Hi got up, put on his boxer shorts, picked up his undershirt, and went into the Countess's small bathroom. On the cabinet over the sink was a mirror. Hi was afraid to look in it. Come to think of it, he thought, what's a mirror doing here anyway? He finally looked, and found his usual reflection. But his eyes avoided the neck. Hi had done what he had to that night, but the reality still had to sink in. After a moment, he reluctantly stepped closer, and examined the small, clean holes that the Countess's canine teeth had left in his neck.

Hi wondered when and if the bite would take full effect. Loss of blood, he reasoned, should make him feel weak, yet a vampire's strength should offset that. He looked closely at his teeth in the mirror, and saw no change in his canines. But then the Countess's canines also looked normal when she and Hi had first begun making love. Vampires' canines, Hi guessed, only elongate when needed for entry.

The bite then took full effect right before Hi's eyes. He found himself looking at the blank wall behind him. His reflection in the mirror had suddenly disappeared. So that's why there's a mirror, Hi thought. Good show.

The Countess was taking something out of a closet as Hi, donning a smile and his undershirt, came out of the bathroom.

"Well, I guess that's it," Hi said with an ambivalent sense of accomplishment. "I'm a vampire."

"How do you feel?"

"Kind of sleepy." Hi felt of his teeth with his tongue. "And I've got this tingling in my teeth."

"That is good." The Countess had taken an SS outfit--black shirt and breeches--from the closet. Hi was about to put on his shirt from the night before.

"No," she said quietly, going to him. She took Hi's shirt and tossed it onto a chair. "Now you wear the black shirt of the Schutzstaffel." She helped Hi on with it.

Hi could see that her heart wasn't in this. As he began buttoning the shirt, she gestured toward the breeches, draped over the back of the chair. "Here are the breeches. Your SS dagger and boots are in the closet."

The Countess went to the loveseat, sat down, and became pensive again as Hi finished dressing. The Countess, given her captivity, tried to take things philosophically. It's how one kept one's sanity. Blood was blood, and fresh blood was better than bottled, which was her usual fare nowadays. Nor was she ever required to have sex, with Hitler or with anyone else. Hi had been a rare treat, she was hungry and wanted him, and Hi thought that he was obliged. But Hitler, Kegel, and the rest of those creeps had been unpleasant meals. Oh, they made a pretense, at least in Berlin, of treating her like royalty. But it was royalty held hostage, in secret, and without any ransom.

"What happens now?" Hi asked, fully uniformed, as he adjusted the sheath of his dagger.

"They will come for you," she said, rising. She walked to the window and began sadly gazing out.

Hi walked over to her side. "Countess Borca, do you ever dream of going home to Romania?"

She turned and looked at him with surprise. Had he been reading her thoughts? She was also suspicious, and said nothing.

"Maybe I can help you get back," Hi said.

"Why do you say this?" she asked. "Who are you?"

"Hi Hickenlooper, German American. You can trust me." Her eyes were searching his. "Would you like to go home?"

"Of course," she said anxiously. "What do you think I am but a prisoner here?"

"Do you ever get out? Why not just fly away?"

"In which direction? Where are we?" She was not aware that a village lay but five miles away. But then the knowledge would have done her no good. "They mock me." She gestured toward the corridor. "There is a rear door to this building, only a few feet away. It is like they are saying, 'A hostage? No, you can walk right out.' But to where? In the daytime no vampire can fly. How far would I get on foot? And at night Schützes take to the air, on patrol." Her voice trembled with anger. "Do you see? They are daring me to try to escape. One has told me straight out, that Kegel. He said, 'If we can't escape, you can't either. Try it. If we catch you, the stake!' "

There were tears in her eyes. Hi took her hand. "I'm your ticket to Romania," he whispered assuringly. "I'm here to get Hitler. And every Schutzstaffel dog in this jungle. Are you with me?"

"Yes," she said without hesitation.

They heard Dorsch loudly greet someone as he came to the closed door of the chamber. "Where can I find Eva Perón?" Hi quickly asked the Countess.

Dorsch knocked on the door. "Herr Hickenlooper!" he called.

"Down the hall," the Countess said hurriedly, "first door on the right."

Dorsch opened the door and walked in. Stopping, he stood there and smirked at Hi and the Countess.

"Good morning," Hi said. Dorsch said nothing, just smirked, as Hi put his clothes in the haversack. Hi then looked at the Countess. "Thanks for the initiation."

"You are welcome," she said, meaning it.

Hi went into the corridor and waited for Dorsch, who stood smiling at the Countess. Dorsch was remembering his own initiation of sorts. It was only a long bite in Berlin, but he still felt those lips on his neck. But then Dorsch, as he found out at Castle Borca, could be sexually aroused by a faceful of shit. For her part, Countess Borca found Dorsch's lascivious smile not only nauseating but insubordinate. Hitler had it understood that no one, once initiated, was to bother the Countess again. Before turning away, she bared her teeth at Dorsch with mocking contempt.

Dorsch sulked as he escorted Hi to Gebäude Zwei. Hi noticed, walking between the buildings, that the early morning sun felt unusually hot on his skin. In Gebäude Zwei, most of the Nazis below Frankel's rank, including some thirty Schützes, were turning in for the day. As Dorsch and Hi walked down the first-floor corridor, Dorsch pointed out the floor's communal bathroom. From their doorways along either side of the corridor, pale, mean-looking Schützes regarded Hi with curiosity, and were resentful that he got his own room. Before Hi only the Oberschützes and other officers below the rank of Sturmbannführer had private rooms in Gebäude Zwei. (Kegel, Dorsch, Müller, and Frankel had quarters in Gebäude Ein.) Hi's room wasn't much, though, to envy, any more than the others. It contained a pair of cheap coffins, an old bamboo chair, a chipped wooden stool, and bare Paraná pine walls.

Dorsch and Hi stepped to one of the coffins. Hi opened it, felt the loose padding, tossed in his haversack, then looked the room over.

"Very nice," Hi told Dorsch. "I like Early Cave."

Dorsch, turning to leave, said, "Have a good day's sleep."

"Thanks. What time do we eat? I mean drink."

"The blood flows at midnight."

"Sounds good." Hi was surprised to hear himself say that so matter-of-factly.

"It flows down the hallway," Dorsch said.

"The blood 'flows down the hallway'?"

"The drink hall," Dorsch explained, pointing, "is there, down the hallway."

Hi looked around again as Dorsch turned to leave. "Obergruppenführer." Dorsch stopped at the door and looked back. "Where's my table?"

Dorsch glared at Hi, then walked over to him and got right in Hi's face. In a hissing, hate-filled whisper, Dorsch said, "You will get your table, Herr Hickenlooper. But do not forget one thing: you are a Schütze. A lowly, insignificant Schütze."

Hi didn't bat an eye. He loved being hated by Dorsch. As Dorsch again turned and walked toward the door, Hi said, "Lowly, yes. Insignificant, no."

Dorsch again stopped and looked back at him. Hi smiled with self-satisfaction.

"I think Hitler likes me," Hi said.