"Ah, this is the Dark Trick," I whispered. "How right they were, the old ones, to give it that name. I wonder if the trick's on me. For this is a vampire sitting here with me, a blood drinker of enormous power, my child, and what are old emotions to him now?"
I looked at him, and once more I felt the tears coming. They never let me down.
I realized that it wasn't vulnerability I saw in him now so much as compassion, and blatant concern for me.
He left the chair suddenly, dropping to his knees in front of me, and putting his hands on my shoulders, completely ignoring my faithful Mojo, who stared at him with indifferent eyes.
"You're the same," he said. He shook his head. "The very same."
"The same as what?"
"Oh, every time you ever came to me, you touched me; you wrung from me a deep protectiveness. You made me feel love. And it's the same now. Only you seem all the more lost and in need of me now. I'm to take you forward, I see it clearly. I'm your link with the future. It's through me that you'll see the years ahead."

"You're the same too. An absolute innocent. A bloody fool."
I tried to brush his hand off my shoulder, but didn't succeed.

Come, down into the depths of the Motherhouse, and sneak through Laura Forgey's priceless vault, like a common thief.
What fun.
And all thanks to Laura, the obsessive Little Sadist.