“No, I mean it,” said Lucian, reaching past O'Rourke to touch her arm.

She pulled her arm away. Lucian held up his hands again. “Kate, it was my job to get the baby out of the country safely, never to hurt him.”

It seemed as if Michael O'Rourke had not blinked during the entire exchange. Now he stepped aside, unplugged the hot plate, and carefully set the pan of soup aside on a tile ledge, out of Lucian's reach. “You said you can explain.” He crossed his arms. “Explain.”

Lucian tried to smile. “I expect you'll have some explaining to do yourself, priest. After all, it's hardly coincidence that you“

“Lucian!” snapped Kate. “We're talking about you.”

The young man nodded and raised his hands again as if urging calm. “All right . . . where to begin?”

“It was your job to get the baby out of the country,” said O'Rourke. “What do you mean your job? Who gave you that job? Who are you working for?'.”

Kate glanced at the door, half expecting Securitate forces to break in. There were no sounds except for the hiss of the lantern and the pounding of her heart.

“I'm not working for anyone,” said Lucian. “I'm working with a group that's been fighting for freedom for years . . . centuries. “

Kate made a rude sound. “You're a partisan. Freedom fighter. Sure. And you fight the tyrants by kidnapping babies. “

Lucian looked at her. His eyes were very bright. “By kidnapping babies from tyrants.”

“Explain,” said Father Michael O'Rourke.

Lucian sighed and dropped into the couch. “Can we all sit?”

“You sit,” said Kate, folding her arms to keep her hands from shaking. “Sit and talk.”

“OK,” said Lucian. He took another breath. “I'm a member of a group that resisted Ceausescu when he was in power. Before that, my father and mother fought Antonescu and the Nazis. “

“By kidnapping babies,” interrupted Kate. She could not keep her voice from shaking.

Lucian looked at her. “Only when they belong to the Voivoda Strigoi.”

O'Rourke shifted his weight as if his artificial leg were paining him. His face looked very strong in the lantern light. “Explain. “

Lucian twitched a smile. “You know about the strigoi,” he said, “You Franciscans have been fighting them for centuries. “

“Lucian,” said Kate, stepping between the men, “why did you take Joshua from the orphanage in Tirgoviste? Were you working for Popescu's people?”

The young man laughed, more easily this time. “Kate, nobody works for Popescu. That medical pimp worked for anyone who paid him. We paid him.”

“Who is `we'?” snapped Kate.

“The Order. The group my family has belonged to for centuries. Our struggle has been not just for the political survival of our country, but for the survival of its soul. Behind the Ceausescus, behind the previous Communist regimes, behind Ion Antonescu, behind them all . . . have been the strigoi. The evil ones who walk like people but who are not. The Dark Advisors. The ones with power who drain our nation's future away as surely as they have drained the lifeblood of its people.”

“Vampires,” said Kate. Her attention was so focused on Lucian at that moment that the periphery of her vision seemed to fade.

The young man did shrug this time. “That is the Western name. Most of the myth is yours . . . the sharp teeth, the opera cape . . . Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee: Your nosferatu and vampires are stories to frighten children. Our strigoi are all too real.”

Kate found herself blinking rapidly. “Why should we believe you?”

“You don't have to believe me, Kate. You were the one person who could discover the truth of the strigoi on your own. Go ahead . . . tell me what you and your fellow researchers found at America's famous CDC. Tell, me!” He did not wait for her reply. “You found a child's immune system which can repair itself, reverse the effects of even Severe Combined Immune Deficiency . . . if it has blood.”

Kate tried to swallow but her throat was too constricted.

“Did you isolate the bloodabsorption mechanism in the stomach lining?” asked Lucian. “I have. In the corpses of their dead and the bodies of their living . . . like Joshua. Were you able to track the immunoreconstruction process in Tcells and Bcells as the retrovirus revitalized the purine pathway? Do I really have ~ to convince you that there are human beings here who rebuild their bodies using the DNA properties from other people's blood? Or that they have amazing recuperative powers? Or that they couldtheoretically live for centuries?”

Kate licked her lips. “Why did you and Popescu take Joshua from the Tirgoviste orphanage? Why did you lead me to him and pull strings to have me adopt him?”

Lucian sighed. His voice was tired. “You know the answer to that, Kate. You've seen our medical equipment in this country. We know that the strigoi disease is similar to the HIV virus. We know that the strigoi retrovirus has amazing properties. But serious genetherapy analysis is beyond this country's abilities. My God, Kate, you've seen our toilets . . . do you really think that we can construct and operate an effective ClassVI lab?”

“Who is `we'?” repeated O'Rourke. “What is the `Order'?”

Lucian looked at the priest towering over him. “The Order of the Dragon.”

Kate heard the sudden intake of her own breath. “I've read about that. Vlad the Impaler belonged to that“

“He defiled it,” snapped Lucian, his voice angry for the first time that night. “Vlad Dracul and his bastard son pissed on everything the Order stood for . . . strands for.”

“And what does it stand for?” asked O'Rourke.

Lucian jumped to his feet so quickly that Kate thought he was attacking O'Rourke and her. Instead, the young man ripped the buttons off his shirt and exposed his chest.

The amulet there glinted gold: a dragon, talons extended, body curling in a circle, the circle of scales superimposed on a double cross. The amulet was very old, the words inscribed on the cross almost rubbed away. “Go ahead,” Lucian said to O'Rourke. “You can read Latin.”

“ `Oh, how merciful is God!' “ read O'Rourke, leaning closer. “And `Just and Faithful.' “ He stepped back. “Just and Faithful to whom?”

“To the Christ defiled by Vlad Dracul and his spawn,” said Lucian. He closed the front of his shirt, sealing it with the only remaining button. “To the people whom the Order was created to defend.”

“To defend by stealing babies,” said Kate, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Lucian wheeled on her. “Yes! If the baby is the next Prince of the Voivoda Strigoi.”

Kate began laughing. She backed up until she felt the wooden chair behind her legs and dropped onto it, still laughing. She stopped just as the laughter began sounding like sobs. “You kidnapped Dracula's baby so that I could adopt him . . .”

“Yes.” Lucian smoothed his hair back with both hands. His hands were shaking slightly. He nodded toward O'Rourke. “Ask him, Kate. He knows more than he has told you. “

She looked at the priest.

“The Franciscans here have heard rumors of the strigoi for centuries,” said O'Rourke. “And of the Order of the Dragon.”

“How do we know you're not one of the strigoi?” said Kate, never looking away from the young medical student.

Lucian paused. “Did you see John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawks' The Thing?”

“No.

“Shit,” said Lucian. “I mean, that doesn't matter. Anyway . . . they find out who's human in the movie by testing the other guys' blood. I'd be willing to give some if you two would. “

O'Rourke arched an eyebrow. “You're serious, aren't you?”

“You're goddamn right I'm serious, priest. I can vouch for Kate, but between thee and me, I'm not too sure about thee. “

“What would a test prove?” said Kate. “If you don't show signs of having the retrovirus, you could still be working for the . . . strigoi. “

Lucian nodded. “Sure. But you'd know I wasn't one of them. “