towards her.

She chuckled and shook her head.? "No, I am no angel."? She ran a hand over his forehead - it was cool to the touch.? Another good sign.

"You are as beautiful as one, and like an angel, you have taken away my pain."

"Perhaps God did that."

His mouth twisted slightly.? "I do not think God cares about us.? If He even exists."? He clapped one hand over his mouth and looked around to see if anyone else had heard him.? Then he realized that he really knew very little about her, and might just have put himself in danger, or worse, offended her.? "Forgive me," he stammered.? "I fear I speak from delusions."

She gave him a knowing look but said nothing.? Instead she reached for the book she'd discovered on his chest.? She held it out to him and asked, "Can you read this or were you looking at the pictures?"? There was a definite teasing tone to her question.

He took the book and opened it at random, then began reading from the page in very good Latin.? After a minute or two, he stopped and looked at her with a hint of pride.? He knew it was unusual for a man of his age and background to be able to read at all, let alone in another language.?

She let the surprise she felt reflect in her eyes.? "May I?" she asked, gesturing to the book as she sat on the edge of the cot. He flushed a little when he realized he'd impressed her, and almost dropped the book in his eagerness to hand it to her.? "Of course," he said hastily.

She smiled and opened it to a random page and scanned it quickly.? Not a word was written in English.? She held it out to him.? "What's it mean?"

He looked over the page...and blushed deeply.? "Ah...this is about Black Cohosh.? It's used for...," his voice sank to a whisper, "women's complaints.? You use the roots and rhizomes, mixing them with alcohol and drinking it."

She nodded and smiled a little at his discomfort.? "How did you learn to read Latin?"

"I taught it to myself," he said, shrugging a bit.? "There was no one around to teach me, and I had books I wanted to read that were written in it."

"You taught yourself?? Why?? What books were these?"? She didn't bother hiding her curiosity now.? There was a plan forming in the back of her mind - she could use this man.? He had knowledge that she needed.

"I wanted to learn...," he began, then fell silent, looking up at her with worried eyes.? She hadn't made any outcry about his earlier blasphemy, but that didn't mean telling her about his so-called heretical curiosity was a good idea.

She nodded, trying to encourage him to continue.? "Yes, you wanted to learn.? But why?"

"I...shouldn't speak of it," he said softly.? The last thing he needed was another investigation by the Church.

She reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.? "Luc.? You can trust me."? There was a little tug on the lines that connected them, fueled by the blood she held within her own body, a supply that was rapidly dwindling.? Using it in this fashion risked stirring the Beast, but she had to know what he knew, where his loyalties lay, whether he could help her.

He nodded in agreement.? He could trust her; why did he even doubt it?? "I wanted to learn about science, and alchemy, and herbalism...things the Church did not approve of," he whispered.? "The world contains so much more than what the Church believes."

"You have no idea, mon chere," she whispered softly and gave him a sunny smile, though he couldn't see it.? "Shall I bring you a candle?? I need to finish my rounds, but if you like I can bring you some food as well, when I am done."

"Yes, I would like that," he answered.? "I haven't eaten much today, only when the nurses came by with food."

She stood and nodded.? "I will fetch you a candle then.? I'm afraid I can't offer more than some broth and maybe a piece of bread.? Supplies are stretched rather tightly."

"If only I could walk," he said, frowning.? "I am a very good hunter.? I could bring food for the people here."

"You will get better soon, Luc.? Until then," she smiled brazenly and lowered her voice to a soft purr, "relax and enjoy a beautiful woman waiting on you hand and foot."? She turned and went to find him a candle and some dinner.

He flushed again, and shifted in the cot, feeling as though his clothes had suddenly grown too tight for him.? His eyes followed her until she was out of sight, and he couldn't hold back a small sigh when he could no longer see her.

Luc lay restlessly in his cot after returning to the hospital, trying to sleep.? Her words ran through his head again and again.? 'I can heal you.? You can run again.? You will live forever, Luc.'? Immortality.? The priests said immortality was achieved by going to Heaven.? He didn't believe there was a Heaven, though.? He saw the priest's sermons as just a way to control people too ignorant to realize they were being manipulated.? The priests also would call Dannika a demon, a soulless spawn of Satan.? He couldn't see her that way.? And what would he do if he turned her down?? He would never walk without a limp again.? What good was a guide with a crippled leg?? He didn't have the money to travel, or attend a fancy university.? At best, he could become a teacher, using his reading and writing skills.? But what kind of life would that be for a young man?? Not the one he'd dreamed of, certainly.

Immortality.? He would be able to learn all the things he wanted to learn, without worry for how long it took.? And she'd spoken of powers.? Being stronger and faster, and more.? It was very tempting.? He knew what the priests would say about that, too.? Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep.? The next day, he awoke late, and spent most of the day still the cot, ignoring or rebuffing any attempts by the other nurses to get him up and moving.? When afternoon came, however, he rose without asking for assistance, and limped wordlessly out of the hospital, back to the spot where he was to meet Dannika.? There he waited until evening fell.

Eschewing dresses and aprons and proper up-swept hair after rising for the night, Dannika dressed instead in tight-fitting leather trousers, knee-high soft-soled boots, a man's high-collared linen shirt and a warm woolen jacket.? She left her hair down, wanting the small protection it would afford her ears in the cold air.? The snowfall had continued unabated during the night and some six inches had piled up on the cold, frozen ground.

She hadn't given Luc's decision any thought after she left him.? Instead she made plans for a quick get-away.? Either he would be with her or he wouldn't; regardless, she would need to leave Saints-Anges as quickly as possible.? She would head for Boston and perhaps secure passage back to London in the spring...that is if the English hadn't blockaded the harbor. She made her way silently through the trees and saw Luc standing there in their appointed rendezvous spot.? She slipped out of the treeline and stood some ten yards from him, waiting for him to see her before she approached him.? The last thing she wanted to do was spook him now.

