Asa lay between the two women, limbs tangled with theirs, absentmindedly stroking smooth flesh; lost in the pleasant haze of post-coital satisfaction and spent, he fought against the daystar's dark shroud. It was one of the things he missed, drifting off into the bliss of sleep with a lover... but this was a way to capture that, if only for moments, pushing back the inevitable darkness.

He smiled in that darkness, comforted by the still-warm flesh of his lovers.

They love me... and I, them. Here... with them... this House... is safety.

He struggled against the fog as the darkness came.

 They would die for me... and I them... but... will they live for me? How long?

Cold misgivings touched him, memories, recent still.

Am I safe? Now, with them. Without, ...the Blood calls.

Always the Blood.

Fear.

Will the Lord grow stronger as the years pass? Will I seek to bend them to their knees as I did Stamford? Will the Lord forget what we share? Share... as equals. Equals. Without dominion, without submission. How long? Like this?

Sorrow.

 Do they wonder when the madness will come? The madness they say comes to all of my Blood? The madness... the madness, so like the urges that scratch at the door, even now, without my sisters?

Asa reached out into the darkness, touching both women again lightly, even though he could feel legs and arms twined with his own, and with each other, touches for reassurance, touches to fend off the darkness.

How long? How long until... until there is nothing... nothing... but sad smiles and knowing glances at their embarrassment. Will I be kept out of sight? Or kept in Eclipse? Will the hands that caress me today stake me tomorrow? Who? Which? Do you know? Even now?

Am I safe?

Will you...

...still...

...love me...

...when...

...the darkness...

...comes?

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