His eyes widened when she appeared so silently there before him.? It wasn't really any different from her vanishing act the night before, but it was still a bit unnerving.? The rush of pleasure he felt upon seeing her far outweighed the strangeness, though.? He had never seen her out of her nurse's garb before, and took a moment to drink in the sight of her before taking the first step towards her.

She held up her hand.? "Wait.? Please, I must know your decision, Luc.? For my safety."

He stopped immediately, still conditioned to obey her almost instinctively.? This was the moment; he had to make the choice right now, or lose her forever.? Which made it an easy choice, really.? "I want to be with you," he said.? "I want to...be like you."

"You are certain?"? She kept the relief that flooded through her body hidden from him.

He was committed now; turning back would mean spending the rest of his life trapped by his own body.? He nodded.? "Oui."

She closed the distance between them quickly.? "Come with me.? We cannot do this here."? She wrapped her hand around his arm and pulled him as fast as he could walk to the tiny cabin where she had been staying since happening upon this village.

He hurried as best he could, suppressing winces of pain from moving fast on his damaged leg.? The cold helped; it was making him a little numb already.? He didn't say anything until they reached the cabin.? "Do you live here?" he asked when he saw it

"I sleep in the root cellar," she said and pushed open the door, revealing a tidy interior with only rudimentary furnishings - a crudely built table and two benches, a pallet covered with clean, oft-patched quilts and a large stone fireplace.? "Lay a fire?" she asked as she crossed the threshold and went inside.? There was a small chest of drawers in which she'd stowed her clothing and atop it was a ewer and a wooden cup.? Her pack sat on the floor near the door, already stuffed full of her meager belongings.

The root cellar?? Well, he supposed it was safer that way.? After all, the sun was supposed to destroy vampires.? "All right."? He went over to the fireplace and quickly built up a pleasant fire that soon began to warm the tiny cabin.? Feeling returned to his fingers and toes, and he sighed happily.? A warm fire was truly a pleasure on a cold night.? Then he turned to watch her.

She began by taking off her boots and standing them side-by-side next to the door.? Then she took off her jacket and laid it over the back of the nearer of the two chairs.? She stepped closer to him, the fire burnishing her skin, turning it golden and picking reddish highlights out of the soft waves of her hair.? She looked up at him and smile coyly, realizing that this was the first time he had seen her in high relief.? "Do you want to kiss me, Luc?" she asked softly.

"I have wanted to kiss you since I first laid eyes upon you," he answered truthfully, looking down into her eyes.? She looked very different with the bright fire light on her, very warm and alive.

"Then do so," she said and moved even closer, pressing herself tightly against his body, enjoying his warmth.? She put her arms around his chest and raised her head to him, parting her lips enticingly.

He raised his hands, which trembled slightly, and cupped her face in them, lowering his lips to hers.? She was cool to the touch, yet soft and inviting.? He tasted her lips, finding them to be very unlike those of the few other women he'd had occasion to kiss.? There was no flavoring of salty sweat, or the echoes of recent meals, just cool skin.

She kissed him back, a hundred years of loneliness, of solitary existence, of wandering the Earth seeking for what was probably just a story, poured into that simple gesture.? She let go of him, their mouths still joined, and began to take off her shirt.

The intensity and passion of her kiss came as a surprise to him.? Surely nothing soulless could pack that much emotion into a single kiss.? He felt, rather than saw, her motion, and mirrored it, lowering his hands from her face to unbutton his shirt and shrug it off.

She finally broke the kiss and took a tiny step back, her thumbs hooking into the waistband of her trousers to tug them down, where they pooled at her ankles.? She stepped out of them and kicked them aside, standing naked in front of a man for the first time in nearly 185 years.? Her eyes roamed over his body with a fierce, wanton hunger; she could practically taste the blood in his veins, could all but hear it coursing through his body, hot, salty and thick.?

His breath caught in his throat as he took in the sight of her, naked and perfect before him.? His heart pounded within his chest and his hands shook visibly as they slid his pants off, leaving his body as bare as hers.? This was the first time he'd been in the same room with an undressed woman, and he was more than a little nervous, and not to mention extremely aroused.

She moved to stand against him again, putting her arms around his chest once more and raised her head to look at him.? "You will be patient with me, ne c'est pas?? I have not done this in a very, very long time."

He blushed furiously as he answered, "I have never done this, so we must be patient with one another."

She gave him a gentle smile and kissed him again, propelling him slowly back to the pallet near the hearth.? Her hands stroked his back, kneading and grasping the firmly muscled plains and curves, dipping down to cup his buttocks.

His hands touched her shoulders, tentatively at first, then more firmly, enjoying the cool, silky feel of her skin.? The muscles in his back and rear shuddered and clenched beneath her hands, making him arch his back slightly.? His fingers dug into her slightly, but he found her skin to be much more resistant to his pressure than would be expected.

She drew him down onto the pallet with her, maneuvering so that she was underneath him with her legs wrapped around his thighs, her ankles resting gently on the backs of his calves.? She trailed her fingers up his back to plunge into his hair, loosening it from the thong that kept it tied neatly at the nape of his neck.? "You should not wear your hair so tamed, mon chere.? It is too wild to keep bound so tightly."

"It's only to keep it from my eyes in the wilds," he explained breathlessly as his body pressed against hers.? He wasn't quite sure what to do at this point, but some things were instinctive.? He leaned down to fasten his mouth to hers again, closing his eyes and letting his body do what felt right.